1.3 Sustainability

• Measure of extent practices allow long-term system viability

• Responsible maintenance of socio-ecological systems

• No diminishment of conditions for future generations

• Enhancing system resilience increases sustainability

• Environmental, social, and economic pillars

• Strong sustainability: economy in society, both in natural environment

• Weak sustainability: overlapping three pillars

• Use/management allowing resource replacement

• Recovery and regeneration of ecosystems

• Focuses on resource depletion, pollution, biodiversity conservation

• Creating structures/systems supporting human well-being

• Health, education, equity, community

• Survival of societies and cultures

• Economic structures supporting production/consumption

• Support human needs into future

• No economic sustainability without environmental sustainability

• Meets present needs without compromising future generations

• Maintains economic stability, social equity, ecological integrity

• Brundtland report (1987) introduced social/economic aspects

• Result of unsustainable natural resource use

• Example: Newfoundland cod fisheries overfishing

• Gross Domestic Product neglects natural system value

• May lead to unsustainable development

• Green GDP subtracts environmental costs from GDP

• Environmental justice refers to the right of all people to live in a pollution-free environment, and to have equitable access to natural resources

• Consider: one local and one global example of environmental injustice

• Examples could include: Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Gulf of Mexico (2010); landfills located in low-income areas; Union Carbide gas release in Bhopal, India (1984)

• Inequalities in income, race, gender and cultural identity within and between different societies lead to disparities in access to water, food and energy

• Examples of inequality include the inability to afford an electricity supply, or the privatization of water sources

• Sustainability and environmental justice can be applied at the individual to the global operating scale

• Sustainability and environmental justice issues exist at different operating scales

• Operating scales include individual, business, community, city, national and global levels

• Sustainability indicators include quantitative measures of biodiversity, pollution, human population, climate change, material and carbon footprints, and others

• These indicators can be applied on a range of scales, from local to global

• Consider: the use of one named environmental indicator to assess sustainability

• The concept of ecological footprints can be used to measure sustainability

• If these footprints are greater than the area or resources available to the population, this indicates unsustainability

• An ecological footprint is the area of land and water required to sustainably provide all resources at the rate of consumption

• The carbon footprint measures the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced, measured in carbon dioxide equivalents (in tonnes)

• The water footprint measures water use (in cubic metres per year)

• There are different ways of using footprints to measure sustainability

• Students do not need to know details of how these are calculated

• Capacity to generate renewable resources and absorb wastes

• Unsustainability: ecological footprint exceeds biocapacity

• Monitors Earth systems and sustainable resource use

• Information relevant to local problems and global issues

• Range of models support understanding

• Each has uses and limitations

• All are simplified versions of reality

• Social and environmental goals/targets

• Guide action on sustainability and environmental justice

• Uses: common policymaking ground, addresses inequality

• Limitations: may not go far enough, top-down approach, lacks local context

• Nine processes/systems regulating Earth system stability

• Identifies limits of human disturbance

• Crossing limits → risk of abrupt/irreversible changes

• Uses: science-based limits, alerts public/policymakers

• Limitations: focuses on ecology not human dimension, work in progress

• Framework for regenerative and distributive economy

• Social foundation (inner): based on social SDGs

• Ecological ceiling (outer): based on planetary boundaries

• Safe and just space for humanity between boundaries

• Uses: includes ecological and social elements, supports environmental justice

• Limitations: work in progress, broad principles without specific policies

• Decouples economic activity from finite resource consumption

• Three principles: eliminate waste/pollution, circulate materials, regenerate nature

• Contrasts with linear model (take-make-waste)

• Uses: regenerates systems, reduces emissions, extends product lifecycle

• Limitations: lack of awareness, regulations, technical limitations