Sustainable Development

1
Sustainable Development Sustainability

• References
• Unit textbook DesJardins, Chapter 1
• UNCED (1992) Agenda 21
• Worldwatch Institute State of the World 2003 -
  preface
• www.sd-commission.org.uk
• J. Porritt (2001) The only game in town Green
  Futures magazine

2
Overview of session

• History of the concepts
• Concepts
• sustainable development sustainability
• 3 pillars of sustainability/ triple bottom line
• Natural capital
• Corporate sustainability
• Critiques of the concept

3
History / development of the concept

• 1980 World Conservation Strategy
• 1987 Our Common Future (Brundtland)
• 1992 Rio Earth Summit
• Agenda 21 global, national, local
• 1996 Sustainability indicators
• 1999 UK Strategy updated 2005
• 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on
  Sustainable Development

4
Sustainable Development

• Definitions
• ......development that meets the needs of the
  present without compromising the ability of
  future generations to meet their own needs.
  WCED, 1987 (Brundtland)
• .....improving the quality of human life
  while living within the carrying capacity of
  supporting ecosystems
• Munro Holdgate,1991

5
Sustainable Development -
made up of 3 closely related issues

• Environment must be valued not treated as a
  free good. Minimal use of non-renewable
  resources protect ecosystems
• Equity for developing countries key issue of
  poverty has to be addressed
• Futurity society, businesses and individuals
  must operate on a different timescale than
  currently operates - so that long-term,
  inter-generational considerations can be tackled.
• Welford
  1996

6
Sustainability

• Definition
• Sustainability involves
• only using resources at a rate which allows them
  to be replenished to ensure their long-term
  survival, and
• not exceeding the environments ability to absorb
  pollution.
• Peattie, 1992

7
Sustainable Yield Threshold

• Analogy ( from Economics) - distinction between
  consuming interest and spending capital.
• When the sustainable yield threshold is crossed,
  it signals a fundamental change between the
  consumer and what is being consumed.
• The demands of our generation now exceed the
  income, the sustainable yield, of the earths
  ecological endowment.
• Brown 1996

8
Sustainability - 3 pillars

9
Sustainability - 3 pillars

• 3 Es - Economics, Ecology Ethics
  (DesJardins, 2007)
• 3 Ps - Profits, People and Planet (Shell
  reports)
• Triple Bottom Line (Elkington, 1997)
• ie. the simultaneous pursuit of
• economic prosperity
• environmental quality
• social equity

10
One Planet Economy

• UK governments vision and challenge
• from a three-planet economy to one
• A successful economy that grows within the
  capacity of the planets resources
• Sustainable consumption and production
• (HM Government (2005) Securing the Future)

11
Concept of Natural Capital
(Hawken, Lovins Lovins, 1999)

• Natural Capital is made up of-
• Resources water, minerals, oil, trees, fish,
  soil, air, etc
• Living Systems grasslands, savannas, oceans,
  rainforests, etc
• Ecosystem Services exchange of carbon dioxide
  oxygen, water storage, flood management, waste
  processing, regeneration of the atmosphere, etc

12
Weak vs Strong Sustainability

• Weak sustainability view no inherent difference
  between natural capital and other forms of
  capital
• Strong sustainability view man-made or human
  capital cannot substitute for all environmental
  resources of all of the ecological services
  provided by nature so
• these resources and services should be protected
  and not depleted

13
The Precautionary
Principle

• Definition where there are threats of serious or
  irreversible damage, lack of full scientific
  certainty shall not be used as a reason for
  postponing cost-effective measures to prevent
  environmental degradation (Rio Declaration,
  1992)

14
Defining Corporate Sustainability ..

• meeting the needs of a firms direct and
  indirect stakeholders without compromising its
  ability to meet the needs of future stakeholders
  as well
• Dyllick T Hockerts K (2002) Beyond the
  business case for corporate sustainability in
  the journal Business Strategy and the Environment
  , Issue 11

15
Critiques of the concept (Porritt, 2001)

• utopian - idealistic?
• Illusive concept, confusing
• no consensus
• problematic to operationalise
• meaningless?
• easier to recognise what is unsustainable