Sustainable Development Strategies

Engineering, Culture and Economics

Mousumi Roy

• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780128189214
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Gestione ambientale

Sustainable Development Strategies: Engineering, Culture and Economics provides policy guidance on good practice in developing and implementing strategies for sustainable development. The book integrates social, economic and environmental objectives, taking into account of their implications for different socioeconomic groups and for future generations. It examines and analyzes existing and new approaches to formulating a sustainable development strategy and its implementation through both quantitative and qualitative studies. In addition, it looks at the formulation of strategy and overcoming various issues from the standpoint of a diverse set of disciplines, including engineering, economics and social/political views.

• Clearly explains the most cutting-edge green technologies and methods for use in built communities
• Analyzes existing and new approaches to formulating a sustainable development strategy and its implementation
• Helps to facilitate the formulation of effective sustainability strategies through an interdisciplinary approach

Chapter 1

Introduction to sustainable development

Abstract

This introductory chapter introduces the concepts of sustainable development. The definitions as evolved over time have been briefly discussed. The evolution of the sustainable development concepts coupled with the underling theorems, philosophy, ethics, and social responsibility has also been described. The dimensions of sustainable development along with the recent trends have also been discussed.

Keywords

Sustainable development; evolution of sustainable development; ethics and philosophy in sustainable development; trends in sustainable development

1.1 Introduction

Failure of the economic growth model based on only efficiency and unlimited growth has resulted in continuous degradation of social and ecological conditions denying even the basic conditions of living to vast section of population in most societies. Since the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment in 1972, the great awakening and coming together of the international community on the most important environmental issues, such degradation as reflected in several related phenomena has been more prominently observed. Intense global environmental problems as increasingly evident in global warming, climate change, biodiversity loss, depletion of natural resources, environmental degradation of soil, air and water bodies and alteration of the nitrogen cycle coupled with poverty trap, social vulnerability, poor working conditions, unemployment, widening inequalities, and financial volatility, resulting from extensive anthropogenic activities and fueled by rapid economic growth beyond the “widest Neolithic dreams,” have now challenged our understanding of the existing economic process as purely positive. This has raised questions about whether the present progress can be sustained in the future. Sustainable development has now emerged as a development paradigm to maintain a balanced integration of socioeconomic needs with the regenerative capacity of the planet Earth when the life support system of our planet is threatened.

1.2 Defining sustainable development

With diverse human societies, ecosystems, and complex challenges arising from heterogeneous socioeconomic consequences, new definitions of sustainable development are continually formulated, accommodating a variety of understandings and expectations for desirable progress. The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) defined sustainable development as “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” This was published in the Brundtland report “Our Common Future” [1]. In this most prominent understanding of sustainable development, the concept of sustainable development does imply “limits-not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology, social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities” [1]. This most renowned definition framed by the Brundtland report was widely accepted by the international community and has been gaining importance on the agenda of policy makers, influencing governments and intergovernmental agencies at the local, regional, national, and international level. In the broad colloquial perspective, the word “to sustain” means to maintain or prolong the productive use of limited natural resources over time and “development” refers to heterogeneous interpretations incorporating multiple expectations, values, and disciplinary actions. Despite divergence, all perceptions concerning the concept of sustainable development invoke the feeling of better living, shared responsibilities, and new directions of sociotechnical progress.

Subsequently, in some new definitions, certain goals on education, income, health, and general quality of life were included. Thus Pearce et al. [2] defined that “sustainable development involves devising a social and economic system, which ensures that these goals are sustained, implying that real income rises, educational standards increase, health of the nation improves and that the general quality of life is advanced.” Harwood included other species in the definition and stated that “sustainable development is a system that can evolve indefinitely toward greater human utility, greater efficiency of resource use and a balance with environment which is favourable to humans and most other species” [3]. Some definitions even directly call for changes in the process of economic development to ensure a basic quality of life for all. Thus, in such definition, “sustainable development is a program for changing the process of economic development so that it ensures a basic quality of life for all people and at the same time protects the ecosystems and community systems that make life possible and worthwhile” [4]. Some definitions focus on efficient resource utilization. Thus, in one such definition, “sustainable development is a process of change, where resources are being gathered, an investment direction is chosen, the development technologies directed and various institutions have convergent actions, increasing the potential for human needs and desires” [5]. The definitions have evolved over the last few decades, the focus being on reconciliation between economy and environment. Sterling [6] defined that “Sustainable development is seen as reconciliation between economy and environment on a new path of development that would sustain the human progress not only in a few places and for a few years, but on the entire planet and for a long future.” Despite a long list of such definitions as evolved over time, the WCED definition of 1987 generated the maximum interest in debate and experimentation as was evident in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in 1992. Adoption of Agenda 21, Rio Declaration, and Statement of Principles for the Sustainable Management of Forests by 178 countries in the Rio conference is a reflection of the wide acceptance of the sustainable development principles as embedded in the WCED definition.

1.3 Evolution of the concepts of sustainable development

Concept underpinning sustainable development can be traced back to Sylvicultura Oeconomica (Instructions for wild tree cultivation) of Von Carlowitz (1713) in which Carlowitz formulated the principle of sustainable use of forest. The principle is that only so much of wood can be cut as can be regrown through planned reforestation. This principle of sustainable use of forest has now become the guiding principle in modern forestry.

The principle shares the idea of harvesting wood within the volume that will grow again and maintaining a balance of forestation and deforestation, from where the contemporary understanding of “being able to be sustained or maintained at a certain level” has evolved. The concept of sustainable management practices has been observed as the necessity of “balancing exploitation with regeneration” during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe and in policy uptake of maximum sustainable yield in fisheries since the 1930s. Subsequently, sustainability principle has been adopted in ecology to respect the nature because of the long-term ability to regenerate itself.

International Union for the Nature conservation published a report on global environment in 1951, which lays emphasis on reconciliation between economy and ecology. With the continuous increase in environmental degradation and pollution, negative impact of economic activities on environment receives serious attention and sustainable development was evolved as an urgent need and it was introduced by Barbara Mary Ward, the founder of International Institute for Environment and Development in 1970. However, the theoretical framework of sustainable development evolved after the publication of the first report of the Club of Rome—“Limits to Growth” in 1972. In the same year, the UN conference on the Human Environment, the first international conference was held in Stockholm to discuss sustainability issues on a global scale. This Stockholm conference identified interdependence of global environmental issues, economic growth and general welfare and created considerable momentum to the new vision of development. A series of recommendations were also focused in this conference, giving emphasis on the necessity of “eco-development” strategies that led to sustainable and ecologically healthy environment in a given system, the basic requirements of the local population, and led to the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In the UNEP Symposium, meaning of sustainable development was discussed along with its importance from future generations and long-term perspective. A few years later, Church Council [7] led the foundations of sustainability based on four themes: pollutant emissions, renewable resources, society, and climate. However, the major discussion regarding sustainable development was found in the report by the WCED, a body generated by the UN General Assembly in 1983, chaired by then Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland. In 1985 Vienna conference was held, and it aimed at reducing the substances that damage the protective ozone layer. It was 1986 when European Union, for the first time, introduced elements of environmental policy in a treaty of the European Community. In 1987 WCED launched the document entitled “Our Common Future” (Brundtland Report, WCED, 1987). The report defined “sustainable development.” In 1989 UN General Assembly adopted Resolution no. 44/228 convening a meeting on global environmental issues. The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992) was the largest summit of the 20th century where Rio Declaration on Environment and Development called “Earth Charter” action plan entitled “Agenda 21” Framework Convention on Climate Change, Declaration on forests and desertification were adopted. The declaration of Rio 1992 stated “fundamental principles on which nations can base their future decisions and policies, considering the environmental implications of socio-economic development”. The role of sustainable development was strongly noted in the Kyoto Protocol, negotiated by 160 countries in 1997. Some mechanisms were set to regulate green house gas (GHG) emission and to reduce the negative environmental impact in the countries that have ratified it. For industrialized countries, reduction of GHG emission by 5.2% during the period 2008–12 was declared in this agreement. In 1999 treaty of Amsterdam, sustainable development became a political objective of the European Union, aiming to change the economic development process based on three dimensions—economic, environment, and society. Millennium Declaration (2000) was the global agenda adopted for development at Millennium Summit by 191 countries to make the world a better place to live in. Eight essential goals popularly known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), focusing on hunger, poverty, education, gender equality, health, and environment, were set with specific targets to be achieved by 2015. Setting of these goals on eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, women ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Preface
• Chapter 1. Introduction to sustainable development
• Chapter 2. Dynamic capabilities and sustainable strategies
• Chapter 3. Greening behavior toward sustainable development
• Chapter 4. Sustainable innovation and corporate environmentalism
• Chapter 5. Beyond greening: strategies for a sustainable economy
• Chapter 6. Sharing economy and sustainability
• Chapter 7. Circular economy: a new sustainable management paradigm
• Chapter 8. Happiness, well-being, and sustainability
• Index