Download or read book Cents and Sustainability written by Michael H. Smith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-23 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cents and Sustainability is a clear-sighted response to the 1987 call by Dr Gro Brundtland in Our Common Future to achieve a new era of economic growth that is 'forceful and at the same time socially and environmentally sustainable'. The Brundtland Report argued that not only was it achievable, but that it was an urgent imperative in order to achieve a transition to sustainable development while significantly reducing poverty and driving 'clean and green' investment. With some still arguing for significantly slowing economic growth in order to reduce pressures on the environment, this new book, Cents and Sustainability, shows that it is possible to reconcile the need for economic growth and environmental sustainability through a strategy to decouple economic growth from environmental pressures, combined with a renewed commitment to achieve significant environmental restoration and poverty reduction. Beginning with a brief overview of some of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time, the book then explains 'decoupling theory', overviews a number of factors that can undermine and even block efforts to decouple in both developed and developing countries, and then discusses a number of key considerations to assist the development of national 'decoupling strategies'. The book then focuses on presenting evidence to support greater action, not just on climate change, but also on decoupling economic growth from the loss of biodiversity and the deterioration of natural systems, freshwater extraction, waste production, and air pollution. In the lead up to the 2012 United Nations Earth Summit and beyond, Cents and Sustainability will be a crucial guide to inform and assist nations to develop strategies to significantly reduce environmental pressures, strengthen their economy, create jobs and reduce poverty. 'I commend the team from The Natural Edge Project and their partners for undertaking to develop a response to 'Our Common Future' to mark its 20th anniversary.' Dr Gro Brundtland. Sequel to The Natural Advantage of Nations Published with The Natural Edge Project

Download or read book Cents and Sustainability written by Michael H. Smith and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2010 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cents and Sustainability is a clear-sighted response to the 1987 call by Dr Gro Brundtland in Our Common Future to achieve a new era of economic growth that is 'forceful and at the same time socially and environmentally sustainable'. The Brundtland Report argued that not only was it achievable, but that it was an urgent imperative in order to achieve a transition to sustainable development while significantly reducing poverty and driving 'clean and green' investment. With some still arguing for significantly slowing economic growth in order to reduce pressures on the environment, this new book.

Download or read book Technology Globalization and Sustainable Development written by Nicholas A Ashford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 774 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Technology, Globalization, and Sustainable Development offers a unified, transdisciplinary approach for transforming the industrial state in order to promote sustainable development. The authors present a deep analysis of the ways that industrial states – both developed and developing – are currently unsustainable and how economic and social welfare are related to the environment, to public health and safety, and to earning capacity and meaningful and rewarding employment. The authors offer multipurpose solutions to the sustainability challenge that integrate industrial development, employment, technology, environment, national and international law, trade, finance, and public and worker health and safety. The authors present a compelling wake-up call that warns of the collision course set between the current paths of continued growth and inevitable unsustainability in the world today. Offering clear examples and real solutions, this textbook illustrates how the driving forces that are currently promoting unsustainability can be refocused and redesigned to reverse course and improve the state of the world. This book is essential reading for those teaching and studying sustainable development and the critical roles of the economy, employment, and the environment.

Download or read book Technology Globalization and Sustainable Development written by Nicholas A. Ashford and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-18 with total page 752 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this work, the authors offer a unified, transdisciplinary approach for achieving sustainable development in industrialized nations. They present an insightful analysis of the ways in which industrial states are unsustainable and how economic and social welfare are related to the environment, public health and safety.

Download or read book Sustainability and Policy written by Michael S. Common and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-07-28 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two of the greatest problems facing the human race today are poverty and the threat to the natural environment. Economic growth is routinely advocated as the solution to poverty, but the natural environment is already threatened by current levels of economic activity. This compelling book examines both economic and ecological approaches to this dilemma, and considers policy issues for industrial economies. It also includes a useful review of recent literature in the area. Michael Common argues that economists rarely address threats to sustainability. He suggests that, while economics cannot offer a blueprint for a sustainable society, the use of economic or price incentives can help achieve social goals and address threats to sustainability.This book is a balanced, constructive and original contribution in the rapidly emerging fields of environmental economics and policy.

Download or read book Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability 3 10 written by Klaus Bosselmann and published by Berkshire Publishing Group. This book was released on 2010-11-30 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Law and Politics of Sustainability explores efforts made to address pressing environmental concerns through legislation, conventions, directives, treaties, and protocols. Articles explain the mechanics of environmental law, the concepts that shape sustainable development, case studies and rulings that have set precedents, approaches to sustainable development taken by legal systems around the world, and more. Experts and scholars in the field raise provocative questions about the effectiveness of international law versus national law in protecting the environment, and about the effect of current laws on future generations. They analyze the successes and shortcomings of present legal instruments, corporate and public policies, social movements, and conceptual strategies, offering readers a preview of the steps necessary to develop laws and policies that will promote genuine sustainability.

Download or read book The Design and Sustainability of Renewable Energy Incentives written by Peter Meier and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2014-10-29 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study provides economic models of the sustainability and affordability of renewable energy support schemes alongside operational advice on how the regulatory design may need to be modified to minimize the impact on the budget and be affordable to the poor, as well as how to identify and fill the financing gap.

Download or read book Energy from the Desert written by Keiichi Komoto and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's deserts are sufficiently large that, in theory, covering a fraction of their landmass with PV systems could generate many times the current primary global energy supply. The Energy from the Desert two-volume set details the background and concept of Very Large Scale Photovoltaics (VLS-PC) and examines and evaluates their potential as viable power generation systems. The authors present case studies of both virtual and real projects based on selected regions (including the Mediterranean, Sahara, Chinese Gobi, Mongolian Gobi, Indian Thar, Australian Desert and the US) and their specific socio-economic dynamics, and argue that VLS-PV systems in desert areas will be readily achievable in the near future.

Download or read book Weak Versus Strong Sustainability written by Eric Neumayer and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this fully updated and revised edition of an original and popular text, Eric Neumayer offers an authoritative contribution to one of the most important questions concerning sustainable development: can natural capital be substituted by other forms of c"

Download or read book Balancing Green written by Yossi Sheffi and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-03-30 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expert on business strategy offers a pragmatic take on how businesses of all sizes balance the competing demands of profitability and employment with sustainability. The demands and stresses on companies only grow as executives face a multitude of competing business goals. Their stakeholders are interested in corporate profits, jobs, business growth, and environmental sustainability. In this book, business strategy expert Yossi Sheffi offers a pragmatic take on how businesses of all sizes—from Coca Cola and Siemens to Dr. Bronner's Magical Soaps and Patagonia—navigate these competing goals. Drawing on extensive interviews with more than 250 executives, Sheffi examines the challenges, solutions, and implications of balancing traditional business goals with sustainability. Sheffi, author of the widely read The Resilient Enterprise, argues that business executives' personal opinions on environmental sustainability are irrelevant. The business merits of environmental sustainability are based on the fact that even the most ardent climate change skeptics in the C-suite face natural resource costs, public relations problems, regulatory burdens, and a green consumer segment. Sheffi presents three basic business rationales for corporate sustainability efforts: cutting costs, reducing risk, and achieving growth. For companies, sustainability is not a simple case of “profits versus planet” but is instead a more subtle issue of (some) people versus (other) people—those looking for jobs and inexpensive goods versus others who seek a pristine environment. This book aims to help companies satisfy these conflicting motivations for both economic growth and environmental sustainability.

Download or read book Energy Sustainability and the Environment written by Fereidoon P. Sioshansi and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2011-06-02 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The complexity of carbon reduction and economic sustainability is significantly complicated by competing aspects of socioeconomic practices as well as legislative, regulatory, and scientific requirements and protocols. An easy to read and understand guide, Sioshansi, along with an international group of contributors, moves through the maze of carbon reduction methods and technologies, providing steps and insights to meet carbon reduction requirements and maintaining the health and welfare of the firm. The book’s three part treatment is based on a clear and rigorous exposition of a wide range of options to reduce the carbon footprint Part 1 of the book, Challenge of Sustainability, examines the fundamental drivers of energy demand – economic growth, the need for basic energy services, and the interdependence of economic, political, environmental, social, equity, legacy and policy issues. Part 2 of the book, Technological Solutions, examines how energy can be used to support basic energy service needs of homes, commercial and industrial facilities and for other applications. Part 3 of the book, case studies, covers a number of innovative projects, initiatives, concepts or self-imposed targets in different parts of the world with the aim of significantly reducing energy use and carbon footprint of a company, a community, a city or an entire country. There was a widespread recognition among environmental engineers and energy economist of the importance of carbon reduction while sustaining the firm’s economic growth. The only book to bring together both subjects into one easy to understand reference, Carbon Reduction and Economic Sustainability not only clearly explains which option has the lowest energy/carbon footprint but also which option would better suit the business in question. This includes carbon reduction for residential, transport, industrial and public sectors. The only book to clearly explain the economic and environmental engineering aspects of carbon reduction. Case studies taken from a number of international projects. Carbon reduction options for all sectors of society. The role of the planning system in carbon reduction.

Download or read book Sustainability and the New Economics written by Stephen J. Williams and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-12-09 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This multidisciplinary book provides new insights and hope for sustainable prosperity given recent developments in economics – but only if swift and strong actions consistent with Earth’s biophysical limits and principles of justice are universally taken. It is one thing to put limits on resource throughput and waste generation to conform with the ecosphere’s biocapacity. It is another thing to efficiently allocate a sustainable rate of resource throughput and ensure it is equitably distributed in the form of final goods and services. While the separate but interdependent decisions regarding throughput, distribution, and allocation are the essence of ecological economics, dealing with them in a world that needs to cure its growth addiction requires a realistic understanding of macroeconomics and the fiscal capacity of currency-issuing central governments. Sustainable prosperity demands that we harness this understanding to carefully regulate the rate of resource throughput and manipulate macroeconomic outcomes to facilitate human flourishing. The book begins by outlining humanity’s current predicament of gross ecological overshoot and laments the half-century of missed opportunities since The Limits to Growth (1972). What was once economic growth has become, in many high-income countries, uneconomic growth (additional costs exceeding additional benefits), which is no longer advancing wellbeing. Meanwhile, low-income nations need a dose of efficient and equitable growth to escape poverty while protecting their environments and the global commons. The book argues for a synthesis of our increasing knowledge of the ecosphere’s limited carrying capacity and the power of governments to harness, transform, and distribute resources for the common good. Central to this synthesis must be a correct understanding of the difference between financial constraints and real resource constraints. While the latter apply to everyone, the former do not apply to currency-issuing central governments, which have much more capacity for corrective action than mainstream thinking perceives. The book joins the growing chorus of authoritative voices calling for a complete overhaul of the dominant economic system. We conclude with policy recommendations based on a new economics that, if implemented, would come close to guaranteeing a sustainable and prosperous future. Upon reading this book, at least one thing should be crystal clear: business as usual is not a viable option.

Download or read book Environmental Sustainability written by Raghbendra Jha and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With globalization fast becoming an irreversible process, it is necessary to pay increased attention to the implications for environmental sustainability. However, the so-called environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) argument implies that rapid economic growth in many developing countries should be environmentally unsustainable. Environmental Sustainability addresses this dichotomy and articulates a notion of consumption sustainability that is both universal and pertains to the indefinite future. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of addressing a broad spectrum of sources of environmental degradation and relates this measure to an index of economic achievement more complete than per capita income. As well as the EKC, authors Jha and Murthy also critique the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) and empirically substantiate the proposition that a certain type of development in the presently high-income countries is primarily responsible for global environmental degradation. Several policy conclusions for global environmental management are also advanced. Throughout, Jha and Murthy comprehensively evaluate existing approaches to environmental sustainability and critically review empirical studies of environmental degradation, and economic development, making this an invaluable source of information for those concerned with environmental economics and political economy.

Download or read book Energy from the Desert written by Keiichi Komoto and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2009 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world's deserts are sufficiently large that, in theory, covering a fraction of their landmass with PV systems could generate many times the current primary global energy supply.The Energy from the Desert two-volume set details the background and concept of Very Large Scale Photovoltaics (VLS-PC) and examines and evaluates their potential as viable power generation systems. The authors present case studies of both virtual and real projects based on selected regions (including the Mediterranean, Sahara, Chinese Gobi, Mongolian Gobi, Indian Thar, Australian Desert and the US) and their specific socio-economic dynamics, and argue that VLS-PV systems in desert areas will be readily achievable in the near future.

Download or read book Global Challenges Local Impacts Rethinking Governance Sustainability and Consumption in Light of Climate Change written by and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-01-31 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Principles of Sustainability written by Simon Dresner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time of increasingly rapid environmental deterioration and climate change, sustainability is one of the most important issues facing the world. Can we create a sustainable society? What would that mean? How should we set about doing it? How can we bring about such a profound change in the way things are organized? This text tackles these questions directly. It covers: historical development of the concept of sustainability; contemporary debates about how to achieve it; and obstacles and the prospects for overcoming them. This new fully revised edition covers the latest on the climate change front, particularly the advances in scientific understanding and political awareness of climate change. Other updates include more recent economic analyses, particularly the Stern Report, and the global shift away from faith in markets over the past five years.

Download or read book Environment and Health written by Kirsty Duncan and published by WIT Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book thus serves as a comprehensive guide to key environmental and health issues confronting the planet, enumerates approaches and techniques to address these issues, and provides real-world examples of good corporate citizenship.