Download or read book The Natural Step for Communities written by Sarah James and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2004-04-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainability may seem like one more buzzword, and cities and towns like the last places to change, but The Natural Step for Communities provides inspiring examples of communities that have made dramatic changes toward sustainability, and explains how others can emulate their success. Chronicled in the book are towns like Övertorneå, whose government operations recently became 100 per cent fossil fuel-free, demonstrating that unsustainable municipal practices really can be overhauled. Arguing that the process of introducing change -- whether converting to renewable energy or designing compact development -- is critical to success, the authors outline why well-intentioned proposals often fail to win community approval, and why an integrated approach -- not "single-issue" initiatives -- can surmount challenges of conflicting priorities, scarce resources, and turf battles. The book first clarifies the concept of sustainability, offering guiding principles -- the Natural Step framework -- that help identify sustainable action in any area. It then introduces the sixty-plus eco-municipalities of Sweden that have adopted changes to sustainable practices throughout municipal policies and operations. The third section explains how they did it, and outlines how other communities in North America and elsewhere can do the same. Key to success is a democratic "bottom-up" change process, and clear guiding sustainability principles such as the Natural Step framework. The book will appeal to both general readers wishing to understand better what sustainability means and practitioners interested in introducing or expanding sustainable development in their communities.

Download or read book The natural step written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to effectively pilot the use of The Natural Step framework in Atlantic Canada, it is important to have a shared understanding of the concept of sustainable development, and so the primer begins with a brief overview of this concept. [...] Then, in order to demonstrate its practical application, the primer profiles a few of the adopters and users of The Natural Step framework from different parts of the world, and from different sectors, including large and small businesses, municipal governments, and the broader communities in which they operate. [...] The most widely cited and popular definition of sustainable development is the one used in the report of the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, entitled Our Common Future, commonly known as the Brundtland Report: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."10 The Brund [...] The strategy recognizes a need to protect and enhance the distinct quality of life that Nova Scotians cherish, while at the same time "meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".13. [...] As an example of some of these global trends, a joint report published in 2000 by the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Wildlife Fund International, and the Centre for Sustainability Studies in Mexico, reported that over the last 30 years the state of the Earth's natural ecosystems had declined by about 33% while the ecological pressure of humanity on the Earth increased by about 50%

Download or read book The Natural Step for Communities written by Sarah & Torbjorn Lahti James and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Natural Step for Business written by Brian Nattrass and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Natural Step for Business examines how four very successful "evolutionary" corporations in Sweden and the United States - including IKEA and Scandic Hotels in Sweden, and Collins Pine and Interface in the U.S. - are positioning themselves for long-term competitiveness using The Natural Step as a central part of their corporate strategy. Nattrass and Altomare puncture the myth that a company must choose between profitability and care for the natural environment, and present a timely and practical application of this exciting model for global sustainability.

Download or read book Community development as a natural step written by Richard McDermott and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 4 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Toward Sustainable Communities written by Mark Roseland and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2012-07-01 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The single most useful resource out there on how to build and grow sustainable places The need to make our communities sustainable is more urgent than ever before. Toward Sustainable Communities remains the single most useful resource for creating vibrant, healthy, equitable, economically viable places. This comprehensive update of the classic text presents a leading-edge overview of sustainability in a new fully illustrated, full-color format. Compelling new case studies and expanded treatment of sustainability in rural as well as urban settings are complemented by contributions from a range of experts around the world, demonstrating how "community capital" can be leveraged to meet the needs of cities and towns for: Energy efficiency, waste reduction, and recycling Water, sewage, transportation, and housing Climate change and air quality Land use and urban planning. Fully supported by a complete suite of online resources and tools, Toward Sustainable Communities is packed with concrete, innovative solutions to a host of municipal challenges. Required reading for policymakers, educators, social enterprises, and engaged citizens, this "living book" will appeal to anyone concerned about community sustainability and a livable future. Mark Roseland is director of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University and professor at SFU's School of Resource and Environmental Management. He lectures internationally, advises communities and governments on sustainable development policy and planning, and has been cited as one of British Columbia's "top fifty living public intellectuals."

Download or read book Rethinking Strategic Management written by Thomas Wunder and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-09-06 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers innovative ideas and frameworks for sustainable strategizing to advance business by scaling-up its positive impact, which is so urgently needed at this time in the 21st century. It shows practitioners how to effectively deal with socio-ecological systems’ disruptions to their operating environments and play an active role in transforming markets toward a sustainable future. In short, the book demonstrates how to make business sense of sustainability, highlighting new approaches and examples that translate sustainability into strategy and action. The ultimate goal is to provide a path toward a thriving future for both business and society. This book was written for strategy practitioners and decision makers who want to understand why sustainable strategizing is important in today’s business world and are seeking actionable business knowledge they can apply in their companies. It was also written for students of management and can be used as a supplemental text to support traditional graduate and undergraduate management courses.

Download or read book Practice of Sustainable Community Development written by R. Warren Flint and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-10-18 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ordinary people, community leaders, and even organizations and corporations still do not fully comprehend the interconnected, “big picture” dynamics of sustainability theory and action. In exploring means to become more sustainable, individuals and groups need a reference in which to frame discussions so they will be relevant, educational, and successful when implemented. This book puts ideas on sustainable communities into a conceptual framework that will promote striking, transformational effects on decision-making. In this book practitioners and community leaders will find effective, comprehensive tools and resources at their finger-tips to facilitate sustainable community development (SCD). The book content examines a diverse range of SCD methods; assessing community needs and resources; creating community visions; promoting stakeholder interest and participation; analyzing community problems; designing and facilitating strategic planning; carrying out interventions to improve

Download or read book Ecovillages written by Jonathan Dawson and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2006-09-15 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Dancing with the Tiger written by Brian F. Nattrass and published by Gabriola Island, BC : New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2002 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainability consultants to Fortune 500 companies examine the real business impacts of the Natural Step framework.

Download or read book Practice of Sustainable Community Development written by R. Warren Flint and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-10-17 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ordinary people, community leaders, and even organizations and corporations still do not fully comprehend the interconnected, “big picture” dynamics of sustainability theory and action. In exploring means to become more sustainable, individuals and groups need a reference in which to frame discussions so they will be relevant, educational, and successful when implemented. This book puts ideas on sustainable communities into a conceptual framework that will promote striking, transformational effects on decision-making. In this book practitioners and community leaders will find effective, comprehensive tools and resources at their finger-tips to facilitate sustainable community development (SCD). The book content examines a diverse range of SCD methods; assessing community needs and resources; creating community visions; promoting stakeholder interest and participation; analyzing community problems; designing and facilitating strategic planning; carrying out interventions to improve

Download or read book Healthy Resilient and Sustainable Communities After Disasters written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-09-10 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the devastation that follows a major disaster, there is a need for multiple sectors to unite and devote new resources to support the rebuilding of infrastructure, the provision of health and social services, the restoration of care delivery systems, and other critical recovery needs. In some cases, billions of dollars from public, private and charitable sources are invested to help communities recover. National rhetoric often characterizes these efforts as a "return to normal." But for many American communities, pre-disaster conditions are far from optimal. Large segments of the U.S. population suffer from preventable health problems, experience inequitable access to services, and rely on overburdened health systems. A return to pre-event conditions in such cases may be short-sighted given the high costs - both economic and social - of poor health. Instead, it is important to understand that the disaster recovery process offers a series of unique and valuable opportunities to improve on the status quo. Capitalizing on these opportunities can advance the long-term health, resilience, and sustainability of communities - thereby better preparing them for future challenges. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters identifies and recommends recovery practices and novel programs most likely to impact overall community public health and contribute to resiliency for future incidents. This book makes the case that disaster recovery should be guided by a healthy community vision, where health considerations are integrated into all aspects of recovery planning before and after a disaster, and funding streams are leveraged in a coordinated manner and applied to health improvement priorities in order to meet human recovery needs and create healthy built and natural environments. The conceptual framework presented in Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters lays the groundwork to achieve this goal and provides operational guidance for multiple sectors involved in community planning and disaster recovery. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters calls for actions at multiple levels to facilitate recovery strategies that optimize community health. With a shared healthy community vision, strategic planning that prioritizes health, and coordinated implementation, disaster recovery can result in a communities that are healthier, more livable places for current and future generations to grow and thrive - communities that are better prepared for future adversities.

Download or read book The Natural Step written by Janet M. Eaton and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Together at the Table written by Patricia Allen and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everywhere you look people are more aware of what they eat and where their food comes from. In a cafeteria in Los Angeles, children make their lunchtime food choices at fresh-fruit and salad bars stocked with local foods. In a community garden in New York, low-income residents are producing organically grown fruits and vegetables for their own use and to sell at market. In Madison, Wisconsin, shoppers select their food from a bounty of choices at a vibrant farmers' market.Together at the Table is about people throughout the United States who are building successful alternatives to the contemporary agrifood system and their prospects for the future. At the heart of these efforts are the movements for sustainable agriculture and community food security. Both movements seek to reconstruct the agrifood system—the food production chain, from the growing of crops to food production and distribution—to become more ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially just. Allen describes the ways in which people working in these movements view the world and how they see their place in challenging and reshaping the agrifood system. She also shows how ideas and practices of sustainable agriculture and community food security have already woven their way into the dominant agrifood institutions. Allen explores the possibilities this process may hold for improving social and environmental justice in the American agrifood system. Together at the Table is an important reminder that much work still remains to be done. Now that the ideas and priorities of alternative food movements have taken hold, it is time for the next—even more challenging—step. Alternative agrifood movements must acknowledge and address the deeper structural and cultural patterns that constrain the long-term resolution of social and environmental problems in the agrifood system.

Download or read book Sustainable Preservation written by Jean Carroon and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-02-15 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainable Preservation takes a nuanced look at the hundreds of choices that adaptive reuse requires architects to make—from ingenious ways to redeploy existing structural elements to time-honored techniques for natural ventilation to creation of wetlands that restore a site's natural biological functions. In addition, Sustainable Preservation presents 50 case studies of projects—schools, houses, offices, stores, museums, and government buildings—that set new standards for holistic approaches to adaptive reuse and sustainability. The author covers design issues, from building location to lighting systems, renewable power options, stormwater handling, and building envelope protection and integrity. The book also reviews operational issues, including materials choices for low lifetime maintenance, green housekeeping, and indoor air quality.

Download or read book Developing Occupation Centered Programs With the Community written by Linda Fazio and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-06-01 with total page 618 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The updated Third Edition of Developing Occupation-Centered Programs With the Community continues to provide an excellent step-by-step workbook approach to designing and implementing a program for the community. Inside Developing Occupation-Centered Programs With the Community, Third Edition, Dr. Linda Fazio includes the importance of community asset identification and development toward sustainability. The Third Edition includes new and updated content on evidence-based practice; program evaluation at multiple levels; funding; nonprofits and social entrepreneurship. Additionally, new trending issues of interest to programmers include human trafficking, post-combat programming for military veterans and their families, arts-based programming for all ages, and programming to meet current needs of the well-elderly. Features of the Third Edition: Workbook format offers the instructor and the student options for how to use the text in a classroom or independently in an internship or residency. The order of the programming process, chapter content order, summaries, and format of exercises has been retained to ease transition for instructors using previous editions of the text. The program “story” section has been retained, along with author’s notes on what is currently happening with these programs and other related topic areas New content has been added in program sustainability, the assessment and building of community assets, and consensus organizing in communities. More developed content is offered about the structure and function of nonprofit organizations as well as the role and function of the social entrepreneur who does programming for these organizations. Included with the text are online supplemental materials for faculty use in the classroom. Developing Occupation-Centered Programs With the Community, Third Edition is an excellent introductory tool and is a valuable resource for occupational therapy students at all levels, as well as experienced practitioners in a clinical setting.

Download or read book Cultivating Communities of Practice written by Etienne Wenger and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today's marketplace is fueled by knowledge. Yet organizing systematically to leverage knowledge remains a challenge. Leading companies have discovered that technology is not enough, and that cultivating communities of practice is the keystone of an effective knowledge strategy. Communities of practice come together around common interests and expertise- whether they consist of first-line managers or customer service representatives, neurosurgeons or software programmers, city managers or home-improvement amateurs. They create, share, and apply knowledge within and across the boundaries of teams, business units, and even entire companies-providing a concrete path toward creating a true knowledge organization. In Cultivating Communities of Practice, Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder argue that while communities form naturally, organizations need to become more proactive and systematic about developing and integrating them into their strategy. This book provides practical models and methods for stewarding these communities to reach their full potential-without squelching the inner drive that makes them so valuable. Through in-depth cases from firms such as DaimlerChrysler, McKinsey & Company, Shell, and the World Bank, the authors demonstrate how communities of practice can be leveraged to drive overall company strategy, generate new business opportunities, tie personal development to corporate goals, transfer best practices, and recruit and retain top talent. They define the unique features of these communities and outline principles for nurturing their essential elements. They provide guidelines to support communities of practice through their major stages of development, address the potential downsides of communities, and discuss the specific challenges of distributed communities. And they show how to recognize the value created by communities of practice and how to build a corporate knowledge strategy around them. Essential reading for any leader in today's knowledge economy, this is the definitive guide to developing communities of practice for the benefit-and long-term success-of organizations and the individuals who work in them. Etienne Wenger is a renowned expert and consultant on knowledge management and communities of practice in San Juan, California. Richard McDermott is a leading expert of organization and community development in Boulder, Colorado. William M. Snyder is a founding partner of Social Capital Group, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.