Sustainable development, challenges and priorities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Soltani Arabshahi, S.

2003-01-01

This article primarily introduces a general overview of the concept of sustainable development along with its formation and expansion process. After defining the concept, followed by an analysis of certain principles on how s ustainable development management h as so far been implemented, some arguments against those principles are presented. The article emphasize on the fact that ever since the concept of sustainable development has emerged, highly industrialized countries perceived it as o nging development m erely in its materialistic sense, with little respect to preserving the nature. while developing countries are held responsible to cooperate, coordinate and act in with international directives on environment protection, industrialized countries, in addition to changing their production and consumption patterns, must be committed to provided financial resources and transfer the needed environmentally sound technologies the developing world. The author finally suggests an number of guidelines as to how sustainable development may be achieved Iran

Renewable energies and the challenge for a sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-01-01

After a presentation of some basic definitions and data (locations, assessment, utilisation), this collective report proposes a first set of contributions about perspectives for renewable energies: their role in middle- and long-term world scenarios, their relationship with greenhouse effect, the relentless technological pursuit through the example of hydrogen. A second set of contributions deals with the relationship between renewable energies and sustainable development: in northern countries (an environmental responsibility and a society issue), in southern countries (the challenge of access to energy), the promotion of renewable energies in the North-South cooperation, the chaotic decentralized electrification program in South Africa, the relationship between energy and struggle against poverty, the search for instruments to stimulate renewable electricity development, the sociological constraints to renewable energy development, the sustainable development at the service of new industries in countries of the North

Challenges of Integrating Affordable and Sustainable Housing in Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Syed Jamaludin, S. Z. H.; Mahayuddin, S. A.; Hamid, S. H. A.

2018-04-01

Developing countries including Malaysia have begun to comprehend the needs for affordable and sustainable housing development. The majority of the population is still aspiring for a comfortable, safe and reasonably priced house. Households in the low-middle income range face difficulties to find housing that can satisfy their needs and budget. Unfortunately, most of the housing development programs are considering affordability rather than sustainable aspects. Furthermore, developers are more interested in profit and neglect sustainability issues. Thus, the aim of this paper is to review the challenges in integrating affordable housing and sustainable practices in Malaysia. This paper is produced based on an extensive literature review as a basis to develop strategies of integrated affordable and sustainable housing in Malaysia. The challenges are divided into four sections, namely market challenges, professional challenges, societal challenges and technological challenges. The outcomes of this paper will assist in the decision making involving housing development and in enhancing quality of life for sustainable communities.

The challenge of sustainable mobility in urban planning and development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xue, Jin; Næss, Petter; Yao, Yinmei

2011-01-01

The theme of this article is how the challenge of sustainable mobility has been dealt with in urban planning and urban development in the metropolitan areas of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Hangzhou (China). The two metropolises have followed different trajectories in their land use and transport...

Sustainable development: challenges and opportunities for the natural sciences (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Mutter, J. C.; Fishman, R.; Anttila-Hughes, J. K.; Hsiang, S. M.

2009-12-01

The challenges of sustainable development -- equitably improving global human welfare while ensuring that the environment is preserved for future generations - demand research at the nexus of the social and natural sciences. Massive and inevitable changes in climate, ecosystem functions, and human interaction with the environment will perturb societies throughout the world in different ways over the coming century. The changes faced by poor societies and their ability to cope differs markedly from those that face the richest. Yet in all regions the dynamic interaction of social and natural drivers will govern the prospects for human welfare and its improvement. Developing an understanding of these phenomena will require field research together with analytical and modeling capabilities that couple physical and social phenomena, allowing feedback between the two to manifest and permit forecasting over long time scales. Heterogeneous income and population growth further complicate this need through their consequences for food security, migration, resource allocation, and conflict. In this contribution, we identify some key concepts of sustainable development, open research questions and outline how scientific research might engage this emerging discipline. Using recent examples of interaction, we discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the further development of this dialogue.

Education for Sustainability-Challenges and Opportunities: The Case of RCEs (Regional Centres of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development)

Science.gov (United States)

Wade, Ros

2016-01-01

This article will focus on the challenges of leadership and management of a key initiative of the 20052014 UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), namely the Regional Centres of Expertise in Education for Sustainability (RCEs). It will argue that in order to achieve sustainability, there is a need to move away from outdated…

Sustainability Challenge of Micro Hydro Power Development in Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Didik, H.; Bambang, P. N.; Asep, S.; Purwanto, Y. A.

2018-05-01

Rural electrification using renewable energy is the best choice for many locations that far away from national grid. Many renewable energy project have been built for rural electrification such as micro hydro power plant (MHPP) and solar photovoltaic (SPV). Sustainability still the main challenge of off-grid renewable energy development for off-grid rural electrification in Indonesia. The objective of this paper is to review sustainability of micro hydro power development in Indonesia. The research method was done by field observation, interview with MHPP management, and reviewing some research about MHPP in Indonesia. Sustainability issues include various aspects that can be classified into 5 dimensions: technical, economic, socio-cultural, institutional, and environmental. In technical factors that lead to sustainability problem are: improper MHPP design and construction, improper operation and maintenance, availability of spare parts and expertise. In the economic dimension are generally related to: low electricity tariff and utilization of MHPP for productive use. In the social dimension are: the growth of consumer’s load exceeding the capacity, reduced number of consumers, lack of external institutional support. In the institutional side, it is generally related to the ability of human resources in managing, operating and maintaining of MHPP. Environmental factors that lead the sustainability problems of MHPP are: scarcity of water discharge, conflict of water resources, land conversion over the watershed, and natural disasters.

Energy for Sustainable Development: A systematic approach for a badly defined challenge

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martinez-Val, Jose M.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Sustainable Development needs a better definition in relation to Energy. • Emerging energy technologies present very positive features for sustainability. • Renewable energies still need a lot of R and D for advancing in their learning curves. • Nuclear Energy has a very appealing potential as a non-CO 2 technology. • Electric cars are the best option for solving energy sustainability in transportation. - Abstract: Energy for Sustainable Development is analyzed as a Technology challenge with a very large set of possibilities both in energy generation and energy consumption. The portfolio of emerging technologies in both domains is very large but also very demanding. Their learning curves show very different features, and inherent difficulties in each technology can be identified. Additionally, energy sustainability conveys rigorous considerations about Global Warming and ancillary subjects, which are not yet properly defined in terms of requirements on the energy sectors. Moreover, the evolution of energy generation sources in the first decade of this century clearly shows a mismatch between the theoretical boost to combat climate change, and the actual facts in energy markets. However, emerging technologies in the complete energy sector could give a suitable answer to a challenge not very well defined so far

Is sustainable development attainable? Challenges facing forestry and the forest products industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wrist, P.E.

1991-01-01

The challenges that face the forest industry in achieving sustainable development are reviewed. Sustainable development is not the same as sustained yield forest management. While sustained yield limits harvesting to an estimate of a forest's incremental annual growth, it is a policy which neither takes into account how improved forest management practices can increase future growth rates nor gives guidance on how multiple uses for the forest resource can be made compatible with periodic harvesting of that resource. Forests, in addition to meeting demands for timber production, must also meet demands for watershed management, recreation, preservation of wildlife and genetic diversity, moderation of climates, carbon sequestration, and land reclamation. Information is lacking from which to develop improved forest management programs that take these demands into account. Questions remain about such matters as the role of plantations in sustainable forestry and the maintenance of natural diversity. Some recent research being undertaken to generate better information for future forestry decision making is outlined, including work on gene pool maintenance, the interdependence of forest ecology and climate, the symbiotic role of mycorrhiza, forest fertilization, and the interdependence of sustainable forestry and sustainable fisheries. In the forest products industry, engineered wood products have been developed that meet tight specifications and require less raw material, and process changes have been introduced that greatly reduce pollutants from pulp manufacture

Stakes and Challenges for Sustainable Development

OpenAIRE

COLONNA, Paul

2015-01-01

How can we ensure the sustainability of biological resources? The development of new industries using biomass as raw material to produce a broad range of products, through a large number of different transformation processes, raises new questions on the associated environmental impacts. The current situation, mainly due to the significant development of the bio-fuel industries, is characterized by strong demand for sustainability criteria to apply to these new industries, particularly from a...

Sustainable development in a developing economy: Challenges ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Sustainable development implies development which ensures maximization of human well being for today's generation which does not lead to declines in future well being. Attaining this path requires eliminating those negative externalities that are responsible for natural resource depletion and environmental degradation.

The challenge of sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Orr, D.W.

1993-01-01

This paper discusses sustainability in a world that has changed rapidly. The author suggests that ecological assumptions embedded in communism and capitalism are badly flawed, but the flaws were not apparent when there were fewer than a billion people on earth living at low technology levels. Sustaining the earth's vital signs is a challenge to our perception of time, and the numbers - population, environmental damage, oil consumption, waste disposal - are too large to comprehend easily. There is a global debate about what sustainability means. In fact the challenge of sustainability is 6 different challenges: overcoming the tendency to deny inconvenient realities; establishing accurate indicators of human and ecological health; questions about the kinds of technology necessary to make the transition to sustainability; education; the need for an emotional bond between man and nature; rebuilding the existing democratic institutions. 16 refs

Challenges and considerations for planning toward sustainable biodiesel development in developing countries: Lessons from the Greater Mekong Subregion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sukkasi, Sittha; Chollacoop, Nuwong; Ellis, Wyn; Grimley, Simon; Jai-In, Samai

2010-01-01

Biodiesel has the potential to economically, socially, and environmentally benefit communities as well as countries, and to contribute toward their sustainable development. Nonetheless, the complex nature of biodiesel development makes it susceptible to exogenous problems that could hinder sustainable development. To ensure that biodiesel development actually leads to a sustainable path, all possible issues and challenges need to be identified and analyzed up front, so that they can be prepared for and handled in the planning and management stages. Building upon lessons learned from biodiesel developments in the Greater Mekong Subregion, this work examines biodiesel development in developing countries in the aspects of policy, governance, management, infrastructure, technology, feedstock, impacts on the rural poor and local livelihood, climate change, and the environment. Issues within each aspect are also analyzed in the context of developing countries. As a result, this review can serve as a guideline for ensuring that biodiesel development contributes toward sustainable development in developing countries. (author)

Ergonomics and sustainability – challenges from global supply chains

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasle, Peter; Jensen, Per Langaa

2012-01-01

The development of globalised supply chains is a major challenge for sustainability. For several years, there has been discussion within the profession whether and how ergonomics and human factors can play a role. Based on our research, we have identified five major challenges from global supply...... chains especially related to the social aspects of sustainability: (1) criteria for social sustainability, (2) the role of key performance indicators in the management of supply chains, (3) the constant changes in supply chains, (4) the challenge in establishing participation, and (5) the development...... of agency and regulatory mechanisms. There are obviously no clear and simple solutions to these challenges. One possible avenue for progress might lie in acquiring a greater understanding of the challenges from global supply chains and developing a strategy which combines social and long-term business...

Renewable energy in Iran: Challenges and opportunities for sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atabi, F.

2004-01-01

Around the globe, developing countries have reported different cases of successfully implemented renewable energy program supported by bilateral or multilateral funding. In developing countries subsidy has played a big role in renewable energy program marketing and whether this will lead to sustainable development is yet to be determined. The adoption of implementation strategies that will support sustainable development and overcoming barriers that hinder expansion of renewable energy technologies still remains as a big challenge to stake holders involved in promotion of renewable energy resources in developing countries. In this respect, developing countries need to re-examine their environmental policy for promotion of renewable energy technologies in order to define its role in revitalization of their economics. This paper reviews by policy incentives for promotion of renewable energy technologies in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Setting-up international collaborative business ventures between local industry in Iran and companies in developed countries is proposed as an implementation strategy that will appropriate diffusion of renewable energy technologies in the country. An organizational framework that may help to attain this objective is discussed and a structural model for renewable energy business partnership is presented. It is concluded that with appropriate policy formulations and strategies, renewable energy technologies can bring about the required socio-economic development in Iran

Sustainable Biomaterials: Current Trends, Challenges and Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar Gupta, Girish; De, Sudipta; Franco, Ana; Balu, Alina Mariana; Luque, Rafael

2015-12-30

Biomaterials and sustainable resources are two complementary terms supporting the development of new sustainable emerging processes. In this context, many interdisciplinary approaches including biomass waste valorization and proper usage of green technologies, etc., were brought forward to tackle future challenges pertaining to declining fossil resources, energy conservation, and related environmental issues. The implementation of these approaches impels its potential effect on the economy of particular countries and also reduces unnecessary overburden on the environment. This contribution aims to provide an overview of some of the most recent trends, challenges, and applications in the field of biomaterials derived from sustainable resources.

Sustainable Biomaterials: Current Trends, Challenges and Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Girish Kumar Gupta

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Biomaterials and sustainable resources are two complementary terms supporting the development of new sustainable emerging processes. In this context, many interdisciplinary approaches including biomass waste valorization and proper usage of green technologies, etc., were brought forward to tackle future challenges pertaining to declining fossil resources, energy conservation, and related environmental issues. The implementation of these approaches impels its potential effect on the economy of particular countries and also reduces unnecessary overburden on the environment. This contribution aims to provide an overview of some of the most recent trends, challenges, and applications in the field of biomaterials derived from sustainable resources.

Sustainable manufacturing challenges, solutions and implementation perspectives

CERN Document Server

Seliger, Günther; Bonvoisin, Jérémy

2017-01-01

Sustainability imposes an unprecedented challenge on society and has become the driving force of an urgent search for innovative solutions in all branches of economy. Manufacturing plays a key role in many areas of human living, and it is both part of the problem and of the solution. This book offers an overview of the broad field of research on sustainability in manufacturing with a particular focus on manufacturing technology and management. It summarizes the current challenges, describes best in class methods for development of sustainable manufacturing solutions and offers implementation perspectives. This volume covers areas of research such as production processes, product development, business model and corporate development, macro economy and education. The target audience primarily comprises research experts and practitioners in the field of manufacturing, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students. .

E-waste: A Challenge for Sustainable Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Md. Sahadat Hossain

2015-01-01

Conclusions. Sustainability is being prioritized for all development activities by integrating societal, economic, environmental, technological, cultural, and gender perspectives. Considering the adverse potential eco-toxicological impacts and diverse health effects of e-waste, an urgent global multilateral agreement is needed addressing its management (i.e., handling, storage, transportation, recycling, and final disposal, whether by land filling or incineration. Due to the global nature of the issue and the difficulty of establishing sustainable and environmentally sound processing of e-waste in low-income countries, multinational negotiation and collaboration is the only realistic solution. Furthermore, comprehensive global e-waste management and policies could help to off-set the hazards of e-waste and are the best approach for achieving sustainable development.

Developing sustainability and self-reliance: Challenges and limitations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mohamad, D.

2003-01-01

Full text: Many nuclear institutions in the world, especially the developing countries, are heavily dependent on the financing provided by the government for their activities. In August 2000, Malaysia in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), organized a Regional Seminar on Strategies and Approaches towards Self-reliance and Sustainability of National Nuclear Institutions (NNIs). As a result of the forum and deliberation of the seminar, there is now a greater awareness among the member states that there should be a paradigm shift in the thinking of policy and decision makers. The main challenges and limitations faced by these policy and decision makers are firstly, in order that nuclear institutions to stay relevant in the context of mainstream socio-economic development, the NNIs must generate revenue to achieve self-reliance and sustainability. Secondly, the need for the NNIs to fulfil social obligations, i.e., provision of reasonably good and low cost technology to support food and agriculture production; health care system; safe industrial development and clean environment. Thirdly, to improve the image and acceptance of nuclear technology by the consumers and public in the face of proliferation of nuclear-arms race. Malaysia has been successful in addressing these conflicting requirements and challenges, i.e. generating revenue for sustainability and at the same time providing services and consultancy at a reasonable rate. The Malaysian Institute for Nuclear Technology Research (MINT) is now 30% sustainable in terms of operational costs via provision of services and consultancies to both private and government agencies. Technical services are provided in the areas of Industrial Technology (e.g. ND evaluation); Radiation Processing Services (e.g., medical product sterilization and food and herbal irradiation, and cross-linking of wire and cables); Dosimetry Services for personal and radiation equipment (e.g. personal dosimetry

Exploring Themes and Challenges in Developing Sustainable Supply Chains - A Complexity Theory Perspective

OpenAIRE

Abbasi, Maisam

2014-01-01

To develop sustainable supply chains in a way that their negative environmental and social effects are minimized, shortand long-term targets should be set. The transformation of supply chains towards these targets calls for the development of innovative strategies and the need to continuously identify, classify, and tackle the challenges that can hinder the execution of such strategies. To develop innovative strategies, the patterns of current trends and themes need to be learned and th...

Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Tourism Development in Ulithi Atoll

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Ongaro

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This article aims to analyze the tourism potential of Ulithi Atoll, in the Federated States of Micronesia. It identifies possibilities for sustainable tourism development, while taking into account the major issues that threaten the environment, the cultural integrity and the future of the local community. Through a review of existing research and an assessment of the web presence, the study develops a diagnosis of the current situation of the tourism sector in the destination. The tourism potential of Ulithi mainly relies on its beautiful physical environment and authentic cultural heritage, but it is still largely untapped due to limited development. Tourism represents a strategic tool for the economic growth and empowerment of Ulithi community. Presently, however, the atoll’s biggest problem is the recovery from the recent disastrous Typhoon Maysak. Other pressing challenges are climate change and the erosion of traditional knowledge. The study identifies ecotourism and voluntourism as key niche market opportunities for the destination. Encouraging greater participation among the stakeholders and a concrete commitment to sustainability within the strategic plans are some of the recommendations that aim to build the tourism industry in a way that supports the local culture, the natural resources and the way of life.

Sustainable rural development and communicative learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Noe, Egon; Langvad, Anne-Mette

2006-01-01

Functional differentiation within society at large poses a major challenge to practising sustainable rural development. Multiplication of perspectives on sustainability calls for a theoretical position that is based on the integrity of each of the perspectives in play and for an approach that is ......Functional differentiation within society at large poses a major challenge to practising sustainable rural development. Multiplication of perspectives on sustainability calls for a theoretical position that is based on the integrity of each of the perspectives in play and for an approach...

The national strategy for a sustainable development 2009-2013

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-01-01

This document first presents the content of the French national strategy for a sustainable development, and notably its nine strategic challenges: climate change and energy, sustainable transport and mobility, sustainable consumption and production, sustainable management of biodiversity and natural resources, public health, prevention and risk management, international challenges in terms of sustainable development and struggle against poverty, knowledge society, and governance. While discussing these challenges, the report outlines the need to make this strategy more constraining for public authorities, to structure this strategy about transitions towards a sustainable development, and to give room to dialogue

Greenlandic water and sanitation-a context oriented analysis of system challenges towards local sustainable development.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendriksen, Kåre; Hoffmann, Birgitte

2017-08-28

Today, as Greenland focuses on more economic and cultural autonomy, the continued development of societal infrastructure systems is vital. At the same time, pressure is put on the systems by a lack of financial resources and locally based professional competences as well as new market-based forms of organization. Against this background, the article discusses the challenges facing Greenland's self-rule in relation to further develop the existing water and wastewater systems so that they can contribute to the sustainable development of Greenland. The article reviews the historical development of the water supply and wastewater system. This leads to an analysis of the sectorisation, which in recent decades has reorganized the Greenlandic infrastructures, and of how this process is influencing local sustainable development. The article discusses the socio-economic and human impacts and points to the need for developing the water and sanitation system to support not only hygiene and health, but also local sustainable development.

EITI and sustainable development: Lessons and new challenges for the Caspian region

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ospanova, Saule; Ahmadov, Ingilab; Wilson, Emma

2013-03-01

EITI requires countries to declare the revenues they receive from companies in the oil, gas and mining sectors, and for companies to declare what they pay. This paper highlights key issues and challenges related to implementing EITI, and suggests several ways for these new rules to help reduce poverty, improve lives and ensure that extractive industries operate in a sustainable, environmentally responsible way. Focusing on three countries of the Caspian Sea Region - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, the paper will be of particular interest to those preparing for, and attending, the EITI conference in Sydney in May 2013. It will also inform the public and stakeholders working towards EITI implementation in the Caspian Region, and contributes to on-going debates on EITI and sustainable development more broadly.

Gaz de France 2006 sustainable development report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-01-01

A major European energy utility, the Gaz de France Group produces, purchases, transports, distributes and sells natural gas, electricity and related services for its residential, corporate and local government customers. this report presents the actions implemented by the group to incorporate sustainable development into its strategy. From the point of view of risks and opportunities, the group analyzes what it takes to ensure development that respects people and the environment, and it implements them in all its business lines and management systems. Content: Gaz de France, portrait of a major energy utility, highlights of 2006, challenges and strategy (defining strategy and sustainable development policy, specific risks and opportunities, activities of the Gaz de France group: challenges, impact for stakeholders, transparency and independence in governing), ranking and implementing (defining sustainable development policy: reviewing priorities, meeting all the challenges, publicizing and defending positions, increasing awareness, overseeing and monitoring results), results of the 2004-2006 sustainable development action plan, dialogue and action with stakeholders, performance assessment, performance in response to challenges: energy challenges (guaranteeing regular supplies, controlling atmospheric emissions, promoting energy conservation, developing renewable energy), industrial challenges (ensuring health and safety, limiting the overall environmental impact of group activities), social responsibility challenges (advocating corporate social responsibility, promoting human rights and fighting corruption, encouraging commitment to solidarity, promoting regional development through local initiatives, reconciling acquisitions, procurement and sustainable development, ensuring transparency in natural gas rates, providing shareholders with quality information, promoting diversity, a source of enrichment, making working conditions a performance factor), indicators and

Sustainable energy development: a challenge for Asia and the Pacific region in the 21st century

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saha, Pranesh Chandra

2003-01-01

The main challenge to energy policy makers in the 21st century is how to develop and manage adequate, affordable and reliable energy services on a sustainable manner to fuel social and economic development. About 60 per cent of the world's two billion population, who do not have access to modern energy services, live in Asia and the Pacific region. The demand for energy is expected to continue growing at a high rate well into the century, often at a greater rate than economic growth. Latest assessment of conventional energy resources shows that their availability is not going to be an immediate threat to the security of supply but the question is can the region afford to allow current patterns of production and consumption of energy to continue in a rapidly deteriorating health of the environment? Changing these unsustainable patterns is the main challenge for the developed and developing countries alike. The paper dwells upon what are the major issues facing the region in promoting sustainable energy development and what are some of the policy options and possible strategies that the countries could consider to attain the objective of sustainable energy development. In this respect, the paper also dwells upon the need for strategic planning and management of energy resources

Problematising development in sustainability: epistemic justice ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The paper draws on the work of Wolfgang Sachs (1999) who asserts that the notion of sustainability has been consumed by development, presenting a view of sustainability which challenges the current and dominant economically driven hegemonic development discourse in which sustainability has become embedded.

Challenge in environmentally sustainable development in some southern African developing countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chiburre, J.A.

2005-01-01

This paper examines the challenges in attaining environmentally sustainable development in some southern African developing countries, with main focus on environmentally degrading activities carried out by the poor rural communities as the only way of scaling down poverty. The typical examples include, among others, charcoal burning, firewood gathering and hunting. These activities are practiced by poor rural communities for commercial purposes, with the main market being the urban areas; whose population increase and the inability to afford electricity for domestic purposes have made the demand for charcoal and firewood to increase. While recognising the right for the basic needs for everyone, efforts have been made to reduce the pressure exerted by rural communities on to natural resources, and alternative income generating activities have been adopted. However, successes in these fields are still not observable. The paper also discusses the need for integrated approaches that might reduce the demand on natural forest resources-based energy, which consist of subsidized electricity, fast growing tree plantation, and energy efficiency, among others. (author)

[The challenges of sustainable development in healthcare facilities].

Science.gov (United States)

Mourgues, François; Muret, Jane; Pauchard, Jean-Claude

2018-03-01

Healthcare and medical-social facilities have a major responsibility within society, that of the quality of care, but also that of developing a system of sustainable and socially-responsible health. This system must meet the three pillars which constitute such an approach: economic, social and environmental sustainability. Innovation remains central to the sustainable evolution of practices and the first results are now visible. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Review and challenges of policies of environmental protection and sustainable development in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Kun-Min; Wen, Zong-Guo

2008-09-01

China is confronted with the dual task of developing its national economy and protecting its ecological environment. Since the 1980s, China's policies on environmental protection and sustainable development have experienced five changes: (1) progression from the adoption of environmental protection as a basic state policy to the adoption of sustainable development strategy; (2) changing focus from pollution control to ecological conservation equally; (3) shifting from end-of-pipe treatment to source control; (4) moving from point source treatment to regional environmental governance; and (5) a turn away from administrative management-based approaches and towards a legal means and economic instruments-based approach. Since 1992, China has set down sustainable development as a basic national strategy. However, environmental pollution and ecological degradation in China have continued to be serious problems and have inflicted great damage on the economy and quality of life. The beginning of the 21st century is a critical juncture for China's efforts towards sustaining rapid economic development, intensifying environmental protection efforts, and curbing ecological degradation. As the largest developing country, China's policies on environmental protection and sustainable development will be of primary importance not only for China, but also the world. Realizing a completely well-off society by the year 2020 is seen as a crucial task by the Chinese government and an important goal for China's economic development in the new century, however, attaining it would require a four-fold increase over China's year 2000 GDP. Therefore, speeding up economic development is a major mission during the next two decades and doing so will bring great challenges in controlling depletion of natural resources and environmental pollution. By taking a critical look at the development of Chinese environmental policy, we try to determine how best to coordinate the relationship between the

Capability challenges of facility management (FM) personnel toward sustainability agenda

Science.gov (United States)

Halim, Ahmad Ilyas Ahmad; Sarpin, Norliana; Kasim, Narimah Binti; Zainal, Rozlin Binti

2017-10-01

The industries business play a significant role to contribute toward economic growth in develop and developing country. However, they always face serious problems such as time overrun, waste generation, and cost overrun during their operation and maintenance. Traditional practice is found unable to control that situation. These challenges accent the need for practitioners to rethink and improve their process management. This show that industries business has major potential when applying sustainable development by focusing on three pillars (economic, environment, and social). By adopting sustainability, it can reduce energy consumption and waste, while increasing productivity, financial return and corporate standing in community. FM personnel are most suitable position to lead organizations toward sustainability implementation. However, lack of skill and capability among FM personnel to achieve sustainable goal had become barrier that need to overcome. This paper focus to identify capability challenges of FM personnel toward sustainability. A multiple researches were conducted and data were gathered through literature review from previous studies.

Nanotechnology in Sustainable Agriculture: Recent Developments, Challenges, and Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Prasad, Ram; Bhattacharyya, Atanu; Nguyen, Quang D.

2017-01-01

Nanotechnology monitors a leading agricultural controlling process, especially by its miniature dimension. Additionally, many potential benefits such as enhancement of food quality and safety, reduction of agricultural inputs, enrichment of absorbing nanoscale nutrients from the soil, etc. allow the application of nanotechnology to be resonant encumbrance. Agriculture, food, and natural resources are a part of those challenges like sustainability, susceptibility, human health, and healthy life. The ambition of nanomaterials in agriculture is to reduce the amount of spread chemicals, minimize nutrient losses in fertilization and increased yield through pest and nutrient management. Nanotechnology has the prospective to improve the agriculture and food industry with novel nanotools for the controlling of rapid disease diagnostic, enhancing the capacity of plants to absorb nutrients among others. The significant interests of using nanotechnology in agriculture includes specific applications like nanofertilizers and nanopesticides to trail products and nutrients levels to increase the productivity without decontamination of soils, waters, and protection against several insect pest and microbial diseases. Nanotechnology may act as sensors for monitoring soil quality of agricultural field and thus it maintain the health of agricultural plants. This review covers the current challenges of sustainability, food security and climate change that are exploring by the researchers in the area of nanotechnology in the improvement of agriculture. PMID:28676790

Nanotechnology in Sustainable Agriculture: Recent Developments, Challenges, and Perspectives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ram Prasad

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Nanotechnology monitors a leading agricultural controlling process, especially by its miniature dimension. Additionally, many potential benefits such as enhancement of food quality and safety, reduction of agricultural inputs, enrichment of absorbing nanoscale nutrients from the soil, etc. allow the application of nanotechnology to be resonant encumbrance. Agriculture, food, and natural resources are a part of those challenges like sustainability, susceptibility, human health, and healthy life. The ambition of nanomaterials in agriculture is to reduce the amount of spread chemicals, minimize nutrient losses in fertilization and increased yield through pest and nutrient management. Nanotechnology has the prospective to improve the agriculture and food industry with novel nanotools for the controlling of rapid disease diagnostic, enhancing the capacity of plants to absorb nutrients among others. The significant interests of using nanotechnology in agriculture includes specific applications like nanofertilizers and nanopesticides to trail products and nutrients levels to increase the productivity without decontamination of soils, waters, and protection against several insect pest and microbial diseases. Nanotechnology may act as sensors for monitoring soil quality of agricultural field and thus it maintain the health of agricultural plants. This review covers the current challenges of sustainability, food security and climate change that are exploring by the researchers in the area of nanotechnology in the improvement of agriculture.

Biosensors for Sustainable Food Engineering: Challenges and Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Ragavan, Vasanth; Weng, Xuan; Chand, Rohit

2018-01-01

Current food production faces tremendous challenges from growing human population, maintaining clean resources and food qualities, and protecting climate and environment. Food sustainability is mostly a cooperative effort resulting in technology development supported by both governments and enterprises. Multiple attempts have been promoted in tackling challenges and enhancing drivers in food production. Biosensors and biosensing technologies with their applications, are being widely applied to tackling top challenges in food production and its sustainability. Consequently, a growing demand in biosensing technologies exists in food sustainability. Microfluidics represents a technological system integrating multiple technologies. Nanomaterials, with its technology in biosensing, is thought to be the most promising tool in dealing with health, energy, and environmental issues closely related to world populations. The demand of point of care (POC) technologies in this area focus on rapid, simple, accurate, portable, and low-cost analytical instruments. This review provides current viewpoints from the literature on biosensing in food production, food processing, safety and security, food packaging and supply chain, food waste processing, food quality assurance, and food engineering. The current understanding of progress, solution, and future challenges, as well as the commercialization of biosensors are summarized. PMID:29534552

Biosensors for Sustainable Food Engineering: Challenges and Perspectives.

Science.gov (United States)

Neethirajan, Suresh; Ragavan, Vasanth; Weng, Xuan; Chand, Rohit

2018-03-12

Current food production faces tremendous challenges from growing human population, maintaining clean resources and food qualities, and protecting climate and environment. Food sustainability is mostly a cooperative effort resulting in technology development supported by both governments and enterprises. Multiple attempts have been promoted in tackling challenges and enhancing drivers in food production. Biosensors and biosensing technologies with their applications, are being widely applied to tackling top challenges in food production and its sustainability. Consequently, a growing demand in biosensing technologies exists in food sustainability. Microfluidics represents a technological system integrating multiple technologies. Nanomaterials, with its technology in biosensing, is thought to be the most promising tool in dealing with health, energy, and environmental issues closely related to world populations. The demand of point of care (POC) technologies in this area focus on rapid, simple, accurate, portable, and low-cost analytical instruments. This review provides current viewpoints from the literature on biosensing in food production, food processing, safety and security, food packaging and supply chain, food waste processing, food quality assurance, and food engineering. The current understanding of progress, solution, and future challenges, as well as the commercialization of biosensors are summarized.

Sustainable development strategy 2001-2003

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

The planned strategies and actions that Environment Canada (EC) will take to promote sustainable development with the goal to preserve and enhance the quality of the natural environment and its renewable resources were described. EC's challenge regarding sustainable development is to integrate environmental, economic and social considerations into their federal environmental policies and programs. This report described how EC plans to implement their agenda based on four major themes which include: (1) knowledge for decision making, (2) incentives, (3) partnerships and sustainable communities, and (4) managing for sustainable development. A federal framework on sustainable communities will be developed jointly with other government departments and partners with the objective of developing action plans. EC will measure and report on its performance in implementing its sustainable development strategy on an annual basis to identify any corrective measures during the three year period of the strategy. This report also included an issue scan, a consultation summary, and a review of the department's long term results against performance indicators. tab., figs

Challenging the sustainability of micro products development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

De Grave, Arnaud; Olsen, Stig Irving

2006-01-01

Environmental aspects are one of the biggest concerns regarding the future of manufacturing and product development sustainability. Furthermore, micro products and micro technologies are often seen as the next big thing in terms of possible mass market trend and boom. Many questions are raised...... and the intermediate parts which can be in-process created. Possible future trends for micro products development scheme involving environmental concerns are given....

Biological Sciences for the 21st Century: Meeting the Challenges of Sustainable Development in an Era of Global Change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Joel Cracraft; Richard O' Grady

2007-05-12

The symposium was held 10-12 May, 2007 at the Capitol Hilton Hotel in Washington, D. C. The 30 talks explored how some of today's key biological research developments (such as biocomplexity and complex systems analysis, bioinformatics and computational biology, the expansion of molecular and genomics research, and the emergence of other comprehensive or system wide analyses, such as proteomics) contribute to sustainability science. The symposium therefore emphasized the challenges facing agriculture, human health, sustainable energy, and the maintenance of ecosystems and their services, so as to provide a focus and a suite of examples of the enormous potential contributions arising from these new developments in the biological sciences. This symposium was the first to provide a venue for exploring how the ongoing advances in the biological sciences together with new approaches for improving knowledge integration and institutional science capacity address key global challenges to sustainability. The speakers presented new research findings, and identified new approaches and needs in biological research that can be expected to have substantial impacts on sustainability science.

Sustainable Consumption: Research Challenges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reisch, Lucia A.; Cohen, Maurie J.; Thøgersen, John

The Board of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra) decided in October 2015 that a proposal for a funding application call in the research area of “sustainable consumption” should be drawn up. According to the statutes of Mistra, research funded by the foundation...... international senior researchers in the eld — Lucia A. Reisch, Maurie J. Cohen, John B. Thøgersen and Arnold Tukker (see Appendix 3) — to draft a background report to prepare the call. The group’s tasks were outlined as follows: ► to describe the challenges facing society in this area, and the political (and...... the orientation of a new research program to be used as draft text for the call for funding applications. The aim of this background report is hence to shed light on future research topics within sustainable consumption from a Swedish perspective. The research pro- moted should help to develop Sweden...

Ecosystem services for meeting sustainable development goals: Challenges and pathways

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huq Nazmul

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper summarizes four presentations of the session “Environment and Wellbeing: The Role of Ecosystems for Sustainable Development” at the international conference “Sustainability in the Water- Energy-Food Nexus” held on 19-20th May 2014 in Bonn, Germany. The aim of the session was to present current stresses on ecosystem services imposed by global development trajectory, potential impacts on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs and pathways to achieve SDGs. All four presentations agreed that global ecosystem services are under increasing pressure from degradation and may not be able to meet the growing Water-Energy- Food (WEF demands especially for the developing world. Three examples from Tanzania, Cambodia and Niger made attempt to understand how governance policies attributed to natural resource depletion such as forestry and common grazing. The examples showed that governance policies favoring economic development are heavily contributing to clearing up natural resource bases. As a result, there were increasing conflicts among different resource user groups. Two other presentations introduce conceptual pathways to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs under current resource stressed regime. The pathways suggested global technologies, decentralized solutions and consumption changes as the major means of achieving global sustainability and poverty eradication without any major trade-offs.

Ecosystem services for meeting sustainable development goals: Challenges and pathways

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huq Nazmul

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper summarizes four presentations of the session “Environment and Wellbeing: The Role of Ecosystems for Sustainable Development” at the international conference “Sustainability in the Water- Energy-Food Nexus” held on 19-20th May 2014 in Bonn, Germany. The aim of the session was to present current stresses on ecosystem services imposed by global development trajectory, potential impacts on future Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs and pathways to achieve SDGs. All four presentations agreed that global ecosystem services are under increasing pressure from degradation and may not be able to meet the growing Water-Energy-Food (WEF demands especially for the developing world. Three examples from Tanzania, Cambodia and Niger made attempt to understand how government policies attributed to natural resource depletion such as forestry and common grazing. The examples showed that institutional policies favoring economic development contributing heavily to clearing up natural resource bases. As a result, there were increasing conflicts among different resource user groups. Two other presentations introduce conceptual pathways to achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs under current resource stressed regime. The pathways suggested global technologies, decentralized solutions and consumption changes as the major means of achieving global sustainability and poverty eradication without any major trade-offs.

Some Challenges to Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bruce R. Conard

2013-08-01

Full Text Available The word “sustainability” is often used in business in the belief that the current ways of doing things will be able to be continued with only minor changes to balance economic development with related environmental and social issues. There are, however, immense challenges that threaten the very sustainability of our global society, let alone individual businesses or developments. A few of the most important of these challenges—population growth, clean energy supply, fresh water availability, and global climate change—are discussed. As humanity forms its collective response to these threats, it is concluded that all intelligent people, but especially scientists, have important roles to play, not only in technical innovation, but also in catalyzing political action.

Barriers to Sustainable MVA Supply in Ghana: Challenges for the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Multiple studies have demonstrated that manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) is ideal for surgical uterine evacuation in low-resource settings such as Ghana, but developing a sustainable supply to MVA has been challenging. In 2007 a situational analysis was conducted in Ghana to identify barriers to sustainable MVA supply.

Sustainable Development of Africa's Water Resources

OpenAIRE

Narenda P. Sharma

1996-01-01

This study, African water resources: challenges and opportunities for sustainable management propose a long-term strategy for water resource management, emphasizing the socially sustainable development imperatives for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The message of this strategy is one of optimism - the groundwork already exists for the sustainable management of Africa's water resources. The stra...

Themes and challenges in making supply chains socially sustainable

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abbasi, Maisam

2014-01-01

Purpose Purpose of this paper is to explore and classify pattern of the currently discussed themes and challenges in making supply chains socially sustainable. Design/methodology/approach The methodology was based on a systematic review of the existing literature in order to explore what major...... themes and challenges have been discussed as well as the significant gaps where opportunities for further research can be found. Findings In total five categories of themes were identified, namely goods/service-centric, human-centric, organization-centric, corporate-centric, and management...... holistic view of the pattern of currently discussed themes and challenges may be beneficial in increasing the absorptive capacity of industrial and business practitioners when they design and operationalize innovative strategies in developing sustainable supply chains. Originality/value This paper may...

Engineering for Sustainable Development and the Common Good

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, William E.

2006-01-01

In 1994, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) updated its Code of Ethics to include specific statements on sustainable development and at about the same time, 1994, ASCE adopted its Policy 418 on sustainable development. Sustainable development as defined by ASCE "is the challenge of meeting human needs for natural resources, industrial…

Sheep and Goat Farming in Greece: Implications and Challenges for the Sustainable Development of Less Favoured Areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Evangelia N. Sossidou

2013-10-01

Full Text Available Sheep and goat farming is considered to be one of the most dynamic sectors of the rural economy in Greece, both in terms of employment and overall income. The aim of this paper is to review the levels of sustainability in the small ruminant production systems in two Less Favoured Areas of Greece (LFAs: (1 in the mountainous areas of Epirus, and (2 in the island of Lesvos. In this context, the characteristics of the production systems that have significant impact on the sustainable development of rural areas under study are underlined. The sustainability is examined by the ecological, social and economic points of view, supplemented with cultural and regional elements. The ultimate purpose is to conclude with the challenges for the future rural development in LFAs through the sustainable development of sheep and goat farming. Data is based on surveys undertaken by the SEE-ERA.NET PLUS ‘INDI_SHEEP TRADI_CHEESE’ Project and the ARIMNET ‘DoMEsTIc’ Project, still in process.

Opportunities and challenges for multicriteria assessment of food system sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hugo F. Alrøe

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The focus of the Special Feature on "Multicriteria assessment of food system sustainability" is on the complex challenges of making and communicating overall assessments of food systems sustainability based on multiple and varied criteria. Four papers concern the choice and development of appropriate tools for making multicriteria sustainability assessments that handle built-in methodological conflicts and trade-offs between different assessment objectives. They underscore the value of linking diverse methods and tools, or nesting and stepping their deployment, to help build resilience and sustainability. They conclude that there is no one tool, one framework, or one indicator set that is appropriate for the different purposes and contexts of sustainability assessment. The process of creating the assessment framework also emerges as important: if the key stakeholders are not given a responsible and full role in the development of any assessment tool, it is less likely to be fit for their purpose and they are unlikely to take ownership or have confidence in it. Six other papers reflect on more fundamental considerations of how assessments are based in different scientific perspectives and on the role of values, motivation, and trust in relation to assessments in the development of more sustainable food systems. They recommend a radical break with the tradition of conducting multicriteria assessment from one hegemonic perspective to considering multiple perspectives. Collectively the contributions to this Special Feature identify three main challenges for improved multicriteria assessment of food system sustainability: (i how to balance different types of knowledge to avoid that the most well-known, precise, or easiest to measure dimensions of sustainability gets the most weight; (ii how to expose the values in assessment tools and choices to allow evaluation of how they relate to the ethical principles of sustainable food systems, to societal

Ecotourism and Sustainable Development in Costa Rica

OpenAIRE

Buchsbaum, Bernardo Duha

2004-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide a synopsis of the current issues facing ecotourism in Costa Rica; critically examine the impacts and challenges of ecotourism; analyze the potential of ecotourism as a strategy for sustainable development; look at ways in which ecotourism and sustainable development can be evaluated; and suggest ways to improve current ecotourism practices and policies for Costa Rica. What are the impacts and challenges of ecotourism? What are the possible benefits that...

A territorial understanding of sustainability in public development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peti, Marton, E-mail: mpeti@vati.hu

2012-01-15

Sustainability theories in European Union (EU) development policies are facing significant challenges: it is difficult to transmit context-specific, publicly communicable messages; the recent development policies strengthen the concurrent development paradigm of economic growth and competitiveness; 'climate change' became a more popular environmental integration term than sustainability in the last few years. However, due to the recent crises of the economic growth, there is a great chance to reintroduce a sustainability-based development. A territorial/regional understanding of sustainability can also be an answer for the current challenges, a platform for refreshing the concept with relevant, specific messages that are close to the everyday life. This paper summarises the 'territorial system'-based basic principles of territorial sustainability in a model called AUTHARSIIV (AUTonomy, HARmony, Solidarity, Innovation, Identity and Values). This is a supplementary sustainability content specified for the context of spatial/regional development or planning. The paper also examines the presence of 'general and territorial sustainability' in regional development programmes, and case studies on applying the territorial sustainability principles in planning, assessment, and implementation. According to the results, sustainability is rarely adapted to the conditions of a given sector or a region, and the territorial aspect of sustainability is underrepresented even in territorial programmes. Therefore, the paper proposes a new planning and assessment system that is based on a set of regionally legitimate sustainability values.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AND FDI IMPACT IN HOST COUNTRIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zaman Gheorghe

2012-07-01

Full Text Available This survey analyses aspects of the relationship between FDI and sustainable development within the Romanian economy, focusing in particular on volume, dynamics and structure of FDI companies in Romania, impact on imports and exports as well as ratio between repatriated profit and profit reinvested in the host country. A series of proposals have been made for increasing the contribution of FDI in the sustainable development of Romania by attracting FDI in particular to the tradable sector and for increasing the favourable propagation effects to Romanian companies.

The Energy Challenge for Pacific Island Countries: Sustainable Development and Energy Security through Bio-fuel Substitution for Remote Populations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mace, M.J.

2006-10-15

Pacific Island Countries (PICs) face a number of development challenges as a result of their small size and geographically-remote locations. One of the most prominent is access to affordable energy supplies. The high cost of petroleum products affects all sectors, impacting islanders' day to day life and undermining achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Measures are needed that can support energy security and fair pricing in PICs, through improved regulatory frameworks and the substitution of local energy resources for imported fuels wherever possible. At the macro level, regional bulk procurement contracts offer one option to address the challenge of expensive imported petroleum products. At the micro level, biofuel substitution may offer another opportunity. Coconut biodiesel, produced from locally-harvested coconuts, may enable these remote island populations to develop their own sustainable energy supplies, and provide sustainable livelihoods for their people.

Engineering Education for Sustainable Development. The Contribution of University Curricula to Engineering Education for Sustainable Development.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kastenhofer, Karen; Lansu, Angelique; Van Dam-Mieras, Rietje; Sotoudeh, Mahshid

2010-01-01

Global failures to reach a sustainable development within present-day societies as well as recent breakthroughs within technoscience pose new challenges to engineering education. The list of competencies which engineers should have to rise to these challenges is long and diverse, and often

A territorial understanding of sustainability in public development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Péti, Márton

2012-01-01

Sustainability theories in European Union (EU) development policies are facing significant challenges: it is difficult to transmit context-specific, publicly communicable messages; the recent development policies strengthen the concurrent development paradigm of economic growth and competitiveness; ‘climate change’ became a more popular environmental integration term than sustainability in the last few years. However, due to the recent crises of the economic growth, there is a great chance to reintroduce a sustainability-based development. A territorial/regional understanding of sustainability can also be an answer for the current challenges, a platform for refreshing the concept with relevant, specific messages that are close to the everyday life. This paper summarises the ‘territorial system’-based basic principles of territorial sustainability in a model called AUTHARSIIV (AUTonomy, HARmony, Solidarity, Innovation, Identity and Values). This is a supplementary sustainability content specified for the context of spatial/regional development or planning. The paper also examines the presence of ‘general and territorial sustainability’ in regional development programmes, and case studies on applying the territorial sustainability principles in planning, assessment, and implementation. According to the results, sustainability is rarely adapted to the conditions of a given sector or a region, and the territorial aspect of sustainability is underrepresented even in territorial programmes. Therefore, the paper proposes a new planning and assessment system that is based on a set of regionally legitimate sustainability values.

Sustainable spatial development in higher education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maja Terlević

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development is not only a great challenge for society as a whole, but also for higher education institutions, which have been rapidly including sustainable development in their educational process in the last two decades. Directly or indirectly, education for sustainable spatial development includes all aspects of sustainable development: environmental, economic, social and cultural. Space is a junction of various interests, which requires coordinating the entire process of spatial planning, taking into account the goal of sustainable spatial development. The existing values of space are insufficient for the rapid implementation of a sustainable spatial development paradigm. Suitable education is needed by both individuals and spatial planning professionals and at all levels of education. It is therefore necessary to transform some of the academic programs in the higher education curriculum by integrating teaching content and methods that include long-term knowledge and holistic thinking, taking into account the importance of interdisciplinary integration. This article reviews literature in sustainable development in higher education from 2002 to 2013. Topics discussed include students’ and teachers’ conceptions of sustainable development, the presence of sustainable development and sustainable spatial development in higher education and the reasons for the slow introduction of this material into the curriculum. Based on a literature analysis, the last section identifies important drivers that can contribute to a more rapid integration of a sustainable spatial development paradigm into higher education.

Challenges Towards Sustainable Peace and Security: in the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This article analyses the structural challenges facing the new government of the. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in its reconstruction and development programme for sustainable peace and security. It takes into account the DRC's strategic importance in the Central and Southern African region and the African ...

Energy mastery, 30 years later. New challenges in the sustainable development context

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Padet, J.; Bissieux, C.; Padet, C.; Lachi, M.; Pron, H.

2005-01-01

The main topic of the 2005 issue of the annual congress of the French society of thermal engineering (SFT) is the energy mastery as a response to the sustainable development challenge. These proceedings gather 130 publications shared between 5 sessions dealing with: transfers in multiphase environments (two-phase and phase change); convective transfers (natural, mixed, forced and jets); coupled transfers (radiant, combustion, plasmas, porous media, drying); thermophysical properties (micro-thermal, interfaces, measurements, identification); thermal systems (exchangers, processes, energetics). Among these, two articles are relevant for the INIS database, one treats of the thermal problems encountered with thermonuclear fusion. and the other deals with the scientific policy of the French agency of environment and energy mastery (Ademe). (J.S.)

National strategy for sustainable development 2010-2013 - Towards a green and fair economy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2012-09-01

For a set of 'sustainable development' challenges, this report discusses context and stakes, and strategic choices, and gives an overview of action leverages. These challenges deal with consumption and sustainable products, the knowledge society (education and training, research and development), governance, climate change and energies, sustainable transport and mobility, preservation and sustainable management of biodiversity and natural resources, public health and risk prevention and management, demography, immigration and social inclusion, international challenges in the field of sustainable development and poverty in the world

Sustainable Development in Engineering Education: A Pedagogical Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Ahrens, A.; Zascerinska, J.

2012-01-01

Engineering education is facing a challenge of the development of student engineers' social responsibility in the context of sustainable development. The aim of the research is to analyze efficiency of engineering curriculum in the context of sustainable development underpinning elaboration of pedagogical guidelines on the development of students'…

Sustainable clothing: challenges, barriers and interventions for encouraging more sustainable consumer behaviour

OpenAIRE

Harris, Fiona; Roby, Helen; Dibb, Sally

2016-01-01

Research with consumers has revealed limited awareness of the sustainability impact of clothing (Goworek et al., 2012). Semi-structured interviews conducted with a range of experts in sustainable clothing to increase understanding of the challenges for sustainable clothing revealed that a focus on sustainability alone will not drive the necessary changes in consumers’ clothing purchase, care and disposal behaviour for three reasons: (i) clothing sustainability is too complex; (ii) consumers a...

Collaborative procurement for developing a sustainable campus

Science.gov (United States)

Nifa, Faizatul Akmar Abdul; Rahim, Syukran Abdul; Rani, Wan Nurul Mardiah Wan Mohd; Ismail, Mohd. Noorizhar

2016-08-01

It is particularly challenging to achieve sustainability in campus universities, where a high volume of users and activities has made it more imperative to promote green buildings that reduce energy and water consumption while having a minimal carbon footprint. At present, the frameworks for sustainable campus have seldom focused on the project procurement method which would improve construction team integration in developing the physical aspect of campus development. Therefore, in response to that challenge, this paper investigates how the delivery team, responsible for the design and construction of a project, can be integrated to work together more efficiently and more using the collaborative procurement method known as partnering. This paper reports part of a previous research and sets the base for ongoing research on the critical factors in partnering for sustainable campus development. The outcome or result of this study will meet and support the requirement for construction, maintenance, and operation process for universities towards sustainable building/campus in the future.

Nanotechnology for sustainable development: retrospective and outlook

Science.gov (United States)

Diallo, Mamadou S.; Fromer, Neil A.; Jhon, Myung S.

2013-11-01

The world is facing great challenges in meeting rising demands for basic commodities (e.g., food, water and energy), finished goods (e.g., cell phones, cars and airplanes) and services (e.g., shelter, healthcare and employment) while reducing and minimizing the impact of human activities on Earth's global environment and climate. Nanotechnology has emerged as a versatile platform that could provide efficient, cost-effective and environmentally acceptable solutions to the global sustainability challenges facing society. This special issue of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research is devoted to the utilization of nanotechnology to improve or achieve sustainable development. We highlight recent advances and discuss opportunities of utilizing nanotechnology to address global challenges in (1) water purification, (2) clean energy technologies, (3) greenhouse gases management, (4) materials supply and utilization, and (5) green manufacturing and chemistry. In addition to the technical challenges listed above, we also discuss societal perspectives and provide an outlook of the role of nanotechnology in the convergence of knowledge, technology and society for achieving sustainable development.

Nanotechnology for sustainable development: retrospective and outlook

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diallo, Mamadou S.; Fromer, Neil A.; Jhon, Myung S.

2013-01-01

The world is facing great challenges in meeting rising demands for basic commodities (e.g., food, water and energy), finished goods (e.g., cell phones, cars and airplanes) and services (e.g., shelter, healthcare and employment) while reducing and minimizing the impact of human activities on Earth’s global environment and climate. Nanotechnology has emerged as a versatile platform that could provide efficient, cost-effective and environmentally acceptable solutions to the global sustainability challenges facing society. This special issue of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research is devoted to the utilization of nanotechnology to improve or achieve sustainable development. We highlight recent advances and discuss opportunities of utilizing nanotechnology to address global challenges in (1) water purification, (2) clean energy technologies, (3) greenhouse gases management, (4) materials supply and utilization, and (5) green manufacturing and chemistry. In addition to the technical challenges listed above, we also discuss societal perspectives and provide an outlook of the role of nanotechnology in the convergence of knowledge, technology and society for achieving sustainable development

Nanotechnology for sustainable development: retrospective and outlook

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Diallo, Mamadou S., E-mail: mdiallo@kaist.ac.kr [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Graduate School of Energy, Environment, Water and Sustainability (EEWS) (Korea, Republic of); Fromer, Neil A. [California Institute of Technology, Resnick Sustainability Institute (United States); Jhon, Myung S. [Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Chemical Engineering (United States)

2013-11-15

The world is facing great challenges in meeting rising demands for basic commodities (e.g., food, water and energy), finished goods (e.g., cell phones, cars and airplanes) and services (e.g., shelter, healthcare and employment) while reducing and minimizing the impact of human activities on Earth’s global environment and climate. Nanotechnology has emerged as a versatile platform that could provide efficient, cost-effective and environmentally acceptable solutions to the global sustainability challenges facing society. This special issue of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research is devoted to the utilization of nanotechnology to improve or achieve sustainable development. We highlight recent advances and discuss opportunities of utilizing nanotechnology to address global challenges in (1) water purification, (2) clean energy technologies, (3) greenhouse gases management, (4) materials supply and utilization, and (5) green manufacturing and chemistry. In addition to the technical challenges listed above, we also discuss societal perspectives and provide an outlook of the role of nanotechnology in the convergence of knowledge, technology and society for achieving sustainable development.

Security: A Catalyst for Sustainable Development | Solomon | African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper explores intricate nexus between security, and the challenges of promoting sustainable development in a volatile environment. It conceptualises security, sustainable development, and volatile environment. The paper argues that the volatile environment in the country has led to security breaches and slowed ...

Towards Science for Democratic Sustainable Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Jonas Egmose

residents, sustainability resear- chers and practitioners in deliberating on how future research can meet societal challenges of urban sustainability. Based on the research project Citizen Science for Sustainability (SuScit) I analyse how orientations towards sustainability can be understood and challenged...... of urban everyday life, confronting academic concepts of sustainability. This process not at least calls for reflexivity among researchers facing the challenge how science can further sustainability through community engagement. To conceptualise this dynamic I propose the concept of creation and doubling...

The key drivers and challenges of Business-NGO partnerships in creating sustainable innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lodsgård, Lise; Aagaard, Annabeth

2014-01-01

A growing body of research emphasizes the potentials of business-NGO partnerships (BNP’s) in developing sustainable innovation. However the business-NGO literature is still at an early stage of development and shrouded in rhetoric with dominant articulations and anecdotes with a lack of empirical...... evidence. One of the main challenges of studying sustainable innovation relates to the fact that there is no established definition and mapping of drivers and internal and external challenges of these collaborations. The observations above and the gab in literature point to the theoretical and empirical...... relevance of exploring business-NGO partnerships in the creation of sustainable innovation. The findings and contributions of this theoretical study are an identification and modeling of six archetypes of Business-NGO partnerships in creating sustainable innovation. Through an exploration of characteristics...

Introducing sustainable development: challenges and opportunities for the energy sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

2004-01-01

The World Energy Council held its 19. world congress in Sydney (Australia) from September 5 to 9 2004, focusing on the theme 'Delivering sustainability: challenges and opportunities for the energy industry'. More than 2500 participants from all around the world attended the presentations, round table sessions, seminars and exhibitions. In this article, we will be featuring the conclusions from the congress. The next conference will be held from November 11 to 15 2007 in Rome (Italy) on the theme of 'The security and quality of energy supplies'. (authors)

Sustainable development strategy : moving forward

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

This publication demonstrates the steps that Natural Resources Canada has taken to optimize the contribution of natural resources to sustainable development. Canada's forestry, minerals, metals and energy sectors are key components to Canada's overall economy and society. The Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) focuses on the development and use of Canada's resources in a responsible manner that will maintain the integrity of natural ecosystems and safeguard the quality of life for Canadians. All decision-making takes into account economic, environmental and social considerations. The challenges facing the natural resources sector include the management of forests, the development of clean energy options, and the recycling and reuse of minerals and metals resources. This publication outlines the specific goals and objectives set by Natural Resources Canada that will make the SDS possible through programs, policies, legislation, technology utilization and operations. It also describes Canada's progress in meeting the following 4 commitments: (1) Canadians make better decisions that advance sustainable development, (2) Canadians are taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change, (3) Canada is recognized globally as a responsible steward of natural resources and a leader in advancing sustainable development, and (4) Natural Resources Canada demonstrates its commitment to sustainable development in its operations. tabs

Natural Resources Accounting and Sustainable Development: The ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Natural Resources Accounting and Sustainable Development: The Challenge to Economics and Accounting Profession. ... African Research Review ... The approach used in achieving this objective is by identifying the present position, limitations and the challenges for the economics and accounting professions.

Shaping a sustainable energy future for India: Management challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bhattacharyya, Subhes C.

2010-01-01

Most of the studies on the Indian energy sector focus on the possible future scenarios of Indian energy system development without considering the management dimension to the problem-how to ensure a smooth transition to reach the desired future state. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some sector management concerns to a sustainable energy future in the country. The paper follows a deductive approach and reviews the present status and possible future energy outlooks from the existing literature. This is followed by a strategy outline to achieve long-term energy sustainability. Management challenges on the way to such a sustainable future are finally presented. The paper finds that the aspiration of becoming an economic powerhouse and the need to eradicate poverty will necessarily mean an increase in energy consumption unless a decoupling of energy and GDP growth is achieved. Consequently, the energy future of the country is eminently unsustainable. A strategy focussing on demand reduction, enhanced access, use of local resources and better management practices is proposed here. However, a sustainable path faces a number of challenges from the management and policy perspectives.

Transforming Our World: Literacy for Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Hanemann, Ulrike, Ed.

2015-01-01

This compilation offers global examples of innovative and promising literacy and numeracy programmes that link the teaching and learning of literacy to sustainable development challenges such as health, social equality, economic empowerment and environmental sustainability. This publication is a timely contribution to the 2030 Agenda for…

Sustainable Tourism: Progress Challenges and Opportunities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Budeanu, Adriana; Miller, Graham; Moscardo, Gianna

2016-01-01

The term sustainable tourism emerged in the late 1980s and has become firmly established in both tourism policies and strategies and tourism research (Hall, 2011). After more than 25 years of attention it is timely to consider the state of research and practice in sustainable tourism. This special...... volume was established with exactly that goal in mind and this introduction seeks to set the context for this critical examination and reflection on sustainable tourism. Another objective of this introduction was to briefly describe the range of contributions selected for this SV. The articles...... are organised into four thematic areas of research: community stakeholders' perspectives and business approaches to sustainability in tourism, cultural responses, and methodological challenges related to sustainability. The articles shine a light on issues of importance within sustainable tourism, and in so...

Business models for sustainable energy development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kolk, A.; van den Buuse, D.

2013-01-01

Business-led approaches to accessing energy in development countries are becoming key factors to sustainable market development. Given the major challenges in this market, companies will blend commercial and donor-funded activities, while simultaneously finding innovative ways to bring renewable

Cleaner metallurgical industry in Serbia: a road to the sustainable development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Panias

2009-01-01

Full Text Available Since the sustainable development has been a global and fundamental objecttive, a metallurgical industrial sector faces some of the most difficult sustainability challenges of any industrial sector. On the other hand, the metallurgical production in Serbia is a very important part of the economy. Due to present facilities and technologies, metallurgical companies face a great challenge to fulfill the requirements introduced by legislature referring to the cleaner production and sustainable development. The state of art in the production, facilities, pollution with some answers to imposed challenges is presented.

Canadian energy policy and the struggle for sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doern, G.B.

2005-01-01

This book examined selected energy policy issues and challenges confronting Canadians over the last two decades. The aim of the book was to provide an analysis of how energy policy has evolved. The book presents an overview of energy policy and its relationship to sustainable development. Politico-economic contexts were reviewed, including the changing nature of national and continental energy markets, energy policy and sustainable development. The difficulties in evaluating the environment in energy policy were discussed. Issues concerning electricity restructuring in Canada were reviewed, with reference to Canada-US electricity trade and the climate change agenda. Alberta's oil and gas industry and the Kyoto Protocol were also examined, with reference to voluntary measures to address climate change. Issues concerning stewardship, indigenous peoples and petroleum-based economic development in the north were reviewed, as well as northern gas pipeline policy and sustainable development. Conclusions and recommendations were made concerning the following 6 analytical and practical energy policy and governance challenges facing the current government: Kyoto Protocol implementation challenges; energy security; northern pipelines and concerns with Aboriginal peoples and sustainable northern development; electricity restructuring and the limits of regulatory-market design; energy science and technology and innovation policy links; and prospects for turning the struggle for sustainable development in the energy policy field into something closer to an actual achievement. 37 refs

Developing a comprehensive definition of sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Julia E; Mascarenhas, Alekhya; Bain, Julie; Straus, Sharon E

2017-09-02

Understanding sustainability is one of the significant implementation science challenges. One of the big challenges in researching sustainability is the lack of consistent definitions in the literature. Most implementation studies do not present a definition of sustainability, even when assessing sustainability. The aim of the current study was to systematically develop a comprehensive definition of sustainability based on definitions already used in the literature. We searched for knowledge syntheses of sustainability and abstracted sustainability definitions from the articles identified through any relevant systematic and scoping reviews. The constructs in the abstracted sustainability definitions were mapped to an existing definition. The comprehensive definition of sustainability was revised to include emerging constructs. We identified four knowledge syntheses of sustainability, which identified 209 original articles. Of the 209 articles, 24 (11.5%) included a definition of sustainability. These definitions were mapped to three constructs from an existing definition, and nine new constructs emerged. We reviewed all constructs and created a revised definition: (1) after a defined period of time, (2) a program, clinical intervention, and/or implementation strategies continue to be delivered and/or (3) individual behavior change (i.e., clinician, patient) is maintained; (4) the program and individual behavior change may evolve or adapt while (5) continuing to produce benefits for individuals/systems. All 24 definitions were remapped to the comprehensive definition (percent agreement among three coders was 94%). Of the 24 definitions, 17 described the continued delivery of a program (70.8%), 17 mentioned continued outcomes (70.8%), 13 mentioned time (54.2%), 8 addressed the individual maintenance of a behavior change (33.3%), and 6 described the evolution or adaptation (25.0%). We drew from over 200 studies to identify 24 existing definitions of sustainability

Can we meet the sustainability challenges? The role of education and lifelong learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wals, Arjen E.J.; Benavot, Aaron

2017-01-01

Education and lifelong learning are increasingly being mobilised to address the global environmental crisis and accompanying sustainability challenges. This article discusses the many roles of education about and for sustainable development, drawing on evidence and arguments put forward in the

Low carbon transition and sustainable development path of tourism industry

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Hongbing; Zhang, Jing; Zhao, Lei; Jin, Shenglang

2017-05-01

The low carbon transition is as much a transformative technology shift as it represents a response to global environment challenges. The low carbon paradigm presents a new direction of change for tourism industry. However, the lack of theoretical frameworks on low carbon transformation in tourism industry context provides a significant knowledge gap. This paper firstly investigates the relationships between low carbon and sustainable development, followed by exploring the existing challenges of tourism sustainable development. At last, this paper presents a sustainable development path framework for low carbon transition of tourism industry, which include accelerating deployment of renewable energy, energy-saving green building construction, improving green growth investment, and adopting a sustainable consumption and production system, in order to promote energy and water efficiency, waste management, GHG emissions mitigation and eventually enhance its sustainability.

Creating Sustainable Societies: Developing Emerging Professionals through Transforming Current Mindsets

Science.gov (United States)

Griswold, Wendy

2017-01-01

Future professionals will bear the brunt of creating sustainable societies. Equipping them for the task is the challenge of current educators. Educational experiences facilitating the development of sustainable habits of mind are needed. This research reports on the experiences of developing scientists and engineers engaged in a sustainable energy…

Challenges, responses and partnership for achieving sustainable tourism and heritage preservation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maksin Marija

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The process of globalization has created the situation where the expectations of tourists are the same both with respect to the quality of services in all destinations and with respect to the authencity based on local attractions and experiences, which should be unique and different for each destination. The key element in maintaining destination attractiveness is the protection and presentation of natural and cultural heritage and its sustainable utilization for tourism development. The sustainability concept is of equal importance for long-term tourism development, destination competitiveness and heritage protection. The paper deals with the main challenges to achieving sustainable tourism and points to some key responses to them. Participation, cooperation and partnership should be a vital prerequisite for the implementation and performance of sustainable tourism and heritage protection. This attitude has been tested on several examples of good practice in heritage protection and the sustainable development of tourism destinations in Serbia. .

The Development of Organizational Sustainability in Social Enterprises

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hernandez Chea, Roberto Roderico

, support disadvantaged groups of people to tackle their social problems such as, for example, poverty or lack of employment opportunities and, on the other hand, generate revenue from commercial activities to sustain their operations. Social enterprises may involve public and private members as founders...... with different demands and interests that translate into different management challenges. Such challenges may sometimes threaten the development of organizational sustainability and therefore the ability of social enterprises to continue operating in the long-term. This thesis aims to investigate this issue......, leveraging on a behavior perspective to study the development of organizational sustainability in social enterprises that involve public and private members as collaborating founders. In particular, the four scientific articles that consolidate the thesis provide insights into the management dimensions...

Challenges of sustainable development in the mining and metallurgy sector in Poland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Bluszcz

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to present the degree of involvement of Polish companies from the mining and metallurgical industry in activities for sustainable development. Various initiatives, which aim to promote sustainable development and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR are discussed. ISO 26000 is the recognized international standard for CSR and it forms the basis for sustainable development. The paper also presents problems of integrated reporting of CSR activities and an index of socially responsible companies which is the Respect Index, introduced by the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Two presented companies from the analysed sector are listed by the Respect Index.

Can We Meet the Sustainability Challenges? The Role of Education and Lifelong Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Wals, Arjen E. J.; Benavot, Aaron

2017-01-01

Education and lifelong learning are increasingly being mobilised to address the global environmental crisis and accompanying sustainability challenges. This article discusses the many roles of education about and for sustainable development, drawing on evidence and arguments put forward in the 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report,…

Process framework for identifying sustainability aspects in university curricula and integrating education for sustainable development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holm, Tove; Sammalisto, Kaisu; Grindsted, Thomas Skou

2015-01-01

Sustainability aspects in higher education must be enhanced with more concrete actions. Universities are globally required to have quality assurance to secure and improve teaching and learning, and they use management systems to this aim. Integrating education for sustainable development...... and management systems are alike in that they are based on continuous improvement and systematic thinking; for both processes all stakeholders need to be involved. Although quality assurance is compulsory for higher education, education for sustainable development has barely been examined or integrated...... in this context. This article examines how voluntary integration of education for sustainable development into management systems at universities could facilitate a scheme to overcome the challenges to integrating education for sustainable development that were identified in previous research. For this, a process...

Mass media and challenges of sustainable development in Nigeria ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Being an integral part of the social system, the mass media is a major stakeholder in the realization of sustainable development in Nigeria. However, several factors like corruption, poor communication channels, illiteracy, inadequate infrastructure, poor implementation framework and political instability has continued to ...

Challenges and issues in moving towards sustainable landfilling in a transitory country - Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Agamuthu, P; Fauziah, S H

2011-01-01

Malaysia disposes of 28,500 tonnes of municipal solid waste directly into landfills daily. This fact alone necessitates sustainable landfills to avoid adverse impacts on the population and the environment. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the issues and challenges faced by waste managers in moving towards sustainable landfilling in Malaysia. Various factors influence the management of a landfill. Among them is the human factor, which includes attitude and public participation. Although Malaysia's economy is developing rapidly, public concern and awareness are not evolving in parallel and therefore participation towards sustainable waste management through the 'reduce, reuse and recycle' approach (3Rs) is severely lacking. Consequently, landfill space is exhausted earlier than scheduled and this is no longer sustainable in terms of security of disposal. Challenges also arise from the lack of funding and the increase in the price of land. Thus, most waste managers normally aim for 'just enough' to comply with the regulations. Investment for the establishment of landfills generally is minimized since landfilling operations are considered uneconomical after closure. Institutional factors also hamper the practice of sustainable landfilling in the country where 3Rs is not mandatory and waste separation is totally absent. Although there are huge obstacles to be dealt with in moving towards sustainable landfilling in Malaysia, recent developments in waste management policy and regulations have indicated that positive changes are possible in the near future. Consequently, with the issues solved and challenges tackled, landfills in Malaysia can then be managed effectively in a more sustainable manner.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, A MULTIDIMENSIONAL CONCEPT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TEODORESCU ANA MARIA

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development imposed itself as a corollary of economic term "development". Sustainable development is meant to be the summation of economic, environmental and social considerations for the present and especially for the future. The concept of sustainable development plays an important role in european and global meetings since 1972, the year it has been set for the first time. Strategies necessary to achieve the objectives of sustainable development have been developed, indicators meant to indicate the result of the implementation of policies have been created, national plans were oriented towards achieving the proposed targets. I wanted to highlight the multidimensional character of the concept of sustainable development. Thus, using specialized national and international literature, I have revealed different approaches of one pillar to the detriment of another pillar depending on the specific field. In the different concepts of sustainable development, the consensus is undoubtedly agreed on its components: economic, social, environmental. Based on this fact, the concept of sustainability has different connotations depending on the specific content of each discipline: biology, economics, sociology, environmental ethics. The multidimensional valence of sustainable development consists of three pillars ability to act together for the benefit of present and future generations. Being a multidimensional concept, importance attached to a pillar over another is directed according to the particularities of each field: in economy profit prevails, in ecology care of natural resources is the most important, the social aims improving human living conditions. The challenge of sustainable development is to combine all the economic, environmental and social benefits and the present generation to come. Ecological approach is reflected in acceptance of limited natural resources by preserving natural capital. In terms of the importance of

Challenges in Sustainability: Another Brick in the Wall

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barry Ness

2014-04-01

Full Text Available We are proud of Challenges in Sustainability's (CiS fruitful start. A variety of quality research articles, editorials and notes have been published on a range of themes and topics, including sustainability governance [1], improved cookstoves [2,3], the potentials of 3-D printing in the global South [4], and the need for consiliences between the natural and social sciences and the humanities [5], to name just a few. Furthermore, despite the journal's short history, we are pleased with its high visibility, where numerous articles have been viewed or downloaded over 1200 times since publication. The high exposure rate and the quality of publications affirm our aspirations for stable growth and development in the future.

Institutional challenges for mining and sustainability in Peru

Science.gov (United States)

Bebbington, Anthony J.; Bury, Jeffrey T.

2009-01-01

Global consumption continues to generate growth in mining. In lesser developed economies, this growth offers the potential to generate new resources for development, but also creates challenges to sustainability in the regions in which extraction occurs. This context leads to debate on the institutional arrangements most likely to build synergies between mining, livelihoods, and development, and on the socio-political conditions under which such institutions can emerge. Building from a multiyear, three-country program of research projects, Peru, a global center of mining expansion, serves as an exemplar for analyzing the effects of extractive industry on livelihoods and the conditions under which arrangements favoring local sustainability might emerge. This program is guided by three emergent hypotheses in human-environmental sciences regarding the relationships among institutions, knowledge, learning, and sustainability. The research combines in-depth and comparative case study analysis, and uses mapping and spatial analysis, surveys, in-depth interviews, participant observation, and our own direct participation in public debates on the regulation of mining for development. The findings demonstrate the pressures that mining expansion has placed on water resources, livelihood assets, and social relationships. These pressures are a result of institutional conditions that separate the governance of mineral expansion, water resources, and local development, and of relationships of power that prioritize large scale investment over livelihood and environment. A further problem is the poor communication between mining sector knowledge systems and those of local populations. These results are consistent with themes recently elaborated in sustainability science. PMID:19805172

IAEA education and training in radiation protection,transport and waste - new developments and challenges towards sustainability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sadagopan, G. [International Atomic Energy Agency (PPSS/NSRW/IAEA), Vienna (Austria); Mrabit, K. [International Atomic Energy Agency (PPSS/NSRW/IAEA), Vienna (Austria)

2006-07-01

IAEA education and training activities follow the resolutions of its General Conferences and reflects the latest IAEA standards and guidance. IAEA prepared a 'Strategic Approach to Education and Training in Radiation and Waste Safety' (Strategy on Education and Training) aiming at establishing, by 2010, sustainable education and training programmes in Member States, which was endorsed by the GC(45)/R.E.S./10 C in 2001. In implementing the strategy, IAEA is organizing training events in the regional level and assisting the Member States at the national level by providing them with exemplary quality of training material developed at the Agency. This work will continue ensuring its completeness in all areas of radiation protection. An Inter Centre Network between the Agency and regional, collaborating national training centres is established to facilitate information exchange, improve communication and dissemination of training material. There is a challenge to enhance the technical capability of the Member States to reach sustainability. This is intended through organizing number of Train the Trainers workshops to develop a pool of qualified trainers. The syllabus for training of Radiation Protection Officers is developed and a protocol document for educational and training appraisal (E.d.u.T.A.) is developed. The new developments include web enabling the approved training packages and establish E.learning and carrying out E.d.u.T.A. missions, aimed at identifying training needs in Member States and support them to build their own training strategy. These activities are aimed at assisting Member States attain self sustainability. (authors)

IAEA education and training in radiation protection,transport and waste - new developments and challenges towards sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sadagopan, G.; Mrabit, K.

2006-01-01

IAEA education and training activities follow the resolutions of its General Conferences and reflects the latest IAEA standards and guidance. IAEA prepared a 'Strategic Approach to Education and Training in Radiation and Waste Safety' (Strategy on Education and Training) aiming at establishing, by 2010, sustainable education and training programmes in Member States, which was endorsed by the GC(45)/R.E.S./10 C in 2001. In implementing the strategy, IAEA is organizing training events in the regional level and assisting the Member States at the national level by providing them with exemplary quality of training material developed at the Agency. This work will continue ensuring its completeness in all areas of radiation protection. An Inter Centre Network between the Agency and regional, collaborating national training centres is established to facilitate information exchange, improve communication and dissemination of training material. There is a challenge to enhance the technical capability of the Member States to reach sustainability. This is intended through organizing number of Train the Trainers workshops to develop a pool of qualified trainers. The syllabus for training of Radiation Protection Officers is developed and a protocol document for educational and training appraisal (E.d.u.T.A.) is developed. The new developments include web enabling the approved training packages and establish E.learning and carrying out E.d.u.T.A. missions, aimed at identifying training needs in Member States and support them to build their own training strategy. These activities are aimed at assisting Member States attain self sustainability. (authors)

Challenge-based Learning: The Case of Sustainable Development Engineering at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jorge Membrillo-Hernández

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Recently, The Tecnologico de Monterrey (ITESM in Mexico has launched the Tec21 Educational Model. It is a flexible model in its curriculum that promotes student participation in challenging and interactive learning experiences. At the undergraduate level, one of the central scopes of this model is addressing challenges by the student, to develop disciplinary and cross-disciplinary skills. Two institutional strategies have been implemented to reach the ultimate goal of the ITESM, to work in all careers under the Challenge Based Learning (CBL system: the innovation week (i-week and the innovation semester (i-semester. Here we report on the results of four i-week and one i-semester models implemented in 2016. The i-semester was carried out in conjunction with a training partner, the worldwide leader Pharmaceutical Company Boehringer Ingelheim. Thirteen Sustainable Development Engineering career students were immersed for a 14 week period into the strategies to solve real-life challenges in order to develop the contents of four different courses. Six teachers of the academic institution and four engineers from the Boehringer plant served as mentors. Continuous evaluations were carried out throughout the abilities examination and partial and final examinations were performed by both experts, from the company and from the University.

Nuclear energy in a sustainable development perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertel, E.; Wilmer, P.

2001-01-01

The characteristics of nuclear energy are reviewed and assessed from a sustainable development perspective highlighting key economic, environmental and social issues, challenges and opportunities relevant for energy policy making.. The analysis covers the potential role of nuclear energy in increasing the human and man-made capital assets of the world while preserving its natural and environmental resource assets as well as issues to be addressed in order to enhance the contribution of nuclear energy to sustainable development goals. (author)

EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. M. Alilova

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Aim. The aim is to consider the relationship of philosophy and education; the article also reviews the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD, a global model for a special educational activity. We also discuss the features of the philosophical approach to the issue of sustainable development. Discussion. In research, we use the method of socio-natural approach, a new educational paradigm that combines the theory and concept of training and education within the anthropocentric approach based on humanistic philosophical ideas which laid the basis for understanding the person as the subject of life, history and culture. We analyzed environmental and educational aspects of sustainable development in the current context. In order to address these challenges, philosophy produces new concepts, theories and paradigms. It is necessary to work on people's motivation and values, develop their cooperation skills, teach civic engagement and democratic by action rather than words. Only a highly educated society can generate environmental paradigm and implement the strategy of sustainable development. Conclusions. We recommend transferring research outcomes into practice in schools starting with elementary school, as well as in vocational schools and universities. Clarifying the essence of the concept of education for sustainable development is possible through philosophical understanding of its genesis and ideas.

BUILDING INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN MONTENEGRO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bosiljka Vuković

2010-01-01

Full Text Available There are many proofs confirming the importance of sustainable development for Montenegro. Shared international challenges, global economic crisis, and, particularly, the country's natural characteristics emphasize that sustainable development is the only way ahead. In 2002 Montenegro formed the National Council for Sustainable Development; in 2005 the Office for Sustainable Development was established, and the National Strategy of Sustainable Development was adopted in 2007. With these developments, Montenegro created the most advanced institutional basis for sustainable development in its region. After carefully observing the functioning of national sustainable development institutions, however, the Office for Sustainable Development embarked upon the process of their reform in 2008. As a result, the Council was fundamentally reformed, having its membership downsized and composition transformed. Two Annual Reports on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy have been completed and the process of defining sustainable development indicators commenced in co-operation with the United Nations. This paper critically examines the evolution of the set-up of the Montenegrin sustainable development system, presents the advantages and disadvantages of the government-anchored Council. Based on the lessons learnt, it presents recommendations for policy makers on promoting and enforcing sustainable development. The paper argues that only by effectively co-ordinating all segments of society and ensuring genuine participation of outside-government stakeholders, the countries can ensure that sustainable development principles are incorporated in national and local policies. The independence and pro-activeness in approach of sustainable development institutions is essential in ensuring the supremacy of sustainable practices in decision-making. Considering the similarities in historic, economic and social developments of the former socialist

The Atom, the Environment and Sustainable Development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2014-09-01

The IAEA has a broad mandate to facilitate nuclear applications in a number of areas and scientific disciplines. A fundamental component of the Agency's mandate is to enhance the peaceful contribution of nuclear science and technology to the specific development needs of its Member States in areas such as industry, human health, agriculture and nutrition. Nuclear techniques play an important role in addressing these development challenges. By facilitating their use, the IAEA is contributing to sustainable development. Well known examples include helping to advance treatment methods for fighting diseases, improving access to electricity, and increasing food security. A major underlying challenge in development for many Member States is environmental degradation. Environmental issues affect local, national, regional and global communities and threaten to undermine human well-being. Addressing these issues in a timely and efficient manner is essential. As with the other areas mentioned above, nuclear science and technology can make a particularly valuable contribution to assisting with efforts to better understand and protect the natural environment. Through The Atom, the Environment and Sustainable Development, the IAEA aims to raise and widen awareness of the unique contributions nuclear science and technology can make to the environmental dimension of sustainable development. Through this publication and other reports, it is expected that the readers acquire a better and more precise understanding of the significant role of science and technology, including nuclear-related technology, in the global development agenda. This publication also highlights the IAEA's role in supporting developing countries to realize their sustainable development aspirations through technology transfer and capacity-building

Energy mix and sustainable development: Issues and challenges in Southern Philippines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Osop, Inoray

2010-09-15

Southern Philippines utilizes different sources of energy and like any other areas for every increase in energy; major concerns and issues on its sustainable development sprung up. Methods used were quantitative and qualitative measures, experiment, exploratory and descriptive in findings: (1) each of the energy dimensions are compared economic ; On their environment and health of the end users and Social dimensions . The ideal energy mixes based on sustainable development are renewable and some fossil fuels with strict adherence to clean technology since Coal Plants in the country ignores environmental regulations and yet allowed to operate.

Challenges for Marketers in Sustainable Production and Consumption

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Caroline Oates

2016-01-01

Full Text Available As one of the biggest issues facing today’s global society, sustainability cuts across all areas of production and consumption and presents challenges for marketers who attempt to understand and incorporate sustainability in their everyday practices [1–3]. [...

Sustainable urban development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jesper Ole; Christensen, Toke Haunstrup; Gram-Hanssen, Kirsten

Sustainability in urban planning has a long history and it has been a widespread solution to build high and compact in order to minimise the need for transportation, land use and heating. Recent research, however, points towards the need for a supplementary approach which includes the consumer...... behaviour of the household. This approach necessarily has to work from below and include the citizens, as it is their daily practices that have to be challenged. This article reviews the literature of to what extent compact cities are the most sustainable and it use lifestyle interpretations of urbane forms...... to challenge the compact cities approach. As an alternative or supplementary approach the article introduce practice theory as a way to understand consumption and it gives examples on how this approach can be used to inspire local authorities to alternative and supplementary strategies of achieving sustainable...

Sustainable development - opening address 29th Annual Canadian Nuclear Society Conference

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lamarre, P.

2008-01-01

This paper discusses sustainable development which in a broad sense incorporates three dimensions: economic growth, environmental protection, and social welfare. The challenge for sustainable development is to address these three dimensions in a balanced way

Smart sustainable cities | IDRC - International Development ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

2016-06-06

Jun 6, 2016 ... Smart Cities for Sustainable Development ... Smart Cities have emerged as a response to the challenges and opportunities created by rapid urbanization. ... This report, produced by the United Nations University's Operating Unit on ... Teacher education program explores building professional learning ...

Population Aging: An Emerging Research Agenda for Sustainable Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shogo Kudo

2015-10-01

Full Text Available In recent years, population aging has been recognized as an emerging challenge in many parts of the world. Earlier studies discussed its impacts on the sustainability of social security systems and national economic growth; however, they tended to focus on the issues at the national level and were limited to developed countries. With the knowledge that population aging will be a predominant trend in both developed and developing countries, this paper aims to: (i describe the global population aging trend and its regional demography; (ii provide a structural review of population aging challenges at the national, communal and individual levels; and (iii elaborate future research topics on population aging with a particular emphasis on developing countries. Several indicators suggest rapid population aging in the coming decades, especially in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The structural review presents the diverse challenges that affect both young and older population groups. Finally, the need for linking population aging with the sustainable development concept and the possible rural decline caused by rapid urbanization are suggested as future research topics. Further studies to establish a body of knowledge on population aging in developing countries are required to place population aging on the agenda of future sustainable development discussions.

Winning the sustainable development debate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ritch, John; Cornish, Emma

2002-01-01

on a vast scale Access to energy - and in particular, electricity - will be critical if the world is to achieve these human goals. Access to clean electricity - and on a vast scale - will be necessary if the world is to meet the twin challenges of human need and environmental security. Anti-nuclear forces, which have held sway in the Kyoto process thus far, argue that nuclear energy is a dying technology and assert passionately that it has no place in tomorrow's sustainable development agenda. These ideologically driven arguments ignore underlying realities both as to what is feasible and what is actually occurring. Today, nuclear power plants are operational in countries comprising 64% of the world's population, and new power reactors are in the planning or construction stage in countries representing no less than 50% of the world's population. Among the latter are the world's two largest developing countries, China and India, which alone represent 40% of humankind and about half the developing world. With active nuclear reactor construction under way as we speak, these leading nations have already made nuclear power a part of their sustainable development strategies for the 21st century. Winning the sustainable development debate - This presentation will share information materials about sustainable development. It will describe the work of the World Nuclear Association Sustainable Development Strategy Group, its preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and how participants to PIME can get involved. (author)

On the Sustainability of WCR Development in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen Wenquan

2011-01-01

By analyzing the status of China's energy supply, an excellent perspective of water cooled reactor (WCR) development in China has been stated. the good opportunities are coupled with austere challenges. Taking the 21 century's nuclear power sustainable development requirements into account, two countermeasures of strategic consideration have been put forward. Thus China's WCR development can not only catch up with the world advanced level in proper time, but also possess the enough stamina of sustainability. (author)

Sustainable Nutrient Management in Chinese Agriculture:Challenges and Perspective

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2006-01-01

China has to raise agricultural productivity in its limited and shrinking farmland to guarantee food security for its huge and ever-growing population. Sustainable soil nutrient management is of paramount importance to the world's most populous country. Critical challenges the country is facing in sustaining soil fertility and in alleviating the hazardous impact of intensive fertilizer use are discussed in this paper. It is emphatically pointed out that national strategies as well as area-specific action plans with respect to scientific nutrient management are urgently needed to balance productivity and sustainability in the future. Relevant proposals for addressing those challenges are also presented.

Opportunities and challenges within urban health and sustainable development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fisher, Jack E.; Andersen, Zorana J.; Loft, Steffen

2017-01-01

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals mark aunique window of opportunity for both human and planetaryhealth. With rising life expectancy and rapidly expanding urbanpopulations exposed to pollution and sedentary lifestyles, thereis a greater focus on reducing the gap between life...... expectancyand number of healthy years lived, whilst limiting anthropogenicactivities contributing to pollution and climate change. Thus,urban development and policies, which can create win–winsituations for our planet and human health, falls into the realmand expertise of public health. However, some...

Professional Development in Environmental and Sustainability ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

explore how professional development at a tertiary institution can be used to support practising Science ... challenges related to 'the how' and 'the what' of implementation of environmental education ... teaching environmental and sustainability education, attest to this lack of capacity to implement ..... Profiles of participants.

Transport Canada's sustainable development action plan

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1999-09-30

Transport Canada's sustainable development strategy, tabled in the House of Commons in December 1997, sets out the direction for the Department to integrate environmental concerns with safety and efficiency in developing policies and programs and in carrying out its day-to-day activities. While recognizing that moving towards sustainable development is a long-term undertaking, the department is determined to turn 'words' into 'work'. The action plan outlined in this document is organized according to the challenges laid out in the original Sustainable Development Strategy document. Accordingly, the department shall endeavour to minimize risk of environmental damage from transportation accidents; promote greening of operations in the transportation sector; reduce emissions of hazardous substances from transportation sources; promote education and awareness on sustainable transportation; refine sustainable performance indicators; and develop and promote the application of cleaner transportation systems and transportation technologies. The bulk of the report is devoted to brief summaries of progress achieved in each of these areas to date.

Nuclear power and sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sandklef, S.

2000-01-01

Nuclear Power is a new, innovative technology for energy production, seen in the longer historic perspective. Nuclear technology has a large potential for further development and use in new applications. To achieve this potential the industry needs to develop the arguments to convince policy makers and the general public that nuclear power is a real alternative as part of a sustainable energy system. This paper examines the basic concept of sustainable development and gives a quality review of the most important factors and requirements, which have to be met to quality nuclear power as sustainable. This paper intends to demonstrate that it is not only in minimising greenhouse gas emissions that nuclear power is a sustainable technology, also with respect to land use, fuel availability waste disposal, recycling and use of limited economic resources arguments can be developed in favour of nuclear power as a long term sustainable technology. It is demonstrated that nuclear power is in all aspects a sustainable technology, which could serve in the long term with minimal environmental effects and at minimum costs to the society. And the challenge can be met. But to achieve need political leadership is needed, to support and develop the institutional and legal framework that is the basis for a stable and long-term energy policy. Industry leaders are needed as well to stand up for nuclear power, to create a new industry culture of openness and communication with the public that is necessary to get the public acceptance that we have failed to do so far. The basic facts are all in favour of nuclear power and they should be used

Gaz de France 2006 sustainable development report; Gaz de France 2006 rapport developpement durable

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2006-07-01

A major European energy utility, the Gaz de France Group produces, purchases, transports, distributes and sells natural gas, electricity and related services for its residential, corporate and local government customers. this report presents the actions implemented by the group to incorporate sustainable development into its strategy. From the point of view of risks and opportunities, the group analyzes what it takes to ensure development that respects people and the environment, and it implements them in all its business lines and management systems. Content: Gaz de France, portrait of a major energy utility, highlights of 2006, challenges and strategy (defining strategy and sustainable development policy, specific risks and opportunities, activities of the Gaz de France group: challenges, impact for stakeholders, transparency and independence in governing), ranking and implementing (defining sustainable development policy: reviewing priorities, meeting all the challenges, publicizing and defending positions, increasing awareness, overseeing and monitoring results), results of the 2004-2006 sustainable development action plan, dialogue and action with stakeholders, performance assessment, performance in response to challenges: energy challenges (guaranteeing regular supplies, controlling atmospheric emissions, promoting energy conservation, developing renewable energy), industrial challenges (ensuring health and safety, limiting the overall environmental impact of group activities), social responsibility challenges (advocating corporate social responsibility, promoting human rights and fighting corruption, encouraging commitment to solidarity, promoting regional development through local initiatives, reconciling acquisitions, procurement and sustainable development, ensuring transparency in natural gas rates, providing shareholders with quality information, promoting diversity, a source of enrichment, making working conditions a performance factor), indicators and

United Nations: preparing to examine energy and sustainable development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Radka, Mark [United Nations Environment Programme, Paris (France)

2000-08-01

This article examines the progress on sustainable development at the international level, and discusses the forthcoming meeting of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD-9) and the review of the progress of the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. Details are given of the anticipated Third Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which is expected to increase pressure to reduce emissions of greenhouses gases, the link between policies of sustainable development and renewable energy, the challenge of the growing demand for energy in the developing countries and the need to mitigate against environmental damage, and the setting up of the Sustainable Energy Advisory Facility (SEAF) by the United Nations Environment Programme to aid developing countries to participate in the CSD-9 process.

United Nations: preparing to examine energy and sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Radka, Mark

2000-01-01

This article examines the progress on sustainable development at the international level, and discusses the forthcoming meeting of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD-9) and the review of the progress of the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. Details are given of the anticipated Third Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which is expected to increase pressure to reduce emissions of greenhouses gases, the link between policies of sustainable development and renewable energy, the challenge of the growing demand for energy in the developing countries and the need to mitigate against environmental damage, and the setting up of the Sustainable Energy Advisory Facility (SEAF) by the United Nations Environment Programme to aid developing countries to participate in the CSD-9 process

Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Federal Green Challenge (FGC) Data

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — The Federal Green Challenge (FGC) is a national effort under EPA's Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Program, challenging EPA and other federal agencies...

Community Health Global Network and Sustainable Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rebekah Young

2016-01-01

Full Text Available With the achievements, failures and passing of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG, the world has turned its eyes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG, designed to foster sustainable social, economic and environmental development over the next 15 years.(1 Community-led initiatives are increasingly being recognised as playing a key role in realising sustainable community development and in the aspirations of universal healthcare.(2 In many parts of the world, faith-based organisations are some of the main players in community-led development and health care.(3 Community Health Global Network (CHGN creates links between organisations, with the purpose being to encourage communities to recognise their assets and abilities, identify shared concerns and discover solutions together, in order to define and lead their futures in sustainable ways.(4 CHGN has facilitated the development of collaborative groups of health and development initiatives called ‘Clusters’ in several countries including India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Myanmar. In March 2016 these Clusters met together in an International Forum, to share learnings, experiences, challenges, achievements and to encourage one another. Discussions held throughout the forum suggest that the CHGN model is helping to promote effective, sustainable development and health care provision on both a local and a global scale.

Sustainability Benefits and Challenges of Inter-Organizational Collaboration in Bio-Based Business: A Systematic Literature Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gohar Nuhoff-Isakhanyan

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Bio-based businesses are often considered to be sustainable. However, they are also linked to sustainability challenges such as deforestation and soil erosion. Encouraged to exploit innovative solutions and enhance sustainability, organizations engaged in bio-based activities extensively explore collaboration possibilities with external partners. The objective of this paper is to integrate the available knowledge on sustainability of inter-organisational collaborations in bio-based businesses, while considering the three aspects of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. We collected data from three academic sources—Web of Science, Scopus, and EconLit—and conducted a systematic literature review. The results show the importance of geographical proximity and complementarity in creating sustainability benefits such as reduced emissions, reduced waste, economic synergies, and socio-economic activities. Based on the findings, we have developed a framework that illustrates sustainability benefits and challenges. Interestingly, the studies emphasize sustainability benefits more in emerging than in industrialised economies, especially relating to the social aspects of sustainability. In conclusion, although the scholars have not discussed mitigation of several sustainability challenges in bio-based businesses, such as land use conflicts, they have found evidence of vital sustainability benefits, such as energy availability, lower emissions, improved socio-economic life, and poverty reduction, which are essential in emerging economies.

Links between livestock production, the environment and sustainable development.

Science.gov (United States)

Pradbre, J-P

2014-12-01

This study examines the prospects for strong growth in the supply and demand for animal products worldwide, especially in developing countries, where 80% of the world's population lives. Based on scientific publications, statistics and field observations, it reviews greenhouse gas emission levels from livestock, the ability of ruminant livestock systems to sequester carbon and the capacity of the livestock industry to meet the challenge of sustainable development and to share its benefits while minimising impacts to climate change. Special attention is paid to the situation of the 800 million livestock farmers in the world living at the extreme end of poverty. The study underlines the importance of improving livestock productivity and the interdependence of the economic, environmental and social components of sustainable development. It highlights how, in the least developed countries and most lower-middle-income countries, the pressure exerted by animal diseases hampers efforts to improve livestock productivity. Poor livestock farmers have not sufficiently benefited from development policies and need support to adopt technological advances to meet the challenges of sustainable development and poverty reduction.

The sustainable company: new challenges and strategies for more sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor DANCIU

2013-09-01

Full Text Available The sustainability becomes a model of development only if countries, industries, businesses and citizens become sustainable. The contribution of the business to a promising future should come from a fully integrated sustainability in its DNA and strategies.This paper focuses on the needed sustainable strategies for scaling up the contribution of the companies to sustainable development in the future. At the beginning, we analyze the main theoretical points of view on sustainability. Then, we explain how companies could achieve the sustainability by following the steps of a difficult process and the present performances in sustainability of large companies around the world. Finally, we suggest four strategies that businesses could design and implement in order to scaling up their sustainability in the future.The research has two important conclusions on sustainability in business. One is that the sustainability pays off if it is integrated in the DNA of the companies. The other conclusion says that the companies will succeed to make the needed transformation for achieving a better sustainability in the future only if they design and perform strategies focused on improving sustainability.

Nuclear energy in a sustainable development perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

The concept of sustainable development, which emerged from the report of the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland report), is of increasing interest to policy makers and the public. In the energy sector, sustainable development policies need to rely on a comparative assessment of alternative options, taking into account their economic, health, environmental and social aspects, at local, regional and global levels. This publication by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency investigates nuclear energy from a sustainable development perspective, and highlights the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in this respect. It provides data and analyses that may help in making trades-off and choices in the energy and electricity sectors at the national level, taking into account country-specific circumstances and priorities. It will be of special interest to policy makers in the nuclear and energy fields

Developing a framework for sustainability governance in the European Union

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meadowcroft, J. [Carleton Univ., Ottawa (Canada). School of Public Policy and Adminstration; Farrell, K.N. [Belfast Univ., Northern Ireland (United Kingdom). Inst. of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research; Spangenberg, J. [Sustainable Europe Research Inst., Bad Oeynhausen (Germany)

2005-07-01

Sustainable development represents a major governance challenge of the 21st century. If societal development trajectories are to be realigned on to more sustainable pathways major changes will be required to existing processes and practices of governance. This essay considers the nature of these changes and discusses implications for social science research. (author)

E3 Success Story - Advancing Performance in Sustainability and Workforce Development

Science.gov (United States)

E3: North Carolina advances performance in sustainability and workforce development strategies for the state's manufacturers. The initiative helps communities and manufacturers address energy and sustainability challenges by leveraging expertise.

Attitude of Academic Community towards Physically Challenged Students in the University of Maiduguri: Implications for Financing Inclusive Education for Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Bamiteko, Racheal Modupe; Ibi, Mustapha Baba; Bukar, Ibrahim Bulama

2017-01-01

This study examined the attitude of academic community towards physically challenged students in the University of Maiduguri as it affect the financing of inclusive education for sustainable development in Nigeria. Four objectives, two research questions and two hypotheses were set and tested for the study. Descriptive survey was adopted as a…

A new Era in Sustainable Development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bass, Steve

2007-03-15

It is 20 years since the World Commission on Environment and Development — the Brundtland Commission — released its influential report on sustainable development. This is now the declared intention of most governments, many international organisations, and an increasing number of businesses and civil society groups. High profile 'intentions' have given rise to a bewildering array of sustainable development plans, tools and business models. But these have not yet triggered the pace, scale, scope and depth of change that is needed to make development sustainable. They leave the underlying causes of unsustainable development largely undisturbed. They include few means for anticipating non-linear changes – from climate change to economic cycles – and for building resilience to them. Consequently, most environmental and welfare measures continue to decline in almost all countries. Much energy has been spent crafting the sustainable development 'toolkit'. But that energy has been channelled largely through a narrow set of international processes and 'elite' national actors. The results are not yet integral to the machinery of government or business, or people's daily lives. This paper calls for energies to be directed in new ways, constructing a truly global endeavour informed by diverse local actors' evidence of 'what works', and focusing more keenly on long-term futures. The key drivers and challenges of a 'new era in sustainable development' are suggested, to elicit ideas and leadership from a richer vein of experience than has been embraced by the formal international endeavours to date. This paper is the first in a series on the sustainable development futures that face key sectors and stakeholder groups.

Sustainable development strategy 2001-2003

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2001-01-01

This report defines what Transport Canada can do to incorporate environmental considerations into its mandate. While governments are faced with more pressures to finance and expand transportation infrastructure to meet the growth in transportation, environmental pressures are also increasing to make efficient use of land and natural resources, preserve vital habitats and maintain biodiversity. A greater use of non-renewable resources and new technologies such as fuel cells for automobiles will play an important role in addressing these environmental challenges related to the transportation sector. In addition, the transportation infrastructure will have to evolve to promote less polluting modes of travel and to better integrate different modes to make the system more efficient. This report presented the following 7 strategic challenges facing the transportation sector in Canada: (1) improving education and awareness of sustainable transportation, (2) developing tools for better decision-making, (3) promoting the adoption of sustainable transportation technology, (4) improving environmental management for Transport Canada operations and lands, (5) reducing air emissions, (6) reducing water pollution, and (7) promoting efficient transportation. For each challenge, the department has defined specific commitments for action, with a total of 29 commitments. tabs., figs

The theory of sustainable Tourism Development

OpenAIRE

Alberta Tahiri; Idriz Kovaci

2017-01-01

Tourism is a phenomenon that has seen a rapid multi fold increase and growth since the middle of the twentieth century. For host communities and countries, the development of tourism has offered numerous advantages, as well as some significant challenges and difficulties. In recent decades, the awareness has been strengthened that tourism needs to be developed following the sustainable development concept. This approach eliminates or significantly decreases the negative impacts of tourism gro...

Sustainable Ammonia Synthesis – Exploring the scientific challenges associated with discovering alternative, sustainable processes for ammonia production

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nørskov, Jens [Stanford Univ., CA (United States); ; SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Chen, Jingguang [Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Miranda, Raul [Dept. of Energy (DOE), Washington DC (United States). Office of Science; Fitzsimmons, Tim [Dept. of Energy (DOE), Washington DC (United States). Office of Science; Stack, Robert [Dept. of Energy (DOE), Washington DC (United States). Office of Science

2016-02-18

Ammonia (NH₃) is essential to all life on our planet. Until about 100 years ago, NH₃ produced by reduction of dinitrogen (N₂) in air came almost exclusively from bacteria containing the enzyme nitrogenase.. DOE convened a roundtable of experts on February 18, 2016. Participants in the Roundtable discussions concluded that the scientific basis for sustainable processes for ammonia synthesis is currently lacking, and it needs to be enhanced substantially before it can form the foundation for alternative processes. The Roundtable Panel identified an overarching grand challenge and several additional scientific grand challenges and research opportunities: -Discovery of active, selective, scalable, long-lived catalysts for sustainable ammonia synthesis. -Development of relatively low pressure (<10 atm) and relatively low temperature (<200 C) thermal processes. -Integration of knowledge from nature (enzyme catalysis), molecular/homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. -Development of electrochemical and photochemical routes for N₂ reduction based on proton and electron transfer -Development of biochemical routes to N₂ reduction -Development of chemical looping (solar thermochemical) approaches -Identification of descriptors of catalytic activity using a combination of theory and experiments -Characterization of surface adsorbates and catalyst structures (chemical, physical and electronic) under conditions relevant to ammonia synthesis.

AREVA and sustainable development. 2002 report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

The performance indicators in this report reflect the major sustainable development impacts and challenges that Areva is facing as a group due to the very nature of its operations. They chose the calendar year as reporting period, from January 1 to December 31. This report covers all of the group operations in France and abroad. This report presents an overview of the major financial, social and environmental challenges facing the group. This report is a companion document to the annual activity report. (A.L.B.)

CHALLENGES TO THE SUSTAINABILITY OF GROWTH FROM THE GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS PERSPECTIVE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manuela Unguru

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The Global Competitiveness Index GCI developed by the World Economic Forum is currently a wellknown and most appreciated tool for assessing global competitiveness. This article takes advantage of the complexity and richness of information embedded in this composite indicator to analyze the main challenges arising for the sustainability of growth from the perspective of global competitiveness indicators. After a brief review of the European Union (EU member states’ current state in terms of competitiveness, the investigation is focused on the performance and dynamics of the various competitiveness determinants, that explain, on the one hand, the poor ranking of Romania in the world competitiveness scoreboard and represent, on the other hand, major barriers to sustainable development.

Nuclear energy and sustainable development: contradiction or challenge?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laes, E.; Meskens, G.

2001-01-01

The concept of sustainable development is widely accepted as a principle for decision-making. However, it needs to be put into operation. Two classical approaches, cost-benefit analysis and multi-criteria analysis, are not suitable on account of the underlying rational choice theory and value system. Insights from these methods need to be complemented by the inherently pluralistic approach of cultural theory. This offers the prospects of the identification of all relevant criteria for the comparison of different energy vectors, broadening the perspective through an interdisciplinary working process, confronting uncertainty at a fundamental level, and the explicit integration of values and world views. (author)

Nuclear energy and sustainable development: contradiction or challenge?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Laes, E.; Meskens, G. [SCK.CEN, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, Mol (Belgium)

2001-07-01

The concept of sustainable development is widely accepted as a principle for decision-making. However, it needs to be put into operation. Two classical approaches, cost-benefit analysis and multi-criteria analysis, are not suitable on account of the underlying rational choice theory and value system. Insights from these methods need to be complemented by the inherently pluralistic approach of cultural theory. This offers the prospects of the identification of all relevant criteria for the comparison of different energy vectors, broadening the perspective through an interdisciplinary working process, confronting uncertainty at a fundamental level, and the explicit integration of values and world views. (author)

The Challenges of Implementing Sustainable Development: The Case of Sofia’s Master Plan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksandar D. Slaev

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we explore how master planning promotes and implements particular urban development patterns and, more generally, contributes to sustainability. Our goal is to understand the link between urban growth intentions articulated through the master planning process and realisation of its specific forms, e.g., monocentric or polycentric, compact or dispersed. As a case study, we examine the current General Urban Development Plan (GUDP of the Bulgarian capital Sofia against the city’s actual development pattern. We observe that the primary goals of the GUDP are to promote a polycentric urban structure and low-density expansion, as well as preserve green edges. While the question of whether and how these goals reflect the sustainability ideal requires further consideration, there are some indications that Sofia’s GUDP may not be effective in encouraging sustainable forms of growth. Substantial inconsistencies exist between the plan’s overall goals and some of its measures and implementation tools. The results on the ground suggest that, despite the plan’s low-density aspirations, Sofia is becoming more compact and densified, while losing its green edges and failing to redirect growth to its northern territories where ample space and opportunities exist. We conclude that employing the achievements of research on sustainability and developing relevant implementation tools such as more effective zoning regulations and viable suburban transportation infrastructure are necessary for realising both the patterns proposed through master planning and achieving sustainable urban growth.

The Concept of Sustainable Development as a Paradigm of Development of Sosiety

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khaustova Viktoriia Ye.

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The article is dedicated to studying the concept of sustainable development as a new paradigm of development of humanity. The genesis of the evolution of the views of scientists on the goals, essence, and problems of the introduction of this concept are considered. The interpretation of the concept of “sustainable development” by scientists and practitioners is analyzed, and the main approaches to understanding its essence are grouped. The basic principles of sustainable development are singled out. The main approaches to assessing sustainable development of socio-economic systems at different levels, their content, goals, and features of application are investigated. The views of scientists on the path to achieving sustainable development are considered, and the key discussion aspects in solving this problem are identified. It is shown that the concept of sustainable development has undergone a long evolution and continues to develop in accordance with new global challenges. Sustainable development is associated with the formation of a fundamentally new attitude towards man: on the one hand, as a subject of the ecological and economic system, on the other hand, as the main goal of its development. It is substantiated that the transition to sustainable development on a global scale is possible only with the obligatory condition of coherence of all objects and subjects of this process, which is systemic in nature and connects all levels of the socio-economic system (the global, national, regional, local one and various spheres of its functioning (the economic, social, ecological one.

The Reality of Sustaining Community-Based Sport and Physical Activity Programs to Enhance the Development of Underserved Youth: Challenges and Potential Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Whitley, Meredith A.; Forneris, Tanya; Barker, Bryce

2015-01-01

Many community-based sport and physical activity programs take a positive youth development approach when operating in underserved communities around the world (Forneris, Whitley, & Barker, 2013). However, one of the biggest challenges for these programs is sustainability (Lindsey, 2008). The purpose of this article is to present the 3…

Sustainable development of Russian regions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. D. Kuz’menkova

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development of administrative-territorial units (ATU refers to the main directions of Russian Federation state policy to ensure the security of the national economy to meet the vital needs of people and the preservation of such a possibility for the future generations. The article describes and analyzes the factors that have the most significant impact on the level of ATE development. The dynamics of the gross output of agriculture in Russia and its critical evaluation are presents. It was revealed that the development of the region is the basis of the national economy security. At present, the concept of “sustainable development” in Russia is relevant and the role of regions in the sustainable development of the Russian Federation is constantly increasing. Stability of self-financing of the regional economy is achieved through conducting effective fiscal, financial, credit, tax and price policy, establishment of equal inter-budgetary relations with the federal center, the development of the securities market, increasing the volume of exports. Conducted research allowed: to identify the main factors influencing the sustainable development of Russia regions. The reasons for the backlog of economy of the Smolensk region of the nationwide growth rate and direction of their elimination are examined. Formation of the forecast of domestic agriculture development in the period up to 2020 should be based on the priority position of the industry in the agricultural sector, which is determined by its decisive role in meeting the population’s needs for basic food products. Prospective volumes of production of major agricultural products are based on the need to meet the challenges provided by the Russian Federation Government Decree.

Urbanisation, industrialisation and sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Langeweg, F.; Hilderink, H.; Maas, R.

2000-03-01

Two important transformations of the past century are described: industrialisation and urbanisation. These transformations will continue in the new century and create policy challenges because the use of land, materials and energy will increasingly meet natural limits or be constrained by intergenerational equity arguments. New local and international institutional arrangements will be required to meet these challenges. Increased public participation and involvement of private companies will be needed in order to balance the different perspectives on sustainable development. The UN can show leadership because of the global character of many environmental problems and the growing need for environmental and social minimum requirements in the global liberalised market. 17 refs

CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND SUSTAINABLE RURAL DEVELOPMENT. THEORY AND BEST PRACTICE: A CHALLENGE FOR ROMANIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ADRIANO CIANI

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy through the Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030 needs take into consideration the EU’ package from December 2015 concerning the achievement of the Circular Economy under the vision of the 3R - Recycle, Reuse, Reduce. The concept of Circular Economy has started to develop in response to the crisis of the traditional model and the need to deal with limited resources. A key role in the pursuit and implementation of circular economy is taken by investments in innovation and technologies that enhance the scraps of industrial and / or agricultural sectors. This can lead not only to a reduction of waste and hence environmental impacts but also in net savings for businesses of up to 604 billion Euros throughout the European Union, in line with the global framework (Sustainable Development Goals 2015 -2030. The paper try to demonstrate through an inductive model, several tables, figures and our analysis that the success of the Strategy of Sustainable Development depend, in the next years, by the application of the best practices of the Circular Economy.

Interpreting sustainable development

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

1998-01-01

Over the past decade, the term" sustainable development"has emerged as the principal concept in the development field. The concept emerged in the 1970s and was first promoted in the international environmental and development communities with the publication of the " world conservation strategy"(1980). It was popularized by the Brundtland report, " Our common future"(1987). The Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development as " development which meets the needs of the present, without compromising the sustainability of future generation to meet their own needs". The Earth Summit(1992) established "sustainable development" as the most important policy of the 21st century. Since then, the relationship between development and environment has been widely discussed and sustainabale development is now an important part of the vocabulary of environmental policy research and analysis. In this paper, we begin by tracing the evolution of the concept of sustainable development. Definitions of sustainable development in ecology, economics and sociology are then explored and discussed. This paper also examine the contribution that a broadly-based concept of sustainable development can make: as a goal, an attitude and as a guiding principle for integrating economic development and environmental protection.

How to Educate Engineers for/in Sustainable Development: Ten Years of Discussion, Remaining Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Mulder, Karel F.; Segalas, Jordi; Ferrer-Balas, Didac

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the process of changing engineering universities towards sustainable development (SD). It outlines the types of changes needed, both in respect of approaches, visions, philosophies and cultural change, which are crucial for engineering universities which want to implement sustainable development as…

Gaz de France and the sustainable development in 2005

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-01-01

This booklet provides information on the Gaz de France group involvement in the sustainable development: the stakes, the approach, the energy challenge answers, the security and the solidarity and the active part in the territories development. (A.L.B.)

Sustainable development in a post-Brundtland world

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sneddon, Chris [Environmental Studies Program and Department of Geography, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755 (United States); Howarth, Richard B. [Environmental Studies Program, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755 (United States); Norgaard, Richard B. [Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

2006-05-01

Not yet two decades after the publication of Our Common Future, the world's political and environmental landscape has changed significantly. Nonetheless, we argue that the concept and practice of sustainable development (SD) - as guiding institutional principle, as concrete policy goal, and as focus of political struggle - remains salient in confronting the multiple challenges of this new global order. Yet how SD is conceptualized and practiced hinges crucially on: the willingness of scholars and practitioners to embrace a plurality of epistemological and normative perspectives on sustainability; the multiple interpretations and practices associated with the evolving concept of 'development'; and efforts to open up a continuum of local-to-global public spaces to debate and enact a politics of sustainability. Embracing pluralism provides a way out of the ideological and epistemological straightjackets that deter more cohesive and politically effective interpretations of SD. Using pluralism as a starting point for the analysis and normative construction of sustainable development, we pay particular attention to how an amalgam of ideas from recent work in ecological economics, political ecology and the 'development as freedom' literature might advance the SD debate beyond its post-Brundtland quagmire. Enhanced levels of ecological degradation, vast inequalities in economic opportunities both within and across societies, and a fractured set of institutional arrangements for global environmental governance all represent seemingly insurmountable obstacles to a move towards sustainability. While these obstacles are significant, we suggest how they might be overcome through a reinvigorated set of notions and practices associated with sustainable development, one that explicitly examines the linkages between sustainability policies and sustainability politics. (author)

Sustainable urban development and the multi-level transition perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Næss, Petter; Vogel, Nina

2012-01-01

This article discusses some challenges and possible adaptations of transition theory as a framework for analyzing the prospects for environmentally more sustainable development of urban land use and transport infrastructure. Rather than depending first and foremost on niche innovations......, a transition toward sustainable urban development is a matter of changing the composition of existing multisegmented land use and transportation regimes. Those well-experienced forms of built environment and transport infrastructure that are in line with sustainability objectives should be strengthened while...... those that are not should be actively constrained and reduced. Urban development in a Danish provincial city is used as a case to illustrate some of the points made in the theoretical part of the article. Due to the wide gap between present conditions and those required to realize a sustainable urban...

The clean development mechanism's contribution to sustainable development: A review of the literature

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Karen Holm

2007-01-01

The challenges of how to respond to climate change and ensure sustainable development are currently high on the political agenda among the world's leading nations. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is part of the global carbon market developing rapidly as part of the Kyoto response towards...

Sustaining the rural workforce: nursing perspectives on worklife challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Hunsberger, Mabel; Baumann, Andrea; Blythe, Jennifer; Crea, Mary

2009-01-01

Concerns have been raised about the sustainability of health care workforces in rural settings. According to the literature, rural nurses' work satisfaction varies with the resources and supports available to respond to specific challenges. Given the probable effects of stressors on retention, it is essential to understand the unique requirements of nurses in rural practice environments. To investigate whether nurses receive the resources and supports necessary to meet the challenges of rural practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 managers and 44 staff nurses in 19 selected rural hospitals in Ontario, Canada. The interviews were taped and transcripts interpreted through a thematic analysis. Major worklife themes were identified and analyzed within a healthy work environment model based on the work of Kristensen. Three interrelated dimensions of the model were relevant to workforce sustainability: the balance between demands and the resources of the person, the level of social support, and the degree of influence. The availability of resources and supports affected whether the nurses perceived challenges as stimulating or overwhelming. Deficits interfered with practice and the well-being of the nurses and patients. The nurses felt frustrated and powerless when they lacked resources, support, and influence to manage negative situations. Strategies to achieve workforce sustainability include resources to reduce stress in the workplace, education to meet the needs of new and experienced nurses, and offering of employment preferences to the workforce. Addressing resources, support, and influence of rural nurses is essential to alleviate workplace challenges and sustain the rural nursing workforce.

The Sustainable Development of Space: Astro-environmental and dynamical considerations

Science.gov (United States)

Boley, Aaron; Byers, Michael; Russell, Sara

2018-04-01

The sustainable development of space is a global (and exo-global) challenge that is not limited by borders or research disciplines. Sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". While the development of space brings new economic and scientific possibilities, it also carries significant political, legal, and technical uncertainties. For example, the rapidly increasing accessibility of space is motivating states to unilaterally adopt legislation for the new era of space use, which may have significant unintended consequences, such as increased risks to space assets, disputes among state as well as non-state actors, and changes to unique astro-environments. Any policy or legal position must be informed by the dynamical and astrophysical realities of space use, creating complex and interwoven challenges. Here, we explore several of these potential challenges related to astro-environmentalism, space minining operations, and the associated dynamics.

Using Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aurel Gabriel SIMIONESCU

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Regarding energy, the greatest global challenges is ensuring growing demand to provide access to energy and to substantially reduce the sector's contribution to climate change. The aim of this article is to analyze the current situation of renewable in the EU and Member States' targets for sustainable and ecological development in context of Europe 2020. Wind power was proposed a significant increase to 494.7 TWh in 2020, for photovoltaic to 83.3 TWh and 370.3 TWh for hydropower. Sustainable development by promoting the use of renewable resources may be limited by constraints of infrastructure integration but also by economic factors and technologies.

Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Wall, K

2010-10-01

Full Text Available to contribute to greater international understanding of the issues, challenges and opportunities facing engineering, with a particular focus on contributions of our discipline to sustainable development. The Report, one of the most cost-effective reports UNESCO...

Sustainable development and low carbon growth strategy for India

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parikh, Kirit

2012-01-01

For India, sustainable strategy means one that is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. This calls for rapid economic growth to deal with poverty and human development. However, the relatively meagre energy resources of the country pose a huge challenge. At the same time concern for climate change has raised the bar on the use of the one energy resource that India has in some abundance, namely coal. India's strategy for sustainable development has to explore all options of reducing energy needs, enhancing efficiency of use of conventional energy resources and develop new and renewable sources. The paper identifies various technical options, their potential roles and alternative policy measures to realize them in a cost effective manner. Even for the same objectives different policy instruments are available and how one chooses a particular instrument is often critical for the success. Self-implementing incentive compatible policy that does not create vested interests that would get entrenched should be preferred. -- Highlights: ► Energy efficiency is critical for sustainable development. ► India can reduce its emission intensity by 25 % by 2020 as proposed by India at Copenhagen. ► With a more aggressive effort even 35% reduction is attainable even with 8% or 9% growth. ► Energy efficient appliances, vehicles, buildings and industrial processes are needed. ► Policies that incentivize adoption of these pose critical challenges.

The Cogema Group and the sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2002-01-01

This document presents the COGEMA Group commitment to sustainable development. Through this commitment, COGEMA is pursuing a policy of ''global performance'' allying economic progress, social progress and protection of the environment, in all its activities. This report points out the many contributions that COGEMA activities make to sustainable development: monitoring of the environment and of releases from its facilities; progress in Research and Development (treatment of liquid and gas effluents, optimized recycling of spent nuclear materials and reduction of their volume, etc.); certification; support for local economic development in the areas around the Group sites, not only in France, but also abroad, as at the mines in Canada and Niger; a strong policy of openness and transparency in its nuclear activities and ongoing dialogue with NGO. The document lays the bases for a number of indicators that can be used as of next year to measure the Group contribution to meeting the challenges of sustainable development. More-detailed statistical data are also presented in the annual environmental reports from the industrial sites in the COGEMA Group. (A.L.B.)

The contribution of bacterial genome engineering to sustainable development.

Science.gov (United States)

Reuß, Daniel R; Commichau, Fabian M; Stülke, Jörg

2017-09-01

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals define important challenges for the prosperous development of mankind. To reach several of these goals, among them the production of value-added compounds, improved economic and ecologic balance of production processes, prevention of climate change and protection of ecosystems, the use of engineered bacteria can make valuable contributions. We discuss the strategies for genome engineering and how they can be applied to meet the United Nations' goals for sustainable development. © 2017 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology.

Environmental challenges to the mangrove wetlands of North Malabar (Kerala, India: Their sustainable development and influence on local people

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C.A. Jaleel

2009-05-01

Full Text Available Wetlands, including mangroves, perform several functions such as inundation control, and protection from erosion, storm, floods and tidal damage, and generate goods and products such as fish and forest resources. These functions are of fundamental importance for society. The present study aims to identify the challenges of the mangrove wetlands of north Malabar, their uses and socio-economic influence on local people, and the value of ecosystem services, and to suggest the way forward for sustainable development.

Knowledge Management for Sustainable Development: The Case ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper seeks to demonstrate that knowledge management (KM) is a function of sustainable development (SD). The authors define the two concepts and discuss both the factors that make for successful SD process and the challenges that characterize KM. The conclusion reached is hat KM is emerging as a powerful ...

Developing a Sustainable Academic Workforce in Paramedicine

Science.gov (United States)

O'Meara, Peter; Maguire, Brian

2018-01-01

Paramedics are an integral part of the Australian healthcare system and are increasingly requested to provide a growing array of services in support of improved community health. Currently there are over 6,000 undergraduate paramedic students. A pressing challenge is the development and sustainability of a dedicated group of university paramedic…

Linked sustainability challenges and trade-offs among fisheries, aquaculture and agriculture.

Science.gov (United States)

Blanchard, Julia L; Watson, Reg A; Fulton, Elizabeth A; Cottrell, Richard S; Nash, Kirsty L; Bryndum-Buchholz, Andrea; Büchner, Matthias; Carozza, David A; Cheung, William W L; Elliott, Joshua; Davidson, Lindsay N K; Dulvy, Nicholas K; Dunne, John P; Eddy, Tyler D; Galbraith, Eric; Lotze, Heike K; Maury, Olivier; Müller, Christoph; Tittensor, Derek P; Jennings, Simon

2017-09-01

Fisheries and aquaculture make a crucial contribution to global food security, nutrition and livelihoods. However, the UN Sustainable Development Goals separate marine and terrestrial food production sectors and ecosystems. To sustainably meet increasing global demands for fish, the interlinkages among goals within and across fisheries, aquaculture and agriculture sectors must be recognized and addressed along with their changing nature. Here, we assess and highlight development challenges for fisheries-dependent countries based on analyses of interactions and trade-offs between goals focusing on food, biodiversity and climate change. We demonstrate that some countries are likely to face double jeopardies in both fisheries and agriculture sectors under climate change. The strategies to mitigate these risks will be context-dependent, and will need to directly address the trade-offs among Sustainable Development Goals, such as halting biodiversity loss and reducing poverty. Countries with low adaptive capacity but increasing demand for food require greater support and capacity building to transition towards reconciling trade-offs. Necessary actions are context-dependent and include effective governance, improved management and conservation, maximizing societal and environmental benefits from trade, increased equitability of distribution and innovation in food production, including continued development of low input and low impact aquaculture.

World congress on sustainable development: engineering and technological challenges of 21st century. Technical V. 2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

Sustainable development as a concept came to force only after the developed nations started getting undesirable fallout of development on local and global environment due to indiscriminate resource exploitation. The concept of sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs. This volume contains some papers dealing with sustainable development in energy sector. The papers relevant to INIS is indexed separately

Novel combustion concepts for sustainable energy development

CERN Document Server

Agarwal, Avinash K; Gupta, Ashwani K; Aggarwal, Suresh K; Kushari, Abhijit

2014-01-01

This book comprises research studies of novel work on combustion for sustainable energy development. It offers an insight into a few viable novel technologies for improved, efficient and sustainable utilization of combustion-based energy production using both fossil and bio fuels. Special emphasis is placed on micro-scale combustion systems that offer new challenges and opportunities. The book is divided into five sections, with chapters from 3-4 leading experts forming the core of each section. The book should prove useful to a variety of readers, including students, researchers, and professionals.

Universities' Contributions to Sustainable Development's Social Challenge : A Case Study of a Social Innovation Practice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Juliani, Douglas; Silva, Ania; Cunha, Jorge; Benneworth, Paul Stephen

2017-01-01

There is an increasing recognition that dealing with sustainable development need to address the social structures that encourage unsustainable economic and environmental practices. Universities represent important sources of knowledge for addressing sustainable development, but there has been

Implementation of national sustainable development strategy 2010-2013, towards a green and fair economy. First report to Parliament

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

This report proposes a presentation of the strategy by distinguishing several challenges. For each of them, the report describes the context, presents a key measure or a key indicator, describes the different strategic choices, and gives some quantitative objectives. These challenges are: sustainable consumption and production, knowledge society (education and training, research and development), governance, climate change and energy, sustainable transport and mobility, biodiversity and natural resource preservation and management, public health and risk prevention and management, demography, immigration and social inclusion, international challenges in terms of sustainable development and poverty in the word. A table precisely presents the various sustainable development indicators

Challenges in energy supply and infrastructural development in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

On the overall, developing countries must address the eminent energy challenges and invest more towards energy security as the key to industrialization and economic development. National energy mix must also be diversified to cover alternative fuels and renewable energy sources to ensure sustainability. Keywords: ...

Challenges in managing and sustaining urban slum health ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Challenges in managing and sustaining urban slum health programmes in Kenya. ... These were hardly implemented in the projects, according to the data gathered. ... Conclusion: Land and income were big issues according to the responses.

The human right to sustainable development in solidarity with Nature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anya Teresa Parrilla Díaz

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This article addresses the issue of human development as a universal right subjected to the welfare of Nature. Nature is presented as supporter of life and supplier of the essential resources needed to achieve a complete human development. In light of the global ecological crisis, the author proposes sustainable development as the central framework for a new human development that can be fairer to Nature and to mankind. The challenge of sustainable human development consists in viewing Nature from an ethical perspective of human rights and solidarity.

Advances and challenges in sustainable tourism toward a green economy.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Shu-Yuan; Gao, Mengyao; Kim, Hyunook; Shah, Kinjal J; Pei, Si-Lu; Chiang, Pen-Chi

2018-09-01

This paper provides an overview of the interrelationships between tourism and sustainability from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The current challenges and barriers in the tourism sustainability, such as high energy use, extensive water consumption and habitat destruction, are first reviewed. Then the key cross-disciplinary elements in sustainable tourism, including green energy, green transportation, green buildings, green infrastructure, green agriculture and smart technologies, are discussed. To overcome the challenges and barriers, a few implementation strategies on achieving sustainable tourism from the aspects of policy/regulation, institution, finance, technology and culture are proposed, along with the framework and details of a key performance indicator system. Finally, prospects of the potential for tourism to contribute to the transformative changes, e.g., a green economy system, are illustrated. This paper shine a light on issues of importance within sustainable tourism and encourage researchers from different disciplines in investigating the inter-relationships among community/culture, environment/ecology, and energy/water/food more broadly. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sustainable transportation initiatives in developing countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Figueroa, M.J.

2000-01-01

covered 10 different thematic sessions and more than 30 presentations representing the mutually reinforcing dimensions of sustainable transport development: economic, environmental, social, institutional, technological and global change challenges. The last section summarised future directions and advances propositions on how to move from ideas to practice building up on the solid contribution of this workshop. (EHS)

Sustainable transportation initiatives in developing countries

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Figueroa, M J [ed.

2000-03-01

covered 10 different thematic sessions and more than 30 presentations representing the mutually reinforcing dimensions of sustainable transport development: economic, environmental, social, institutional, technological and global change challenges. The last section summarised future directions and advances propositions on how to move from ideas to practice building up on the solid contribution of this workshop. (EHS)

Sustainable Development and High Level Waste

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jensen, Mikael [Swedish Radiation Protection Inst., Stockholm (Sweden)

2001-07-01

Sustainable development, defined by the BrundtIand Commission as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs', relates to a number of issues such as population, health, food, species and ecosystems, energy, industrial development, urbanization, societal issues and economy, and how these global challenges could be met within a long term strategy. It is not obvious how the principle may be applied to final disposal of radioactive waste, but the global scope of the principle suggests that no sector in society should be exempted from scrutinizing its practices in the light of the challenge presented by sustainable development. Waste management, as pointed out by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, ICRP, cannot be seen as a free standing practice in need of its own justification. The produced waste cannot be seen separately from the other components of nuclear production. However, the existence of very long-lived radioactive nuclei in the spent fuel warrants a careful examination of this subpractice. Health based post-closure criteria or standards for long-lived waste, usually make use of the concept of partitioning dose limit. ICRP recommends that individuals in the public do not receive a yearly dose in excess of 1 mSv as a result of releases in connection with activities involving the use of ionising radiation, and that any single facility does not generate a dose burden to individuals in excess of a fraction of this value. For an operating facility, this fraction is normally at least a factor of three. By definition, operational changes are not possible for a closed repository. It follows from this that the partitioning has another function. One interpretation is that it can allow for the simultaneous use and burdens of future generation's activities. Both the Swedish and the proposed US criteria and from EPA and NRC, as well as standards from

Sustainable Development and High Level Waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jensen, Mikael

2001-01-01

Sustainable development, defined by the BrundtIand Commission as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs', relates to a number of issues such as population, health, food, species and ecosystems, energy, industrial development, urbanization, societal issues and economy, and how these global challenges could be met within a long term strategy. It is not obvious how the principle may be applied to final disposal of radioactive waste, but the global scope of the principle suggests that no sector in society should be exempted from scrutinizing its practices in the light of the challenge presented by sustainable development. Waste management, as pointed out by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, ICRP, cannot be seen as a free standing practice in need of its own justification. The produced waste cannot be seen separately from the other components of nuclear production. However, the existence of very long-lived radioactive nuclei in the spent fuel warrants a careful examination of this subpractice. Health based post-closure criteria or standards for long-lived waste, usually make use of the concept of partitioning dose limit. ICRP recommends that individuals in the public do not receive a yearly dose in excess of 1 mSv as a result of releases in connection with activities involving the use of ionising radiation, and that any single facility does not generate a dose burden to individuals in excess of a fraction of this value. For an operating facility, this fraction is normally at least a factor of three. By definition, operational changes are not possible for a closed repository. It follows from this that the partitioning has another function. One interpretation is that it can allow for the simultaneous use and burdens of future generation's activities. Both the Swedish and the proposed US criteria and from EPA and NRC, as well as standards from Canada, UK and

A future task for health-promotion research: Integration of health promotion and sustainable development.

Science.gov (United States)

Jelsøe, Erling; Thualagant, Nicole; Holm, Jesper; Kjærgård, Bente; Andersen, Heidi Myglegård; From, Ditte-Marie; Land, Birgit; Pedersen, Kirsten Bransholm

2018-02-01

Based on previous studies and reflections collected from participants in a workshop at the 8th Nordic Health Promotion Research Network conference, we reveal current tendencies and discuss future challenges for health-promotion research regarding integration of sustainable development principles. Despite obvious interfaces and interactions between the two, our contention is that strategies for health promotion are not sufficiently integrated with strategies for sustainable development and that policies aimed at solving health or sustainability problems may therefore cause new, undesired and unforeseen environmental and health problems. As illustrated in previous research and as deliberated in the above-mentioned workshop, a number of barriers are identified. These are believed to be related to historical segregation, the conceptual understandings of health promotion and sustainable development, as well as the politics and implementation of policy goals in both areas. Three focal points are proposed as important challenges to address in future research: (a) the duality of health promotion and sustainability and how it can be handled in order to enhance mutually supportive processes between them; (b) the social dimension of sustainability and how it can be strengthened in the development of strategies for health promotion and sustainable development; and (c) exploring and identifying policy approaches and strategies for integrating health promotion and sustainable development.

[Health and the green economy: challenges for sustainable development and the eradication of poverty].

Science.gov (United States)

Gallo, Edmundo; Setti, Andréia Faraoni Freitas; Magalhães, Danielly de Paiva; Machado, Jorge Mesquita Huet; Buss, Daniel Forsin; Franco Netto, Francisco de Abreu; Buss, Paulo Marchiori

2012-06-01

In a scenario where ecosystemic services are being eroded and there is high social inequity, a new model of development is necessary, namely one capable of promoting social development with a reduction of its ecological footprint. The 'Green Economy' model is one of the proposed models. This paper seeks to analyze the environmental, social and individual impacts on human health in the context of a 'brown economy', and discusses the contributions of a green economy on the promotion of equity and health. The assumption is that economic development and environmental sustainability are not incompatible and both contribute to the eradication of poverty. The transition to a sustainable economy depends on political decisions, and transcends technological developments. Above all, it should instigate new models of production, consumption and social organization, which promote socio-environmental justice, encouraging social participation and democratic forms of governance to define a solid agenda for the implementation of sustainable development and mechanisms to implement them at all levels.

Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment: Evaluating Residential Development Sustainability in a Developing Country Context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tan Yigitcanlar

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Rapid urbanization, improved quality of life, and diversified lifestyle options have collectively led to an escalation in housing demand in our cities, where residential areas, as the largest portion of urban land use type, play a critical role in the formation of sustainable cities. To date there has been limited research to ascertain residential development layouts that provide a more sustainable urban outcome. This paper aims to evaluate and compare sustainability levels of residential types by focusing on their layouts. The paper scrutinizes three different development types in a developing country context—i.e., subdivision, piecemeal, and master-planned developments. This study develops a “Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment” tool and applies it to compare their sustainability levels in Ipoh, Malaysia. The analysis finds that the master-planned development, amongst the investigated case studies, possesses the potential to produce higher levels of sustainability outcomes. The results reveal insights and evidence for policymakers, planners, development agencies and researchers; advocate further studies on neighborhood-level sustainability analysis, and; emphasize the need for collective efforts and an effective process in achieving neighborhood sustainability and sustainable city formation.

Development and analysis of an index of energetic sustainability using fuzzy logic

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Santos, Francisco Carlos Barbosa dos

2010-01-01

Sustainable Development is one the most frequently addressed issues nowadays and the search for its comprehension is a major challenge for researchers. Nevertheless, to reach its understanding and the relations comprised (economic, social, environmental and institutional dimensions) is not the only challenge. To measure the route for a society development is an equally important matter, mainly due to intrinsic relations among environment, society and economy. This work presents a new approach in the construction of a synthetic index for sustainable development, under the point of view of energy sustainability. This methodology was based on mathematical archetypes structured in Fuzzy Logics, thus allowing the incorporation of new knowledge bases, even with vague definitions. The final result is the creation of an Energy Sustainability Index that may be accompanied along the time, allowing comparisons among countries, since it uses a database from the 'Guia de Indicadores Energeticos de Desenvolvimento Sustentavel' (Guide of Energy Indicators for Sustainable Development) from the IAEA. This guide presents an energy indicator methodology worldwide accepted and it was conceived to be similar to other indicators, such as the 'Indice de Desenvolvimento Humano (IDH)' (Human Development Index), developed by The United Nations Organization and which is of easy comprehension, since it is represented by a number between zero and one. (author)

Interdependences between sustainable development and sustainable economy

OpenAIRE

Emilia Mioara CÂMPEANU; Carmen Valentina RĂDULESCU

2014-01-01

Sustainable development and sustainable economy are mostly used concepts. Understanding clearly their meaning allows their use in an appropriate context and, therefore, their boundaries in terms of theoretical and practical approaches on which occasion it can be given their interdependencies. The paper aim is to analyze the interdependences between sustainable development and sustainable economy.

A Reformed CDM - including new mechanisms for sustainable development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holm Olsen, K; Fenhann, J

2009-07-01

The annual CD4CDM Perspectives Series features a topic of pivotal importance to the global carbon market. The series seeks to communicate the diverse insights and visions of leading actors in the carbon market to better inform the decisions of professionals and policymakers in developing countries. The second theme of the series focuses on how the CDM can be reformed in a post-2012 climate regime, including new mechanism for sustainable development. Seventeen contributors from the private sector, Designated National Authorities, the Executive Board, research, and development agencies present their perspective on meeting challenges such as the unequal regional distribution of CDM projects, concerns about environmental integrity and technology transfer, complex governance procedures, and questions about the CDM's contribution to sustainable development. The new ideas and solutions to these challenges proposed by the authors in this edition of Perspectives have been solicited to help professionals and policy makers make the best decisions in the lead-up to COP 15 in Copenhagen and beyond. (au)

A Reformed CDM - including new mechanisms for sustainable development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holm Olsen, K.; Fenhann, J.

2009-07-01

The annual CD4CDM Perspectives Series features a topic of pivotal importance to the global carbon market. The series seeks to communicate the diverse insights and visions of leading actors in the carbon market to better inform the decisions of professionals and policymakers in developing countries. The second theme of the series focuses on how the CDM can be reformed in a post-2012 climate regime, including new mechanism for sustainable development. Seventeen contributors from the private sector, Designated National Authorities, the Executive Board, research, and development agencies present their perspective on meeting challenges such as the unequal regional distribution of CDM projects, concerns about environmental integrity and technology transfer, complex governance procedures, and questions about the CDM's contribution to sustainable development. The new ideas and solutions to these challenges proposed by the authors in this edition of Perspectives have been solicited to help professionals and policy makers make the best decisions in the lead-up to COP 15 in Copenhagen and beyond. (au)

Mimicking natural ecosystems to develop sustainable supply chains : A theory of socio-ecological intergradation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gruner, Richard L.; Power, Damien

2017-01-01

For most firms, the development of sustainable supply chain practices remains challenging. Using a theory-building approach, we develop a theory of socio-ecological intergradation to provide managers with guidance in mimicking natural ecosystems to develop more local and thus sustainable supply

Financing University Education for Sustainable Development in Nigeria: Issues and Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Chukwu, Leo C.; Chinyelugo, Agada Fidelia; Eze, S. G. N.

2017-01-01

The paper explained the concept university and the objectives of university education. Sustainable development and its purpose were then explained. The paper went further to analyze the various sources of financing the universities, including; the governments, endowment, and consultancy amongst others. The role of the universities in the…

San Andres, Providence and Santa Catalina: a challenge of sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodriguez S, Liliana

2003-01-01

Satisfactorily to implement the postulates of Biosphere Reserve Sea flower in the Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina demands to conjugate national, regional and local efforts in order to surpass the complex economic and social situation untied in this zone of the country after the loss of competitiveness and benefits that the model of Free Port meant to him from 1953 and which they have let perceive itself from principles of the Nineties when Colombia adopted the economic opening like development policy, changes that have resulted in the deterioration of the natural resources and the atmosphere of the islands and finally in the quality of life of their inhabitants and that imposes to this zone of the national territory the challenge to reach the balance man-nature that implies the concept of Biosphere Reserve, category acquired by the Archipelago before UNESCO in the 2000 The absence of agreed economic model with geographic, space, social, cultural and environmental conditions of the Archipelago, together with factors like: (i) political national that does not know the particularities and specificities of this zone of the country, (ii) inter institutional lack of joint in the different levels from the public administration which they concur there, (iii) absence of operation of the Gobernacion Departamental like administrator of the regional public management, (IV) absence of effectiveness population policy to control their indiscriminate increase and (v) lack of social conscience of inhabitants as visitors of the islands with respect to the adapted use of their natural resources and its constitutional and legal obligations to participate in the management like executors or veedors, among other aspects, jeopardizes their development in order to reach the environmental sustainability

Disaster risk reduction and sustainable development for small island developing states

OpenAIRE

Shultz, James M.; Cohen, Madeline A.; Hermosilla, Sabrina; Espinel, Zelde; McLean, Andrew

2016-01-01

In contrast to continental nations, the world's 52 small island developing states (SIDS) are recognized as a collective of countries that experience disproportionate challenges for sustainable development related to their geography, small size, and physical isolation. These same states also face elevated risks for disaster incidence and consequences particularly in the realms of climate change, sea level rise, natural disasters (tropical cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes), and marine...

Successes and challenges of the millennium development goals in Ethiopia: lessons for the sustainable development goals.

Science.gov (United States)

Assefa, Yibeltal; Damme, Wim Van; Williams, Owain D; Hill, Peter S

2017-01-01

We analysed the performance of Ethiopia in achieving the health-related millennium development goals (MDGs) with the aim of acquiring lessons for the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Ethiopia achieved most of the health MDGs: a 67% reduction in under-five mortality, a 71% decline in maternal mortality ratio, a 90% decline in new HIV infections, a decrease in malaria-related deaths by 73% and a more than 50% decline in mortality due to tuberculosis. We argue that these achievements are due to implementation of a mix of comprehensive strategies within the health system and across other sectors of the government. Scaling up of interventions by disease control programmes (including the health extension programme) and strengthening of the health system have played important roles towards the achievements. These health gains could not have been realised without progress in the other MDGs: poverty reduction, education, access to safe drinking-water and peace and stability of the country. However, the gains were not equitable, with differences between urban and rural areas, among regions and socioeconomic strata. Ethiopia's remarkable success in meeting most of the targets of the health-related MDGs could be explained by its comprehensive and multisectoral approach for health development. The inequity gap remains a challenge that achieving the health-related SDGs requires the country to implement strategies, which specifically target more marginal populations and geographic areas. This also needs peace and stability, without which it is almost impossible to improve health.

The sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2004-01-01

In the framework of the sustainable development week (june 2003), Actu Environnement published a complete document on the sustainable development to inform the public, recall the main steps of this notion (Rio conference and the following conferences) and the possible employments. It presents also the main organizations acting in the sustainable development domain. (A.L.B.)

Coaching bioethically with the purpose of achieving sustainable development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Striedinger-Meléndez, Martha Patricia

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The present article analyzes the problematic of teaching and learning bioethics in the context of higher education, with an emphasis in medicine and aiming towards sustainable development. The objective is to expose that one of the alternatives to get to know bioethics in higher education institutions, is to coach each community bioethically. This means that the educator must be a role model for the students: not only teaching, but, living bioethically. In the beginning, it makes reference to the general aspects of bioethics and sustainable development to explain the evolution of these concepts, its situation in the present and the challenges of the future. Further, it focuses on the methodological strategies in the process of educating bio ethically, directed in leading students of higher education institutions with the purpose of achieving sustainable development. Yet, not achieving it in a traditional manner, since sustainable development also refers to wellbeing. Thus, coaching bioethically, which improves the way society functions. The conclusion is that institutions must give educators and students the tools for problem solving the priorities of humanity, such sustainable development. This can be achieved through bioethics.

Buenos Aires - Toward Comprehensive Development and Sustainable Mobility

Science.gov (United States)

Kamrowska-Zaluska, Dorota

2017-10-01

This paper is introducing Buenos Aires’ achievements and challenges in implementing comprehensive development and integrating efficient and sustainable transport system within its urban structure. There are several important steps in this process starting from urban regeneration of Puerto Madero, the introduction and then implementation of a strategic plan Modelo territorial (2010) and of Buenos Aires’ Plan de Movilidad Sustentable (2013). The last one - Sustainable Mobility Plan helped Buenos Aires win several prestigious rewards for innovative approach to mobility and sustainable transport and leadership in combating climate change. Buenos Aires City government demonstrates strong leadership by implementing well-planned (Bus Rapid Transport) BRT solutions, stressing the importance of political will and support, flexibility and an open mind in listening to the points of view of all stakeholders involved. Buenos Aires has made a very important step toward sustainability by supporting development of more sustainable modes of transport, such as bicycle-sharing system and improving walkability of the city centre. The last initiative combined with strong focus on public spaces is adding to tourist attractiveness based on diversity of the capital of Argentina.

Education for sustainable development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Breiting, Søren

2009-01-01

 An introduction to the idea of sustainable development (SD) and education for sustainable development (ESD) with reference to the international Decade for Education for Sustainable Development . The chapter includes a focus on conflicting interests between present and future generations related ...... to the use of natural resources and other matters, and how that kind of issues can be dealt with in education as ESD....... An introduction to the idea of sustainable development (SD) and education for sustainable development (ESD) with reference to the international Decade for Education for Sustainable Development . The chapter includes a focus on conflicting interests between present and future generations related...

A Postulate for Accelerated Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals and Principles

Science.gov (United States)

Kassenberg, Andrzej

2017-12-01

The last 30-year period has been increasingly important for sustainable development, as is evidenced by the UN's announcement of 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030. However, many megatrends continue to progress in the direction opposite to that meeting the needs of sustainable development. For the Earth and human civilisation to be protected, it is necessary for a new approach to be developed - a new order that might be termed the civilization/economics of enough, or of moderation. However, convincing societies, including that of Poland, in regard to the benefits of addressing the challenges sustainable development poses is not an easy task; even though a redirecting of the economy and of society along new paths will bring measurable benefits capable of compensating for the costs of transformation.

Sustainability benefits and challenges of inter-organizational collaboration in bio-based business

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nuhoff-Isakhanyan, Gohar; Wubben, Emiel F.M.; Omta, S.W.F.

2016-01-01

Bio-based businesses are often considered to be sustainable. However, they are also linked to sustainability challenges such as deforestation and soil erosion. Encouraged to exploit innovative solutions and enhance sustainability, organizations engaged in bio-based activities extensively explore

Renewable Energies and Sustainable Development: Challenges and Perspectives for Emerging Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kiwonghi Bizawu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This article proposes the study of sustainable development in the use of renewable resources by emerging countries. It is noted that the financing of projects and policies related to renewable energy is moving from developed countries to emerging nations. Studies indicate that it will take more targeted investments to fuel production area and power generation, which can set a problem for developing countries, since they do not have sufficient resources to diversify and expand their energy matrixes. The deductive method was adopted based on exploratory research.

Nuclear Power and Sustainable Development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-04-01

Any discussion of 21st century energy trends must take into account the global energy imbalance. Roughly 1.6 billion people still lack access to modern energy services, and few aspects of development - whether related to living standards, health care or industrial productivity - can take place without the requisite supply of energy. As we look to the century before us, the growth in energy demand will be substantial, and 'connecting the unconnected' will be a key to progress. Another challenge will be sustainability. How can we meet these growing energy needs without creating negative side effects that could compromise the living environment of future generations? Nuclear power is not a 'fix-all' option. It is a choice that has a place among the mix of solutions, and expectations for the expanding use of nuclear power are rising. In addition to the growth in demand, these expectations are driven by energy security concerns, nuclear power's low greenhouse gas emissions, and the sustained strong performance of nuclear plants. Each country must make its own energy choices; one size does not fit all. But for those countries interested in making nuclear power part of their sustainable development strategies, it is important that the nuclear power option be kept open and accessible

Challenges for sustainable resource use : Uncertainty, trade and climate policies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bretschger, L.; Smulders, Sjak A.

2012-01-01

We integrate new challenges to thinking about resource markets and sustainable resource use policies in a general framework. The challenges, emerging from six papers that JEEM publishes in a special issue, are (i) demand uncertainty and stockpiling, (ii) international trade and resource dependence,

Challenges for Sustainable Energy Sectors in Developing Countries- with Case Studies from Zambia, Zimbabwe, India and Thailand

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andersen, Regine

1998-12-31

Most of the developing countries have severe constraints on economic development caused by serious problems in their power sector. This report analyses the technical and financial situation of the sector from the perspective of sustainable electricity strategies. The core problem of the electricity sector is the complete lack of energy efficiency at all levels from generation to end user. The current emphasis on private participation in new electricity generation projects fails to solve the core problem and even diverts attention from the real challenge. An arm`s length relationship between governments and utilities is of central importance for a sound performance of the power sector. But more autonomous power sector decisions, such as reformed tariff structures, might contribute to inflation and political unrest. This is a main barrier to steps towards power sector autonomy. Another barrier is the lack of institutional capacity, despite over staffed utilities. Most important is the fact that the organizational structures are designed for supply-side management and that the incentive structures for good performance are often weak. The case of Thailand shows that end-use efficiency can be developed considerably by means of incentives and regulations and that transparency was an important condition for achieving this. The real challenge for development cooperation is to support the improvement of energy efficiency at all levels and the institutional and financial preconditions. It is also an important challenge to support developing countries in preparing for future utilization of viable new renewable energy carriers. Apart from this, it is important to continue the work for environmental impact assessments of planned power projects, and to support measures for minimizing the environmental impacts of old power plants. 48 refs., 2 figs.

Challenges for Sustainable Energy Sectors in Developing Countries- with Case Studies from Zambia, Zimbabwe, India and Thailand

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andersen, Regine

1997-12-31

Most of the developing countries have severe constraints on economic development caused by serious problems in their power sector. This report analyses the technical and financial situation of the sector from the perspective of sustainable electricity strategies. The core problem of the electricity sector is the complete lack of energy efficiency at all levels from generation to end user. The current emphasis on private participation in new electricity generation projects fails to solve the core problem and even diverts attention from the real challenge. An arm`s length relationship between governments and utilities is of central importance for a sound performance of the power sector. But more autonomous power sector decisions, such as reformed tariff structures, might contribute to inflation and political unrest. This is a main barrier to steps towards power sector autonomy. Another barrier is the lack of institutional capacity, despite over staffed utilities. Most important is the fact that the organizational structures are designed for supply-side management and that the incentive structures for good performance are often weak. The case of Thailand shows that end-use efficiency can be developed considerably by means of incentives and regulations and that transparency was an important condition for achieving this. The real challenge for development cooperation is to support the improvement of energy efficiency at all levels and the institutional and financial preconditions. It is also an important challenge to support developing countries in preparing for future utilization of viable new renewable energy carriers. Apart from this, it is important to continue the work for environmental impact assessments of planned power projects, and to support measures for minimizing the environmental impacts of old power plants. 48 refs., 2 figs.

Laying a solid foundation for sustainable development in Bolivian mountain villages

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kessler, A.

2008-01-01

In Bolivia, recent decentralisation policies have broadened the participation of local actors in development processes. However, development is far from sustainable, and poverty and natural resources degradation still increase. The challenge is to develop strategies that achieve the genuine

Sustaining China's electricity market development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Yang; Yu, Zichao; Ngan, H.W.; Tan, Zhongfu

2014-01-01

China's 12th Five-Year Plan addresses new challenges and sets new goals in the country's power sector. The structure of power generation development is to be optimised to properly balance coal transportation and power transmission. The controversy over the direction of grid transmission and distribution is also to be reconciled. The Plan puts forward specific requirements for energy conservation, developing clean energy, optimising the production of coal-fired electricity, rationalising the allocation of peak power, developing distributed energy and constructing a strong smart grid. It also strongly advocates renewable and other forms of clean energy resources. Considering all the above goals and requirements, it is necessary for China to adjust its blueprint for electricity market development by fine-tuning the original market-oriented reform momentum. This paper aims to design a policy framework for this and discusses how China should develop policies and strategies to meet these requirements and achieve these goals. Examples of compatible international experiences illustrate how China can secure a sustainable energy future. - Highlights: • This paper analyses the electricity market development in China. • Sustainable electricity market development strategies are identified in the paper. • A five-goal policy framework is established for sustaining China's EMD

The sustainability transition. Beyond conventional development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Raskin, P; Chadwick, M; Jackson, T; Leach, G

1996-10-01

This paper synthesizes findings of the first phase in SEI`s PoleStar Project - a project aimed at developing long-term strategies and policies for sustainable development. Taking a global and long-range perspective, the paper aims to describe a theoretical framework for addressing sustainability, to identify emerging issues and outline directions for future action. The paper begins by setting today`s development and environmental challenges in historical context, and describing the scenario method for envisioning and evaluating alternative futures, and identifying propitious areas for policy and action. It next summarizes a detailed scenario based on conventional development assumptions, and discusses the implications of this scenario for demographic and economic patterns, energy and water resources, land resources and agriculture, and pollution loads and the environment to the year 2050. The conventional scenario relies in part on the sectorally-oriented work discussed in Papers 3 through 6 of the PoleStar Project report series, and makes use of the PoleStar System, software designed for integrated resource, environment and socio-economic accounting and scenario analysis (described in Paper 2). The paper then examines the critical risks to social, resource and environmental systems lying ahead on the conventional development path. Finally, the paper surveys the requirements for sustainability across a number of policy dimensions, and raises key questions for the future. The PoleStar Project is proceeding to examine a range of alternative development scenarios, in the context of the work of the regionally-diverse Global Scenario Group, convened by SEI. The hope remains to offer wise counsel for a transition to an equitable, humane and sustainable future for the global community. 144 refs, 30 figs, 9 tabs

The sustainability transition. Beyond conventional development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Raskin, P.; Chadwick, M.; Jackson, T.; Leach, G.

1996-01-01

This paper synthesizes findings of the first phase in SEI's PoleStar Project - a project aimed at developing long-term strategies and policies for sustainable development. Taking a global and long-range perspective, the paper aims to describe a theoretical framework for addressing sustainability, to identify emerging issues and outline directions for future action. The paper begins by setting today's development and environmental challenges in historical context, and describing the scenario method for envisioning and evaluating alternative futures, and identifying propitious areas for policy and action. It next summarizes a detailed scenario based on conventional development assumptions, and discusses the implications of this scenario for demographic and economic patterns, energy and water resources, land resources and agriculture, and pollution loads and the environment to the year 2050. The conventional scenario relies in part on the sectorally-oriented work discussed in Papers 3 through 6 of the PoleStar Project report series, and makes use of the PoleStar System, software designed for integrated resource, environment and socio-economic accounting and scenario analysis (described in Paper 2). The paper then examines the critical risks to social, resource and environmental systems lying ahead on the conventional development path. Finally, the paper surveys the requirements for sustainability across a number of policy dimensions, and raises key questions for the future. The PoleStar Project is proceeding to examine a range of alternative development scenarios, in the context of the work of the regionally-diverse Global Scenario Group, convened by SEI. The hope remains to offer wise counsel for a transition to an equitable, humane and sustainable future for the global community. 144 refs, 30 figs, 9 tabs

HUMAN CAPITAL IN ECO-ECONOMY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF ROMANIA

OpenAIRE

Ion PETRESCU

2013-01-01

The current modern civilization and, in this context, the Romanian one, faces a great challenge in finding the most effective and practical methods of implying the human capital in the process of ensuring the eco-economic progress and the sustainable development one in which people to live in communion with nature. In our communication we aim to analyze issues related to human capital involvement in eco-economy and sustainable development of Romania, based on the assessment of the impact of t...

Challenges to achieving sustainable community health development within a donor aid business model.

Science.gov (United States)

Ashwell, Helen; Barclay, Lesley

2010-06-01

This paper explores the paradox of donor aid being delivered through a business model through a case study in Papua New Guinea. A retrospective review of project implementation and an outcome evaluation provided an opportunity to examine the long-term results and sustainability of a large project. Analysis was informed by data collected from 175 interviews (national, provincial, district and village), 93 community discussions and observations across 10 provinces. Problems with the business model of delivering aid were evident from implementation data and in an evaluation conducted two years after project completion (2006). Compounding the business model effect were challenges of over-ambitious project goals with limited flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, a donor payment system requiring short-term productivity and excessive reporting requirements. An overly ambitious project design, donor dominance within the business model and limited local counterpart capacity created problems in the community initiatives component of the project. Contractual pressures can negatively influence long-term outcomes that require development of local leadership and capacity. Future planning for donor project designs needs to be flexible, smaller in scope and have a longer timeframe of seven to 10 years. Donor-funded projects need to be sufficiently flexible to apply proven principles of community development, build local ownership and allow adequate time to build counterpart knowledge and skills.

Sustainable Urban Development – Compact Cities or Consumer Practices?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jesper Ole; Christensen, Toke Haunstrup; Gram-Hanssen, Kirsten

2011-01-01

Sustainability in urban planning has a long history and it has been a widespread solution to build high and compact in order to minimise the need for transportation, land use and heating. Recent research, however, points towards the need for a supplementary approach, which includes the consumer...... behaviour of the household. This approach necessarily has to work from below and include the citizens, as it is their daily practices that have to be challenged. This article reviews selected literature and studies on whether compact cities leads to more sustainable cities, and it use lifestyle...... strategies of achieving sustainable urban development....

Sustainability and in situ monitoring in battery development

Science.gov (United States)

Grey, C. P.; Tarascon, J. M.

2017-01-01

The development of improved rechargeable batteries represents a major technological challenge for this new century, as batteries constitute the limiting components in the shift from petrol (gasoline) powered to electric vehicles, while also enabling the use of more renewable energy on the grid. To minimize the ecological implications associated with their wider use, we must integrate sustainability of battery materials into our research endeavours, choosing chemistries that have a minimum footprint in nature and that are more readily recycled or integrated into a full circular economy. Sustainability and cost concerns require that we greatly increase the battery lifetime and consider second lives for batteries. As part of this, we must monitor the state of health of batteries continuously during operation to minimize their degradation. It is thus important to push the frontiers of operando techniques to monitor increasingly complex processes. In this Review, we will describe key advances in both more sustainable chemistries and operando techniques, along with some of the remaining challenges and possible solutions, as we personally perceive them.

Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Food Recovery Challenge (FRC) Data

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — As part of EPA's Food Recovery Challenge (FRC), organizations pledge to improve their sustainable food management practices and report their results. The FRC is part...

Recent Advances and Challenges towards Sustainable Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Production.

Science.gov (United States)

Kourmentza, Constantina; Plácido, Jersson; Venetsaneas, Nikolaos; Burniol-Figols, Anna; Varrone, Cristiano; Gavala, Hariklia N; Reis, Maria A M

2017-06-11

Sustainable biofuels, biomaterials, and fine chemicals production is a critical matter that research teams around the globe are focusing on nowadays. Polyhydroxyalkanoates represent one of the biomaterials of the future due to their physicochemical properties, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Designing efficient and economic bioprocesses, combined with the respective social and environmental benefits, has brought together scientists from different backgrounds highlighting the multidisciplinary character of such a venture. In the current review, challenges and opportunities regarding polyhydroxyalkanoate production are presented and discussed, covering key steps of their overall production process by applying pure and mixed culture biotechnology, from raw bioprocess development to downstream processing.

SWOT ANALYSIS AND STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN BANGLADESH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sanaul Haque Mondal

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Bangladesh is a small country with enormous natural beauty and cultural attractions. These gorgeous natural and cultural traits make this country as one of the important tourist destinations in the world but, this potentiality has been overlooked. The tourism industry is facing several challenges, and development efforts of this industry are not sustainable. This paper maps out a way to sustainable growth of the tourism industry in Bangladesh using the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats model and a derived matrix out of it. The data used for this study were derived from multiple sources, including literature review and interviews with professionals. To analyze strategic factors of the tourism industry in the country, internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats were determined to be followed by development of strategic planning based on the SWOT matrix. Results showed that existing tourism activities in Bangladesh are unsustainable. To develop a sustainable tourism industry to attract tourists, this study suggests different WT (weaknesses- threats strategies such as ensuring safety and security of tourists, effective planning for sustainable economic benefits, strict implementation of environmental regulations for ecological sustainability, alerting people about the importance of sustainable tourism development, and infrastructure development. Perhaps the findings of this study would be important in the effort to develop and promote a sustainable tourism industry in beautiful Bangladesh.

Creating and implementing a model for sustainable development in tourism enterprises

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kernel, Pernille Kern

2005-01-01

The quest for sustainable tourism presents a challenge to integrate economic, social and environmental issues in tourism planning and—in order to implement this—to change attitudes and traditions among the different stakeholders within tourism. This calls for involvement of the different stakehol......-step model for sustainable development in tourism enterprises. The question addressed is how to create a change process in the enterprises that is at the same time realistic and innovative....... stakeholders in the change processes towards sustainable tourism and, accordingly, the creation of new patterns of interaction and collaboration between the stakeholders. This paper analyses how a project on sustainable tourism development in Mid- and North Jutland, Denmark, has engaged 26 small and medium...

Project-organized learning and the development of competences in Engineering Education for Sustainable Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guerra, Aida; Holgaard, Jette Egelund; Kolmos, Anette

2013-01-01

by the complex and economically driven society and develop innovative technologies to solve and prevent sustainable problems. In this perspective, ESD experts have stressed sustainability aspects as well as cross-disciplinary competences, such as inter-disciplinarity, adaptability, problem solving, critical...... thinking, systems thinking, etc. It is argued that Problem-Based Learning (PBL) provides a suitable framework for developing the competences mentioned, but there is a lack of studies that investigate the room which PBL practice leaves for ESD. In this study, we aim to investigate the staff’s perception......The integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) principles has been claimed for all levels and areas of formal education. The integration of new kinds of competences, skills and knowledge into the engineering curricula aims to prepare future engineers to face the challenges posed...

The National Strategy of Ecological Transition towards Sustainable Development - International comparisons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kleiber, Florence; Vey, Frederic; Moreau, Sylvain; Bottin, Anne; Baudu-Baret, Claude

2017-05-01

The National Strategy of Ecological Transition towards Sustainable Development (SNTEDD) 2015-2020 follows on from the 2010-2013 National Strategy for Sustainable Development. Adopted at the Council of Ministers meeting of 4 February 2015, the SNTEDD identifies four major ecological challenges and nine strategic areas of action. The SNTEDD is monitored by 72 indicators developed via a collaborative process of selection implemented by a special commission of the National Council for Ecological Transition (CNTE) responsible for the indicators. This 'indicators' commission has sought to obtain a perspective on outcomes by means of international comparisons. This study presents initial elements of an analysis of France's situation compared with that of other countries (mostly EU or OECD members) with regard to each of the challenges and areas of action identified in the SNTEDD

A case study for sustainable development action using financial gradients

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bose, Arnab; Ramji, Aditya; Singh, Jarnail; Dholakia, Dhairya

2012-01-01

Energy access is critical for sustainable development and therefore financing energy access is a necessity. The key is whether to focus on grants or public finance for sustainable development projects or move to a more diffused financing mechanism, involving investment grade financing sources like debt and equity. In other words, financing sustainable development action via grants is becoming a constraint. To address this constraint, it is important to consider the relationship between the nature and sources of financial flows. The concept of ‘financial gradients’ emerged while analysing the financial and business strategy developed for Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) campaign. This paper espouses the idea of ‘financial gradients’ which is a potential financial mechanism for sustainable development action. Financial gradients, can contribute in three different ways—first, as an approach to analyse financial flows in projects; second, as a tool to generate a single, long term and stable inflow of finance; third, as a financial mechanism to help in creating long term strategies to sustain projects. This paper will concentrate on financial gradients as a potential approach to analyse financial flows in a sustainable development programme. - Highlights: ► Financial stability is a key challenge for sustainable development programmes. ► Development action via public funds is limited, need for investment grade finance. ► Need to understand financial flows with relation to nature and sources of finance. ► Financial gradients is an innovative tool for ensuring health of programmes.

Sustainability of cross-functional teams for marketing strategy development and implementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Kono, Ken; Antonucci, Don

2006-01-01

This article presents a case study on a cross-functional team used for marketing strategy development and execution at a health insurance company. The study found a set of success factors that contributed to the initial success of the team, but the factors were not enough to maintain the team's high level of productivity over time. The study later identified a set of 8 factors that helped sustain the team's high-productivity level. The 2 sets (ie, success and its subsequent sustainability factors) are analyzed against a normative model of team effectiveness. All the factors are explained by the normative model except for 1 sustainability factor, "challenge motivator." In fact, the study found the "challenge motivator" to be the most critical factor to keep up the team's productivity over time. Apart from a performance crisis, the authors developed 3 "challenge motivators"--first, more granular market information that could unearth hidden performance issues; second, constant value creation to shareholders as the firm being publicly traded; and third, the firm's strategic mandate to meet and exceed customer expectations that puts ultimate performance pressure on the marketing strategy team.

The Challenge of Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

AJRH Managing Editor

(local authorities, government agencies, private sector, and civil .... financing and service delivery gaps to achieve the goals. The private .... agenda needs not only to pay attention to ... Leach M (ed) (2015) Gender equality and sustainable.

Heterogeneity and scale of sustainable development in cities.

Science.gov (United States)

Brelsford, Christa; Lobo, José; Hand, Joe; Bettencourt, Luís M A

2017-08-22

Rapid worldwide urbanization is at once the main cause and, potentially, the main solution to global sustainable development challenges. The growth of cities is typically associated with increases in socioeconomic productivity, but it also creates strong inequalities. Despite a growing body of evidence characterizing these heterogeneities in developed urban areas, not much is known systematically about their most extreme forms in developing cities and their consequences for sustainability. Here, we characterize the general patterns of income and access to services in a large number of developing cities, with an emphasis on an extensive, high-resolution analysis of the urban areas of Brazil and South Africa. We use detailed census data to construct sustainable development indices in hundreds of thousands of neighborhoods and show that their statistics are scale-dependent and point to the critical role of large cities in creating higher average incomes and greater access to services within their national context. We then quantify the general statistical trajectory toward universal basic service provision at different scales to show that it is characterized by varying levels of inequality, with initial increases in access being typically accompanied by growing disparities over characteristic spatial scales. These results demonstrate how extensions of these methods to other goals and data can be used over time and space to produce a simple but general quantitative assessment of progress toward internationally agreed sustainable development goals.

Heterogeneity and scale of sustainable development in cities

Science.gov (United States)

Brelsford, Christa; Lobo, José; Hand, Joe

2017-01-01

Rapid worldwide urbanization is at once the main cause and, potentially, the main solution to global sustainable development challenges. The growth of cities is typically associated with increases in socioeconomic productivity, but it also creates strong inequalities. Despite a growing body of evidence characterizing these heterogeneities in developed urban areas, not much is known systematically about their most extreme forms in developing cities and their consequences for sustainability. Here, we characterize the general patterns of income and access to services in a large number of developing cities, with an emphasis on an extensive, high-resolution analysis of the urban areas of Brazil and South Africa. We use detailed census data to construct sustainable development indices in hundreds of thousands of neighborhoods and show that their statistics are scale-dependent and point to the critical role of large cities in creating higher average incomes and greater access to services within their national context. We then quantify the general statistical trajectory toward universal basic service provision at different scales to show that it is characterized by varying levels of inequality, with initial increases in access being typically accompanied by growing disparities over characteristic spatial scales. These results demonstrate how extensions of these methods to other goals and data can be used over time and space to produce a simple but general quantitative assessment of progress toward internationally agreed sustainable development goals. PMID:28461489

Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mathis Wackernagel

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The UN’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”, and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.

Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wackernagel, Mathis; Hanscom, Laurel; Lin, David

2017-01-01

The UN’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”), and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.

Making the Sustainable Development Goals Consistent with Sustainability

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wackernagel, Mathis, E-mail: mathis.wackernagel@footprintnetwork.org; Hanscom, Laurel; Lin, David [Global Footprint Network, Oakland, CA (United States)

2017-07-11

The UN’s Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) are the most significant global effort so far to advance global sustainable development. Bertelsmann Stiftung and the sustainable development solutions network released an SDG index to assess countries’ average performance on SDGs. Ranking high on the SDG index strongly correlates with high per person demand on nature (or “Footprints”), and low ranking with low Footprints, making evident that the SDGs as expressed today vastly underperform on sustainability. Such underperformance is anti-poor because lowest-income people exposed to resource insecurity will lack the financial means to shield themselves from the consequences. Given the significance of the SDGs for guiding development, rigorous accounting is essential for making them consistent with the goals of sustainable development: thriving within the means of planet Earth.

Sustainable Development as a Meta-Context for Engineering Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karel Mulder

2013-12-01

Full Text Available At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, there is unprecedented awareness of the need for a transformation in development, to meet the needs of the present while also preserving the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. However, within engineering, educators still tend to regard such development as an ‘aspect’ of engineering rather than an overarching meta-context, with ad hoc and highly variable references to topics. Furthermore, within a milieu of interpretations there can appear to be conflicting needs for achieving sustainable development, which can be confusing for students and educators alike. Different articulations of sustainable development can create dilemmas around conflicting needs for designers and researchers, at the level of specific designs and (sub- disciplinary analysis. Hence sustainability issues need to be addressed at a meta-level using a whole of system approach, so that decisions regarding these dilemmas can be made. With this appreciation, and in light of curriculum renewal challenges that also exist in engineering education, this paper considers how educators might take the next step to move from sustainable development being an interesting ‘aspect’ of the curriculum, to sustainable development as a meta-context for curriculum renewal. It is concluded that capacity building for such strategic considerations is critical in engineering education.

The joint discourse 'reflexive sustainable development'. From weak towards strong sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nilsen, Heidi Rapp

2010-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to contribute towards moving the predominant situation of weak sustainable development (WSD) in the direction of strong sustainable development (SSD). More people - academics, politicians, bureaucrats and laymen alike - need to recognize SSD as an alternative to WSD. A joint discourse of WSD and SSD is suggested, called reflexive sustainable development. Here, advocates of WSD and SSD must argue for each specific case why their solution is better. This will expose, amongst other things, the ethical foundations which form part of resulting policy advice. Reflexive sustainable development is to be framed in discourse ethics, thereby remedying the power imbalance and allowing for substantial discussion. Reflexive sustainable development builds on a common theoretical base but will not lead to consensus in all matters. A family metaphor is introduced to inspire a discourse of both consensus and compromise. (author)

Trajnostni izzivi Evrope v 21. stoletju = Sustainability challenges for Europe in the 21st century

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katja Vintar Mally

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Implementation of sustainable development strategies poses great challenges to EuropeanUnion member states and their neighbouring countries. Empirical analysis of economic,social and environmental development characteristics in European countries reveals thatcurrent development trends are unsustainable and lead away from the strategic goals. In thisregard, some future tasks are highlighted, especially from the viewpoint of interregional andintergenerational equity and responsibility.

The potential for integrated landscape management to fulfil Europe's commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mann, Carsten; Garcia-Martin, Maria; Raymond, Christopher M.; Shaw, Brian J.; Plieninger, Tobias

2018-01-01

The aim of this perspective essay is to discuss how integrated landscape management (ILM) can contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda in Europe. Challenges for sustainable development become evident in the emergence of land-use conflicts. Facing multiple,

[Economic development axis and socioenvironmental conflicts generation in Brazil: challenges to sustainability and environmental justice].

Science.gov (United States)

Porto, Marcelo Firpo; Milanez, Bruno

2009-01-01

The 1st National Environmental Health Conference, in December 2009, presents countless challenges to the field of Public Health. It debates key concepts as development, sustainability, production and consumption processes, democracy and public policies; advocating for innovative, interdisciplinary and intersectorial aspects of Environmental Health. The Conference recovers and articulates important themes for the Public Health, and also indicates the need of reflecting the socio-environmental determinants of health at the present time, in order to provide progresses in the construction of guidelines and actions to health surveillance and promotion. This article discusses the characteristics of the Brazilian model of development, its impacts and conflicts within social, environmental and health fields. We use theoretical and empirical contributions from the fields of Ecological Economy and Political Ecology, as well as, experiences of cooperation with the Brazilian Network on Environmental Justice and several social movements. Two cases are discussed in more detail: the first related to agribusiness and the use of pesticides, and the other about the expansion of the iron and steel industry in Brazil. We conclude proposing some elements that could be incorporated by a research agenda committed to the debate about the 'socioenvironmental crisis'.

A Commentary on Education and Sustainable Development Goals

Science.gov (United States)

Sterling, Stephen

2016-01-01

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are viewed in the context of Johan Rockström's work on planetary boundaries at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. This work sets a double challenge to educational policy and practice: to embrace and help achieve the Goals, but also to work towards a deeper change in consciousness which can reconcile people…

The sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robreau, Y.; Porcher, P.

2002-11-01

This document aims to define the sustainable development concept with a special attention for France and Israel position. The first part recalls the history of the sustainable development from the ''Man and Biosphere'' program of the UNESCO to Rio protocol. Then are described the principles of the sustainable development, the France plans and the France position at Johannesburg conference. The last part is devoted to the Israel position and a short presentation of the consequences of the greenhouse gases on the human health and the environment. (A.L.B.)

Sustainable development challenges of contemporary technologies : Nigeria liquefied-natural-gas project as a case study / S.A. Oluwole

OpenAIRE

Oluwole, Samson Abayomi

2008-01-01

The way people view development is changing. The world now advocates for a development that also considers future generations. There is a paradigm shift towards sustainable development - a development in today's lifestyle without destroying the resources for tomorrow generations. Sustainable development is a broad concept that addresses how human activities impact on the economic, environmental and social well-being of an ecosystem; however, practical application of the sustainability concept...

From The Human-Environment Theme Towards Sustainability – Danish Geography and Education for Sustainable Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grindsted, Thomas Skou

2013-01-01

Research on geography in relation to education for sustainable development (ESD), has only recently climbed the research agenda. The geopolitics of intended learning outcomes in the ESD debate, carries policy that produce dilemmas and challenges confronted with disciplinary traditions....... In this article it is examined dialectically how the changing climate and the paradigm of sustainability have been dealt with in Danish geographical university education. It is shown how curriculum programs in higher geographical education have taken different approaches to address issues of sustainability...... and climate change and how geographers articulate their role and function as knowledge on human-environment interactions changes. The analysis of the geographical education reveal that geographers’ find their discipline contribute considerably to ESD, and thus the human environment theme seems...

Can the Clean Development Mechanism attain both cost-effectiveness and sustainable development objectives?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kolshus, Hans H; Vevatne, Jonas; Torvanger, Asbjoern; Aunan, Kristin

2001-06-01

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), as defined in the Kyoto Protocol, has two objectives: to promote sustainable development in host developing countries, and to improve global cost-effectiveness by assisting developed countries in meeting their Kyoto targets. The aim of this paper is to explore the background of the CDM and discuss to what extent its current design allows it to achieve its dual objective. The first part of the paper is a literature review that includes descriptions of the flexibility mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol; the CDM's market potential, and the issues of cost-effectiveness and sustainable development. In the second part of the paper, we discuss to what extent there is a conflict between cost-effectiveness and sustain ability, and whether the two objectives of the CDM can be achieved simultaneously. We develop a set of indicators to evaluate non-carbon benefits of CDM projects on the environment, development, and. equity, and show how these indicators can be used in practice by looking at case studies of CDM project candidates in the energy sector from Brazil and China. We demonstrate that for some CDM projects there is a trade-off between cost-effectiveness, in terms of a low quota price, and a high score on sustain ability indicators. We have reason to believe that the size of the CDM market in some studies is over-estimated since transaction costs and the challenge of promoting sustainable development are not fully accounted for. Also, we find that the proposed set of indicators can be a necessary tool to assure that sustain ability impacts of CDM projects are taken into consideration. (author)

Can the Clean Development Mechanism attain both cost-effectiveness and sustainable development objectives?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kolshus, Hans H; Vevatne, Jonas; Torvanger, Asbjoern; Aunan, Kristin

2001-06-01

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), as defined in the Kyoto Protocol, has two objectives: to promote sustainable development in host developing countries, and to improve global cost-effectiveness by assisting developed countries in meeting their Kyoto targets. The aim of this paper is to explore the background of the CDM and discuss to what extent its current design allows it to achieve its dual objective. The first part of the paper is a literature review that includes descriptions of the flexibility mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol; the CDM's market potential, and the issues of cost-effectiveness and sustainable development. In the second part of the paper, we discuss to what extent there is a conflict between cost-effectiveness and sustain ability, and whether the two objectives of the CDM can be achieved simultaneously. We develop a set of indicators to evaluate non-carbon benefits of CDM projects on the environment, development, and. equity, and show how these indicators can be used in practice by looking at case studies of CDM project candidates in the energy sector from Brazil and China. We demonstrate that for some CDM projects there is a trade-off between cost-effectiveness, in terms of a low quota price, and a high score on sustain ability indicators. We have reason to believe that the size of the CDM market in some studies is over-estimated since transaction costs and the challenge of promoting sustainable development are not fully accounted for. Also, we find that the proposed set of indicators can be a necessary tool to assure that sustain ability impacts of CDM projects are taken into consideration. (author)

Planning, Development and Management of Sustainable Cities: A Commentary from the Guest Editors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tan Yigitcanlar

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Cities are the most dramatic manifestations of human activities on the surface of the earth. These human-dominated organisms—i.e., cities—degrade natural habitats, simplify species composition, disrupt hydrological systems, and modify energy flow and nutrient cycling. Today, these consequential impacts of human activities, originated from population increase, rapid urbanization, high private motor vehicle dependency, deregulated industrialization and mass livestock production, are increasing exponentially and causing great deal of environmental, social, and economic challenges both at global and local scales. In such a situation, establishment of sustainable cities, through sustainable urban development practices, is seen as a potential panacea to combat these challenges responsibly, effectively, and efficiently. This paper offers a critical review of the key literature on the issues relating to planning, development and management of sustainable cities, introduces the contributions from the Special Issue, and speculates on the prospective research directions to place necessary mechanisms to secure a sustainable urban future for all.

Built To Last: Using Iterative Development Models for Sustainable Scientific Software Development

Science.gov (United States)

Jasiak, M. E.; Truslove, I.; Savoie, M.

2013-12-01

In scientific research, software development exists fundamentally for the results they create. The core research must take focus. It seems natural to researchers, driven by grant deadlines, that every dollar invested in software development should be used to push the boundaries of problem solving. This system of values is frequently misaligned with those of the software being created in a sustainable fashion; short-term optimizations create longer-term sustainability issues. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has taken bold cultural steps in using agile and lean development and management methodologies to help its researchers meet critical deadlines, while building in the necessary support structure for the code to live far beyond its original milestones. Agile and lean software development and methodologies including Scrum, Kanban, Continuous Delivery and Test-Driven Development have seen widespread adoption within NSIDC. This focus on development methods is combined with an emphasis on explaining to researchers why these methods produce more desirable results for everyone, as well as promoting developers interacting with researchers. This presentation will describe NSIDC's current scientific software development model, how this addresses the short-term versus sustainability dichotomy, the lessons learned and successes realized by transitioning to this agile and lean-influenced model, and the current challenges faced by the organization.

The sustainable utilization of human resources in global product development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Zaza Nadja Lee; Rasmussen, Lauge Baungaard; Hansen, Mette Sanne

2010-01-01

This empirical paper investigates the challenges global product development faces in regard to a sustainable utilization of resources through case studies and interviews in six Danish multinational corporations. Findings revealed 3 key challenges, which relates to increased rework in product...... development and production, overlapping work and a lack of utilization of knowledge and information at the supplier or subsidiary. The authors suggest the use of strategic simulation in order to gain greater transparency in the global network and thus utilize resources better. Strategic simulation...

Sustainable development of tourism in an example of Vlasinska povrs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefanović Vidoje

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The globalization of capital, finance, labor, technology, transport and communications in the second half of the last century and in the beginning of this century, has managed to become the world's largest tourism industry. This has become an important factor on economic and regional development of each country. But in a way he became the cause of the challenger and the devastation of the environment. Therefore, the concept of sustainable tourism development is becoming an important theoretical and practical problem of modern economy, and other sciences. Thus, sustainability is the ultimate goal, though difficult to reach. If we consider space as Vlasinska povrs, which is still clean, but tends to be an important tourist destination, then sustainability becomes a necessity.

CHALLENGE FUNDS AND INCLUSIVE BUSINESSES – KEY TO SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?

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Boleslaw Stawicki

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This paper will introduce the concept of the challenge fund mechanism, and its role, from both a private sector development (PSD perspective as well as from the sustainable social impact angle. The paper is informed by practical experience and reflections from the point of view of a manager who manages one of the world’s largest challenge funds with a capitalisation of USD 250m and 200+ investments across 23 different markets. A challenge fund, which by nature, is a risk taking and risk-sharing PSD mechanism is used to support innovative, forprofit business ventures, which, by the virtue of being innovative, and therefore, more risky than other business ventures have restricted access to capital. A challenge fund, in a developing or frontier market context, will invest in innovative for-profit companies that exhibit strong intentionality on social impact, i.e. they will implement the inclusive business model concept. Essentially, inclusive businesses engage low income communities in a formal way either as suppliers of raw material, such as cocoa seeds, which the company then processes, or they engage low income communities as customers who buy and consume products and services which cater to them specifically. In this way, an inclusive business makes a profit and at the same time increases the income of low income communities. In this arrangement social impact remains sustainable because the business sees that it can make a profit by collaborating with low income communities. A challenge fund, by financing innovative and risky SMEs doesn’t only support PSD and social impact, it also creates a tested and proven deal flow of companies for more commercial investors such as private equity funds or development finance institutions such as the International Finance Corporation. Therefore, the challenge fund mechanism serves a critical function in sustainable business and social development.

Open entrepreneurship centers in Brazil: To promote sustainable development and poverty reduction

OpenAIRE

Ronald Jean Degen

2009-01-01

Degen introduced the teaching of entrepreneurship in Brazil in 1980 and wrote the first Portuguese language textbook on entrepreneurship in 1989. The purpose was to raise awareness of the country?s poverty among students, motivate them to become entrepreneurs, and promote the sustainable development necessary to eliminate the country?s extreme poverty. After almost 30 years extreme poverty continues to be the greatest challenge for the sustainable development of Brazil. Without solving this p...

Seeking consensus on universal health coverage indicators in the sustainable development goals.

Science.gov (United States)

Reddock, Jennifer

2017-01-01

There is optimism that the inclusion of universal health coverage in the Sustainable Development Goals advances its prominence in global and national health policy. However, formulating indicators for Target 3.8 through the Inter-Agency Expert Group on Sustainable Development Indicators has been challenging. Achieving consensus on the conceptual and methodological aspects of universal health coverage is likely to take some time in multi-stakeholder fora compared with national efforts to select indicators.

Sustainable tourism development on Curacao - the implementation challenge

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dinica, V.; Brebbia, C.A; Pineda, F.D.

2006-01-01

In 1997, a comprehensive policy program for sustainable tourism was adopted by the Netherlands Antilles government. This paper is empirically-oriented and analyses the implementation of two measures of this policy on one of the five islands, Curaçao, for the period 1998-2005. It investigates the

The theory of sustainable Tourism Development

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Alberta Tahiri

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Tourism is a phenomenon that has seen a rapid multi fold increase and growth since the middle of the twentieth century. For host communities and countries, the development of tourism has offered numerous advantages, as well as some significant challenges and difficulties. In recent decades, the awareness has been strengthened that tourism needs to be developed following the sustainable development concept. This approach eliminates or significantly decreases the negative impacts of tourism growth and sets the basis for long-term enjoyment of benefits. In the field of tourism, sustainable development translates in two important categories of considerations: conserving natural environment and resources and the biodiversity and conserving the living cultural heritage and traditions. Designing sustainable tourism development strategies should be done in cooperative efforts by the state, businesses and local communities. The strategies need to focus on maximizing the potential positive and eliminating or minimizing potential negative impacts. Impact monitoring and evaluation mechanisms need to be set up, including identification of performance indicators. When tourism growth emerges from a carefully designed and implemented strategy, tourism is documented to contribute to generating foreign exchange earnings, creating employment and income, and stimulating domestic consumption. It also brings about social and cultural development of the host communities. Researches have shown that smaller and developing countries specialized in tourism experience higher economic growth compared to countries without significant tourism industry. Contemporary economic and statistical methods ensure that the contribution of tourism in national economies can be precisely and easily measured, which in itself can be used as an indicator in assessing the impact and effects of tourism growth.

Challenging the Concept of Ethical Literacy within Education for Sustainable Development (ESD): Storytelling as a Method within Sustainability Didactics

Science.gov (United States)

Franck, Olof; Osbeck, Christina

2018-01-01

Ethical literacy seems to be used, within Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), in various ways, some more general and others morally specific, emphasising individuals' responsibility. The overarching aim of this paper is to present some prerequisites for the development of narrative methods that focus on the vision of a good society…

Hydrologic analysis of the challenges facing water resources and sustainable development of Wadi Feiran basin, southern Sinai, Egypt

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Ayman A.; Diab, Maghawri S.

2018-04-01

Wadi Feiran basin is one of the most promising areas in southern Sinai (Egypt) for establishing new communities and for growth in agriculture, tourism, and industry. The present challenges against development include water runoff hazards (flash flooding), the increasing water demand, and water scarcity and contamination. These challenges could be mitigated by efficient use of runoff and rainwater through appropriate management, thereby promoting sustainable development. Strategies include the mitigation of runoff hazards and promoting the natural and artificial recharge of aquifers. This study uses a watershed modeling system, geographic information system, and classification scheme to predict the effects of various mitigation options on the basin's water resources. Rainwater-harvesting techniques could save more than 77% of the basin's runoff (by volume), which could be used for storage and aquifer recharge. A guide map is provided that shows possible locations for the proposed mitigation options in the study basin. Appropriate measures should be undertaken urgently: mitigation of groundwater contamination (including effective sewage effluent management); regular monitoring of the municipal, industrial and agricultural processes that release contaminants; rationalization and regulation of the application of agro-chemicals to farmland; and regular monitoring of contaminants in groundwater. Stringent regulations should be implemented to prevent wastewater disposal to the aquifers in the study area.

Operationalizing Sustainable Development Suncor Energy Inc: A critical case

Science.gov (United States)

Fergus, Andrew

The concept of Sustainable Development is often understood as a framework within which organizations are able to move forward in a successful and beneficial manner. However, it is also seen as an ambiguous notion with little substance beyond a hopeful dialogue. If we are to base organizational action upon the concepts of Sustainable Development, it is vital that we comprehend the implications of how the concept is understood at a behavioral level. Industry leaders, competitors, shareholders, and stakeholders recognize Suncor Energy Inc as a leading organization within the Oil and Gas energy field. In particular it has a reputation for proactive thinking and action within the areas of environmental and social responsibility. Through attempting to integrate the ideas of Sustainable Development at a foundational level into the strategic plan, the management of Suncor Energy Inc has committed the organization to be a sustainable energy company. To achieve this vision the organization faces the challenge of converting strategic goals into operational behaviors, a process critical for a successful future. This research focuses on understanding the issues found with this conversion process. Through exploring a critical case, this research illuminates the reality of a best-case scenario. The findings thus have implications for both Suncor Energy Inc and more importantly all other organizations attempting to move in a Sustainable Development direction.

Addressing China's grand challenge of achieving food security while ensuring environmental sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Yonglong; Jenkins, Alan; Ferrier, Robert C; Bailey, Mark; Gordon, Iain J; Song, Shuai; Huang, Jikun; Jia, Shaofeng; Zhang, Fusuo; Liu, Xuejun; Feng, Zhaozhong; Zhang, Zhibin

2015-02-01

China's increasingly urbanized and wealthy population is driving a growing and changing demand for food, which might not be met without significant increase in agricultural productivity and sustainable use of natural resources. Given the past relationship between lack of access to affordable food and political instability, food security has to be given a high priority on national political agendas in the context of globalization. The drive for increased food production has had a significant impact on the environment, and the deterioration in ecosystem quality due to historic and current levels of pollution will potentially compromise the food production system in China. We discuss the grand challenges of not only producing more food but also producing it sustainably and without environmental degradation. In addressing these challenges, food production should be considered as part of an environmental system (soil, air, water, and biodiversity) and not independent from it. It is imperative that new ways of meeting the demand for food are developed while safeguarding the natural resources upon which food production is based. We present a holistic approach to both science and policy to ensure future food security while embracing the ambition of achieving environmental sustainability in China. It is a unique opportunity for China to be a role model as a new global player, especially for other emerging economies.

Financial Markets and the Challenges of Sustainable Growth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janicka Małgorzata

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Sustainable growth and responsibility for the economy and the environment are postulates rarely associated with the term “financial market”. Financial markets are identified with the ruthless maximisation of profit at acceptable risk, rather than with socially responsible conduct. However, in the global economy businesses modify their priorities and become aware of not just the need to grow in financial terms but also to improve their quality performance. International financial markets have become part of this trend and are increasingly often adopting environmentally friendly attitudes and embracing the challenges posed by the concept of sustainable growth. Ideas such as CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility – and SRI – Socially Responsible Investment are gaining in importance. While sustainable growth of the economy as perceived from the point of view of the manufacturing or service sectors is widely discussed, the sustainable growth of financial markets is a relatively new concept and the available literature on “green” financial markets is quite scarce. This paper is intended to fill in this gap and examine the changes that have taken place on financial markets in the context of the idea of sustainable growth, with particular attention paid to the European Union markets.

Italy - A sustainable development discourse analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Leconte, Arnaud; Lallemand, Xavier

2009-01-01

This paper investigates the Italian Discourse on Sustainable Development (SD). The 'mainstream political discourse', in line with the European guidelines, encompasses the three key SD dimensions (social, economic, and environmental dimensions), at least in theory. But, in practice, Italy is the country with the highest open infringements on EU environmental laws, as recently reflected by the scandalous waste management crises in the region of Naples. In the wake of the economic crises, the mainstream SD discourse is challenged by the environmentalist discourse, led by NGOs, the 'socio-religious discourse', focusing on a human SD, and by the 'alternative development' discourse, which opposes the capitalist system

Indigenous Knowledge and Implications for the Sustainable Development Agenda

Science.gov (United States)

Magni, Giorgia

2017-01-01

With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community committed to address a great number of challenges. Among those emphasised by the SDGs, some are highly relevant for indigenous groups. Education, poverty, access to justice and climate change are only a few of the issues affecting indigenous people's…

Sustainability of ARV provision in developing countries: challenging a framework based on program history

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thiago Botelho Azeredo

Full Text Available Abstract The provision of ARVs is central to HIV/AIDS programs, because of its impact on the course of the disease and on quality of life. Although first-line treatments costs have declined, treatment-associated expenses are steeper each year. Sustainability is therefore an important variable for the success of treatment programs. A conceptual framework on sustainability of ARV provision was developed, followed by data collection instruments. The pilot study was undertaken in Brazil. Bolivia, Peru and Mozambique, were visited. Key informants were identified and interviewed. Investigation of sustainability related to ARV provision involved implementation and routinization events of provision schemes. Evidence of greater sustainability potential was observed in Peru, where provision is implemented and routinized by the National HIV/AIDS program and expenditures met by the government. In Mozambique, provision is dependent on donations and external aid, but the country displays a great effort to incorporate ARV provision and care in routine healthcare activities. Bolivia, in addition to external dependence on financing and management of drug supply, presents problems regarding implementation and routinization. The conceptual framework was useful in recognizing events that influence sustainable ARV provision in these countries.

Sustainability of organic food production: challenges and innovations.

Science.gov (United States)

Niggli, Urs

2015-02-01

The greatest challenge for agriculture is to reduce the trade-offs between productivity and long-term sustainability. Therefore, it is interesting to analyse organic agriculture which is a given set of farm practices that emphasise ecological sustainability. Organic agriculture can be characterised as being less driven by off-farm inputs and being better embedded in ecosystem functions. The literature on public goods and non-commodity outputs of organic farms is overwhelming. Most publications address the positive effects of organic farming on soil fertility, biodiversity maintenance and protection of the natural resources of soil, water and air. As a consequence of focusing on public goods, organic agriculture is less productive. Meta-analyses show that organic agriculture yields range between 0·75 and 0·8 of conventional agriculture. Best practice examples from disadvantaged sites and climate conditions show equal or, in the case of subsistence farming in Sub-Saharan Africa, higher productivity of organic agriculture. Hence, organic agriculture is likely to be a good model for productive and sustainable food production. Underfunding in R&D addressing specific bottlenecks of organic agriculture are the main cause for both crop and livestock yield gaps. Therefore, the potential for improving the performance of organic agriculture through agricultural research is huge. Although organic farming is a niche in most countries, it is at the verge of becoming mainstream in leading European countries. Consumer demand has grown over the past two decades and does not seem to be a limiting factor for the future development of organic agriculture.

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development: business as usual in the end

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huckle, John; Wals, A.E.J.

2015-01-01

An analysis of the literature supporting the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and a sample of its key products suggests that it failed to acknowledge or challenge neoliberalism as a hegemonic force blocking transitions towards genuine sustainability. The authors argue that the

The indicators of the sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-01-01

The 132 selected indicators of the sustainable development are described. They are grouped into: (1) The social indicators of the sustainable development; (2) The economic indicators of the sustainable development; (3) The environmental indicators of the sustainable development. (4) The institutional indicators of the sustainable development

Involving Corporate Functions: Who Contributes to Sustainable Development?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Schaltegger

2014-05-01

Full Text Available A large body of literature claims that corporate sustainable development is a cross-functional challenge, which requires all functional units to be involved. However, it remains uncertain to what extent and in which way different corporate functions are actually involved in corporate sustainability management. To bridge this research gap, our paper draws on a concept of involvement introduced in the field of consumer behavior. Based on this previous research, our paper distinguishes two components of involvement: first, a cognitive-affective component, incorporating being affected by sustainability issues and being supportive of corporate sustainability; and second, a behavioral component, represented by the application of sustainability management tools. We use this concept to empirically analyze the involvement of corporate functions in sustainability management and find considerable differences in large German companies. Whereas public relations and strategic management are heavily involved, finance, accounting and management control appear not to be involved. A multinomial logistic regression shows that the cognitive-affective component significantly influences the behavioral component, with a functional unit being affected influencing the application of tools the most. Building on the model proposed, the paper provides implications on how to increase a functional unit’s involvement in sustainability management.

Reactive or proactive approach towards sustainability? A conceptual framework based on sustainable business models to increase stakeholders' sustainable value capture

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rosati, Francesco; Morioka, Sandra; Monteiro de Carvalho, Marly

2016-01-01

and challenging companies to seek for business opportunities with an entrepreneurial attitude to help solving sustainable development challenges. By combining both approaches, organizations have the opportunity to increase sustainable value capture by its stakeholders, acting on their institutional responsibility...... as instrument to help companies describe, analyze, manage and communicate their sustainable value proposition, creation, delivery and capture mechanism. In particular, this research focuses on value capture dynamics, aiming to explore how companies can increase their contribution to sustainable development...... sustainability. In this sense, a proactive approach to foster sustainable value capture can complement the reactive approach by delivering value beyond stakeholders' expectations. In this case, companies use their capabilities to identify opportunities to create and deliver sustainable value that stakeholders...

Advancing Water Footprint Assessment Research: Challenges in Monitoring Progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arjen Y. Hoekstra

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This special issue is a collection of recent papers in the field of Water Footprint Assessment (WFA, an emerging area of research focused on the analysis of freshwater use, scarcity, and pollution in relation to consumption, production, and trade. As increasing freshwater scarcity forms a major risk to the global economy, sustainable management of water resources is a prerequisite to development. We introduce the papers in this special issue by relating them to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG number 6 of the United Nations, the goal on water. We will particularly articulate how each paper drives the understanding needed to achieve target 6.3 on water quality and pollution and target 6.4 on water-use efficiency and water scarcity. Regarding SDG 6, we conclude that it lacks any target on using green water more efficiently, and while addressing efficiency and sustainability of water use, it lacks a target on equitable sharing of water. The latter issue is receiving limited attention in research as well. By primarily focusing on water-use efficiency in farming and industries at the local level, to a lesser extent to using water sustainably at the level of total water systems (like drainage basins, aquifers, and largely ignoring issues around equitable water use, understanding of our water problems and proposed solutions will likely remain unbalanced.

Training Sessions Fostering Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Sustainable Development: Albania and Kosovo Case Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Jonas; Mader, Marlene; Zimmermann, Friedrich; Çabiri, Ketrina

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine sustainability-related challenges in the two Western Balkan countries--Albania and Kosovo. It discusses the opportunities of local higher education institutions (HEIs) taking responsibility to tackle these challenges by providing professional development through science-society collaboration in…

Work activities within sustainable development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco Duarte

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the main results of a Franco-Brazilian Research project entitled "Work, Innovation and Development". The aim is to conceptually consider work activity within sustainable development, and to contribute methodologically towards developing strategies for designing sustainable work systems. After a brief description of the factors and the dimensions that have contributed to the creation of ideas on sustainable development, we will put forward two main approaches for understanding work activity within the context of sustainability, these being: the durability of work activity and the development of work activities for sustainable development. Both approaches are presented and examples are given. This is followed by a discussion of the design of sustainable work systems that focuses particularly on the political and technical dimensions of project management.

Challenges with managing hazardous chemicals in the international frame - opportunity for educating on sustainable chemistry and alternatives assessment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Weber, R.; Fantke, Peter

sustainable alternatives. A bottle neck is, however, that chemists, engineers, industrial designers, and policy makers often lack knowledge on green/sustainable chemistry and alternatives assessment. This is particularly a challenge in developing and transition countries. Methodologies and tools are hence...... needed to disseminate information on and guidance on how to phase in more sustainable alternatives. In this presentation, we suggest a comprehensive yet efficient approach of alternatives assessment which could be integrated in the education of stakeholders within the process of the substitution...

Integrating science and business models of sustainability for environmentally-challenging industries such as secondary lead smelters: a systematic review and analysis of findings.

Science.gov (United States)

Genaidy, A M; Sequeira, R; Tolaymat, T; Kohler, J; Wallace, S; Rinder, M

2010-09-01

Secondary lead smelters (SLS) represent an environmentally-challenging industry as they deal with toxic substances posing potential threats to both human and environmental health, consequently, they operate under strict government regulations. Such challenges have resulted in the significant reduction of SLS plants in the last three decades. In addition, the domestic recycling of lead has been on a steep decline in the past 10 years as the amount of lead recovered has remained virtually unchanged while consumption has increased. Therefore, one may wonder whether sustainable development can be achieved among SLS. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether a roadmap for sustainable development can be established for SLS. The following aims were established in support of the study objective: (1) to conduct a systematic review and an analysis of models of sustainable systems with a particular emphasis on SLS; (2) to document the challenges for the U.S. secondary lead smelting industry; and (3) to explore practices and concepts which act as vehicles for SLS on the road to sustainable development. An evidence-based methodology was adopted to achieve the study objective. A comprehensive electronic search was conducted to implement the aforementioned specific aims. Inclusion criteria were established to filter out irrelevant scientific papers and reports. The relevant articles were closely scrutinized and appraised to extract the required information and data for the possible development of a sustainable roadmap. The search process yielded a number of research articles which were utilized in the systematic review. Two types of models emerged: management/business and science/mathematical models. Although the management/business models explored actions to achieve sustainable growth in the industrial enterprise, science/mathematical models attempted to explain the sustainable behaviors and properties aiming at predominantly ecosystem management. As such

Knowledge capabilities for sustainable development in global classrooms - local challenges

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elise Anderberg

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The Young Masters Programme provides young people around the worldwith a net–based global–local learning environment for sustainable development. The present study investigates certain aspects of the implementation of this programme in the secondary schools of a Swedish municipality, in the context of the Lund Calling project. The research focuses on critical abilities to act globally, referred to as “knowledge capabilities”, and how they relate to the implementation process of initiating global learning for sustainabledevelopment (GLSD. A phenomenographic approach and semi–structuredinterviews were used in the investigation of the experiences of secondary school pupils, teachers and headmasters who participated in the project. Participants’ experiences of the changes carried out are described in relation to examples of knowledge capabilities needed for GLSD. Critical knowledge capabilities found to have been developed through the implementation were: to take command, and to collaborate. Critical knowledge capabilities perceived asnecessary, but not developed through the programme were: to be prepared, to act in a transdisciplinary manner, and to lead for a holistic understanding.

Sustainable cities: challenges of an integrated planning approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijkamp, Peter; Geenhuizen, van Marina

1995-01-01

This paper will identify specific planning conditions that arise when planning aims at sustainable development. First, attention will be paid tosocio-ethical attitudes toward sustainability issues and to the reasons why much of the sustainability debate deserves an urban focus. Then,

Socio-Economic Priorities for the Sustainable Development of Russian Arctic Macro-Region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vladimir Nikolaevich Leksin

2017-12-01

Full Text Available To properly justify the priorities for the Russian Arctic Zone sustainable development is methodologically challenging for two reasons. Firstly, this challenge is due to fast changes of external and internal conditions for the development of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (AZRF. Secondly, the interpretation of the concept of “sustainability” is too wide inconsistent. As the concepts of “sustainability” as well as the concept of “sustainable growth” in this wide sense are frequently used to characterize economic, social and other processes and systems, these key categories are difficult to apply as development’ targets and evaluation criteria practice of public administration in Russia. Using the case of Arctic macro-region, the paper substantiates the concept of spatial systems’ sustainability as their ability to maintain functionality under destabilizing impact of exogenous and endogenous factors. Such an ability is particularly important because of variations in structure and intensity of these negative impacts, including from climate change. Within this methodological framework, we have specified the indicators of sustainability relating to the practice of public management in the AZRF development. The paper has discussed the existing and emerging exogenous and endogenous impacts on the AZRF development sustainability. We set two priorities among the goals and objectives for ensuring the AZRF sustainable functioning under the conditions of climate. In social (socio-economic sphere, it is necessary to maintain and improve the public health. In economic sphere, the most needed are strengthening of coherency and reliability of the transportation system, energy supplies to distant consumers, and stimulating of investment and industrial activities of the large industrial corporations.

Comparative Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

OpenAIRE

Asongu, Simplice

2017-01-01

Motivated by sustainable development challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa, this study assesses the comparative persistence of environmental unsustainability in a sample of 44 countries in the sub-region for the period 2000 to 2012. The empirical evidence is based on Generalised Method of Moments. Of the six hypotheses tested, it is not feasible to assess the hypothesis on resource-wealth because of issues in degrees of freedom. As for the remaining hypotheses, the following findings are establis...

Sustainable development in agriculture: is it really sustainable?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, S.R.K.; Srinivas, K.; Kumar, L.R.; Gupta, H.S.

2005-01-01

Indian agriculture has achieved remarkable success in the food grain production due to inception of 'rainbow revolution', which made the country self-sufficient in food production. Sustainable agriculture (SA) is an ongoing process, in which people take actions leading to development of agriculture that meets their current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It advocates avoiding all those actions, which reduce the ability of future generations to meet out the present generations. It is based on the optimal interaction between clean environment, healthy economy, and vital society by avoiding trade-off of problems to other regions on to the future. Moreover, sustainable agriculture is the function of people's progress and nature's capacity. In fact, SA commits us to considering the long-term effect and to recognize our place within the ecosystem. It encourages a continuous reflection on the implications of human activity on the ecosystem. Empirical evidences shows that in the race of self-sufficiency in food grain production, we compromised a lot on social and environmental fronts. The aftermath of green revolution is not so sustainable as it showed reverse side too, in the form of environmental degradation and ecological imbalances. Such threats have led to the need for promoting sustainable development in agriculture. Due to several unsustainable activities which resulted in resource degradation in the form of top soil loss, ground water depletion and forest degradation. The average soil loss is estimated to be over 16 tonnes/ha/year. The ground water depletion resulted in several blocks as 'grey blocks' and 'dark blocks'. This happened mainly due to increase in number of tube-wells and free supply of electricity making the cost of pumping water very low. Rate of human induced land degradation is very high. Out of total geographical area of 329.0 million ha, 187 million ha (57.0 %) are reported to have degraded, of

Energy and Sustainable Development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-01-01

None of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2000 directly addressed energy, although for nearly all of them - from eradicating poverty and hunger to improving education and health - progress has depended on greater access to modern energy. Thirteen years later, energy is being given more attention. The target date for the MDGs is 2015, and in 2012 the UN began deliberations to develop sustainable development goals to guide support for sustainable development beyond 2015. The Future We Want, the outcome document of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (also known as Rio+20) gives energy a central role: ''We recognize the critical role that energy plays in the development process, as access to sustainable modern energy services contributes to poverty eradication, saves lives, improves health and helps provide for basic human needs''

Short-lived climate pollutant mitigation and the Sustainable Development Goals

Science.gov (United States)

Haines, Andy; Amann, Markus; Borgford-Parnell, Nathan; Leonard, Sunday; Kuylenstierna, Johan; Shindell, Drew

2017-12-01

The post-2015 development agenda is dominated by a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that arose from the 2012 Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The 17 goals and 169 targets address diverse and intersecting aspects of human and environmental needs and challenges. Achieving the SDGs by 2030 requires implementing coordinated and concerted strategies and actions that minimize potential trade-offs and conflicts and maximize synergies to contribute to multiple SDGs. Measures to mitigate emissions of short-lived climate pollutants are an example of actions that contribute to multiple outcomes relevant to development. This Perspective highlights the interlinkages between these pollutants and the SDGs, and shows that implementing emissions reduction measures can contribute to achieving many of the SDGs.

Pursuing sustainable development in Norway: The challenge of living up to Brundtland at home

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lafferty, W.M.; Knudsen, Jørgen; Larsen, Olav Mosvold

2007-01-01

With the Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, as chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development, Norway became an early mover in politics for sustainable development (SD). The pursuit of SD goals has been expressed in several national policy documents, though it was not

Towards transformational change: UNDP's work in environment and sustainable development 2008-2012

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mordt, Matilde; Hildebrandt, Laura; Iyer, Devika; Fankuchen, Alexander

2013-03-15

This report highlights significant advances in sustainable development from almost 60 country reports and underscores the challenges and bottlenecks to moving beyond the economic-led growth strategies of the past 20 years.

Educating the Engineer for Sustainable Community Development

Science.gov (United States)

Munoz, D. R.

2008-12-01

More than ever before, we are confronting the challenges of limited resources (water, food, energy and mineral), while also facing complex challenges with the environment and related social unrest. Resource access problems are exacerbated by multi-scale geopolitical instability. We seek a balance that will allow profit but also leave a world fit for our children to inherit. Many are working with small groups to make positive change through finding solutions that address these challenges. In fact, some say that in sum, it is the largest human movement that has ever existed. In this talk I will share our experiences to alleviate vulnerabilities for populations of humans in need while working with students, corporate entities and non governmental organizations. Our main focus is to educate a new cadre of engineers that have an enhanced awareness of and better communication skills for a different cultural environment than the one in which they were raised and are hungry to seek new opportunities to serve humanity at a basic level. The results of a few of the more than forty humanitarian engineering projects completed since 2003 will be superimposed on a theoretical framework for sustainable community development. This will be useful information to those seeking a social corporate position of responsibility and a world that more closely approaches a sustainable equilibrium.

Traits to Ecosystems: The Ecological Sustainability Challenge When Developing Future Energy Crops

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Weih, Martin; Hoeber, Stefanie; Beyer, Friderike; Fransson, Petra

2014-01-01

Today, we are undertaking great efforts to improve biomass production and quality traits of energy crops. Major motivation for developing those crops is based on environmental and ecological sustainability considerations, which however often are de-coupled from the trait-based crop improvement programs. It is now time to develop appropriate methods to link crop traits to production system characteristics set by the plant and the biotic communities influencing it; and to the ecosystem processes affecting ecological sustainability. The relevant ecosystem processes involve the net productivity in terms of biomass and energy yields, the depletion of energy-demanding resources (e.g., nitrogen, N), the carbon dynamics in soil and atmosphere, and the resilience and temporal stability of the production system. In a case study, we compared aspects of N use efficiency in various varieties of an annual (spring wheat) and perennial (Salix) energy crop grown under two nutrient regimes in Sweden. For example, we found considerable variation among crops, varieties, and nutrient regimes in the energy yield per plant-internal N (megajoule per gram per year), which would result in different N resource depletion per unit energy produced.

Traits to Ecosystems: The Ecological Sustainability Challenge When Developing Future Energy Crops

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Weih, Martin, E-mail: martin.weih@slu.se; Hoeber, Stefanie; Beyer, Friderike [Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (Sweden); Fransson, Petra [Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (Sweden)

2014-05-22

Today, we are undertaking great efforts to improve biomass production and quality traits of energy crops. Major motivation for developing those crops is based on environmental and ecological sustainability considerations, which however often are de-coupled from the trait-based crop improvement programs. It is now time to develop appropriate methods to link crop traits to production system characteristics set by the plant and the biotic communities influencing it; and to the ecosystem processes affecting ecological sustainability. The relevant ecosystem processes involve the net productivity in terms of biomass and energy yields, the depletion of energy-demanding resources (e.g., nitrogen, N), the carbon dynamics in soil and atmosphere, and the resilience and temporal stability of the production system. In a case study, we compared aspects of N use efficiency in various varieties of an annual (spring wheat) and perennial (Salix) energy crop grown under two nutrient regimes in Sweden. For example, we found considerable variation among crops, varieties, and nutrient regimes in the energy yield per plant-internal N (megajoule per gram per year), which would result in different N resource depletion per unit energy produced.

Sustainable development - an entrepreneur's view

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fahrni, F.

1995-01-01

The following topics are dealt with in this paper: prizing the environment, inducing change, getting the right mix, energy and market place, financing sustainable development, trade and sustainable development, managing corporate change, the Sulzer strategy for sustainable development. (author)

Energy as a tool for sustainable development for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farinelli, U.; Bengaly, S.; Bertarelli, L.

1999-01-01

Energy plays a critical role in sustainable human development. It impacts on poverty, population, health, the environment, investment in industrial and agricultural development, foreign exchange and even security; it also has a strong gender implication. Policies aimed at providing energy services in a sustainable manner open doors to the achievement of a wide array of other development goals. However, the manner in which the world currently produces and consumes energy is unsustainable. A key challenge is to incorporate strategies to limit the potential negative impact of human activity on the global climate. Recognising these issues, national governments, bilateral co-operation agencies, and international development institutions have made efforts to promote the provision of energy services in ways which contribute to sustainable development. However, a number of barriers continue to limit the adoption of existing options. Building on the 1997 UNDP publication, Energy after Rio: Prospects and Challenges, the present report analyses the energy situation of two particular country groupings of global interest, Sub-Saharan Africa and ACP Small Island Developing States. It goes on to identify the actions required by different role-players to increase the adoption of sustainable energy options in these two groups. This publication is the result of a joint EC/UNDP initiative which aims to intensify the global dialogue on sustainable energy issues and to provide a basis for future concrete cooperation activities. It is the intention of the report to support developing countries in implementing more effectively the objectives of Agenda 21, and to contribute to the follow up to the Rio Earth Summit and the work of the Commission on Sustainable Development in preparation for its 9th Session in 2001. Coming at a critical time in the work of the European Commission, with the ongoing negotiation of a new framework development agreement to replace Lome IV, the report is an

Balancing Heritage Conservation and Sustainable Development - The Case of Bordeaux

Science.gov (United States)

Appendino, Federica

2017-10-01

Over the past few decades sustainability concerns have positioned themselves with a central importance to the contemporary debate on the future development of cities, due to fast urbanization, increasing pollution, intensity of climate change and resource consumption. In this worldwide context, the historic city is suffering from pressures never seen before. For this reason, in the historic urban landscape urban conservation strategies have to be integrated within the large goals of sustainable development, as affirmed by the recent UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape adopted in 2011. The Recommendation reflects the actual international attention given in order to find a holistic approach, which integrates urban conservation and development in balance with social, environmental, economic and cultural sustainable considerations. Through this framework, certain questions emerge: how can urban conservation open up to sustainability whilst keeping intact tangible and intangible values and heritage? What are the strategies and policies implemented? Recognizing that sustainability is a primary challenge that urban conservation faces, this paper aims to present the case study of Bordeaux, a port city in south-western France. Since 2007, Bordeaux has been inscribed as an inhabited historic city on the World Heritage List on the basis of an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble. Yet at the same time, it has developed a series of interesting policies in order to avoid a “museification” of the inner city with the aim of ensuring a “historic living city”, able to evolve and develop itself in a sustainable way over time in accordance with its heritage. For these reasons the case of Bordeaux is emblematic to demonstrate the possible adaptation of urban conservation tools in order to take into account sustainability aims and shows a great step forward in wedding heritage preservation and sustainable development, currently still far from being

Galvanizing Local Resources: A Strategy for Sustainable Development in Rural China

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Eun Ji

2014-01-01

China has been undergoing a rapid development over the past decades, and rural areas are facing a number of challenges in the process of the change. The "New Channel" project, initiated to promote sustainable development and protect natural and cultural heritage in Tongdao county in China from a rapid urbanization and economic…

Education for Sustainable Development at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)

Science.gov (United States)

Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 2012

2012-01-01

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20-22 June 2012, marking the twentieth anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the tenth anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. With more than…

National indicators of the ecological transition towards a sustainable development. 2015-2020: first statement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nirascou, Francoise; Kleiber, Florence; Mosdale, Lauren; Moreau, Sylvain; Bottin, Anne; Baudu-Baret, Claude

2016-03-01

The national strategy for the ecological transition towards sustainable development 2015-2020 was adopted by the French Government in February 2015 to set the political course in matters of sustainable development for France. The strategy defines public policies guidelines to engage in the ecological transition. Four key environmental challenges are outlined in the strategy and some other nine transverse goals describe the priority actions. This synthesis report is the initial assessment of the national strategy's monitoring indicators. The overall picture of this set of indicators shows strong contrasts. The situation is concerning with regards to the four key environmental challenges: climate change, accelerated loss of biodiversity, resource scarcity, increased health risks. On the other hand, indicators related to the transverse goals of the strategy demonstrate the development of good practices steering towards a sustainable development. More specifically, the goals with good perspectives are: inequalities reduction, economic activities transformation, knowledge production and innovation, training and raising awareness, stakeholders' mobilization; and sustainable and resilient territories development. The picture doesn't appear as bright for the aims of engaging in a circular and low-carbon economy, inventing new economic and financial models and especially promoting sustainable development at European and international levels. With this initial assessment as a reference, the monitoring of the strategy's indicators over the next few years will enable to estimate to what extent the pursuit of good practices will lead to a positive evolution of the key environmental challenges. This synthetic review of the first results completes the more detailed reading of the indicators on the official web site dedicated to statistics of the Ministry in charge of Ecology, Energy and the Sea: http

Agricultural policy and sustainable livestock development.

Science.gov (United States)

Schillhorn van Veen, T W

1999-01-01

Future agricultural and rural development is, to a large extent, influenced by the projected food needs of 2.5 billion people expected to swell the world population by 2020. This increase will require more food in general and, in view of recent experience in East Asia, more animal products. To achieve this increase will require judicious use of resources, and trade, especially in those countries where natural resources are insufficient to support food production. Achieving food sufficiency in a sustainable manner is a major challenge for farmers, agro-industries, researchers and governments. The latter play an important role as many of the farmers' choices are, to a large extent, directed by government or supra-government, often through macro- and micro-economic policy. In many countries the economic, environmental, trade and agricultural policies have not been conducive to an agricultural development that is risk-free with respect to the environment, animal welfare or public health. The recent decline of government support in agriculture forced farmers in Western countries to think about more risk adverse agricultural practices and more efficient production systems. On the other hand, many countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as other developing countries, are still going through a painful process of adjustment to new market conditions. International banks and development agencies have a mandate to help developing countries, but are somewhat restricted both by needing to work directly with governments and by their perceived dogmatic approach to development. Changing policies do, now and in the future, also affect the development of animal disease control programmes, including the control of parasitic diseases. On the one hand there is an increasing interest in risk-free control practices, and on the other hand a demand for greater regulatory control over the production process. As parasitic diseases of animals are closely linked to the

Energy for sustainable road transportation in China: Challenges, initiatives and policy implications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu, Xiaojun; Chang, Shiyan; Li, Jingjie; Qin, Yining [Institute of Energy and Environmental Economics, Energy Science Building, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)

2010-11-15

This paper presents an overview of the initiatives launched in energy supply and consumption and the challenges encountered in sustainable road transportation development in China. It analyzes the main energy challenges related to road transportation development arising in the context of economic development, rapid urbanization, and improvement in living standards. It also discusses technological- and policy initiatives needed to deal with these challenges, drawing comparisons with foreign experience: promoting the development and dissemination of alternative fuels and clean vehicles such as: LPG, CNG, EV, HEV, FCV, ethanol, methanol, DME, bio-diesel, and CTL, strengthening regulations relating to vehicle fuel economy and emission, improving traffic efficiency and facilitating public transport development, and strengthening management of the soaring motor vehicle population. If the current pattern continues, by the year 2030, the vehicle population in China will be 400 million and fuel demand will be 350 million tons. The potential energy saving capacity being 60%, the actual oil demand by 2030 from on-road vehicles might technically be kept at the current level by improving fuel economy, propagating use of HEV and diesel vehicles, improving supply of alternative fuels, and developing public transport. Several uncertainties are identified that could greatly influence the effect of the technical proposals: traffic efficiency, central government's resolve, and consumers' choice. (author)

Sustainable development goals and inclusive development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gupta, J.; Vegelin, C.

Achieving sustainable development has been hampered by trade-offs in favour of economic growth over social well-being and ecological viability, which may also affect the sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the member states of the United Nations. In contrast, the concept of inclusive

No-Self, Natural Sustainability and Education for Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Chia-Ling

2017-01-01

This article explores the significance of sustainability and several ways in which education for sustainable development (ESD) can be considered. It presents several issues related to the theories of sustainability and ESD, which are generated based on a firm concept of anthropocentrism. ESD has been used for developing a scientific understanding…

The Future of Sustainable Development: Welcome to the European Journal of Sustainable Development Research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marc A. Rosen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development is an objective for humanity of crucial importance to how we develop and evolve. It is also a rapidly growing discipline that is becoming increasingly applied in numerous areas, reflecting humanity's desire to ensure its activities can be sustained into the future and do not adversely affect the ecology or environment. Sustainable development is often defined based on the 1987 statement of the World Commission on Environment and Development (i.e., the Brundtland Commission. In that milestone document, sustainable development was defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." But new definitions are being developed as the discipline expands and becomes more multidisciplinary and complex.

Energy policy and alternative energy in Malaysia: Issues and challenges for sustainable growth

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oh, Tick Hui; Pang, Shen Yee; Chua, Shing Chyi

2010-01-01

Energy is essential to the way we live. Whether it is in the form of oil, gasoline or electricity, a country's prosperity and welfare depends on having access to reliable and secure supplies of energy at affordable prices. However, it is also one of the benefits taken for granted by many people, knowing little about the impact of electricity on their lives. Having dependent mainly on oil and gas for half a century, Malaysia has started to realize the importance to adopt renewable energy in the energy mix and continuously reviewed its energy policy to ensure sustainable energy supply and security. This paper examines and discusses the intricacy of the existing and new energy policies, issues and challenges in Malaysia. The overall approach in addressing the energy issues and challenges will continue to focus on adequacy, quality, security and sustainability of both non-renewable and renewable energy supply in the country's development and the promotion and implementation of its energy efficiency programs. The recently launched National Green Technology Policy is also discussed. (author)

Multicultural development in human services agencies: challenges and solutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Hyde, Cheryl A

2004-01-01

Comprehensive multicultural organizational development (MCOD) is increasingly necessary in human services agencies. This article presents results from an exploratory study that identified challenges and solutions to MCOD, against the backdrop of daily realities of agency life. The author conducted interviews with 20 consultants and 20 practitioners experienced in MCOD. Qualitative analysis revealed four challenges--socioeconomic environment, organizational dynamics, conceptualization of the change effort, and consultant competence; and four solutions--collaborative environmental relations, leadership development, assessment and planning, and consultant selection. Results suggest the complexities of MCOD and ways that human services agencies can sustain such efforts.

Development of Sustainable Rural Tourism

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandra Kantar

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a sociological view of possibilities for the development of sustainable rural tourism in Koprivnica-Krizevci county, which is located in the north-western part of Croatia. The possibilities for developing rural tourism within the concept of sustainable development have been researched through qualitative empirical research interview method. Research subjects were the owners of tourist farms, decision makers, experts and other stakeholders in the tourism development. Rural tourism represents an alternative to maritime tourism and is relatively undeveloped but important in terms of development of rural areas and family farms. This paper enables an insight into an integrated sustainability of rural tourism which consists of four dimensions: biologicalecological, economic, socio-cultural and political sustainability. In conclusion, integral sustainability in rural tourism is not achieved in all dimensions. Therefore, rural tourism could be a strategy for sustainable development for rural areas and also could be a tool for product differentiation for area that are at stagnation stage.

Integrating Sustainable Development in Higher Education through Experience-Based Learning: Insights from Experts in Team (EiT) for Developing a Combined Theoretical Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Otte, Pia Piroschka

2016-01-01

Universities are understood to play an essential role in the promotion of sustainable development. However, the recognition of sustainable development in higher education poses multiple challenges to the traditional higher education system. This article introduces a course concept called "Experts in Teams" (EiT) as a new platform of…

Toward sustainability: Development of the Ningxia wine industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hao Linhai

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Ningxia government's key responsibilities for the grape and wine sector are sustainable economic development and natural resource management. While emerging as an industry leader in China, Ningxia has experienced many challenges, the major ones are increasing labor costs and seasonal worker shortages, production cost control, and a market dominated by domestic giants and increased imports. Ningxia government made policies to encourage the development of boutique wineries, high quality wines and wine tourism. On natural resource protection, a strict annual irrigation quota has led to the quick adoption of drip irrigation. New vineyards have been designed with a focus on mechanization. Fertilization program will be fine-tuned using the analysis of the soil and the mineral elements in leaves. Various personnel training programs have been organized every year. In summary, the potential of Ningxia wine region has already been proven, and Ningxia government will continually provide its support for the sustainable grape and wine development of the region.

Sustainable Biofuels Development Center

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reardon, Kenneth F. [Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

2015-03-01

The mission of the Sustainable Bioenergy Development Center (SBDC) is to enhance the capability of America’s bioenergy industry to produce transportation fuels and chemical feedstocks on a large scale, with significant energy yields, at competitive cost, through sustainable production techniques. Research within the SBDC is organized in five areas: (1) Development of Sustainable Crops and Agricultural Strategies, (2) Improvement of Biomass Processing Technologies, (3) Biofuel Characterization and Engine Adaptation, (4) Production of Byproducts for Sustainable Biorefining, and (5) Sustainability Assessment, including evaluation of the ecosystem/climate change implication of center research and evaluation of the policy implications of widespread production and utilization of bioenergy. The overall goal of this project is to develop new sustainable bioenergy-related technologies. To achieve that goal, three specific activities were supported with DOE funds: bioenergy-related research initiation projects, bioenergy research and education via support of undergraduate and graduate students, and Research Support Activities (equipment purchases, travel to attend bioenergy conferences, and seminars). Numerous research findings in diverse fields related to bioenergy were produced from these activities and are summarized in this report.

Global risk & global challenges - Space as a game changer for socioeconomic sustainable development

Science.gov (United States)

Lehnert, Christopher; Karlsson, Evelina; Giannopapa, Christina

2017-11-01

The world's societies at the beginning of the 21st century are better off than ever before. (Gapminder, 2015) At the same time, the world is also threatened by global challenges where space as a tool has and can play a pivotal role in meeting those challenges. The challenges range from climate change, over mass unemployment, to terrorism or migration - to name but a few. Space activities have started to respond to this changing world, not only by providing a deeper understanding of our universe, but by using space as an additional sphere and sector, through which humankind can increase and secure its wealth - it is thus game changing in the way we sustain humanity's existence. This paper is meant to capture this development. In the first part, an overview is given on the risks that humankind is facing. The second part describes the way that space can be used as a tool to prevent and manage these risks. The overview in the first part is based on the examination of the most recent reports and overall strategies of key International Governmental Organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations that are involved in agenda-setting, policy formulation and implementation. The second part includes an overview on current activities of the European Space Agency (ESA) that play a role in responding to these risks. To better understand ESA's activities that contain humanity's risks, a standard classification for risks management is used, which distinguishes between four components: Identification, Assessment, Management and Communication (Renn, 2005). The analysis reveals how space activities already today play a pivotal role in all four types of risk management. Space activities contribute very tangible to the management of risks through its space mission, but also in a more indirect way, as providing the technical backbone for stable and reliable cooperation in the international governance arena, and serve as crucial economic stimulator. The overall results show that space

Major ecosystems in China: dynamics and challenges for sustainable management.

Science.gov (United States)

Lü, Yihe; Fu, Bojie; Wei, Wei; Yu, Xiubo; Sun, Ranhao

2011-07-01

Ecosystems, though impacted by global environmental change, can also contribute to the adaptation and mitigation of such large scale changes. Therefore, sustainable ecosystem management is crucial in reaching a sustainable future for the biosphere. Based on the published literature and publicly accessible data, this paper discussed the status and trends of forest, grassland, and wetland ecosystems in China that play important roles in the ecological integrity and human welfare of the nation. Ecological degradation has been observed in these ecosystems at various levels and geographic locations. Biophysical (e.g., climate change) and socioeconomic factors (e.g., intensive human use) are the main reasons for ecosystem degradation with the latter factors serving as the dominant driving forces. The three broad categories of ecosystems in China have partially recovered from degradation thanks to large scale ecological restoration projects implemented in the last few decades. China, as the largest and most populated developing nation, still faces huge challenges regarding ecosystem management in a changing and globalizing world. To further improve ecosystem management in China, four recommendations were proposed, including: (1) advance ecosystem management towards an application-oriented, multidisciplinary science; (2) establish a well-functioning national ecological monitoring and data sharing mechanism; (3) develop impact and effectiveness assessment approaches for policies, plans, and ecological restoration projects; and (4) promote legal and institutional innovations to balance the intrinsic needs of ecological and socioeconomic systems. Any change in China's ecosystem management approach towards a more sustainable one will benefit the whole world. Therefore, international collaborations on ecological and environmental issues need to be expanded.

Sustainability in coastal tourism development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Ida Marie Visbech; Blichfeldt, Bodil Stilling; Liburd, Janne J.

2018-01-01

explicitly requested nominations for sustainable tourism projects. A comparison between academic sustainability discourse and the approved projects suggests that tourism actors do not address sustainable tourism development as a holistic concept. Long-term perspectives are largely absent, whereas economic...... benefits are emphasized. Key findings also indicate weak political leadership in the envisaged transfer towards sustainable tourism development....

The energy situation and its sustainable development strategy in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Na; Lior, Noam; Jin, Hongguang

2011-01-01

The paper briefly summarizes China's energy situation and sustainable development strategy as they were by 2009. The energy consumption in 2009 is reported to be 3.1 billion tons standard coal equivalent, 1/7 of the world total, 6.3% higher than in the year 2008, and its share of world CO 2 emissions increased rapidly to 20.3% in 2006. These trends are most likely to continue with China's plan to accomplish its social and economy development goals. To address these problems and also respond to increasing world pressure for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the Chinese government plans and has legislated promotion of energy conservation, efficiency, renewable energy technologies and use, and reduction of energy-related environmental impacts to reduce energy intensity by 20% during the 2006-2010 period, and to reduce the CO 2 emission/GDP ratio by 40-45% by 2020 relative to 2005. China is facing severe energy-related challenges that conflict resources shortages with the planned rapid economic development, energy use with the related environmental pollution, and new technology with the old production/consumption patterns. It is recognized that energy development must, however, follow a sustainable path to coordinate economy growth, social development, and environmental protection. -- Highlights: → A brief summary of China's energy situation and plans in 2009; → Energy consumption and CO 2 emissions are likely to continue rising; → China to reduce energy intensity, and the (CO 2 emission)/GDP ratio by 40-45% by 2020; → Energy-related challenges and desired sustainable development strategy are discussed; → The strategy core is energy conservation and non-fossil fuel energy development.

Nuclear Power and Sustainable Development (French Edition)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

Any discussion of 21st century energy trends must take into account the global energy imbalance. Roughly 1.6 billion people still lack access to modern energy services, and few aspects of development - whether related to living standards, health care or industrial productivity - can take place without the requisite supply of energy. As we look to the century before us, the growth in energy demand will be substantial, and 'connecting the unconnected' will be a key to progress. Another challenge will be sustainability. How can we meet these growing energy needs without creating negative side effects that could compromise the living environment of future generations? Nuclear power is not a 'fix-all' option. It is a choice that has a place among the mix of solutions, and expectations for the expanding use of nuclear power are rising. In addition to the growth in demand, these expectations are driven by energy security concerns, nuclear power's low greenhouse gas emissions, and the sustained strong performance of nuclear plants. Each country must make its own energy choices; one size does not fit all. But for those countries interested in making nuclear power part of their sustainable development strategies, it is important that the nuclear power option be kept open and accessible [fr

Nuclear Power and Sustainable Development (Spanish Edition)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-02-01

Any discussion of 21st century energy trends must take into account the global energy imbalance. Roughly 1.6 billion people still lack access to modern energy services, and few aspects of development - whether related to living standards, health care or industrial productivity - can take place without the requisite supply of energy. As we look to the century before us, the growth in energy demand will be substantial, and 'connecting the unconnected' will be a key to progress. Another challenge will be sustainability. How can we meet these growing energy needs without creating negative side effects that could compromise the living environment of future generations? Nuclear power is not a 'fix-all' option. It is a choice that has a place among the mix of solutions, and expectations for the expanding use of nuclear power are rising. In addition to the growth in demand, these expectations are driven by energy security concerns, nuclear power's low greenhouse gas emissions, and the sustained strong performance of nuclear plants. Each country must make its own energy choices; one size does not fit all. But for those countries interested in making nuclear power part of their sustainable development strategies, it is important that the nuclear power option be kept open and accessible [es

O desafio político do desenvolvimento sustentado The political challenge of sustainable development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberto P. Guimarães

1995-01-01

Full Text Available A unanimidade que hoje parece haver em favor do desenvolvimento sustentado contrasta com a ausência de iniciativas políticas significativas para transformar as instituições econômicas, sociais e políticas que estão comprometidas com o estilo vigente de desenvolvimento. Em particular, há uma patente contradição entre o discurso antiestatista hegemônico e as exigências do desenvolvimento sustentado, que incluem um Estado ainda mais forte, em suas capacidades reguladoras e de planificação, que o Estado intervencionista do passado.The seeming unanimity in favour of sustainable development stands in contrast to the absence of meaningful political initiatives in order to change the economic, social and political intitutions linked to the ongoing style of development In particular there is a patent contradiction between the hegemonic antistatist discourse and the requirements for sustainable development, including a state with even more regulatory and planning powers than the interventionist state of the past.

Disaster risk reduction and sustainable development for small island developing states.

Science.gov (United States)

Shultz, James M; Cohen, Madeline A; Hermosilla, Sabrina; Espinel, Zelde; McLean, Andrew

2016-01-01

In contrast to continental nations, the world's 52 small island developing states (SIDS) are recognized as a collective of countries that experience disproportionate challenges for sustainable development related to their geography, small size, and physical isolation. These same states also face elevated risks for disaster incidence and consequences particularly in the realms of climate change, sea level rise, natural disasters (tropical cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes), and marine hazardous materials spills. Cyclone Winston's direct impact on Fiji in 2016 and Cyclone Pam's landfall over Vanuatu in 2015 provide case examples illustrating the special vulnerabilities of the SIDS.

Issues of sustainable socio-economic development of a region in modern conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Damir Saifullovich Khairullov

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Objective to identify ways of ensuring sustainable socioeconomic development of a region under the conditions of Russia39s joining the WTO to offer tools of state regulation. Methods a systematic approach was applied to the definition of the term conditions and factors of sustainable socioeconomic development of the region comparative method and situational analysis were applied for the study of the problems of sustainable socioeconomic development of a region under the Russia joining the WTO programtarget method and synthesis method were applied for determining the ways of ensuring the socioeconomic development of a region under the Russia joining the WTO. Results the concept conditions and factors of sustainable socioeconomic development of the region were identified the problems and peculiarities of sustainable socioeconomic development of region under the Russia joining the WTO were analyzed. Basing on the analysis of the problems of sustainable socioeconomic development of region under the Russia joining the WTO the path of sustainable socioeconomic development of the region was defined. The priority directions of regional economic policy were listed that meet the challenges of sustainable socioeconomic development of region under the Russia joining the WTO. Tools of state regulation and forecasting were offered. The necessity of the formation of an effective system of state regulation of sustainable socioeconomic development of region under the Russia joining the WTO was proved. The role of the state in restructuring the economy in the implementation of industrial social investment innovation and food policy was shown ensuring the safety and sustainability of socioeconomic development of the region. Scientific novelty the priority directions of regional economic policy were elaborated which according to the authors will contribute to sustainable socioeconomic development of region under the Russia joining the WTO also tools of state

Ergonomics in the development and implementation of organisational strategy for sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, Brendan; Wilson, John R

2013-01-01

This is the first phase of an ergonomics study of sustainability in a rail organisation, particularly environmental sustainability. The main emphasis has been on the use of a qualitative approach to carry out in-depth consultation with those in influential and policy setting roles in the organisation, collecting and analysing perceptions on sustainability policy and related business processes. The study identified factors affecting implementation of policy on sustainability and these have been developed to produce a list of requirements for implementing the policy. The findings are valuable in understanding the range of attitudes, aspirations and perceived constraints, from the perspective of those in senior roles in the company, and development of a sustainability strategy for a rail infrastructure owner. There is need for wider consultation, both within the organisation and externally, to validate and refine the understanding of barriers to the implementation of the policy. The role of ergonomics in supporting the work on sustainability is discussed. The study collects in-depth views from senior managers on the challenges of implementing a policy on sustainability in a rail organisation. Outputs include a list of factors affecting implementation of policy and requirements for better implementation of policy in this area. Potential contributions of ergonomics to sustainability in organisational contexts are discussed.

Sustainable Development Strategy Of Domestic Waste Infrastructure In The City Of Surakarta

Science.gov (United States)

Rezagama, Arya; Purwono; Damayanti, Verika

2018-02-01

Shifting from traditional system to large, centralised infrastructure domestic waste is widely complex challenge. Most of fhe sanitary system on household in Surakarta use on site septictank, 17% sewerage system reached and16,0% stll open defecations. Sanitation development sustained aims to develop policy and strategies waste management domestic Surakarta in the long term (20 years). The projection use quantitative method and institutional condition approach by SWOT analysis. Surakarta City get priority sanitation urban planning from Indonesian government in Presiden Joko Widodo era. The domestic waste management systems that is Surakarta divided into system on-site and system off site. Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) mojosongo, WWTP pucangsawit and WWTP Semanggi will be developed to treat 30% domestic waste of Surakarta Residence. While on-site system will are served 70% residence by service programs Regular Cleaning Septictank. The toughest challenge is how to increase community participation in waste management and improve the company"s financial condition. Sanitation sustainable development is going to happen if supported by facility development also good, institutional development, the arrangement that oversees, and the public participation.

Toward sustainable logistics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Soysal, Mehmet; Bloemhof-Ruwaard, Jacqueline M.

2017-01-01

The fast evolution of sustainability leads to the development of a new fast-growing concept called sustainable logistics management. This research addresses recent business trends and challenges in logistics and their implications for sustainable logistics management. Additionally, we discuss policy

Toward sustainable logistics

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Soysal, Mehmet; Bloemhof-Ruwaard, Jacqueline M.

2018-01-01

The fast evolution of sustainability leads to the development of a new fast-growing concept called sustainable logistics management. This research addresses recent business trends and challenges in logistics and their implications for sustainable logistics management. Additionally, we discuss policy

Sustainability Reporting at Schools: Challenges and Benefits

Science.gov (United States)

Carbach, Eva; Fischer, Daniel

2017-01-01

Despite advances made there is still an implementation gap with regard to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in formal educational systems at the school level. The present paper focuses on sustainability reporting as a recently emerging practice in the school sector. It presents the approach and findings of an exploratory interview study…

A future task for Health Promotion research: Integration of Health Promotion and sustainable development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jelsøe, Erling; Thualagant, Nicole; Holm, Jesper

2018-01-01

Based on previous studies and reflections collected from participants in a workshop at the 8th Nordic Health Promotion Research Network conference, we reveal current tendencies and discuss future challenges for health promotion research regarding integration of sustainable development principles....... Despite obvious interfaces and interactions between the two, our contention is that strategies for health promotion are not sufficiently integrated with strategies for sustainable development and that policies aimed at solving health or sustainability problems may therefore cause new, undesired...... and unforeseen environmental and health problems. As illustrated in previous research and as deliberated in the above-mentioned workshop, a number of barriers are identified: these are believed to be related to historical segregation, the conceptual understandings of health promotion and sustainable development...

Strengthening requirement specification in sustainable procurement - an investigation of challenges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eriksen, Marlene Stenberg Hagen; Bjarløv, Søren Peter; Rode, Carsten

2017-01-01

To reap the benefits of sustainability in the construction sector, it is crucial that the stakeholders involved can implement it in practice. Investigations have shown that choices made in the early phases of the building process are of very great importance for the outcome and the initiatives...... and decisions taken by the building owner are crucial.This paper presents research on Danish building practitioners' ability to make requirements for sustainability in procurement. On the basis of an action research strategy, we asked practitioners to help identify the challenges involved in requiring...

Diversifying bio-petro fuel sources for future energy sustainability and its challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Othman, M. R.; Helwani, Z.; Idris, I.

2018-04-01

Petroleum has been important in the energy industry since 19th century when the refining of paraffin from crude oil began. The industry recently appears to be in a downtown and fragile moment despite the price of oil is slowly rising. Renewable alternatives such as biofuels have gained increasing traction while petroleum fuel seemingly concedes to bio-fuels due to the rising public concern on the environment and stricter emission regulations. To be a strategic fuel in the energy security matrix, both fossil and bio-fuels options should be considered. However, the use of bio-fuels to achieve a degree of carbon neutrality is not without challenges. Among the challenges are land development and socio-political issue, carbon neutrality due to ILUC, high 2G bio-fuel feedstock and production cost, competing technology from electric vehicles and the impending fourth industrial revolution, NOx emissions and variation in biodiesel quality. This paper briefly reviews the potential of fuels source diversification and the challenges and how they can raise up to the challenges in order to be sustainable and attractive. In order to achieve this objective, first carbon credit through carbon trading needs to continue to stabilize the energy price. Second, 1G bio-fuel needs to forgo the use of natural, peat forest, rubber estate since these are an effective carbon sink and oxygen source. Third, advanced bio-fuels with high yield, process economics and sustainability need to be innovated. Fourth, the quality and standard bio-fuel that reduces NOx emission need to be improved. Finally and most importantly, carbon capture technology needs to be deployed immediately in fossil fuel power plants.

An international waste convention: measures for achieving sustainable development.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyers, Gary D; McLeod, Glen; Anbarci, Melanie A

2006-12-01

Waste is a by-product of economic growth. Consequently, economic growth presents challenges for sustainable resource management and development because continued economic growth implies continued growth in waste outputs. Poor management of waste results in the inappropriate depletion of natural resources and potentially adverse effects on the environment, health and the economy. It is unsustainable. This paper begins by outlining the magnitude of and the current response to the growth in the quantity of waste outputs. This is followed by a consideration of why the international response to date, including the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21, fails to address the issue adequately. The paper concludes with a discussion on why and how an international treaty or other measure could advance sustainable development by providing an appropriate framework within which to address the problem.

Bioenergy for sustainable development: An African context

Science.gov (United States)

Mangoyana, Robert Blessing

This paper assesses the sustainability concerns of bioenergy systems against the prevailing and potential long term conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa with a special attention on agricultural and forestry waste, and cultivated bioenergy sources. Existing knowledge and processes about bioenergy systems are brought into a “sustainability framework” to support debate and decisions about the implementation of bioenergy systems in the region. Bioenergy systems have been recommended based on the potential to (i) meet domestic energy demand and reduce fuel importation (ii) diversify rural economies and create employment (iii) reduce poverty, and (iv) provide net energy gains and positive environmental impacts. However, biofuels will compete with food crops for land, labour, capital and entrepreneurial skills. Moreover the environmental benefits of some feedstocks are questionable. These challenges are, however, surmountable. It is concluded that biomass energy production could be an effective way to achieve sustainable development for bioenergy pathways that (i) are less land intensive, (ii) have positive net energy gains and environmental benefits, and (iii) provide local socio-economic benefits. Feasibility evaluations which put these issues into perspective are vital for sustainable application of agricultural and forest based bioenergy systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Such evaluations should consider the long run potential of biofuels accounting for demographic, economic and technological changes and the related implications.

Sustainable development and energy indicators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pop-Jordanov, Jordan

2002-01-01

Starting from the basic definition of sustainable development and its four dimensions, the role of indicators for sustainable energy development is analysed. In particular, it is shown that important energy efficiency indicators belong in fact to energy supply efficiency, while the end-use energy efficiency could be more pertinently represented by energy intensity indicators. Furthermore, the negentropic effects of science and technology related sustainable energy scenarios are pointed out. Finally, the sustainable development is related to wisdom, interpreted as a sum of knowledge, morality and timing. (Author)

Balancing water resources development and environmental sustainability in Africa: a review of recent research findings and applications.

Science.gov (United States)

McClain, Michael E

2013-09-01

Sustainable development in Africa is dependent on increasing use of the continent's water resources without significantly degrading ecosystem services that are also fundamental to human wellbeing. This is particularly challenging in Africa because of high spatial and temporal variability in the availability of water resources and limited amounts of total water availability across expansive semi-arid portions of the continent. The challenge is compounded by ambitious targets for increased water use and a rush of international funding to finance development activities. Balancing development with environmental sustainability requires (i) understanding the boundary conditions imposed by the continent's climate and hydrology today and into the future, (ii) estimating the magnitude and spatial distribution of water use needed to meet development goals, and (iii) understanding the environmental water requirements of affected ecosystems, their current status and potential consequences of increased water use. This article reviews recent advancements in each of these topics and highlights innovative approaches and tools available to support sustainable development. While much remains to be learned, scientific understanding and technology should not be viewed as impediments to sustainable development on the continent.

Implications of Frugal Innovations on Sustainable Development: Evaluating Water and Energy Innovations

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Jarkko Levänen

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Frugal innovations are often associated with sustainable development. These connections, however, are based on anecdotal assumptions rather than empirical evidence. This article evaluates the sustainability of four frugal innovations from water and energy sectors. For the purposes of the evaluation, a set of indicators was developed. Indicators are drawn from sustainable development goals by the United Nations and they encompass central dimensions of sustainability: ecological, social and economic. In this article, frugal innovations are compared to solutions that are currently used in similar low-income contexts. Studied frugal innovations were found more sustainable in terms of energy production and water purification capacity than the existing solutions. In terms of social sustainability, larger differences between innovations were found. For example, business models of frugal energy solutions focus on capacity building and the inclusion of marginalized low-income people, whereas business models of water purification solutions focus on more traditional corporate social responsibility activities, such as marketing awareness campaigns and cooperation with non-governmental organizations. Three major sustainability challenges for frugal innovators were identified: (1 the proper integration of material efficiency into product or service systems; (2 the patient promotion of inclusive employment; and (3 the promotion of inclusive and sustainable local industrialization. The article concludes that despite indisputable similarities between frugality and sustainability, it is problematic to equate the two conceptually.

Sustainable development of rural areas: Case studies Vojvodina - Serbia

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Forcan Dejana

2016-01-01

Full Text Available One of the most important strategic aims of Serbian economic development is supporting of the villages sustainable development through rural economy diversification where rural tourism development has an important place. In spite of this model of tourism importance recognition as a possible way of rural areas development, Serbia is in an opening phase of. Although there are several positive examples, it is significant that recent projects haven't been established according to national and European development programs, but according to private initiatives of individuals and groups. Rural tourism is an important component of integrated and sustainable development and revitalization of villages, as well an an important factor in encouraging the development of local agricultural and non-farmer activities in rural areas and villages, and also a special incentive to employment. This work highlights the importance of rural tourism in the function of the revitalization of the village, focusing on the challenges of the environment and the possible directions of development in the context of creating a recognizable tourist product and brand of rural tourism in Vojvodina.

Data sharing policy design for consortia: challenges for sustainability.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaye, Jane; Hawkins, Naomi

2014-01-01

The field of human genomics has led advances in the sharing of data with a view to facilitating translation of research into innovations for human health. This change in scientific practice has been implemented through new policy developed by many principal investigators, project managers and funders, which has ultimately led to new forms of practice and innovative governance models for data sharing. Here, we examine the development of the governance of data sharing in genomics, and explore some of the key challenges associated with the design and implementation of these policies. We examine how the incremental nature of policy design, the perennial problem of consent, the gridlock caused by multiple and overlapping access systems, the administrative burden and the problems with incentives and acknowledgment all have an impact on the potential for data sharing to be maximized. We conclude by proposing ways in which the scientific community can address these problems, to improve the sustainability of data sharing into the future.

1. Dimensions of sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Repetto, R.

1992-01-01

This chapter discusses the following topics: the concept of sustainable development; envisioning sustainable development (economic dimensions, human dimensions, environmental dimensions, technological dimensions); policy implications (economic policies, people-oriented policies, environmental policies, creating sustainable systems); and global issues (effect of war on development and the environment and the debt burden). This chapter also introduces the case studies by discussing the levels of economic development and comparing key trends (economic growth, human development, population growth, and energy use)

Challenges facing use of energy in the tourism and hospitality industry in Zimbabwe and policies that can promote the sustainable use of renewable energy and tourism development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marunda, E.

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the various challenges facing use of energy for sustainable tourism development in Zimbabwe on the backdrop of Zimbabwe’s reliance mainly on non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuels and wood whilst very little use is being made of the abundant renewable sources of energy for instance the sun and wind technologies. It is based on the research carried out with the objective of establishing policies that can promote the sustainable use of renewable energy sources in the country. The findings reveal that stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry are largely in favour of formulating and expanding policies that encourage use of solar and wind technologies, at the same time mitigating environmental degradation. The article summarises the findings and duly recommends policies than can be used in Zimbabwe to promote the sustainable use of renewable energy employing solar and wind among others for tourism development.

Innovative Competencies of Mining engineers in Transition to the Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Krechetov, Andrey; Khoreshok, Alexey; Blumenstein, Valery

2017-11-01

The transition to the sustainable development posed new challenges to the system of mining higher education. They are determined by the acceleration of scientific and technological progress and widespread introduction of innovations, convergence of technologies from various industries. On the one hand, globalization and rapid technology development are constantly increasing quality requirements for the labor resources of the mineral and raw materials complex and constant improvement of their skills. On the other hand, the transition to the sustainable development provides the necessity for rational use of raw materials and environmental protection. This requires the improvement of staff support system for mining operations and the interaction of enterprises with universities training mining engineers, aimed at the innovative competencies development of future miners.

Enabling Sustainability: Hierarchical Need-Based Framework for Promoting Sustainable Data Infrastructure in Developing Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David O. Yawson

2009-11-01

Full Text Available The paper presents thoughts on Sustainable Data Infrastructure (SDI development, and its user requirements bases. It brings Maslow's motivational theory to the fore, and proposes it as a rationalization mechanism for entities (mostly governmental that aim at realizing SDI. Maslow's theory, though well-known, is somewhat new in geospatial circles; this is where the novelty of the paper resides. SDI has been shown to enable and aid development in diverse ways. However, stimulating developing countries to appreciate the utility of SDI, implement, and use SDI in achieving sustainable development has proven to be an imposing challenge. One of the key reasons for this could be the absence of a widely accepted psychological theory to drive needs assessment and intervention design for the purpose of SDI development. As a result, it is reasonable to explore Maslow’s theory of human motivation as a psychological theory for promoting SDI in developing countries. In this article, we review and adapt Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a framework for the assessment of the needs of developing nations. The paper concludes with the implications of this framework for policy with the view to stimulating the implementation of SDI in developing nations.

Thermodynamics and sustainable development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cornelissen, Rene

1997-01-01

It is the objective of this thesis to demonstrate exergy analysis as a powerful instrument to obtain sustainable development. An important aspect of sustainable development is the minimisation of irreversibilities caused by the use of non-renewables. In order to limit the scope of this thesis

Customer Involvement in the Development of New Sustainable Products: A Review of the Literature

OpenAIRE

Natalia Moreira; Trevor Wood-Harper

2015-01-01

The acceptance of sustainable products by the final consumer is still one of the challenges of the industry, which constantly seeks alternative approaches to successfully be accepted in the global market. A large set of methods and approaches have been discussed and analysed throughout the literature. Considering the current need for sustainable development and the current pace of consumption, the need for a combined solution towards the development of new products became c...

Education for sustainable development. Just do it : guide to designing education for sustainable development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frijters, S.

Sustainable development has become a crucial part of our modern society and our education. Sustainability is a complex concept. After all, what is considered sustainable to us now may not necessarily be so in the future. We need to continually review our judgments with regards to sustainability.

Desired, Perceived, and Achieved Sustainability: Trade-Offs in Strategic and Operational Packaging Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bjorn de Koeijer

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The alignment of the strategic and the operational level of packaging development in relation to the integration of sustainability is not addressed extensively in current research. This paper aims to address this, by focusing on the decision-making interrelations of key actors (marketing and packaging development within multidisciplinary product-packaging development teams. The research is conducted by means of a qualitative approach, consisting of semi-structured interviews with individual packaging development team members, complemented with a newly developed visualization tool. The research builds upon eight cases within brand owners, packaging material suppliers and packaging development consultants. The main findings of the study include the decision-making trade-offs between sustainability considerations and other project indicators, such as costs, time-to-market and technical challenges. These trade-offs are linked to the strategic and operational roles of key actors, and to internal and external factors influencing sustainable development processes. This research’s contribution is to address the alignment of the strategic and the operational levels of sustainable packaging development, in relation to (1 decision making and interrelations within multidisciplinary development teams; and (2 the relevance of development-influencing factors. This provides opportunities for further development of sustainable packaging models and tools, in order to align the strategic and operational level of development.

Nuclear Power and Sustainable Development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2016-09-01

Transforming the energy system is at the core of the dedicated sustainable development goal on energy within the new United Nations development agenda. This publication explores the possible contribution of nuclear energy to addressing the issues of sustainable development through a large selection of indicators. It reviews the characteristics of nuclear power in comparison with alternative sources of electricity supply, according to economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainability. The findings summarized in this publication will help the reader to consider, or reconsider, the contribution that can be made by the development and operation of nuclear power plants in contributing to more sustainable energy systems.

Early variability in the conceptualisation of "sustainable development and human factors".

Science.gov (United States)

Thatcher, Andrew

2012-01-01

The sub-discipline of "sustainable development and human factors" is relatively new, first being used in 2006 with a Technical Committee of the IEA being established only in 2009 and a similar special interest group on "green ergonomics" at the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors being established in 2010. In general though, the definitions and practice of "sustainable development" is highly contentious and ambiguous across a range of disciplines. This paper examines the diversity of definitions and approaches to sustainable development and human factors in the early papers in this sub-discipline. An examination of 45 chapters and papers (from 2008 to 2011) reveals a surprising consistency in the definitions used for sustainable development but also a large proportion of the papers where no definitions are given at all. The majority of papers were, however, biased towards an economic capital and social capital emphasis, which is to be expected of work traditionally in the ergonomics paradigm. Further, most papers were theoretical in nature demonstrating a great opportunity for empirical work. The variability in definitions is discussed in relation to the future challenges facing the growth of this emergent sub-discipline and opportunities for further theoretical and empirical work.

Development of a Study Module on and Pedagogical Approaches to Industrial Environmental Engineering and Sustainability in Mozambique

Science.gov (United States)

Husgafvel, Roope; Martikka, Mikko; Egas, Andrade; Ribiero, Natasha; Dahl, Olli

2017-01-01

Addressing the sustainability challenges in the forest sector in Mozambique requires capacity building for higher education and training of new skilled expert and future decision-makers. Our approach was to develop a study module on and pedagogical approaches to industrial environmental engineering and sustainability. The idea was to develop a…

Group EDF annual report 2005 sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-05-01

The EDF Group's Sustainable Development Report for 2005 is designed to report on Group commitments particularly within its Agenda 21, its ethical charter, and the Global Compact. It has also been prepared with reference to external reference frameworks: the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and the French New Economic Regulations (NRE) contained in the May 15, 2001 French law. It contents the Chairman's statement, the evaluation of renewing and sharing commitments with all stakeholders, the managing local issues, EDF responses to the challenges of the future. Indicators are also provided. (A.L.B.)

Feeding nine billion: the challenge to sustainable crop production.

Science.gov (United States)

Gregory, Peter J; George, Timothy S

2011-11-01

In the recent past there was a widespread working assumption in many countries that problems of food production had been solved, and that food security was largely a matter of distribution and access to be achieved principally by open markets. The events of 2008 challenged these assumptions, and made public a much wider debate about the costs of current food production practices to the environment and whether these could be sustained. As in the past 50 years, it is anticipated that future increases in crop production will be achieved largely by increasing yields per unit area rather than by increasing the area of cropped land. However, as yields have increased, so the ratio of photosynthetic energy captured to energy expended in crop production has decreased. This poses a considerable challenge: how to increase yield while simultaneously reducing energy consumption (allied to greenhouse gas emissions) and utilizing resources such as water and phosphate more efficiently. Given the timeframe in which the increased production has to be realized, most of the increase will need to come from crop genotypes that are being bred now, together with known agronomic and management practices that are currently under-developed.

Infopreneurs in service of rural enterprise and economic development: Addressing the critical challenges of scalability and sustainability in support of service extension in developing (rural) economies

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Van Rensburg, JR

2010-08-31

Full Text Available years’ work of ongoing research in a Living Lab fashion to understand and address the two critical challenges of scalability and sustainability in the utilisation of technology (primarily Information and Communication Technologies – ICTs) as enablers...

Evaluating Sustainable Development Solutions Quantitatively: Competence Modelling for GCE and ESD

Science.gov (United States)

Böhm, Marko; Eggert, Sabina; Barkmann, Jan; Bögeholz, Susanne

2016-01-01

To comprehensively address global environmental challenges such as biodiversity loss, citizens need an understanding of the socio-economic fundamentals of human behaviour in relation to natural resources. We argue that Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development provide a core set of socio-economic competencies that can…

Transnational multistakeholder partnerships for sustainable development: Conditions for success.

Science.gov (United States)

Pattberg, Philipp; Widerberg, Oscar

2016-02-01

This perspective discusses nine conditions for enhancing the performance of multistakeholder partnerships for sustainable development. Such partnerships have become mainstream implementation mechanisms for attaining international sustainable development goals and are also frequently used in other adjacent policy domains such as climate change, health and biodiversity. While multistakeholder arrangements are widely perceived as a positive contribution to addressing global change, few studies have systematically evaluated the existing evidence for their positive performance. This poses an urgent and important challenge for researchers and practitioners to understand and improve the effectiveness of partnerships, in particular since their popularity increases despite their past track record. The recommendations presented are based on own research, a literature survey and discussions with a large number or international Civil Society Organizations at two occasions during 2014. This article proceeds as follows: first, we define multistakeholder partnerships, outline their rational and summarize available assessments on partnership success; second, we provide a set of concrete recommendations based on lessons-learned from over 10 years of scholarship; and third, we conclude with some reflections on the future of multistakeholder governance for sustainability.

Development and sustainability issues - energy scenario

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kakodkar, Anil

2000-01-01

The 20th century has seen an unprecedented rise in the rate of consumption of material and energy resources. These patterns of growth and consumption have caused enormous strains on the available natural resources and the environment. Further, the benefits of available natural resources have been shared in a highly inequitable manner with a small fraction of mankind using up a large fraction of resources to a level that environmental concerns have become a global matter and are threatening to jeopardize the development of the larger fraction of humanity on grounds of global sustainability. While it has been seen that major achievements in almost all areas of human endeavour in recent times, enabling improvements in quality of life and better control over environmental degradation, there is a new challenge now of sustainability of the development process for the majority of human population. The environment with its large inertia, flexibility and stabilising mechanisms has so far some how copped up at least on a global scale with the unprecedented consumption. However, the recent trends indicate that most of the environment related cycles may not be able to take the continued abuse without disastrous global consequences. Piloting and sustaining the legitimate development of societies particularly those which are left far behind in the march towards better quality of life has, therefore, become a matter which needs very urgent consideration and action. There is thus a strong need for charting of a well deliberated goal oriented action plan with a vision that ensures due attention to the interests of all sections of society on the basis of their justifiable needs

COP21 - A moment of truth for climate and sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2015-01-01

Time is running out to act on climate change, poverty eradication and sustainable development. These challenges cannot be met independently of each other. The task of COP21 is to send strong policy signals that determined climate action is needed and will not harm the economy. In fact, these actions will trigger multiple employment, health and human development benefits by aligning strengthened short-term economic growth with long-term sustainable development goals. It is challenging but possible to trigger the transformation toward low carbon futures and to increase the affordability of advanced technologies despite the current pressures on public budgets. The world is awash in liquidity. What is needed is to redirect the savings of households, pension funds, insurance schemes, and sovereign wealth funds towards long-term and low-carbon investments. Sound regulatory frameworks and innovative financial mechanisms must be established to reduce the risks attached to potentially profitable low-carbon projects that are blocked by a combination of high up front costs and an uncertain environment, so as to attract private savings and institutional investors. COP 21 can provide critical policy hooks for step changes in economic and financial inter-mediation based on public guarantees for low carbon investments; an agreed social value of carbon mitigation activities could be incorporated into diverse low-carbon financial initiatives supporting Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs); strong and enforceable requirements for Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) can ensure the environmental integrity and sustainability of the resulting investments. Such a framework can secure the transparency of voluntary commitments by countries, clubs of countries and non-state actors. If it can achieve these goals, the Paris Agreement can unleash a wave of investments into low-carbon development that responds to short-term economic and social challenges while supporting

PLANNING EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION AND KNOWLEDGE – A CASE FROM TURKEY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ebru Cubukcu

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development is one of the great challenges of 21st century for various disciplines including city and regional planning. Studies showed that city plans fail to promote sustainable development, design professionals have limited understanding of sustainability issues, and curriculums in design education schools do not put the necessary emphasis on sustainability concepts. However, no study has tested whether planning students’ have a different perception and understanding of sustainable development than other students. Thus, this study aims to understand attitudes of planning students towards sustainable development and compare planning students’ and other students’ knowledge about sustainable development. Data were collected by means of questionnaires, which asked questions about perception and attitudes towards sustainable development, source of information to improve sustainability knowledge, and level of knowledge for general, legal and architectural aspects of sustainability. One hundred ten volunteers (79 planning students, 31 general students participated in the study. Results showed that students thought that very little sustainable practice appears to be undertaken. Although, planning students thought that the sensitivity to sustainability determines an important percentage of their final grades in a studio project, they reported not using many of the sustainability principles in studios. In addition, planning students reported that they improve their understanding of sustainable development via classes, scientific articles and books. On the other hand, other students reported that they rely on visual and written media to improve their understanding of sustainable development. Despite those differences in sources of information, results showed that, planning students’ level of knowledge (for general, legal and architectural aspects of sustainability was not different than that of other students. In conclusion, although

Sustainable agriculture a challenge for soil microbiology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nubia Moreno Sarmiento

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Soils: a solid foundation for life, was the theme of the celebration of 2015, the General Assembly of the UN, decides to declare as the International Year of Soils, considering that these are the foundation of agricultural development, the essential functions of ecosystems and food security. It is therefore a key to sustaining life on Earth element. During that year several actions that contributed to the awareness of their problems and protection of soil resources were made. One was that FAO, reviewed and published in June 2015, the World Soil Charter (originally developed in 1982. The World Soil Charter of Revised, as a preamble quote: 1. Soils are essential for life on Earth, but pressures on soil resources are reaching critical limits. Careful soil management is an essential factor of sustainable agriculture and also provides a valuable tool to regulate climate and a way to safeguard ecosystem services and biodiversity spring. 2. In the final document of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil in June 2012, "The future we want" economic and social importance of good management is recognized land, including land, particularly its contribution to economic growth, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, food security, poverty eradication, empowerment of women, measures to address climate change and increase water availability.

Kazakhstan: Sustainable Development in Transition and Connection to the EU’s Assistance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sabina Chukayeva

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This year the World Leaders considered and adopted the new ambitious Sustainable Development Agenda “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” to end poverty and universally promote shared economic prosperity, social development and environmental protection by 2030. This article explores new realities of the Sustainable Development agenda in the light of the transition from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs. It is clear today that the global development strategy requires a system renovation and new approaches, corresponding with the reality and challenges of the 21st century. Kazakhstan, being one of the 50 countries participating in the national consultations process on the post-2015 Agenda, brought its own contribution to “The Future We Want” programme. The fruitful cooperation with the European Union adds more perspectives for Kazakhstan as one of the most dynamic developing countries in the Central Asian region. The authors emphasized the importance of the United Nations Organization (UN leadership in the global strategic planning and controlling long-term strategies, including cooperation between states and civilizations, and inclusion of all points of view, especially that of the youth. This article is intended for specialists as well as a wider audience (e.g. students, who are interested in international relations and organizations, international cooperation, sustainable development, and foreign policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Global environmental challenges - Norwegian politics. How sustainable development and climate change can be handled better in public decision-making processes; Globale miljoeutfordringer - norsk politikk. Hvordan baerekraftig utvikling og klima kan ivaretas i offentlige beslutningsprosesser

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2009-07-01

Content: Submission Letter; The Committee's appointment, background and work methods; Sustainable development; Description of the Norwegian rules and decision processes; Climate Challenge; Biodiversity; Contaminants; Cost-benefit and economic instruments; Uncertainty and discounting; Climate policy and the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions; Instruments relating to technology development; Instruments and recommendations for biodiversity; Instruments and recommendations for hazardous substances; Key recommendations and implications for regulatory, etc.. Appendix and registers; Climate policy for a small economy; Technology development, climate and use of instruments Report of Committee on Sustainable Development and Climate Bibliography. (AG)

Planning for a sustainable Oslo: the challenge of turning urban theory into practice

OpenAIRE

Andersen, Bengt; Skrede, Joar

2016-01-01

Many cities today face challenges related to urban growth. This is also the case in Oslo, currently one of the fastest growing capitals in Europe. In order to prepare for the population growth, a new municipal master plan has been prepared. In this, sustainable development is a prominent concept, and the urban district is going to be densified as part of the strategy. This paper examines some obstacles of turning planning theory into practice. There is a lack of coherence between municipal...

Sustainable Energy Development: The Key to a Stable Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kalu Uduma

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes the use of sustainable energy systems based on solar and biomass technologies to provide solutions to utility challenges in Nigeria and acute water shortage both in rural and urban areas of that country. The paper highlights the paradoxes of oil-rich Nigeria and the stark reality of social infrastructure deprivations in that country. Perennial power outages over many years have translated to the absence of or poorly-developed basic social infrastructures in Nigeria. The consequences of this lack have been an increase in abject poverty in rural and urban communities as well as the erosion of social order and threats to citizen and their property. This paper proposes the adaptation of two emerging technologies for building sustainable energy systems and the development of decentralized and sustainable energy sources as catalyst for much-needed social infrastructure development through the creation of Renewable Energy Business Incubators, creative lending strategies, NGO partnerships and shifting energy-distribution responsibilities. These changes will stimulate grassroots economies in the country, develop large quantities of much needed clean water, maintain acceptable standards of sanitation and improve the health and wellbeing of Nigerian communities. The proposed strategies are specific to the Nigerian context; however, the authors suggest that the same or similar strategies may provide energy and social infrastructure development solutions to other developing countries as well.

Globalisation, sustainable development and competencies of landscape change in a European perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brandt, Jesper

2005-01-01

During the last 10 years the collective goals connected with the agenda of sustainable development has been challenged by the globalisation agenda furthering a global liberalised market with the individual producer and consumer in focus. Only in the local planning and management of the concrete...... landscape the two agendas seems to meet. In a European perspective the European landscape convention has been promoted as a common frame for the promotion of landscape aspect of the sustainability agenda. The paper analyses the EU proposal for a European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) from...... on the ability and strength of local authorities to unite for such goals, and that detailed analyses of the power balance between different geographical competences in the rural community is necessary to evaluate the possibilities for a sustainable landscape development in rural areas under the conditions...

THE INFLUENCE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES ON SHAPING THE COMPANIES' MARKETING POLICY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lavinia Dovleac

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Today, consumers do not just buy brands, but also buy company philosophies and policies. Worldwide studies have shown that customers tend to favour companies that are perceived to be socially and environmentally responsible. For that, companies need to face the challenge of evaluating their product and service portfolios, as well as the way these products and services are created, produced and marketed. The question is how to integrate marketing strategy and sustainable development principles for the company success. This paper aims to discover how hard young consumers are influenced in their buying decision by the companies’ preoccupations for sustainable development.

IAEA and the world summit on sustainable development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ford, JoAnne [ed.

2002-03-01

Nuclear technology offers unique tools in the quest for sustainable development. Such technology is often the best to gather information and provide solutions that would not otherwise be possible or practical: to diagnose and treat disease, to breed better crops and fight insect pests; to assess new sources of fresh water; and to monitor pollution. While many may only think of energy, nuclear technology has a much larger role to play in human development. Where it can make a difference, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provides support to 133 Member States for using this technology to solve the important challenges they face.

IAEA and the world summit on sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ford, JoAnne

2002-03-01

Nuclear technology offers unique tools in the quest for sustainable development. Such technology is often the best to gather information and provide solutions that would not otherwise be possible or practical: to diagnose and treat disease, to breed better crops and fight insect pests; to assess new sources of fresh water; and to monitor pollution. While many may only think of energy, nuclear technology has a much larger role to play in human development. Where it can make a difference, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) provides support to 133 Member States for using this technology to solve the important challenges they face

Sustainable development. First part

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colombo, U.; Lanzavecchia, G.; Berrini, M; Zambrini, M.; Bologna, G.; Carraro, C.; Hinterberger, F.; Mastino, G.; Federico, A.; Gaudioso, D.; Luise, A.; Mauro, F.; Padovani, L.; Federico, A.

1998-01-01

This paper summarizes a collective effort and represents the second edition of: Environment, energy, economy: a sustainable future. In this work are reported various interventions on sustainable development problem [it

ECO-SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ROMANIAN TOURISM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MARIANA BĂLAN

2014-05-01

Full Text Available In a changing world, the development of eco-sustainable tourism is manifested in the form of interaction of elements compatible with each other in various dimensions: economic, environmental, human, technological, environmental, ethical, etc. Through eco-sustainable tourism aims to satisfy the present needs of tourists in favor and not in detrimental to the interests of future generations, along with educating them in the spirit of reducing negative environmental impacts. This paper provides a brief overview of the tourism - ecology - sustainable development relationship, by highlighting the evolutionary theoretical considerations regarding the concept of tourism, the need for sustainable tourism development, the ecology as a priority in the development and integration of tourism activities within the coordinates the eco-sustainable development. It also discusses the main indicators used to characterize the tourism activities in Romania in the context of eco-sustainable development.

Universal health coverage and the health Sustainable Development Goal: achievements and challenges for Sri Lanka.

Science.gov (United States)

de Silva, Amala; Ranasinghe, Thushara; Abeykoon, Palitha

2016-09-01

With state-funded health care that is free at the point of delivery, a sound primary health-care policy and widespread health-care services, Sri Lanka seems a good example of universal health coverage. Yet, health transition and disparities in provision and financing threaten this situation. Sri Lanka did well on the Millennium Development Goal health indicators, but the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for health has a wider purview, which is to "ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages". The gender gap in life expectancy and the gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy make achievement of the health SDG more challenging. Although women and children do well overall, the comparative health disadvantage for men in Sri Lanka is a cause for concern. From a financing perspective, high out-of-pocket expenditure and high utilization of the private sector, even by those in the lowest income quintile, are concerns, as is the emerging "third tier", where some individuals accessing state health care that is free at the point of delivery actually bear some of the costs of drugs, investigations and surgery. This cost sharing is resulting in catastrophic health expenditure for individuals, and delays in and non-compliance with treatment. These concerns about provision and financing must be addressed, as health transition will intensify the morbidity burden and loss of well-being, and could derail plans to achieve the health SDG.

Dynamic Sustainability. Sustainability Window Analysis of Chinese Poverty-Environment Nexus Development

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jyrki Luukkanen

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Sustainability Window is a new analysis tool for assessing the sustainability of development simultaneously in all of its three dimensions (environmental, economic, and social. The analysis method provides information of the maximum and minimum economic development that is required to maintain the direction of social and environmental development towards more sustainable targets. With the Sustainability Window method it is possible to easily analyze the sustainability using different indicators and different time periods making comparative analyses easy. The new method makes it also possible to analyze the dynamics of the sustainability and the changes over time in the width of the window. This provides a new perspective for analyzing the trends of sustainability and the impacts of underlying sustainability policies. As an illustration of the method, we have carried out an analysis of Chinese development using CO2 and SO2 emissions as indicators of the environmental dimension, number of non-poor people as an indicator of the social dimension and GDP as an indicator of the economic dimension.

Runaway Climate Change as Challenge to the "Closing Circle" of Education for Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Selby, David; Kagawa, Fumiyo

2010-01-01

Education for sustainable development (ESD) is the latest and thickest manifestation of the "closing circle" of policy-driven environmental education. Characterised by definitional haziness, a tendency to blur rather than lay bare inconsistencies and incompatibilities, and a cozy but ill-considered association with the globalisation agenda, the…

"Omics" of maize stress response for sustainable food production: opportunities and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Fangping; Yang, Le; Tai, Fuju; Hu, Xiuli; Wang, Wei

2014-12-01

Maize originated in the highlands of Mexico approximately 8700 years ago and is one of the most commonly grown cereal crops worldwide, followed by wheat and rice. Abiotic stresses (primarily drought, salinity, and high and low temperatures), together with biotic stresses (primarily fungi, viruses, and pests), negatively affect maize growth, development, and eventually production. To understand the response of maize to abiotic and biotic stresses and its mechanism of stress tolerance, high-throughput omics approaches have been used in maize stress studies. Integrated omics approaches are crucial for dissecting the temporal and spatial system-level changes that occur in maize under various stresses. In this comprehensive analysis, we review the primary types of stresses that threaten sustainable maize production; underscore the recent advances in maize stress omics, especially proteomics; and discuss the opportunities, challenges, and future directions of maize stress omics, with a view to sustainable food production. The knowledge gained from studying maize stress omics is instrumental for improving maize to cope with various stresses and to meet the food demands of the exponentially growing global population. Omics systems science offers actionable potential solutions for sustainable food production, and we present maize as a notable case study.

Evolutions of the power grid: vector of sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Croguennoc, Alain; Dalle, Bernard; Archambault, R.; Bony, P.E.; Bouneau, C.; Bourguignon, B.; Bouvier, D.; Beltran, A.; Chauvancy, A.; Chevassus-au-Louis, B.; Citi, S.; Claverie, B.; Colomb, B.; Dallet, M.; Deveaux, L.; Dubus, D.; Fresnedo, S.; Herreros, J.; Herz, O.; Isoard, J.; Jaussaud, E.; Laffaye, H.; Laroche, J.P.; Lasserre, D.; Lebas, N.; Lebranchu, D.; Leclerc, F.; Lemoine, D.; Leydier, C.; Malique, F.; Mazoyer, F.; Meudic, M.A.; Nguefeu, S.; Pajot, S.; Pilate, J.M.; Real, G.; Rosso, F.; Waeraas de Saint Martin, G.; Schwartzmann, S.; Serres, E.

2011-01-01

The abatement of energy consumption and the mass production of renewable energy are the main actions implemented to meet the climate challenge. In this context, the share of electric power in the final consumption is continuously growing up. Adapting the power transportation grid is necessary if we want to take up the challenge of the new paradigm 'new power generation sites, fatal and intermittent energy'. If this grid is the symbol of a modern and well-equipped France, it is also the revealer of our society antagonisms: change without disruption, progress without sacrifice of heritage and natural landscapes. Industries and grid operators will have to show some innovation and anticipation if they want this deep change to be a success. The French power grid has permitted the regional development in the past and will allow to take up the climate challenge in the future. Its inevitable position in the success of past transformations makes it an essential vector of sustainable development. (J.S.)

Sustainable development in a developing economy: Challenges ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

USER

2013-08-21

Aug 21, 2013 ... towards environmental management in Nigeria which is a fast developing economy. The basic ... almost every developing country in which it is grown ..... perspective of Development in Formal and Integrated Management of.

Nuclear and sustainable development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Audebert, P.; Balle, St.; Barandas, Ch.; Basse-Cathalinat, B.; Bellefontaine, E.; Bernard, H.; Bouhand, M.H.; Bourg, D.; Bourgoignon, F.; Bourlat, Y.; Brunet, F.; Buclet, N.; Buquet, N.; Caron, P.; Cartier, M.; Chagneau, E.; Charles, D.; Chateau, G.; Collette, P.; Collignon, A.; Comtesse, Ch.; Crammer, B.; Dasnias, J.; Decroix, G.; Defoy, B.; Delafontaine, E.; Delcroix, V.; Delerue, X.; Demet, M.; Dimmers, G.; Dodivers, S.; Dubigeon, O.; Eimer, M.; Fadin, H.; Foos, J.; Ganiage, D.; Garraud, J.; Girod, J.P.; Gourod, A.; Goussot, D.; Guignard, C.; Heloury, J.; Hondermarck, B.; Hurel, S.; Jeandron, C.; Josse, A.; Lagon, Ch.; Lalleron, Ch.; Laurent, M.; Legrand, H.; Leveau, E.

2006-01-01

On September 15. and 16., 2004, at Rene Delcourt invitation, President of the C.L.I. of Paluel and Penly, took place the 4. colloquium of the A.N.C.L.I.. Jean Dasnias, new President of the C.L.I., welcomed the colloquium. Hundred of persons participated. The place of the nuclear power in the energy perspectives of tomorrow, its assets and its weaknesses in front of the other energies and within the framework of a sustainable development, are so many subjects which were discussed. The different tackled subjects are: the stakes in the sustainable development; energy perspectives; the reactors of the fourth generation; nuclear power and transparency; sustainable development and I.R.S.N. (N.C.)

Social Science, Equity and the Sustainable Development Goals

Science.gov (United States)

Liverman, D.

2015-12-01

The Sustainable Development Goals are underpinned by a committment to a world that is just, equitable, inclusive and environmentally sustainable and include goals of ending poverty and hunger; universal access to health, education, water, sanitation, energy and decent work; and reducing the risks and impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, and marine, forest and land degradation. They seek to reduce inequality between and within countries and achieve gender equality. The SDGs build on the apparent success in meeting many of the Millenium Development Goals, including those of reducing poverty, hunger and debt and providing access to water. The science needed to achieve and monitor most of these goals is social science - an area of scholarship that is traditionally undervalued, underfunded, underepresented misunderstood and lacking in detailed data. This paper will provide an overview of the social science that is needed to support the Sustainable Development Goals, with a particular focus on the challenges of monitoring social data over time and within countries, the importance of research design, and of building capacity and credibility in the social sciences. As an example, the paper will discuss the social science that will be needed to achieve Goal 13: Take urgent actions to combat climate change and its impacts, and measuring targets such as strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity, and raising capacities of women, youth, and marginalized communities to manage and respond climate change.

Sustainable rural learning ecologies- a prolegomenon traversing transcendence of discursive notions of sustainability, social justice, development and food sovereignty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dipane Hlalele

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper contributes, through traversing contested notions of sustainability, social justice, development and food sovereignty, to discourses around creation of sustainable rural learning ecologies. There has always been at least in the realm of scientific discourse, an attempt to dissociate the natural or physical environment from the social and human environment. This trend did not only affect the two spheres of existence only. It is further imbued and spawned fragmented and pervasive terminology, practices and human thought. Drawing from the ‘creating sustainable rural learning ecologies’ research project that commenced in 2011, I challenge and contest the use of such discourses and argue for the transcendence of such. This would, in my opinion, create space for harmonious and fluid co-existence between nature and humanity, such that the contribution of learning practices exudes and expedites sustainability in rural ecologies.

CONCEPTUAL DELIMITATIONS ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ienciu Ionel-Alin

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Sustainable development is a model for resource use meant to satisfy human needs, without polluting the environment, so that these needs can be satisfied not only in the present, but in the future as well. It is a concept of nowadays with no generally accepted definition, placing environment first and foremost, aiming at implementing the environmental policies in all structures and at all economic levels. Within the present study we have aimed at creating a conceptual delimitation on sustainable development, sustainability and socialresponsibility, concepts of present interest, that tend to become a mystery for the academic community and practitioners by their variety and complexity of approaches. During our scientific endeavor we believe that social responsibility is the foundation of sustainable development. Sustainable development is a concept used especially at macro-economic level, while social responsibility is used at entity level and incorporates the economic, environmental and social dimension, which has a voluntary character and tries to respond to the information needs of the society and other stakeholders. Sustainability at the entity\\'s level is the goal or final objective of sustainable development – satisfaction of present needs without compromising the possibility for future generations to satisfy their own needs, while social responsibility is an intermediate phase of sustainability wherein entities try to balance the economic, social and environmental dimension. Thus, we can state we include ourselves within social corporatism, slightly close to social institutionalism, which is characteristic to developed countries, giving a particular importance to social contract and relations between entity and society. We believe that in Romania, a POSDRU funded project should be regarded as a legal person with social values, which must be based on sustainable development and to promote, besides legal liability of automatically deriving

Digital Citizenship in the Afterschool Space: Implications for Education for Sustainable Development

Science.gov (United States)

Howard, Patrick

2015-01-01

Education for sustainable development (ESD) challenges traditional curricula and formal schooling in important ways. ESD requires systemic thinking, interdisciplinarity and is strengthened through the contributions of all disciplines. As with any transformative societal and technological shift, new questions arise when educators are required to…

Psychological science's contributions to a sustainable environment: extending our reach to a grand challenge of society.

Science.gov (United States)

Kazdin, Alan E

2009-01-01

Climate change and degradation of the environment are global problems associated with many other challenges (e.g., population increases, reduction of glaciers, and loss of critical habitats). Psychological science can play a critical role in addressing these problems by fostering a sustainable environment. Multiple strategies for fostering a sustainable environment could draw from the diversity of topics and areas of specialization within psychology. Psychological research on fostering environmentally sustainable behaviors is rather well developed, as illustrated by interventions focusing on education of the public, message framing, feedback, decision making, the media, incentives and disincentives, and social marketing. Other sciences and professions as well as religion and ethics are actively involved in fostering a sustainable environment. Psychology ought to be more involved directly, systematically, and visibly to draw on our current knowledge and to have palpable impact. We would serve the world very well and in the process our discipline and profession.

Managing Sustainable Information Systems Development

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kautz, Karlheinz

2013-01-01

Sustainable information systems development (ISD) in the context of this paper is not about products that support sustainability at large with its environmental, economic and social dimensions and little about the development of sustainable products, which are both without doubt important topics....... This paper is about a prerequisite for such products, namely, a sustainable ISD process, a process which exhibits reasonable and responsible stewardship and utilisation of the existing resources for ISD—people and information in the context of scope, time/schedule, budget/cost, quality and risk....

Sustainable development: A HUD perspective

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Goldfarb, E.

1994-12-31

Sustainable development is the current term now being used to describe the environmental movement. The term`s popularity can be traced to publication of Our Common Future, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission). Sustainable development means exactly what is implied; development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission). It is another way of conveying the basic premise of {open_quotes}Spaceship Earth{close_quotes}; that our species has been given this planet to live on and we must carefully balance resource utilization if we want to endure more than a few generations, because this is all we`ve got. It is a natural evolution of the conservation and environmental movements into a format that recognizes that environmental issues cannot be viewed in isolation, but must be evaluated in a context of economic development (Powledge). Sustainable development is thus a broad term that encompasses many elements, depending upon the context. Such elements can include: 1 energy, 2 economic development, 3 pollution prevention, 4 biodiversity, 5 historic preservation, 6 social equity, and 7 recycling and solid waste disposal. One of the cornerstones of sustainable development is energy policy, since energy use is perhaps the most defining element of contemporary civilization. In the energy discipline, sustainability can best be paraphrased as living off one`s income as opposed to depleting ones capital. In other words, using solar, wind and other renewables rather than fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are limited and will eventually be depleted, therefore they cannot be considered sustainable. Another element embraced by sustainable development is biodiversity. The biodiversity movement is most sharply distinguished from traditional conservationism for its commitment to the principle of preserving and managing entire ecosystems.

Sustainable development: A HUD perspective

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldfarb, E.

1994-01-01

Sustainable development is the current term now being used to describe the environmental movement. The term's popularity can be traced to publication of Our Common Future, the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission). Sustainable development means exactly what is implied; development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission). It is another way of conveying the basic premise of open-quotes Spaceship Earthclose quotes; that our species has been given this planet to live on and we must carefully balance resource utilization if we want to endure more than a few generations, because this is all we've got. It is a natural evolution of the conservation and environmental movements into a format that recognizes that environmental issues cannot be viewed in isolation, but must be evaluated in a context of economic development (Powledge). Sustainable development is thus a broad term that encompasses many elements, depending upon the context. Such elements can include: 1 energy, 2 economic development, 3 pollution prevention, 4 biodiversity, 5 historic preservation, 6 social equity, and 7 recycling and solid waste disposal. One of the cornerstones of sustainable development is energy policy, since energy use is perhaps the most defining element of contemporary civilization. In the energy discipline, sustainability can best be paraphrased as living off one's income as opposed to depleting ones capital. In other words, using solar, wind and other renewables rather than fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are limited and will eventually be depleted, therefore they cannot be considered sustainable. Another element embraced by sustainable development is biodiversity. The biodiversity movement is most sharply distinguished from traditional conservationism for its commitment to the principle of preserving and managing entire ecosystems

Practical appraisal of sustainable development-Methodologies for sustainability measurement at settlement level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moles, Richard; Foley, Walter; Morrissey, John; O'Regan, Bernadette

2008-01-01

This paper investigates the relationships between settlement size, functionality, geographic location and sustainable development. Analysis was carried out on a sample of 79 Irish settlements, located in three regional clusters. Two methods were selected to model the level of sustainability achieved in settlements, namely, Metabolism Accounting and Modelling of Material and Energy Flows (MA) and Sustainable Development Index Modelling. MA is a systematic assessment of the flows and stocks of material within a system defined in space and time. The metabolism of most settlements is essentially linear, with resources flowing through the urban system. The objective of this research on material and energy flows was to provide information that might aid in the development of a more circular pattern of urban metabolism, vital to sustainable development. In addition to MA, a set of forty indicators were identified and developed. These target important aspects of sustainable development: transport, environmental quality, equity and quality of life issues. Sustainability indices were derived through aggregation of indicators to measure dimensions of sustainable development. Similar relationships between settlement attributes and sustainability were found following both methods, and these were subsequently integrated to provide a single measure. Analysis identified those attributes of settlements preventing, impeding or promoting progress towards sustainability

Environmental challenges for sustainable development in the Croatian North Adriatic littoral region

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jelena Lončar

2009-12-01

Full Text Available The paper presents some geographical aspects of sustainable development in a part of the North Adriatic region in the Republic of Croatia. This sensitive region is confronted with problems of space management, water supply, waste management, transportation and energy, especially during the tourist season because of the pressure on infrastructure in the coastal region where there is a great concentration of population and tourist capacities. Another environmental problem is the oil transportation by a pipeline which is planned to be built in the frames of Russian-Croatian project Družba-Adria.

Towards transformational change: UNDP's work in environment and sustainable development 2008-2012

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mordt, Matilde; Hildebrandt, Laura; Iyer, Devika; Fankuchen, Alexander

2013-03-15

This report highlights significant advances in sustainable development from almost 60 country reports and underscores the challenges and bottlenecks to moving beyond the economic-led growth strategies of the past 20 years.

Sustainability : Politics and governance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heinrichs, Harald; Biermann, Frank

2016-01-01

he article gives an overview of global sustainability policy and politics. It is shown how international policy making on sustainable development has progressed from environmental policy toward recent approaches of Earth system governance. Key challenges of international sustainability politics are

Three necessary conditions for establishing effective Sustainable Development Goals in the Anthropocene

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Albert V. Norström

2014-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the United Nations-guided process to establish Sustainable Development Goals is to galvanize governments and civil society to rise to the interlinked environmental, societal, and economic challenges we face in the Anthropocene. We argue that the process of setting Sustainable Development Goals should take three key aspects into consideration. First, it should embrace an integrated social-ecological system perspective and acknowledge the key dynamics that such systems entail, including the role of ecosystems in sustaining human wellbeing, multiple cross-scale interactions, and uncertain thresholds. Second, the process needs to address trade-offs between the ambition of goals and the feasibility in reaching them, recognizing biophysical, social, and political constraints. Third, the goal-setting exercise and the management of goal implementation need to be guided by existing knowledge about the principles, dynamics, and constraints of social change processes at all scales, from the individual to the global. Combining these three aspects will increase the chances of establishing and achieving effective Sustainable Development Goals.

Contemplating ‘Quality Street’ : integration of environmental quality in planning sustainable urban development

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Stigt, M.

2016-01-01

The challenge of sustainable urban development entails integration of environmental interests in decision-making about urban plans. In practice, this is not always successful. This dissertation offers explanations and suggests some strategies for further improvement. Three different perspectives are

The development of a sustainable development model framework

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hannoura, Alim P.; Cothren, Gianna M.; Khairy, Wael M.

2006-01-01

The emergence of the 'sustainable development' concept as a response to the mining of natural resources for the benefit of multinational corporations has advanced the cause of long-term environmental management. A sustainable development model (SDM) framework that is inclusive of the 'whole' natural environment is presented to illustrate the integration of the sustainable development of the 'whole' ecosystem. The ecosystem approach is an inclusive framework that covers the natural environment relevant futures and constraints. These are dynamically interconnected and constitute the determinates of resources development component of the SDM. The second component of the SDM framework is the resources development patterns, i.e., the use of land, water, and atmospheric resources. All of these patterns include practices that utilize environmental resources to achieve a predefined outcome producing waste and by-products that require disposal into the environment. The water quality management practices represent the third component of the framework. These practices are governed by standards, limitations and available disposal means subject to quantity and quality permits. These interconnected standards, practices and permits shape the resulting environmental quality of the ecosystem under consideration. A fourth component, environmental indicators, of the SDM framework provides a measure of the ecosystem productivity and status that may differ based on societal values and culture. The four components of the SDM are interwoven into an outcome assessment process to form the management and feedback models. The concept of Sustainable Development is expressed in the management model as an objective function subject to desired constraints imposing the required bounds for achieving ecosystem sustainability. The development of the objective function and constrains requires monetary values for ecosystem functions, resources development activities and environmental cost. The

Challenges of science-society interactions in the frame of sustainable development: A case-study of contemporary Bulgaria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paneva Aneliya

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Effectively tackling problems of sustainable development such as climate change, poverty, and biodiversity loss requires a different perspective on the role of science in society. Building on the understanding that knowledge production processes shall go hand in hand with governance processes, sustainability science and ecological economics promote transdisciplinarity and participatory procedures as a key requirement for scientific work on nature-society interactions. Involving non-academic actors such as local lay persons, civil society representatives, businesses, and decision makers in the research process promises the discovery of practical solutions to related problems and empowerment of communities. While this novel research approach has been increasingly applied in Western societies, its adoption by scientific actors in the context of Central and Eastern Europe, however, remains relatively low. Employing Bulgaria as a case study, this investigation examined the inter-actions between academia and practice through a series of expert interviews and a review of policy documents, thus offering insights into the specific conditions of implementing science for sustainable development. It emerges that knowledge transfer and experience exchange in the field are needed. Promoting social learning in this domain requires clarification of the roles of actors and institutions for sustainable development. Finally, recommendations for science related policies and scientific work are given.

Is ‘Sustainable Development' the core of ‘Education for SustainableDevelopment'?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Breiting, Søren

2007-01-01

What is the core of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and how to avoid that ESD becomes everything good in school and in reality not more than a new terminology without much innovative power for education?......What is the core of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and how to avoid that ESD becomes everything good in school and in reality not more than a new terminology without much innovative power for education?...

TOURISM AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gina Ionela Butnaru

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Tourism and sustainable development are the subject of many initiatives and public or private debates in Romania. The main problem to which these initiatives try to find an answer is mostly related to the income generation for the local communities by using rationally and efficiently the local potential, in agreement with the economic, social, natural, and cultural factors. Consequently, some measures should be taken, and the tourist sector as a whole needs all the methods of sustainable development: new technologies, change of social behaviour, change of environmental legislation, methods of environmental management, better planning and development of control procedures. In this article, we presented a model of tourism development which should be applied in all the regions of great tourist attraction, and we realised a synthesis of the socio-economic advantages of sustainable tourism.

Progress towards sustainable development : 1997 sustainable development report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-01-01

The ways in which Shell Canada has been able to incorporate sustainable development concepts into the Company's business strategies were highlighted. The report describes Shell Canada's plans for protecting the air, water, wilderness, wildlife, soil and groundwater. Land reclamation of abandoned well sites, building a solid capability in emergency preparedness and a strong program to ensure health and safety, are also high on Shell Canada's priorities list. Achievements in 1997, led by the completion of environmental and socio-economic impact assessment of the Sable Offshore Energy Project and the announcement of plans for the construction of a mine and extraction plant north of Fort McMurray (Musked River Mine) Alberta, were reviewed. An ambitious list of objectives and targets for 1998 were also outlined. While in 1997 improvements in safety and sustainable development performance were impressive, financial results were also gratifying, with the Company reporting its best financial results ever. tabs., figs

Forest Management Challenges for Sustaining Water Resources in the Anthropocene

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ge Sun

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The Earth has entered the Anthropocene epoch that is dominated by humans who demand unprecedented quantities of goods and services from forests. The science of forest hydrology and watershed management generated during the past century provides a basic understanding of relationships among forests and water and offers management principles that maximize the benefits of forests for people while sustaining watershed ecosystems. However, the rapid pace of changes in climate, disturbance regimes, invasive species, human population growth, and land use expected in the 21st century is likely to create substantial challenges for watershed management that may require new approaches, models, and best management practices. These challenges are likely to be complex and large scale, involving a combination of direct and indirect biophysical watershed responses, as well as socioeconomic impacts and feedbacks. We discuss the complex relationships between forests and water in a rapidly changing environment, examine the trade-offs and conflicts between water and other resources, and propose new management approaches for sustaining water resources in the Anthropocene.