MODULE 3

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Teachers Resource
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(No Transcript)
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Learning from the past

• The Mayans
• Easter Island
• Mesopotamia
• Biosphere 2

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WHY IS SUSTAINABILITY AN ISSUE?
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State of the world - social

• In 2000
• Global population 6.1 billion, up from 2.5
  billion in 1950
• 95 of population growth in developing countries
• 1.2 billion in severe poverty (lt1/day)
• More than 1 billion people overweight (in the US,
  61 adults overweight, 27 obese)
• 1.1 billion without access to safe water
• 3 million people died of AIDS (cumulative total
  now almost 22 million) and 58 million had HIV
• On average a person was infected with HIV every
  six seconds
• In Botswana, one in three adults was infected
  with HIV

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State of the world - social
(continued)

• United States
• Fordham University index of social health 44
  lower in 1996 than in 1973, despite stock market
  highs
• Now the worlds largest penal colony (nearly five
  million men in the US awaiting trial, in prison,
  on probation or on parole)
• There is no cost difference between incarceration
  and an Ivy League education
• Australia
• In 1996, 2 million lived below the poverty line
• Top 20 percent of households had 44 percent of
  private income while the bottom 20 percent had
  just 3 percent
• Now one of the most unequal of all developed
  countries (having slipped from 7th to 15th on the
  UN Index of Human Development)

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State of the world - environment

• 12 of 9,900 bird species in the world threatened
  with extinction
• Over the last 200 years, 103 bird extinctions
  have been already documented rate more than 50
  times background rates of extinction
• 27 of the worlds coral reefs were severely
  damaged by 2000, compared to only 10 in 1992
• In the last 100 years, Earth has lost over half
  its wetlands in South-east Australia this
  figure is 89
• Aquifers are being depleted worldwide, with water
  tables in many parts falling by as much as a
  metre a year

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State of the world - environment
(continued)

• Atmospheric carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) is
  30 higher than pre-industrial times and highest
  in at least 420,000 years
• Strong scientific consensus that most warming
  observed over the last 50 years is attributable
  to human activities
• 10 decrease in snow cover since the 1960s
• Global average sea level has risen 10-20 cm
• IPCC projections - by the year 2100
• globally averaged surface temperature will warm
  by 1.4 to 5.8ºC (relative to 1990)
• global mean sea level will rise by 9 to 88cm
  (relative to 1990)

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State of the world - economic

• In 2000, foreign debt of developing and former
  Eastern bloc nations stood at US2.57 trillion
  (2,570,000,000,000) (1999 dollars)
• During the 1990s the economic toll of natural
  disasters topped US608 billion, more than the
  previous four decades combined
• Of the US9 trillion spent every year in the
  United States, US2 trillion is wasted

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State of the environment - Australia

• Between 1996 and 2001
• Additional 500,000 hectares of land became salt
  affected (bringing total to at least 2.5 million
  hectares or 5 of our cultivated land
• Further 5.7 million hectares identified as having
  a high potential for developing dryland salinity
• Common cause of dryland salinity has been changes
  to water tables from inappropriate land use

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State of the environment - Australia
(continued)

• Predicted that without significant action, within
  20 years Adelaides drinking water would fail
  World Health Organisation standards in two days
  out of five
• Predicted if nothing is done, salinity will cost
  1 billion a year by 2100
• Many coastal areas have poor water quality from
  sediment, resulting from soil erosion. 11.7
  million tonnes/sediment/year enter Great Barrier
  Reef alone. In North Queensland, grazing lands
  product about 66 of estimated annual sediment to
  rivers

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State of the environment - Australia
(continued)

• Air quality generally improved or remained
  constant
• Threatening processes to biodiversity include
  salinisation, land clearing, fragmentation of
  ecosystems, exotic organisms and changing
  hydrological conditions
• Australia has 10 of worlds endangered species,
  second only to the US
• Net loss in vegetative cover since 1996
• In 1999, 469,000 hectares of woody vegetation
  cleared nationally (425,000 ha in Queensland)
• Many heritage buildings damaged through
  inappropriate development
• Decline in Indigenous languages

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Valuing the environment

• Wealth is
• something that that has real value in terms of
  meeting our needs and fulfilling our wants the
  natural productive systems of the planet and
  physical things like factories, homes, farms,
  stores, actual transportation and communications
  facilities, as well as the people who work to
  produce the goods and services that sustain us.
  Modern money is only a number on a piece of paper
  or an electronic trace in a computer, that by a
  social convention gives its holder a claim on
  that real wealth. In our confusion, weve
  concentrated on the money, to the neglect of
  those things that actually sustain a good life.
• David Korten

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Valuing the environment

• Ecosystem services include
• photosynthesis
• pollination
• nurseries for commercial fish species (in
  mangroves and coral reefs in particular)
• regulation of climate
• soil production and protection
• storage and cycling of essential nutrients
• absorption, breakdown and dispersal of organic
  wastes and pollutants
• control of crop and livestock pests through
  predation
• Services provided globally by the environment
  estimated at least US36 trillion annually. In
  Australia, services estimated at 1.3 billion
  annually

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Measurement of the amount of raw materials
consumed in the United States (WW I World War
I, WW II World War II) Source Matos and
Wagner
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• Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
  committed citizens can change the world indeed,
  its the only thing that ever has.
• - Margaret Mead

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One can of cola ...
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KEY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES A SUMMARY
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Enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming

• Atmosphere surrounding the earth a mixture of
  gases
• Greenhouse gases (eg water vapour, carbon dioxide
  and methane) so called because they trap heat,
  leading to warming lower atmosphere. This process
  occurs naturally and is essential to sustaining
  life on earth
• Human activities in last 200 years (e.g. burning
  fossil fuels) have increased concentration of
  greenhouse gases, resulting in increased warming
  of the lower atmosphere - the enhanced greenhouse
  effect

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Enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming
(continued)

• Some gases, e.g. those used in air conditioning,
  have strong global warming potential
• Other sources of emissions include agriculture
  (methane from animals and rice paddies), and
  waste in landfills (methane)
• Plants convert carbon dioxide to oxygen so land
  clearing diminishes this potential

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Enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming
(continued)
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Ozone depletion

• Ozone layer is a concentration of ozone molecules
  in the stratosphere (10-50km above earths
  surface)
• Stratospheric ozone shields earth from suns
  ultraviolet (UV) rays, reducing radiation
• Increased UV radiation causes skin cancer,
  cataracts, weakened immune systems, reduce crop
  yield and impacts on marine systems
• Ozone molecules are attacked by ozone-depleting
  substances, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
• In the stratosphere, chlorine or bromine atoms
  split apart from ozone-depleting substances and
  destroy ozone molecules. One chlorine atom can
  break apart more than 100,000 ozone molecules

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Ozone depletion
(continued)

• In the 1980s, an ozone hole was identified
  above the Antarctic and concluded to be more than
  natural variations in concentrations
• International agreement such as Montreal Protocol
  have committed nations to phase-out or reduce
  ozone-depleting substances
• CFC production banned in developed countries
  since 1995 and alternatives have been developed

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Loss of biodiversity

• Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life on
  earth, including plants, animals and
  micro-organisms, along with the genetic material
  they contain and the ecological systems in which
  they occur
• Biodiversity is being eroded globally through
  native vegetation clearance, pollution of air,
  land and water, inappropriate land use,
  disruption of natural ecological cycles, invasion
  of exotic weeds and pests and depletion of
  forests, fisheries and other natural resources

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Loss of biodiversity
(continued)

• Australia is among the most biologically diverse
  nations in the world - 290,000 species of
  Australian flora and 200,000 species of
  Australian fauna. Currently 1,478 species and 27
  ecological communities currently listed at the
  national level as either endangered or vulnerable
• We do not even know all species we are
  endangering or their potential for humans
• We do not know what overall impact steady
  degradation of ecosystems will have - the thin
  end of the wedge?

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Soil degradation

• Threatens global ability to continue to produce
  food.
• By 1990, poor agricultural practices had
  contributed to degradation of 562 million
  hectares, (38 of the roughly 1.5 billion
  hectares in cropland worldwide.
• Each year, an additional 5 6 million hectares
  of land estimated to be lost to soil degradation
• Soil degradation includes
• soil erosion by water and wind - depleting
  topsoil and causing water and wind pollution
• physical degradation through mechanical tilling
• desertification - the degradation of land in
  arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas, caused
  primarily by inappropriate land use and climatic
  variations. salinisation and waterlogging of soil
• depletion of soil nutrients through application
  of fertilisers
• loss of beneficial soil organisms through
  over-application of agricultural chemicals

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Soil degradation
(continued)

• Major causes of soil degradation include
  overworking soil mechanically, land clearing and
  deforestation, overgrazing, irrigation, and
  over-application of agricultural chemicals
• Soil erosion is expected to severely reduce
  agricultural production in regions including
  southeast Nigeria, Haiti and the Himalayan
  foothills, and part of southern China, Southeast
  Asia and Central America
• Over 250 million people are directly affected by
  desertification, with one billion people in over
  one hundred countries at risk
• Salinity affecting enormous areas of land and
  water quality in rivers. Saline areas can result
  from natural processes, however, most newly
  salinised areas are the result of changes in land
  use and hydrological cycles. Most salinity
  results from rising groundwater. Types of
  salinity include dryland, irrigation, urban,
  river and industrial

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Dryland salinity
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• Source former NSW Department of Land and Water
  Conservation

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Resource depletion

• We are steadily using up available non-renewable
  resources. Non-renewable resources resources
  that are not replenished, or at least not
  replenished within hundreds of thousands of
  years, e.g. metals and fossil fuels
• We are harvesting many renewable resources at
  rates greater than their rate of replenishment
  (e.g. many forests)
• Use of energy from fossil fuels, which are
  effectively non-renewable, is of huge concern.
  Fossil fuels include petrol, diesel, natural gas,
  LPG, black and brown coal, oil, kerosene and
  aviation gasoline
• Energy use and environmental impacts are closely
  linked, as the extraction, transport and use of
  fuels and the production of electricity impact
  the environment on local, regional and global
  levels, particularly the enhanced greenhouse
  effect and global warming
• Global use of fossil fuel increased by over three
  and a half times between 1950 and 2000

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Resource depletion
(continued)
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World fossil fuel consumption, 1950-2000 Source
Worldwatch Institute (2001)
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Resource depletion
(continued)

• Australia, which compared to many countries has
  large reserves in comparison to annual use, is
  nonetheless facing a decline in crude oil
  production over the next decade, with estimates
  that self-sufficiency for this product will
  decline from 85 percent in 2001 to less than 40
  percent in 2010
• In Australia, the ultimate constraint to use of
  non-renewable energy resources may well be the
  environmental impacts of extraction and
  consumption, rather than availability
• Potable water another critical resource being
  depleted, particularly in Australia. Australia is
  the worlds driest inhabited continent, yet in
  1996/97 used 24,058 gigalitres (approx. 24
  billion cubic metres) annually an increase of
  65 percent since 1985. There was a 75 percent
  increase in the annual volume of water used for
  irrigation between 1985 and 1996/97

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Resource depletion
(continued)

• About one-third of the worlds population lives
  in regions with moderate to high water stress. If
  present consumption trends continue, two thirds
  of people in the world will live in
  water-stressed conditions by the year 2025
• Extraction of non-renewable resources has many
  environmental impacts, but is also a social issue
  - current wasteful practices reduce the
  opportunities for future generations to access
  these resources to satisfy their own needs.
  Within current generations, there is enormous
  inequity in how resources are distributed,
  leading to increasing global tensions

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Waste generation

• Each year, every Australian contributes about one
  tonne of waste to landfill
• Of the 21.2 million tonnes of waste disposed of
  at landfills in 1996/97, approx. 40 domestic
  waste, 23 commercial and industrial waste, and
  37 construction and demolition waste
• Waste is a problem not only because raw materials
  are not used to their full potential, but also
  because of disposal challenges

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Waste generation
(continued)

• Traditional approaches to waste management rely
  on the natural environment to absorb and
  assimilate unwanted by-products. Environmental
  impacts associated with waste disposal include
  land contamination, methane emissions, leachate
  discharges, odour, flammability, toxicity, and
  consumption of land resources
• Landfill has been the most common method of
  dealing with solid waste in Australia. In large
  cities, and increasingly in towns, existing
  landfills are filling up and it is difficult to
  find new sites. Waste disposal costs have also
  risen substantially in recent decades
• Hazardous waste creates additional problems, as
  it is difficult and costly to safely treat, or
  store, such materials

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Pollution

• Impacts of pollution to air, land and water
  include harm to human health, degradation of
  natural ecosystems, and loss of productive land
  resources
• In developed countries, pollution is now
  relatively well-regulated with significant
  penalties and industry has significantly improved
  its practices. However, we still have the burden
  of cleaning up many of the problems that have
  been caused from the polluting practices of many
  past industrial processes

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Pollution
(continued)

• Some pollutants are extremely persistent, and do
  not readily break down in the environment. As a
  consequence, they can bioaccumulate
• Minamata in Japan suffered one of the worst cases
  of industrial pollution in history
• Non-point source pollution, such as oil and
  litter in stormwater, still an environmental
  problem in Australia
• In many developing countries, where env.
  legislation non-existent or not enforced,
  industrial pollution remains a serious problem

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DEFINITIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY
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Sustainable development is ...

• development that meets the needs of the present
  without compromising the ability of future
  generations to meet their own needs
• - 1987 World Commission on Environment and
  Development Report Our Common Future (The
  Brundtland Report)

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Ecologically sustainable development

• using, conserving and enhancing the communitys
  resources so that ecological processes, on which
  life depends, are maintained and the total
  quality of life, now and in the future, can be
  increased
• National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable
  Development (1992)

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Sustainability

• in scientific terms, it means a system state
  that can endure indefinitely
• (AtKisson, 2001)
• has come to mean long-term survival and
  well-being in general, both for human
  civilization and the rest of nature
• (AtKisson, 2001)

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Conceptual approach of sustainability
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Alternative conceptual approach
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Interrelationship between social, environmental
and economic aspects. Source National Centre
for Sustainability, Swinburne University of
Technology
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Sustainable growth vs sustainable development

• growth the increase in human population,
  resource use, and the emission of waste
• development improvements in human technology
  and advances in the human condition, including
  health, education, intelligence, wisdom, freedom,
  and the capacityto love (AtKisson, 1999)

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• Sustainable development has become one of
  the politically-correct theses of our era.
  Everybody is in favour of it - and everybody
  defines the term, on Humpty Dumptys principle,
  to mean what they want it to mean - (Sir
  Martin Holdgate)

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• Sustainable development a term so misapplied
  as to be nearly beyond rescue is not
  development-as-usual with a few green-looking
  additions or nods to social equity but that is
  what is has often been reduced to in practice
  (AtKisson, 2001)

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Sustainability

• as a wordis dying because of misuse, and
  dryness, and reduction to buzzword. It is dying
  because it is attached to too many initiatives
  that are failing to achieve their stated goals
  or even, in many cases, to make any significant
  progress in that direction.
• (AtKisson, 2001)

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CONCEPTS RELATED TO SUSTAINABILITY
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Triple-bottom line

• The triple bottom line focuses corporations not
  just on the economic value they add, but also on
  the environmental and social value they add and
  destroy. At its narrowest, the term triple
  bottom line is used as a framework for measuring
  and reporting corporate performance against
  economic, social and environmental parameters.
• (Elkington, 1980)

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Ecological footprints

• A means of quantifying the environmental impacts
  of various lifestyles
• Summarises into a single value the level of
  sustainability of an individual, organisation,
  region, State or country
• Allows for estimation of the area of land needed
  to support a household, a school, a business or
  society as they currently operate
• Provides a simple way of identifying whether or
  not lifestyles and activities fit within the
  carrying capacity of the earth
• If everyone else in the world consumed resources
  and energy and produced wastes the way Victorians
  currently do, we would need at least three earths
  to support such behaviours

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Ecological Footprints
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Ecological rucksacks

• A German concept defined by the European
  Environment Agency (1999) as
• The material input of a product (service) minus
  the weight of the product itself. The material
  input is defined as the life cycle wide total
  quantity (in kg) of natural material moved
  (physically displaced) by humans in order to
  generate a good.
• A semiconductor chip generates over 100,000 times
  its weight in waste during production
• A laptop computer generates close to 4,000 times
  its weight in waste

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Cleaner production

• an overall approach to business management to
  reduce the use of energy, water and material
  resources and to minimise waste and pollution. It
  involves a shift in environmental protection from
  an end-of-pipe approach where pollution is
  managed after it is created, to a
  front-of-process approach where the creation of
  pollution is avoided or minimised at the
  sourceit involves changing attitudes and
  rethinking products and processes. However,
  cleaner production is not only about
  manufacturing and production. It covers all
  processes, products and services and their
  impacts, including planning and design
• (former NSW Environment Protection Authority)

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Life cycle assessment

• Sometimes called life cycle analysis
• A tool that assesses a range of environmental
  impacts of a product or material across its whole
  life cycle that is from the extraction of raw
  materials through to manufacturing,
  transportation, use and eventual disposal
• Useful in making more informed decisions about
  appropriate choices of products and materials

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Extended producer responsibility

• States that the manufacturer of a particular
  product should be responsible for that product
  during its use and at the time of disposal
• The rationale is that this will encourage
  manufacturers to design products that are less
  hazardous, easier to dismantle and recycle, and
  so forth
• This concept has been most explored in Europe,
  where it has been considered for example for
  adoption by white goods and automobile
  manufacturers

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Eco-labelling

• A means of rating a product or service in terms
  of its environmental credentials according to
  agreed sets of guidelines and products. Most
  eco-labelling schemes require the use of a
  third-party to verify claims prior to certain
  labels being used
• The energy-rating scheme for white goods is a
  form of eco-labelling
• For more information see the Australian
  Environmental Labelling Association, Inc. at
  http//www.aela.org.au/StandardsDirections.htm

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Greenwash

• The term given to a claim that a product or
  service is environmentally-friendly or otherwise
  superior to its competitors, when in fact this is
  not the case
• Greenwash hurts organisations that are
  legitimately trying to do the right thing, by
  making it harder for consumers to differentiate,
  while potentially also increasing consumer
  cynicism
• It is hoped that as eco-labelling of products and
  services is increasingly adopted and refined,
  greenwash will be less of a problem

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CASE STYUDY CORAL REEFS
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The state of coral reefs

• Coral reefs cover less than 0.2 of ocean area,
  but are among Earths most complex and productive
  ecosystems
• In late 2000, 27 of the worlds coral reefs were
  severely damaged. In 1992 this figure was only
  10 which demonstrates the speed with which the
  health of reefs is deteriorating
• The greatest losses have occurred in the Indian
  Ocean, the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf, and in
  Southeast Asia

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The state of coral reefs
(continued)

• In 1998, a survey of reefs in some 40 countries
  found that many high-value species such as
  lobster, grouper and giant clams, were missing
  from areas where they were once abundant
• Live reef fish exports in South-east Asia
  increased nearly 13-fold between 1989 and 1995,
  then dropped 22 percent in 1996 a crash
  attributed to overfishing

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The state of coral reefs
(continued)

• Coral reefs offer a number of essential goods and
  services that have been valued at some 375
  billion per year. These goods and services
  include
• shelter to coastlines from storm damage, erosion
  and flooding (estimated to globally provide such
  protection for half a billion people)
• habitat for as many as a million species,
  including more than a quarter of all known marine
  fish species
• important feeding and breeding grounds for
  commercial fisheries, producing about a tenth of
  the global fish catch and a quarter of the catch
  in the developing world
• significant tourism revenue, with the Carribean
  reefs alone estimated to bring in some 140
  billion annually
• potential medicines. Reef-derived molecules have
  been used to develop medicines from antibiotics
  to HIV drugs

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The state of coral reefs
(continued)

• An estimated 11 of the worlds coral reefs have
  been lost, and a further 60 are threatened, as a
  result of direct human pressures, including
• overfishing (for food and for aquariums)
• trawling, with a single pass removing up to a
  quarter of seabed life
• coral mining
• coastal development
• waste dumping
• vessel collision
• nutrients and sediments resulting from inland
  deforestation and farming
• blasting of reefs, with up to 10 separate
  explosions to obtain 1 ton of fish, shattering up
  to 20 square meters of reef per blast. This
  practice has degraded an estimated 75 of
  Indonesias reefs
• cyanide injection. In the Philippines, more than
  a million kilograms of cyanide have been injected
  into reefs since the 1960s a procedure that stuns
  or kills many non-target species as well

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The state of coral reefs
(continued)

• The greatest threat to coral reefs today is from
  global warming
• Coral are inhabited by microscopic plants that
  provide food and colour. Warming by as little as
  one degree Celsius can stress these plants, and
  if the stress endures, the coral will expel the
  plants and turn white (coral bleaching), often
  eventually dying

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The state of coral reefs
(continued)

• Coral bleaching events have increased in
  frequency and intensity since the early 1980s.
  1997-98 saw the worst episode on record,
  affecting some 16 of the worlds reefs, in at
  least 60 countries. Indian Ocean reefs alone
  suffered damages estimated as high as 8.2
  billion. In some areas, 1,000-year old corals
  died and losses neared 90, at depths nearing 40
  meters
• It is estimated that about half of coral affected
  by bleaching could rebound in the next 20-50
  years, but only if ocean temperatures remain
  steady and human pressures are low. If global
  warming continues it is predicted that as many as
  60 of all reefs could be lost by 2030

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(No Transcript)
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IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE
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What do we need to do?

• If there is little consensus on definitions of
  sustainability and sustainable development, there
  is even less about the path that should be taken
  to get there.
• In a transition to a sustainable society, efforts
  will be required at both the individual and
  collective levels.
• Different interpretations of living sustainably
• one extreme - renouncing all possessions and
  living in communes
• or are we now committed to a high-technology
  future?)

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• some of the very products of our technology
  plutonium, for instance, require of us that we
  maintain a very high degree of cultural
  continuity, economic and political stability, and
  technological capacity and sophistication, far
  into the future. To ensure our safety and the
  safety of all forms of life, we must always be
  able to store, clean up, and contain poisons like
  plutonium and persistent organic toxins.
  Eventually we must be able to eliminate them
  safelyIn the case of certain creations, like
  nuclear materials and some artificially
  constructed or genetically modified organisms,
  our secure custodianship must be maintained for
  thousands of years. (AtKisson, 2001)

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The great tasks of our time?

• to change energy systems
• to phase out the use of certain chemicals and
  metals that nature cannot assimilate
• to manage the life-supportive ecosystems in a
  sustainable way fresh water flows, forest,
  fields and fishing waters
• to heal the battered and broken cultures around
  the world
• (Robèrt, 2001)

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Objectives and principles of ecologically
sustainable development

• Integration of economic and environmental goals
  in policies and activities
• Intergenerational equity (that is, equity between
  one generation and the next)
• Conservation of biodiversity and ecological
  integrity
• Recognising the global dimension
• Dealing cautiously with risk and irreversibility
  (anticipatory and precautionary policy approach).
  Anticipatory approach - to be cautious of
  actions that may have serious/irreversible
  environmental damage. Precautionary approach -
  Where there are threats of serious or
  irreversible environmental damage, lack of full
  scientific certainty should not be used as a
  reason for postponing measures to prevent
  environmental degradation.

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Objectives and principles of ecologically
sustainable development
(continued)

• Ensuring that environmental assets are properly
  valued
• Constant natural capital and sustainable income
• Social equity (intragenerational equity)
• Limits on natural resource use
• Qualitative development. Economic development
  that also develops the quality of life
  cultural, social, ethical
• Efficiency in use of resources
• A resilient economy that has an increased
  capacity for environmental protection
• International competitiveness in an
  environmentallysound manner external trade
  balance in favour ofsustainable development
• Community participation

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Objectives and principles of ecologically
sustainable development
(continued)

• International competitiveness in an
  environmentally sound manner external trade
  balance in favour of sustainable development
• Community participation
• Harding, 1998, derived from the National Strategy
  for Ecologically Sustainable Development and the
  four largest environmental groups in Australia

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The Natural Step System Conditions

• 50 scientists, including ecologists, chemists,
  physicists and medical doctors wrote a consensus
  statement about the conditions that are essential
  to life as a basis for sound decision-making.
• Agreed on four system conditions for
  sustainability
• In a sustainable society nature is not subject to
  systematically increasing
• concentrations of substances extracted from the
  earths crust
• concentrations of substances produced by society
• degradation by physical means
• and in that society
• human needs are met worldwide

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The Natural Step System Conditions
(continued)

• eliminate our contribution to systematic
  increases in concentrations of substances from
  the Earths crust
• eliminate our contribution to systematic
  increases in concentrations of substances
  produced by society
• eliminate our contribution to systematic physical
  degradation of nature through over-harvesting,
  depletion, foreign introductions and other forms
  of modification
• contribute as much as we can to the goal of
  meeting human needs in our society and worldwide,
  going over and above all the substitution and
  dematerialization measures taken in meeting the
  first three objectives

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The Hannover Principles

• Developed by green architect William McDonough
  but apply equally to non-architectural work
• Insist on rights of humanity and nature to
  co-exist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and
  sustainable condition
• Recognize interdependence the elements of human
  design interact with and depend upon the natural
  world, with broad and diverse implications at
  every scale. Expand design considerations to
  recognize even distant effects
• Respect relationships between spirit and matter
  consider all aspects of human settlement
  including community, dwelling, industry and trade
  in terms of existing and evolving connections
  between spiritual and material consciousness

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The Hannover Principles
(continued)

• Accept responsibility for the consequences of
  design decisions upon human well-being, the
  viability of natural systems and their right to
  co-exist
• Create safe objects of long-term value do not
  burden future generations with requirements for
  maintenance or vigilant administration of
  potential danger due to the careless creation of
  products, processes or standards
• Eliminate the concept of waste evaluate and
  optimise the full life-cycle of products and
  processes to approach the state of natural
  systems in which there is no waste
• Rely on natural energy flows human designs
  should, like the living world, derive their
  creative forces from perpetual solar income.
  Incorporate this energy efficiently and safely
  for responsible use

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The Hannover Principles
(continued)

• Understand the limitations of design no human
  creation lasts forever and design does not solve
  all problems. Those who create and plan should
  practice humility in the face of nature. Treat
  nature as a model and mentor, not as an
  inconvenience to be evaded or controlled
• Seek constant improvement by the sharing of
  knowledge encourage direct and open
  communication between colleagues, patrons,
  manufacturers and users to link long term
  sustainable considerations with ethical
  responsibility, and re-establish the integral
  relationship between natural processes and human
  activity

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Guiding Steps

• Develop an environment which supports human
  dignity through gender and racial equality and
  promotes intergenerational respect
• Develop honesty and integrity in daily life
• Encourage the fair distribution of wealth
• Work to strengthen local communities and
  safeguard the health and safety of all
• Commit to maintaining and enhancing the integrity
  and biodiversity of the natural environment
• Use natural resources, such as water and land
  wisely and aim to reduce consumption
• Refuse, reduce, reuse, repair and recycle

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Guiding Steps
(continued)

• Where possible buy green products, locally
  produced with reduced packaging.
• Understand the synergies between advances in
  technology and behavioural change to achieve
  sustainability.
• Encourage ethical business practices
• Develop business strategies which promote good
  corporate governance.
• Encourage financial success through openness and
  transparency.
• (Source the National Centre for Sustainability
  at Swinburne University of Technology)

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• In terms of a business, sustainability can be
  evaluated by a wide range of factors. Examples
  include energy efficiency community relations
  eco design materials efficiency product
  recyclability and employee relations. All relate
  back to the bottom line and to intangible asset
  management such as brand and reputation.
• (Mays, 2003, p. 10)

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Benefits of sustainable practice

• improved environmental performance
• reduced occupational health and safety risk
• financial savings
• market advantages
• development of new product lines
• enhanced reputation
• better community relationships
• more efficient processes
• reduced liability and insurance premiums
• improved working environment for staff

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Barriers to sustainability

• Vested interests in maintaining the status quo
• Pressure upon people to consume more
• Emphasis upon entertainment
• Mental models - including subconscious and
  unspoken assumptions that
• the Earth is infinite
• that there is an away where you can throw
  things
• materials from the Earths crust can be removed
  and re-emitted almost anywhere without a problem
  (e.g. metals, burnt fossil fuels, arsenic,
  asbestos etc)
• the individual is powerless to effect change
  within large and complex systems
• (Sharp, 2002)

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Barriers to sustainability
(continued)

• people are conditioned to conform to group
  perceptions and to doubt and withhold their
  individual perceptions if they are in conflict
  with the shared reality of those around themhas
  enormous significance when considering how people
  are currently responding to the demise of the
  planetary systems that support human life. The
  degree of inaction around this profoundly life
  threatening situation can perhaps best be
  explained by viewing our state as a massive
  absurd consensus that is the product of our
  social conditioning which has enforced our
  subservience to, and blind confidence in, shared
  societal constructs of reality.
• (Sharp, 2002)

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Framework for Integration

• You need to identify exactly what a successful
  sustainability literate graduate will be able to
  do as a result of your course.

• Graduates are likely to have developed
• Professional specialist elements (eg accountancy,
  business, plumbing)
• Professional but transferable elements (eg
  book-keeping, management)
• Personal elements (eg interpersonal skills,
  critical evaluation, reflective learning).

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What is sustainability literacy?

• The best possible characteristics for a person
  who is sustainability literate, would be
  demonstrated through
• Recognising the need to become more sustainable
  in their behaviour
• A person who recognises the need for sustainable
  approaches will be able to articulate the need to
  support this behaviour, draw examples from their
  own lives and will be able to transfer this
  knowledge to various situations and environments.
  
• Having sufficient skills and knowledge to be able
  to decide and act in a sustainable way
• A person with these skills will be equipped with
  a number of tools and strategies that enable them
  to make informed decisions that are likely to
  contribute to a more sustainable society.
• Encouraging and rewarding sustainable behaviour
  in others Recognition of sustainable behaviour
  and rewarding and reinforcing this approach

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Sphere of Influence
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The Matrix
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88
Business

• Other influences could include
• Money
• Financiers
• Creditors
• Customers
• Insurance
• Electricity
• GST
• Taxes
• Computers
• IT Resources
• Paper
• Buildings
• Others?

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Trades

• Other influences could include
• Money
• Suppliers
• Creditors
• Customers
• Insurance
• Electricity
• GST
• Taxes
• Natural resources
• Computers
• Training
• Paper
• Professional associations
• Buildings
• Landscapes
• Community
• Manufacturers
• Others?

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Engineering

• Other influences could include
• Research
• Suppliers
• Creditors
• Customers
• Insurance
• Energy consumption
• GST
• Natural resources
• Computers
• Paper/ water
• Professional associations
• Buildings
• Bridges
• Community
• Contractors
• Others?

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Service Industry

• Other influences could include
• Food
• Suppliers
• Creditors
• Food safety
• Insurance
• Energy consumption
• GST
• Natural resources
• Computers
• Paper/ water
• Professional associations
• Disposables
• Biodiversity
• Community
• Contractors
• Others?

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Natural Resources

• Other influences could include
• Plants
• Suppliers
• Creditors
• Urban design
• Insurance
• Water use
• GST
• Natural resources
• Computers
• Paper
• Professional associations
• Land
• Biodiversity
• Community
• Contractors
• Wildlife
• Oceans
• Others?

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93
Science

• Other influences could include
• Plants
• Suppliers
• Radioactive material
• Dangerous goods
• Insurance
• Water use
• GST
• Natural resources
• Computers
• Paper
• Professional associations
• Land
• Biodiversity
• Community
• Contractors
• Wildlife
• Oceans
• Others?

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Social Sciences

• Other influences could include
• Staff
• Suppliers
• Tax benefits
• Government
• Insurance
• Caring
• GST
• Donations
• Computers
• Paper
• Professional associations
• Philanthropy
• Grants
• Community
• Contractors
• Disabled
• Children
• Others?

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Arts

• Other influences could include
• Money
• Suppliers
• Tax benefits
• Government
• Insurance
• Creativity
• GST
• Sponsors
• Computers
• Paper
• Professional associations
• IT Software
• Grants
• Community
• Contractors
• Canvases
• Art groups
• Others?

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Research

• Other influences could include
• Staff
• Suppliers
• Tax benefits
• Government
• Insurance
• Caring
• Ethics
• GST
• Donations
• Computers
• Paper
• Professional associations
• Philanthropy
• Grants
• Community
• Contractors
• Disabled
• Children

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Matrix of the learning environment
What should the learner be good at to be able to
manage relationships in their sphere of influence
which

encourages and maintains resources, ethics and
values?
Areas
which need to
Suggested Competency

Examples of issues to explore with students

supported to ensure a
beneficial flow

Natural Capital



The resources and services


provided by the natural
world




Social capital


Relationship building,
health, social groupings
(families, universities,

TAFEs)




Financial capital
The money and value
placed on objects and how
they can be more
accurately represented and

measured.
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98
A manufacturing example
Areas which need to be supported to ensure a
benefit
Suggested Competency
Examples of issues to explore with students
Examine the benefits of lean manufacturing
Identify opportunities to design for reduced
environmental impacts
Natural Capital The resources and services
provided by the natural world
Social capital Relationship building, health,
social groupings
Discuss the value of stakeholder consultation in
the engineering/ manufacturing sector
Role playing examining the importance of
community-based decision making
Describe concepts of eco-design, eco-efficiency
and lean manufacturing.
Examine case studies on lean manufacturing
practises
Financial capital The money and value placed on
objects
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Getting there ...

• Countless possible ways to operate more
  sustainably
• There is no silver bullet everyone has to
  figure out their own path
• Can be either a series of incremental steps, with
  a goal of continuous improvement, or can be a
  quantum leap, where entire processes and
  products are completely re-evaluated and may
  change radically
• Do we have time for incremental improvements?
• eg current global agreements for carbon emissions
  for modest reductions are hard to reach,
  impossible to enforce, and virtually without
  effect and even if they were successful, they
  would have a negligible impact on the critical
  trend

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Additional Resources

• http//www.ecorecycle.vic.gov.au/www/default.asp?c
  asid2799 Ecorecycle Victoria site with
  information on reducing waste in the office
• http//www.epa.nsw.gov.au/cleaner_production/selfh
  elptool.pdf - Profits from Cleaner Production A
  Self-Help Tool for Small to Medium-Sized
  Businesses (NSW Dept State Regional Development
  and the former NSW EPA)
• http//www.greenhouse.gov.au/community_household.h
  tml - an AGO site with information on greenhouse
  gas issues, eg energy efficiency and tips for
  reducing emissions
• http//www.energy.unsw.edu.au/unswitch/experts.htm
  l - dispels some of the myths about turning off
  your computer monitor
• Russell (2003) lists numerous additional
  websites

2.36