Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1

This chapter introduces the concepts of globalization and sustainable development and explains the complex and often contested nature of various debates and practices that have occurred in recent years. The significance of some key international agreements is discussed together with some criticisms and comments they have stimulated. The chapter ends with the suggestion that sustainable development is perhaps best understood as a ‘dialogue of values’ – a way of encouraging people to learn, to discover and to evaluate.

Chapter 2

This chapter examines a wide range of academic and policy writing on sustainable development, offering a critical evaluation of the significance of the many worldviews, values and perspectives that inform the concept. Consequently, a number of philosophical and ideological contributions to what sustainability and sustainable development may mean are seen as elements of a global dialogue on the future we want. Many worldviews offer an array of action-orientated normative prescriptions and proscriptions.

Chapter 3

This chapter explores the contested nature of science in the sustainable development process. Key illustrations are drawn from the controversies over climate change and genetic modification. The concept of risk, the precautionary principle and the theory of reflexive modernization are also examined. The idea that sustainability is not a scientific concept as such is an underlying assumption of this chapter, even though in practice sustainability, and perhaps science too, is a political act.

Chapter 4

This chapter explores the social–environmental interface of sustainable development locally and globally by critically analyzing the concepts and practices associated with social and environmental justice. The role of new digital media, community development and the idea of ‘the commons’, together with the importance of social capital, local food initiatives and environmental justice campaigns will be examined as key elements of the sustainable development process.

Chapter 5

This chapter explores the connections between environmental sustainability, human agency and political participation. Some key theories, concepts and examples of practical action illustrate the political importance of sustainable development. Issues relating to ecological citizenship, the culture of democracy, good governance and the workplace are discussed in this context. Recognizing the increasing importance of cities and migration, the chapter concludes with a discussion on ‘the right to the city’ and the need to robustly address the many manifestations of gender inequality and violence.

Chapter 6

This chapter explores the relationship between conservation and sustainable development, revisiting issues relating to population, resource use and human beings’ impact on ‘the natural world’. More specifically, efforts to preserve the natural landscape and more latterly a wide range of wildlife habitats bring into focus a range of policies and practices that have seen conflicts, controversies and a considerable degree of debate. The friction induced by the imposition of western notions of conservation and stewardship on other lands have invariably led many to address and readdress both the rights of indigenous peoples and the very nature of economic development, urbanization and sustainability.

Chapter 7

This chapter explores key issues relating to modernity, capitalism and economic growth, focusing on a range of arguments and opinions that perceive business and development as both part of the problem and part of the solution. It critically considers the role of business in promoting sustainable development and also addresses issues relating to the financial valuation of nature, ‘eco’ entrepreneurship, corporate responsibility, localization, fair trade and the idea of degrowth. A case study of digital media companies, carbon footprints and corporate sustainability ends the chapter.

Chapter 8

This chapter explores various methods and approaches to envisioning a sustainable society, making particular reference to past and present examples of utopian thinking. In relation to this, the potential and significance of practical experiments, strategies and plans that focus largely on sustainable design, the construction of ecocities in Europe, Asia and the Americas and urban development in general is discussed. Finally, the relationship between utopian thinking, scenario analysis and practical action is also addressed.

Chapter 9

This chapter examines a range of tools and measurements designed to assess progress made towards realizing sustainability goals. The relationship between the Natural Step Framework and the development of sustainability indicators, and the theory and application of ecological footprinting analysis is discussed. Moving towards sustainability also involves unleashing creativity, doing things in different ways, experimentation and changing mindsets. Finally, the chapter evaluates the applicability of various sustainability tools in the broader process of communication and social learning.

Chapter 10

This chapter examines various aspects of communication and learning for sustainability. The role of marketing, public communication campaigns, the internet, cyberspace, film and television will be explored using a range of examples. In many ways, the mediascape can be seen as being an environment through which we make sense of the world and of ourselves. The chapter closes with a brief discussion of the main features of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), referencing both formal learning taking place within institutions like schools, colleges, universities, etc. and informal learning occurring outside the classroom in the community and in everyday life.

Chapter 11

This chapter develops an understanding of the theory and practice of leadership in organizations and society. It highlights the need to explore different dimensions of leadership within sustainable development. An important aspect is the relationship between learning, knowledge management and innovation. The chapter examines the place of leadership within a systems or ecological perspective. Finally, by identifying a number of traits and characteristics frequently associated with leaders and leadership, the chapter suggests it may be possible for readers to identify their own personal and professional development needs and then find the means to realize them.

Annotated Further Reading

Chapter 1

Bello, W. (2004) Deglobalization: Ideas for a New World Economy, Zed Books, London.
An important discussion of globalization from the anti-globalization camp. Globalization is neither inevitable nor necessarily beneficial.
Carson, R. (2000, original 1962) Silent Spring, Penguin Books, London.
A classic of the environment movement, which is as relevant now as when it was first published.
Clapp, J. and Dauvergne, P. (2005) Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
An important academic discussion that places globalization and sustainable development within a political economy perspective.
Grober, U. (2012) Sustainability: A Cultural History, Green Books, Totnes, UK.
An unusual albeit Eurocentric take of culture and sustainability. Interesting to read not least because it comes from outside the Anglo-American tradition.
WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development) (1987) Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Another classic, but more talked about than read. Has more to say than most people believe.

Chapter 2

Bookchin, M. (2005) The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy, AK Press, Oakland, CA.
A major and important statement by the leading figure within social ecology.
Lovelock, J. (1979) Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Highly influential and highly controversial when first published. Now almost common sense but not quite.
Mol, A.P.J. and Spaargaren, G. (2000) Ecological modernization theory in debate, in A.P.J. Mol and D.A. Sonnenfeld (eds) Ecological Modernization Around the World: Perspectives and Critical Debates, Frank Cass, London.
A highly debateable but very persuasive approach to eco-friendly economic and technological development.
Naess, A. (1995) The deep ecology movement: Some philosophical aspects, in G. Sessions (ed.) Deep Ecology for the 21st Century, Shambhala, London.
In many ways a touchstone of environmentalism. A view which many people measure themselves against even if they disagree with it.
Plumwood, V. (1996) Nature, self and gender: Feminism, environmental philosophy and the critique on rationalism, in K.J. Warren (ed.) Ecological Feminist Philosophies, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.
One of very many important interventions from the eco-feminist philosopher and activist. This and most other pieces by Val Plumwood are worth reading.
Ratner, B.D. (2004) Sustainability as a dialogue of values: Challenges to the sociology of development, Sociological Inquiry, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 59–69.
A compelling discussion of what sustainability means or can mean.

Chapter 3

Beck, U. (1992) Risk Society, Sage, London.
A seminal text about the nature of risk in the contemporary world. A must read.
Berners-Lee, M. and Clark, D. (2013) The Burning Question, Profile Books, London.
One of a growing number of books about climate change. A good engaging read that will make you think.
Kates, R.W., Parris, T.M. and Leiserowitz, A.A. (2005) What is sustainable development? Goals, indicators, values and practice, Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 8–21.
An approach to sustainable development from the perspective of the emerging discipline of sustainability science.
Robinson, J. (2004) Squaring the circle? Some thoughts on the idea of sustainable development, Ecological Economics, vol. 48, pp. 369–84.
A very important article that argues that sustainable development is a very important concept whose internal contradictions are more apparent than real.
Shiva, V. (2000) Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, South End Press, Cambridge, MA.
An articulate and significant voice from the so-called developing world advocating development that is both democratic and sustainable.

Chapter 4

Agyeman, J., Bullard, R.D. and Evans, B. (eds) (2003) Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World, Earthscan, London.
A comprehensive collection of articles on environmental justice and social action.
Bridger, J.C. and Luloff, A.E. (1999) Toward an interactional approach to sustainable community development, Journal of Rural Studies, vol. 15, pp. 377–87.
A sociological analysis of the importance of social capital in the building of sustainable communities.
Pearce, F. (2013) The Landgrabbers: The New Fight Over Who Owns the Earth, Eden Books, London.
A detailed piece of environmental journalism that raises many worrying issues about equity, power and land ownership.
Pellow, D.N. (2002) Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
A major study of a significant environmental justice campaign.
Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2010) The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone. Penguin, London.
A highly influential and well-evidenced book demonstrating that there cannot be either social justice or environmental sustainability without equality.

Chapter 5

Barry, J. (1999) Rethinking Green Politics, Sage, London.
A closely argued rethinking of the nature of politics from a green perspective.
Dobson, A. (2014) Listening for Democracy: Recognition, Representation, Reconciliation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
A book by a leading green political scientist on why the art of listening is an important element of deliberative democracy and why it is in too short supply.
Eckersley, R. (2005) Ecocentric discourses: Problems and future prospects for nature advocacy, in J.S. Dryzek and D. Schlosberg (eds) Debating the Earth: The Environmental Politics Reader, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
A valuable discussion of nature advocacy in an equally important book.
Emirbayer, M. and Mische, A. (1998) What is agency? American Journal of Sociology, vol. 103, no. 4, pp. 962–1023.
A very thorough sociological discussion of the nature of social agency.
Harvey, D. (2013) Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, Verso, London.
A collection of radical essays from a leading critical geographer with a specific focus of politics in urban environments.

Chapter 6

Adams, W.M. (2008) Green Development: Environment and Sustainability in the Third World, 3rd edition. Routledge, London.
A very thorough and informative textbook on conservation and development.
Beatley, T. (2011) Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design, Island Press, Washington, DC.
Cities can and should be areas of biodiversity. Tim Beatley shows how this can be achieved.
Brockington, D., Duffy, R. and Igoe, J. (2008) Nature Unbound: Conservation, Capitalism, and the Future of Protected Areas, Earthscan, London.
A critical account of conservation suggesting that capitalism is at least a major part of the problem. An important book.
Escobar, A. (1995) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
This important book on the nature of development will continue to resonate for many years.
Wijkman, A. and Rockstrom, J. (2012) Bankrupting Nature: Denying our Planetary Boundaries, Routledge, London.
In some ways, a scientific updating of the ecological limits to growth debate. In other ways, a warning that we are yet to fully comprehend.

Chapter 7

Daly, H.E. (1996) Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development, Beacon Press, Boston, MA.
Herman Daly shows why development cannot equate with economic growth in a sustainable world.
Fleming, P. and Jones, M. (2013) The End of Corporate Social Responsibility? Sage, London.
A critical take on corporate social responsibility linking its prominence to the growth of neoliberalism.
Foster, J.B., Clark, B. and York, R. (2010) The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Planet, Monthly Review Press, New York.
Essentially a collection of articles outlining a very detailed Marxist critique of the idea of capitalism’s compatibility with sustainability.
Hawken, P. (1994) The Ecology of Commerce, Harper Business, New York.
A classic and influential book on natural or green capitalism.
Jackson, T. (2011) Prosperity without Growth, Routledge, London.
Arguably the most important book on sustainability and economics to be published in recent years. A paradigm shifter.

Chapter 8

Cole, R.J. (2012) Transitioning from green to regenerative design. Building Research & Information, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 39–53.
This article develops a concept of design that moves towards regenerating ecosystems.
Davis, M. (2006) Planet of Slums, Verso, London.
An energetic, well-evidenced and incisive analysis of the darker side of urbanization.
De Geus, M. (1999) Ecological Utopias: Envisioning the Sustainable Society, International Books, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Absolutely absorbing. Having read this you will rush off to read the classics of utopian literature.
Downton, P.F. (2009) Ecopolis: Architecture and Cities for a Changing Climate, Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands.
Written by a practicing architect and sustainability practitioner, this book is a comprehensive study of what green architectural design can accomplish.
Hopkins, R. (2011) The Transition Companion, Transition Books, Totnes, UK.
A sequel to the Transition Handbook, an essential guide to what the transition movement is doing and how you can join in.

Chapter 9

Girardet, H. and Mendroca, M. (2009) A Renewable World: Energy, Ecology, Equity, Green Books, Totnes, UK.
A comprehensive look at energy, technology and sustainability systems from the World Futures Council.
Epstein, M.J and Rejc, A. (2014) Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts, 2nd edition, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK.
An excellent guide and introduction to corporate sustainability practices.
McDonough, W. and Braungart, M. (2002) Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, North Point Press, New York.
A highly influential book on green design and what has developed as the circular economy.
Nattrass, B. and Altomare, M. (1999) The Natural Step for Business: Wealth, Ecology and the Evolutionary Corporation, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, Canada.
A guide to TNS for business with case study examples and clear explanations.
Wackernagel, M. and Rees, W. (1996) Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, Canada.
A fundamental account of the importance and necessity of ecological footprint analysis.

Chapter 10

Belz, F-M. and Peattie, K. (2012) Sustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK.
A valuable introduction to sustainability and marketing.
Lopez, A. (2012) The Media Ecosystem: What Ecology Can Teach Us about Responsible Media Practice, Evolver Editions, Berkeley, CA.
An important green manifesto for media educators and all those concerned with both media and sustainability literacy.
Maxwell, R. and Miller, T. (2012) Greening the Media, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
An examination of the media industry and how it can become more environmentally responsible.
Orr, D. (1994) Earth in Mind, Island Press, Washington, DC.
A classic must-read text by an American educator on the need for ecological education and learning.
Sterling, S. (2001) Sustainable Education: Re-Visioning Learning and Change, Green Books, Totnes, UK.
A short but highly influential book calling for a paradigm change in formal education at all levels.

Chapter 11

Avolio, B.J. and Gardner, W.L. (2005) Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership, The Leadership Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 315–38.
A clear and engaging exploration of the notion of authenticity in leadership.
Doppelt, B. (2003) Leading Change Towards Sustainability, Greenleaf, Sheffield, UK.
An explanatory and practical discussion of leadership within a sustainability context.
Parkin, S. (2010) The Positive Deviant: Sustainability Leadership in a Perverse World, Earthscan, London.
An engaging, stimulating, but sometimes impressionistic text by one of the founders of the NGO Forum for the Future.
Prudham, S. (2009) Pimping climate change: Richard Branson, global warming, and the performance of green capitalism. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, vol. 41, no. 7, pp. 1594–613.
An incisive warning that smiling corporate leaders are not always what they seem.
Redekop, B.J. (ed.) (2010) Leadership for Environmental Sustainability, Routledge, London.
A useful collection of articles that covers a lot of ground.
Wheatley, M. (1999) Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, CA.
From deep within the ecological mindset this book remains an important challenge to leaders of the business-as-usual school.

Recommended films and documentaries

There are very many brilliant short and feature length documentaries and some interesting movies addressing sustainability, environmental and conservation themes. Here are just some:

Feature Movies

Avatar (2009) USA
www.avatarmovie.com/index.html
Erin Brockovich (2000) USA
www.brockovich.com/the-movie/
Soylent Green (1973) USA
www.amazon.com/Soylent-Green-Charlton-Heston/dp/B001QUM4IY
The Day After Tomorrow (2004) USA
www.pik-potsdam.de/~stefan/tdat_review.html
The Constant Gardner (2005) UK
www.imdb.com/title/tt0387131/
Pom Poko (1994) Japan
www.onlineghibli.com/pom_poko/

Documentaries

Gasland (2010) and Gasland ll (2013) USA
www.gaslandthemovie.com/home
Food Inc (2008) USA
www.foodincmovie.co.uk/
The Cove (2009) Australia
www.thecovemovie.com/home.htm
The Age of Stupid (2009) New Zealand
www.spannerfilms.net/films/ageofstupid
Design: e2 Series (2006) PBS
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/design-e2/
Darwin’s Nightmare (2004) UK
www.darwinsnightmare.com/
Drowned Out (2002) UK
www.spannerfilms.net/films/drownedout
The End of Suburbia (2004) USA
www.endofsuburbia.com/
The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) USA
http://vimeo.com/17666826
Petropolis (2009) Canada
www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/Energy/tarsands/Get-involved/Petropolis-Aerial-Perspectives-of-the-Alberta-Tar-Sands/

URLs last checked and correct as of 24 Jan 2018.

Recommended reading

Understanding Sustainable Development includes an extensive bibliography, but there is always more to read and more to learn. These books offer a complementary approach to many of the issues we face encompassing fiction, nature writing, journalism and some additional academic texts. Many of the books are those I like – particularly the SciFi – or have found useful and interesting. In many ways they are a personal choice, but one that I hope you will enjoy too.

Fiction

Geoff Ryman (2005) The Child Garden, Gollancz, London.
London in a sub-tropical future where plants and people feed off the sun.
John Christopher (2009) The Death of Grass, Penguin Books, London.
A psychological thriller in a post-apocalyptic world.
Margaret Atwood (2013) The Year of the Flood, Virago, London.
Another post-apocalyptic eco-thriller with a feminist slant.
Carl Hiassen (2005) Skinny Dip, Black Swan, London.
A funny, perceptive novel about business scams, illegal dumping and murder.
Brian Aldiss (2008) Hothouse, Penguin Books, London.
Classic SciFi – beautiful, thoughtful and absorbing. An environmental crisis with a difference.
David Brin (2012) Earth, Orbit, London.
The Earth is in danger. Is it possible to save it or should the evolutionary clock just be left to start again?
Kim Stanley Robinson (2009) Red Mars, Harper Voyager, London.
The first novel in a trilogy about human society, politics and colonising Mars.
Edward Abbey (2004) The Monkey Wrench Gang, Penguin Books, London.
An important and influential novel about environmental activism.
Don DeLillo (2011) Underworld, Picador, London.
A great novel about modern American culture laced with an environmental theme.
George R. Stewart (1999) Earth Abides, Gollancz, London.
Brilliant SciFi from 1949. A thoughtful and intelligent meditation on humans' relationships with each other and with nature by a writer who should be more well known.
Diane Castle (2012) Black Oil, Red Blood, Wishlist Publishing, Online.
A sharply written legal eco thriller written by a real life attorney with first-hand experience of 'Big Oil'.

Conservation and Natural History Writing

Philip Connors (2012) Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout, Pan, London.
Memoirs, meditations and thoughts of a former Wall Street Journal editor working as a fire watcher in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico.
Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley (2012) Edgelands, Vintage, London.
Nature beauty can be found in the ugliest urban places. Beautiful observations and written with a keen sense of nature’s poetry.
Samuel Turvey (2009) Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
An account of the destructive nature modernization and the sadness of loss.
Robert Macfarlane (2013) The Old Ways, Penguin Books, London.
A journey on foot discovering the lost trackways, drove roads and other routes within the English countryside.
Rachel Carson (2007) Under the Sea-Wind, Penguin Books, London.
The first book by the author of Silent Spring, rejoicing in the mystery of the sea and the creatures who live in it.
Nan Shepherd (2011) The Living Mountain, Canongate, Edinburgh.
One of the greatest pieces of nature writing of the twentieth century.
David Rothenberg (2008) Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound, Basic Books, New York.
We may not be the cleverest creatures on planet Earth. Whales may be as they communicate with lengthy and complex song.
Lyall Watson (2002) Elephantoms: Tracking the Elephant, W.W. Norton, London.
A personal and fascinating account of the nature of the most iconic creatures on the planet – elephants.

Non Fiction

Michael Williams (2006) Deforesting the Earth, Chicago University Press, Chicago, IL.
A major study of the history and geography of deforestation.
Carolyn Merchant (1989) Ecological Revolutions: Nature, Gender, and Science in New England, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.
An absorbing account of how early European settlers transformed the environment of New England.
Dieter Helm (2013) The Carbon Crunch, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
The climate crisis and how a drastic rethink of global energy is both necessary and possible.
John Blewitt and Daniella Tilbury (2013) Searching for Resilience in Sustainable Development, Earthscan, London.
An investigation into why and how resilience has recently become such an important concept in the sustainability discourse and what it all means.
Tony Juniper (2013) What Has Nature Ever Done for Us? Profile Books, London.
Former Director of Friends of the Earth UK explains the importance of the environment to human society.
Katherine Boo (2012) Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Portobello Books, London.
A brilliant piece of journalism showing how life is lived in a Mumbai slum.
Molly Scott Cato (2012) The Bioregional Economy: Land, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, Earthscan, London.
A leading green economist shows how economics can and should serve nature and humanity.
Richard Sennett (2013) Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation, Penguin Books, London.
Cooperation rather than competition is the key to a flourishing social and working life, and always has been.
Joseph E. Stiglitz (2013) The Price of Inequality, Penguin Books, London.
Former World Bank Chief Economist demonstrates why inequality is both ethically and economically wrong.
Lawrence Buell (1996) The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
An important study of environmental writing and its significance to the American way.
Stephen Rust, Salma Monani and Sean Cubitt, editors (2012) Ecocinema Theory and Practice (AFI Film Readers), Routledge, London.
A collection of articles on the way cinema has engaged with environmental and sustainability issues.
Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha (2000) The Use and Abuse of Nature, Oxford University Press, New Dehli.
Comprising of two key texts on the environmental history of India – The Fissured Land and Ecology and Equity.
Helen Kopnina and Eleanor Shoreman-Ouimet, editors (2011) Environmental Anthropology Today, Routledge, London.
A collection of articles exploring the significance of environmental anthropology to conservation.
Paul Collier (2011) The Plundered Planet, Penguin Books, London.
A creative take by a leading economist on how global poverty, overpopulation and resource use can be addressed.
Ursula K. Heise (2008) Sense of Place and Sense of Planet, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
A sophisticated study of ecocriticism, environmental imagination and identity.
Helen Kopnina and John Blewitt (2014) Sustainable Business, Earthscan, London.
A critical but practical primer on sustainability and business.
Barbara Ehrenreich (2006) Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, Metropolitan Books, New York.
The important discussion of joy, love, freedom and collectivity in the human condition.
Ellen Meiksins Wood (2002) The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View, Verso, London.
An economic history of capitalism from a major green economist.
Randolph T. Hester (2006) Design for Ecological Democracy, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
The book outlines new principles of urban design that will connect people to each other and the natural environment.
Alan Weisman (2007) The World Without Us, Harper Perennial, Toronto, Canada.
An intriguing thought experiment. What would the world be like if humanity just disappeared?

Weblinks

International organizations

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: www.ipcc.ch/
World Business Council for Sustainable Development: www.wbcsd.org/home.aspx
European Union/European Commission – Environment: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/
IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature): www.iucn.org/

NGOs

Conservation International: www.conservation.org/act/Pages/make_difference.aspx?gclid=CKzJ5LaOjb0CFWXnwgod76oAyw
Greenpeace International: www.greenpeace.org/international/en/
WWF Global: http://wwf.panda.org/
Friends of the Earth International: www.foei.org/en
World Development Movement: www.wdm.org.uk/
International Institute for Sustainable Development: www.iisd.org/business/

Think tanks and consultancies

Resilience Alliance: http://resiliencealliance.com/
SustainAbility: www.sustainability.com/
GreenHouse Think Tank: www.sustainability.com/
Futerra Sustainability Communications: www.futerra.co.uk/
Worldwatch Institute: www.worldwatch.org/
Ellen MacArthur Foundation: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/

Eco cities

Copenhagen, Denmark: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/europeangreencapital/winning-cities/2014-copenhagen/
Adelaide, Australia: http://uk.southaustralia.com/regions/adelaide-green-city.aspx?rs=b%7cAU%7cUK
Curitiba, Brazil: www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/idioma/ingles
How to spot a fake ecocity: www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4488-How-to-spot-a-fake-eco-city

Sustainable business organizations

Unilever: www.unilever.co.uk/sustainable-living/
Interface:  www.interface.com/US/en-US/global
Canon: www.canon.com/csr/report/
Marks and Spencer: http://plana.marksandspencer.com/we-are-doing
Tridos Ethical Bank: www.triodos.co.uk/en/personal/?gclid=CPibpv6Wjb0CFaoewwodxaQAHg
PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers): www.pwc.co.uk/sustainability-climate-change/index.jhtml

Education

UNESCO:  www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/education-for-sustainable-development/
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education: www.aashe.org/
Principles for Responsible Management Education: www.unprme.org/
Eco-Schools: www.eco-schools.org/

Useful TED talks

Jaime Lerner, former Mayor of Curitiba, ‘A song of the city’: www.ted.com/talks/jaime_lerner_sings_of_the_city
Janine Benyus, ‘Biomimicry in action’: www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action?language=en
James Hansen, climate scientist, ‘Why I must speak out about climate change’: www.ted.com/talks/james_hansen_why_i_must_speak_out_about_climate_change
Amory Lovins, sustainability advocate, ‘A 40 year plan for energy’: www.ted.com/talks/amory_lovins_a_50_year_plan_for_energy
Tim Jackson, green economist, ‘An economic reality check’: www.ted.com/talks/tim_jackson_s_economic_reality_check

Independent media

Huffington Post: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/
Adbusters: www.adbusters.org/
Open Democracy: www.opendemocracy.net/
CorpWatch: www.corpwatch.org/
Wildscreen: www.wildscreen.org.uk/

URLs last checked and correct as of 24 Jan 2018.

Case Studies

Climate change controversies

Let’s start with some questions:

  1. What is climate change?
  2. What is causing it?
  3. What effects will climate change have, and is having?
  4. Should we care?
  5. If we do, why?
  6. If we do not, why not?

Where climate change is concerned there are known knowns and known unknowns. For example:

  • The extent of global warming – known and extensive.
  • The extent to which it is ‘natural’ or man-made, i.e. anthropogenic – known: anthropogenic.
  • Recognizing that it is anthropogenic, what we should do about it and on whom the burden should fall – to be decided.

For Mike Hulme (2009) there has being a growing consensus around the veracity of anthropogenic climate change for many decades:

The science of climate change had been building since Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier and John Tyndall in early/mid-nineteenth century.

But 1988 was the year that the idea of anthropogenic (man-made) climate change came into public consciousness.

The University of East Anglia published a report that 1987 had been the hottest year in the 130 years of record keeping.

Major international conferences on climate change, e.g. Kyoto 1997, Copenhagen 2009.

UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established in 1988.

However, some politicians and big corporations, particularly within the fossil fuel industry, supported and financed campaigns that cast doubts or denied the growing consensus. In 2003, Senator James Inhofe remarked:

‘With all the hysteria, with all the fear, all the phoney science, could it be that manmade global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American People? I believe that it is. And if we allow these detractors of everything that made American great (…) if we allow them to destroy the foundation, the greatness of the most highly industrialized nation in the history of the world, then we don’t deserve to live in this nation under one God.’

For Mike Hulme (2009), this questioning of science and expertise is at least in part because we are trying to apply an Enlightenment view of science which is neutral, objective and suggests certainty to a ‘post-normal’ situation where the stakes are very high and radical urgent decisions are required. In other words, we expect science to be ‘an objective adjudicator’ between ‘truth’ and ‘error’ when what in fact we need is a dialogic co-production model:

‘In this “co-production” model of knowledge and policy there is recognition that both the goals of policy and the means of securing those goals emerge out of joint scientific and non-scientific (i.e. political or value-driven) considerations.’

Attempts to agree on national and international policies and actions to combat climate change and reduce carbon issues by 10, 20, 50 or even 90 per cent have not been very successful. Relatively little has been achieved and talks go on and on. A large part of the problem is political. As climate scientist Dieter Helm (2013) has said:

‘Any package with a title of matching “20” numbers has got to be primarily political. The probability that the correct answer to the question of what to do about climate change is even approximately 20 per cent overall reductions … is close to zero.’

References

Helm, D. (2013) The Carbon Crunch. New Haven, CT, Yale University Press.

Hulme, M. (2009) Why We Disagree About Climate Change. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Good governance: finance industry

Good governance is important for nation-states, cities, big and small business, NGOs, charities, universities and community groups. It is essential to fairness and justice, which must be key elements of any future sustainable society. Good governance clearly is of paramount importance to our finance organizations whose recent practices have been generally recognized as being in many cases profoundly questionable. These practices, whether they deal directly with green issues or not, are essential in building trust and stability in society and the economy. Barclays Bank has been a financial institution that has received a considerable degree of justified criticism recently and has been fined both in the USA and UK as a result. Its response has been to overhaul and revise its corporate citizenship commitments and governance structures. Its 2013 Citizenship Report states:

‘During 2013, we developed and piloted a Citizenship Lens, a values based decision-making tool which is being applied alongside other decision-making tools, to help colleagues move beyond legal, regulatory and compliance requirements, to consider broader societal impacts and opportunities in our key business decisions.

In applying this Lens, we will seek to ensure that we are taking into account the interests of our customers, clients, shareholders and communities in the decisions we make every day.

The Lens is designed to serve as a guide in the first stage of the decision-making process in order to help facilitate a discussion about our impact as well as the potential to create sustainable value for wider society – in the short and long term.

The Lens covers the following five high-level questions:

  1. How are we making a profit (directly or indirectly)?
  2. How are we being transparent and clear in our communication and dealings with customers and stakeholders?
  3. How are we creating long-term value?
  4. How are we creating shared value, where win-win occurs to Barclays, the customer and society at large?
  5. Is this the right thing to do?

The Lens is being integrated into our core decision-making processes and governance structures, including new product approval. In 2014, we will launch training for key colleagues involved in areas such as new product development.’

Political action from the outside: Jose Bove and the Confederation Paysanne

Jose Bove has been referred to as the ‘Wat Tyler of France’. As well as being an advocate of sustainability and localism, he also shows why farming should be a key support for sustainable development rather than its opposite, as is so often the case with big agri-businesses. In The World is Not for Sale (Bove and Dufour, 2001: 124) he said:

‘We don’t believe the farmer’s job can be reduced to marketing. Farmers work with what’s alive and on the land. They promote employment, help conserve biodiversity, and preserve and maintain the countryside. Choices made by farmers directly affect the land and the environment. There are three dimensions to the farmer’s job: economic, social and environmental; and it’s the integration of these three – or lack of it – that defines agriculture today.’

His protests won him world-wide acclamation and publicity. British journalist and activist Bea Campbell (2000) was one of a number of people who championed his actions:

‘Last summer [French farmer] Bove and four other leaders of the Confederation Paysanne bulldozed a new McDonald's being built in Millau, their little town in the south of France, the cradle of Roquefort cheese production. The French courts took a tough line. They jailed Bove and his comrades and set bail at £11,000. This summer a throng of supporters stopped the traffic in Millau, near where I'm staying, decorated walls with graffiti proclaiming “End McDomination”, and handed out free Roquefort cheese.

All this is part of their campaign to expose the tactics of the WTO as sponsors of big US producers. The WTO has imposed punitive taxes on Roquefort and other local products in response to the European Union's decision to ban imports of US beef impregnated with hormones. Ninety per cent of US beef is hormone-treated.

Roquefort, the sharp, salty, blue cheese produced only in this part of France, has a piquant place in the great debate. Philippe Folliot, mayor of St Pierre de Trivisy, a village in the heart of Roquefort country, explains that Roquefort represents the antithesis of globalisation because it “is made from the milk of only one breed of sheep, it is made in only one place in France and it is made in a special way” – unlike Big Macs or Coca-Cola, which are produced in stiff uniformity in the manner of the Model T Ford, by corporations that lay waste to a landscape of local producers. It is not so much the uniformity that offends the French producers as the producers' loss of control over their own knowledge and skill and the quality of the product itself.’

References

Bove, J. and Dufour, F. (2001) The World is Not for Sale: Farmers against Junk Food. London, Verso.

Campbell, B. (2000) ‘Stand up for Cheese Power’, Independent, August 5, available at www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/beatrix-campbell-stand-up-for-cheese-power-696718.html.

Radical but tempered leadership

The idea of being tempered radical, i.e. of being a loyal member of the organization, working within an organization, but aiming at initiating (ultimately) radical change, is not new. It emerged from the US civil rights movement in the 1960s and was initially taken up by feminists and some black activists. Today the idea has almost become mainstream and is perceived by many as a way of being a leader, particularly in an organization, without having the benefits of either having significant power or authority. Thus a tempered radical is an individual who challenges the status quo of his/her organization, both through their intentional acts and just by being who they are. They are loyal to their organization but may not necessarily be in tune with its values and practices that they would like to change. It requires certain qualities and these include being:

moderate

tough

hot or passionate, but

composed.

In other words being a tempered radical is seeing how far you can go without being fired. There are inevitable tensions and these will probably involve:

not necessarily fitting in or feeling one fits in;

recognizing that there is some conflict between one’s personal values and those of the organization one works within;

sometimes, perhaps often, feeling frustrated;

trying to achieve too much and burning out as a result; and

the perennial advantages and disadvantages of being simultaneously an insider and an outsider.

There will also arise certain ambivalences from inhabiting this position and these include:

perceptions of hypocrisy;

multiple (self) identities;

dangers of assimilation and co-option particularly in the use of language;

isolation and therefore being seen as a bit of an oddball;

a tendency to defer radical commitments in the interests of compromise and incremental gains.

Tempered radicals are perhaps natural compromisers and accommodators who need to be able to enjoy ‘playing the game’. If they can do this then small wins and local achievements will be considered as victories and the need to be opportunistic or at least spontaneous sometimes will be seen as simply being pragmatic. However, it is important for tempered radical to seek support where they can from both inside and outside the organization. This helps personally, psychologically and professionally. Thus having a number of affiliations is important especially in regard to:

the importance of external ties and relationships;

the varied sources of information, resources, emotional support and empathy; and

the support and sustenance from like-minded people.

Further reading

Meyerson, D.E. and Scully, M.A. (1995) Tempered radicalism and the politics of ambivalence and change. Organization Science, Vol. 6, No. 5, pp. 585–600.

New jobs in the eco-efficient economy: Lester Brown’s Plan B

Restructuring the global economy will create not only new industries, but also new jobs—indeed, whole new professions and new specialties within professions. Turning to wind in a big way will require thousands of wind meteorologists to analyze potential wind sites, identifying the best sites for wind farms. The role of wind meteorologists in the new economy will be comparable to that of petroleum geologists in the old economy.

There is a growing demand for environmental architects who can design buildings that are energy- and materials-efficient and that maximize natural heating, cooling, and lighting. In a future of water scarcity, watershed hydrologists will be needed to study the local hydrological cycle, including the movement of underground water, and to determine the sustainable yield of aquifers. They will be at the center of watershed management regimes.

As the world shifts from a throwaway economy, engineers will be needed to design products that can be recycled—from cars to computers. Once products are designed to be disassembled quickly and easily into component parts and materials, comprehensive recycling is relatively easy. These engineers will be responsible for closing the materials loop, converting the linear flow-through (throwaway) economy into a recycling economy.

In countries with a wealth of geothermal energy, it will be up to geothermal geologists to locate the best sites either for power plants or for tapping this underground energy directly to heat buildings. Retraining petroleum geologists to master geothermal technologies is one way of satisfying the likely surge in demand for geothermal geologists.

Source: Brown (2006: 246)

Reference

Brown, L.R. (2006) Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet under sSress and a Civilization in Trouble. New York, Norton.

Responsibility to future generations

Sustainable development operates over both time and space and at its core is our responsibility for future generations. Barbara Adam has published a Challenge Paper for the UK-based Schumacher Institute on the ethical implications of this. She writes:

‘As cultural and social beings we are inescapably future oriented. How we live and produce futures, however, is biographically, culturally and socially distinct. It changes historically, over our lifetime and with specific contexts. As knowledge practices, approaches to the future have consequences. Today the consequences of technological action in particular present us with a new context for accountability and responsibility. It is the challenge to moral conduct, presented by the contemporary context, I want to consider here.’

She asks three very important questions:

What is our responsibility to the future?

Is it possible to be responsible for futures we create?

Are we and should we be responsible to future generations?

Reference

Adam, B. (2015) Responsibility to Future Generations. A Schumacher Institute Challenge Paper.

Samuel Mockbee, learning and the rural studio

Sanders/Dudley House

Sawyerville, AL

1999–2001 2nd Year Project

With the assistance of the Hale County Department of Human Resources, the Rural Studio selected the Sanders-Dudley family as clients for a new home. The family has six children. The Sanders-Dudley house encompasses 1500 sq.ft. and has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen-family room, a den and a dining room. The family gathering spaces open onto a central courtyard which is bathed in light at sunrise and sunset. The house is designed to accommodate the many different needs of such a large family, attempting to give children and parents adequate private space, but at the same time creating rooms that foster family interaction. Great consideration was given to daily activities such as preparation for school so that the house might ease the hectic task of raising six children. The material pallet employs rammed-earth for all exterior walls, a steel roof structure, metal studs and sheet-rock on the interior, and an abundance of glass and transparent sheets of poly-carbonate in clerestory windows above eight feet and window-walls surrounding the courtyard.

Rammed earth construction, chosen for the Sanders-Dudley house, is a building technique in which a cement-soil mixture is compacted into forms to create load-bearing walls that harden into what is essentially man-made, engineered rock. Rammed earth was chosen for the construction method because of its durability, its natural resistance to fire and tornado and its sense of permanence and security. The students have researched the rammed earth method through books and government publications, consultation with experienced contractors and extensive tests and mock-ups. Except for some experimental housing built in the 1930s near Birmingham, AL, this is the first house in the Southeast to use this method of construction.

For more information on Samuel Mockbee’s work go to www.ruralstudio.org/

Further information:

Samuel Mockbee’s website: http://samuelmockbee.net/

Schwarzenegger’s guiltless green

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California made a keynote speech at a global warming conference at Georgetown University in 2007. He said:

‘For too long the environmental movement has been powered by guilt. You know the kind of guilt I'm talking about: Smokestacks belching pollution and powering our Jacuzzis and our big-screen TVs and, in my case, powering my private airplanes. It's too bad for us that we can't live the lives of Buddhist monks in Tibet, but you know something, it doesn't happen.

I don't think any movement has ever made much progress based on guilt. Guilt is passive, guilt is inhibiting and guilt is defensive. … Successful movements are built on passion, they're not built on guilt. They are built on passion, they are built on confidence and they are built on critical mass.

California as you know is big, California is powerful and what we do in California has an unbelievable impact. We are sending the world a message, what we are saying is we're going to change the dynamic on greenhouse gases and carbon emissions.

I was followed around by environmental protesters with signs. They didn't like my humvees and Hummers and my SUVs or anything that I did, so even when I promised I would improve the environment when I became governor, they didn't believe I would. Here we are now, 3 1/2 years later, and I'm on the cover of Newsweek as one of the big environmentalists. Only in America.

We don't have to go and take away the muscle cars. We don't have to take away Hummers or SUVs or anything like this, because that's a formula for failure. Instead we have to make those cars more environmentally muscular.

The tipping point will be occurring when the environment is no longer seen as a nag, but as a positive force in people's lives. I don't know when the tipping point occurs, but I know where – in California’.

Source: Schwarzenegger quotes from Coile (2007) San Francisco Chronicle.

The question is: can you drive a Hummer and sport a green warrior badge?

Reference

Coile, Z. (2007) Schwarzenegger's Guiltless Green: he touts keeping muscle cars, but filling up on biofuel. San Francisco Chronicle, April 12, available at: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/12/MNG6FP74D61.DTL.

Securing the future: sustainable development in the United Kingdom

In the UK following growing public interest in environmental issues throughout the 1980s with Prime Minister Thatcher making a speech on global environmental issues to the Royal Society in 1988, sustainable development emerged as a national and regional policy issue. The Conservative government published a comprehensive White Paper on the environment in 1990 called This Common Inheritance and responded directly to the 1992 Rio Summit by producing the UK’s first national strategy on sustainable development in 1994, Sustainable Development: The UK Strategy. This was prompted by continuing debates relating to world trade, development, pollution control and various anxieties derived from economic and consumer growth and, more specifically, the Treasury’s application of monetary values to ecosystem services. This rationalist cost–benefit approach to sustainability has continued tending to characterize the policies of both Conservative and Labour governments.

In 1999, the ‘New Labour’ government openly addressed sustainable development in a series of policy statements and public speeches, though action came slower than words. In the UK government’s 1999 statement on sustainable development, A Better Quality of Life, the tension between social and environmental equity and economic growth remained evident. A Sustainable Development Commission was established in 2001 with former Director of Friends of the Earth and cofounder of the charity Forum for the Future, Jonathan Porritt, in the chair. Despite its insider status, the Commission issued a critical report on the government’s record on sustainability in 2004. This led to a reworking of UK policy resulting in a more refined understanding of sustainable development, which explicitly acknowledged the significance of ecological limits to economic growth. The five guiding principles discussed in Securing Our Future (DEFRA, 2005) include:

  • living within environmental limits;
  • ensuring a strong, healthy and just society;
  • achieving a sustainable economy;
  • promoting good governance; and
  • using sound science responsibly.

The government also identified four clear priorities for action, including:

  • sustainable consumption and production;
  • climate change and energy;
  • natural resource protection and environmental enhancement; and
  • sustainable communities.

Cross-disciplinary research and the design of sustainability indicators that consistently measure human well-being were also identified as key priorities.

Reference

DEFRA (2005) Securing the Future: Delivering UK Sustainable Development Policy. London, HMSO

Studying Green: conservation and the plight of the orangutan in Indonesia

Green is an unusual film. It is both a hard-hitting portrayal of the causes and consequences of deforestation in Indonesia, and a film that captures the tranquility and calm of wild nature. It contains no narrative or dialogue and yet helps us to understand complex commodity chains. It was made with a small camera by a single person on a tourist visa and has beaten much larger production teams, as well as healthily funding groups to the most prestigious prizes in environmental film making. And if that is not enough, Green was not made for sale or profit – instead you can watch and download it for free at www.greenthefilm.com.

Sometimes the opening or closing credit sequence of a movie is the most imaginative, creative and effective part of a film. Although this is not the case with Green, the final credit sequence is both powerful and challenging. It tells the story of habitat destruction, rampant consumerism, corporate greed and human compassion. It reveals the awful life experiences of a single individual traumatized by the loss of her land, her friends, her family and her home. The director, Patrick Rouxel, presents his audience with a long list of those responsible for these crimes. Thus the film can be viewed as a dramatic indictment of corporate capitalism in general and a whole host of famous, and not-so-famous, private companies, governments and, by implication, NGOs.

What the film indicts, by extension and by association, are those organizations and individuals who promote the possibility and occlude the reality of ‘sustainable palm oil production’. Given the consequences of this poorly regulated industry and its, at least short term, profitability there is only delusion, deception and dissembling in believing otherwise. Those NGOs, such as WWF-Int, who make alliances with the corporates, are not so much changing the leopard’s spots but compromising their own integrity and reputation. This is the dominant message encoded in the relentless roll of the end credits and it is this message that forms the core of both Green’s critical public pedagogy and what should also be at the heart of all formal and informal education for sustainability, conservation and practical action.

The market economy, the relentless drive for profitability and economic growth, of capital accumulation and expansion, provide the largely invisible backdrop to what is business as usual and corporate friendly conservationism. The ruling value syntax may not be seen and may not be recognized but it can be felt. The emotional resonance of one animal’s life story, symbolic as it may be, is reinforced by the affective power of the roll call of those that must be held to account. And these are not just the companies who are providing their customers with what they want but their customers too who want the products peddled without bothering to care what the consequences are to other creatures, their homes, their land, their friends and their family.

Reference

Studying Green, available at http://studyinggreen.wordpress.com.

Sustainable schools policy in the UK: aspiration politics

Schools are an important part of any community, whose importance in promoting social health, skills and social capital should not be denied. Schools can lead by example by demonstrating ways of living, working and being that generate ecological literacy and practical competence. The UK’s New Labour government aimed that all schools become models of sustainable development by 2020 with sustainable schools being ‘guided by the principle of care: for oneself, care for each other (across cultures, distances and time) and care for the environment (far and near)’ (DfES, 2006: 2). The UK’s National Framework for Sustainable Schools asked schools to extend their commitment to sustainable development in eight key areas or ‘doorways’ incorporating the curriculum (teaching and learning), campus (ways of working, food, travel, energy, building construction and renovation) and community (promoting well being and public spirited behaviour). Initiatives like Sustainable Schools in the UK need substantial legislation to ensure any degree of serious success. This did not occur and the good intentions outlined here were abandoned as a result of the economic recession and the election of a Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government in 2010.

UK National Framework for Sustainable Schools, 2006


Doorway

Action by 2020: all schools to be models of healthy …

Food and drink

local and sustainable food and drink produced or prepared on site (where possible), with strong commitments to the environment, social responsibility and animal welfare, and with increased opportunity to involve local suppliers.

Energy and water

energy efficiency and renewable energy, showcasing wind, solar and bio-fuel sources in their communities, and maximising their use of rainwater and wastewater resources.

Travel and traffic

sustainable travel where vehicles are used only when absolutely necessary and facilities for healthier, less polluting or less dangerous modes of transport are exemplary.

Purchasing and waste

resource efficiency, using low impact goods that minimise (or eliminate) disposable packaging from local suppliers with high environmental and ethical standards, and recycling, repairing and reusing as much as possible.

Buildings and grounds

living, learning places where pupils see what a sustainable lifestyle means through their involvement in the improvement of school buildings, grounds and the natural environment.

Inclusion and participation

social inclusion, enabling all pupils to participate fully in school life while instilling a long-lasting respect for human rights, freedoms and creative expression.

Local well-being

good corporate citizenship within their local areas, enriching their educational mission with active support for the well-being of the local community and environment.

Global dimension

good global citizenship, enriching their educational mission with active support for the well-being of the global environment and community.

Source: DfES, 2006