¶ … sustainability and reviews the implications and impact of various sustainability modes, all of which appear to be positive. To begin this review requires coming to an understanding of what sustainability is. As the Interface (2008) website describes it, "Sustainability can be many different things -- a motto, an ideal, a way to do business, a way to live your life or a call to action." Because this seems an appropriate way to view the many aspects of sustainability, this paper adopts this viewpoint as well.
Raven (2002) discusses how we got to this point facing the difficult challenges of human sustainability. Over the course of 400 generations, or about 10,000 years, the human population has grown from several million to over 6 billion. Humans continue to depend on a series of ancient, genetically and socially determined habits and attitudes which seem dysfunctionally inappropriate for modern society. As a consequence then, we must adopt new ways of thinking that will serve our descendants well in a world that will be crowded beyond imagining.
Raven quotes troubling statistics: over the past half century, we have lost a fifth of the world's topsoil, a fifth of its agricultural land, and a third of its forests. We continue to suffer irreversible loss of biodiversity, with the rate of species extinction climbing every year. Raven poses the question of what we must contribute to be able to improve the world in the face of such stark challenges (2002).
The Interface website also offers a definition of sustainability that has gained at least general acceptance. It can be traced to 1987 United Nations Conference, and describes sustainability in the context of development: "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." (Report of the Brundtland Commission, "Our Common Future," 1987, section 1). The Sustainability Store offers a host of recent definitions. Sustainability means:
Renewing resources at a rate equal to or greater than...
Sustainability: What is required to stop global warming and other negative consequences of industrialization? The need for businesses and governments to be sustainable enterprises is one of the most talked-about subjects in the media today. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): "Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates and maintains
Sustainability of Britt Coffee Sustainability is a huge word in business today. It is an admirable goal for business to make promises to lower their carbon footprint. Yet, it is the businesses that take this mission and align it with strategic financial goals that illustrate the theories of the late Peter Drucker in action. Drucker believed that without taking care of its operations first, there is no way a business could
Buildings will be required to obtain energy certification. At the current time, construction engineers are the most likely candidate for the job. This being the case, it is estimated that approximately 12,000 engineers will need to be retained to carry out these functions (Coverdale, 2002). As one can see, the EPBD will place a strain on the construction industry in terms of knowledge and the manpower needed to carry out
" (Traventec, Ltd., 2005) Market saturation is possible according to Traventec, Ltd., due to the constant "influx of new entrants into the low cost carrier and regional space and continued expansion of existing players. When and whether market saturation is actually reached in specific regions of the world depends on how mature regional and low cost air transport is in the first place and the size of the yet under-served
Sustainability Science Phase 4 Discussion Board The article that I will be reviewing is "Key competencies in sustainability: a reference framework for academic program development." This article was published in the journal Sustainability Science and directly covers the development of the academic discipline. The authors note that as the discipline matures into a full-fledged academic discipline, there is a need to understand the nature of sustainability science and what the key competencies
Sustainability in Fashion This study seeks to answer the question of how the concept of sustainability applies to local fashion production and to explain the connection between global fashion industries and fast fashion business to the sustainability fashion products. The Designers Speak Sustainable fashion is defined differently depending on who is asked to define the concept. Freda Giannini, Gucci creative director defines sustainable fashion as, "Quality items that stand the test of
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