Creating a Sustainable North Carolina One Person at a Time: How Individual Choices Build a Sustainab

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Creating a Sustainable North Carolina One Person
at a Time How Individual Choices Build a
Sustainable Community

• Doug Crawford-Brown
• Director
• UNC Institute for the Environment

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Sustainability begins by recognizing that people
have legitimate needs
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In consuming that energy, environmental impacts
take place
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We need to meet these needs in ways that reduce
these impacts
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The past solution?
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But who is really responsible for meeting needs
sustainably?

• Political regions
• Municipalities
• Energy sectors
• Institutions
• Individuals

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Each of these levels of society is an actor and a
stage
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We each are energy and carbon managers
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Daily decisions made between options available
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Individual change seems meaningless
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And yet

• While individual changes may be imperceptible,
  the world consists of individuals (acting as
  individuals, or heads of institutions, or voters
  in communities)

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A case study my carbon dioxide inventory
US
UK
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The Chapel Hill/Carrboro carbon dioxide inventory
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My personal quandry
???
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However
VMT/year
mpg
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And this choice in turn drives the market
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The need to be warm
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Where to live
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1
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3
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What to buy
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Individuals play on a stage that

• Is created by the institutions in which they work
• Is created by the design of the communities in
  which they live
• Is created by the incentives offered

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Platos Republic
Passions Reason Will