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ggp120-fa15_intro_to_sustainability.pptSustainability
An Interdisciplinary Academic Pursuit
NOTE: This PowerPoint was originally developed by Dr. Brian Hoffman (Professor of Biology, Park University) in 2008. It has been modified for the purposes of Park’s GGP120 Global Sustainability and GGH326 Resources & People classes by David Fox (Assistant Professor of Geography).
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What is sustainability?
- What does it entail?
- What is required to truly achieve it?
The 3 “Pillars” of Sustainability
Most scholars of sustainability identify 3 essential “types” of sustainability:
Environmental (which is what most people think of or imply when they say something like “let’s be more sustainable”)
Economic
Social
Ultimately if we are to ever create truly “sustainable” conditions for ourselves as human beings living on planet Earth, we must develop, implement, and practice systems and methods that ensure all 3 of these types of sustainability—thus they are often referred to as the 3 “pillars” of sustainability.
Notice that leaving out any one of the 3 pillars/types creates conditions that may be “acceptable” in some ways to us as humans, BUT it does NOT lead us to having a truly sustainable human society!
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Environmental Sustainability
- = protection of “natural capital” (i.e., “resources”)
- Water, air, minerals, plants, animals, ecosystems, etc.
- Often converted into “economic capital” or “manufactured capital” – i.e., resources are those things that we as humans say have “value”
- Natural capital is usually maintained as a material source
- However, it is also often used as a sink for wastes
Achieving Environmental Sustainability requires careful attention to how we use Earth’s natural capital from both “source” and “sink” perspectives
- Source side = use “renewable” resources at rates that are less than or equal to their regeneration rates
- “Nonrenewable” (or, “finite”) resources can be made “semi-sustainable” if our rate of their use is held equal our rate of development of renewable substitutes for them
- Unfortunately, as has been all too often happened, many “renewable” resources have been made finite (i.e., eliminated) because our rates of use so greatly exceeded their regeneration rates
- Sink side = release wastes at rates less than or equal to ability of environment to handle waste
- Can be either promoted or inhibited by technology
Academic fields that are needed to develop our understanding of Environmental Sustainability
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Geology
- Geography
- History
- Economics & Business
- Political Science
- Architecture & Interior Design
Of course, the first 4 fields listed (esp. the first 3), are most often classified as “Natural/Physical Sciences”. However, notice that several “Social Science” fields can also play essential roles in the study of Environmental Sustainability.
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Social Sustainability
- Social sustainability = maintaining “social capital”
- Investments and services creating basic framework for society
- Community cohesion for mutual benefit, connectedness between groups of people, tolerance, compassion, equal rights, patience, access to information, common standards of behavior, discipline and ethics
Social Sustainability
- Commonly shared rules, laws and information promote social sustainability
- Violence is cost of failure to invest in social capital
- Violence and social breakdown major barriers to sustainability
Social Sustainability Fields of Study
- Criminal Justice
- Political Science
- Sociology
- Philosophy
- Religion
- Peace Studies
- Geography
- Anthropology
- Communication
- Computer Science
- Psychology
- Civic Engagement
- Global Studies
- Modern Languages
Economic Sustainability
- Maintaining economic capital
- Consumption should only occur to the extent that one can remain as well off at the end of the period
- Consumption of interest (value added, not capital)
- Economics values money and rarely natural capital
- Economics must add scale to traditional criteria of allocation and efficiency
- Material, labor and energy must be renewable
- Waste streams converted into income streams
Economic Sustainability
- Economics
- Business
- Ecology
The three pillars of development (economic, social and environmental) must be strengthened together. But it is evident that two of the pillars - economic and social - are subsidiary to, and underpinned by, the third: a vibrant global ecology. Neither dollars nor our species will out-survive our planet. The earth can survive happily without people or profit - Dave Hampton (letter to the Financial Times, November 2004)
Human Sustainability
- Maximizing the life experience
- Human lifespan finite
- Human sustainability requires investments in the individual for duration of life
- Human sustainability = maintaining human capital
- Health, education, skills, knowledge, leadership and access to services
Human Sustainability II
- Good start – promoting maternal health and nutrition, safe birthing, early childhood care
- Requires 2-3 decades of formal education and apprenticeship
- Requires continued inputs into skills development, education, preventative health care and curative health care
Human Sustainability
- Nursing
- Social work
- Education
- Medical sciences
- Psychology
- Sociology
- Nutrition
- Interior Design
