Social Sustainability, Past and Future

For a professional, educated non-academic audience, this book asks how our societies were caught in a socio-economic dynamic causing the sustainability conundrum. It develops an original view of social evolution as the history of human information-processing, studying the past to understand the present in order to deal with the future. This title is also available as Open Access

Integrated method to assess resource efficiency – ESSENZ

With increasing demand of abiotic resources also the pollution of natural resources like water and soil has risen in the last decades due to global industrial and technological development. Thus, enhancing resource efficiency is a key goal of national and international strategies. For a comprehensive assessment of all related impacts of resource extraction and use all three sustainability dimensions have to be taken into account: economic, environmental and social aspects. Furthermore, to avoid burden shifting life cycle based methods should be applied. As companies need operational tools and approaches, a comprehensive method has been developed to measure resource efficiency of products, processes and services in the context of sustainable development (ESSENZ). Overall 21 categories are established to measure impacts on the environment, physical and socio-economic availability of the used resources as well as their societal acceptance. For the categories socio-economic availability and societal acceptance new approaches are developed and characterization factors are provided for a portfolio of 36 metals and four fossil raw materials. The introduced approach has been tested on several case studies, demonstrating that it enhances the applicability of resource efficiency to assess product systems significantly by providing an overall framework that can be adopted across sectors, using indicators and methods which are applicable and can be integrated into existing life cycle assessment based schemes.BMBF, 033R094A-F, r³ - Strategische Metalle, Verbundvorhaben: Integrierte Methode zur ganzheitlichen Berechnung/Messung von Ressourceneffizienz - ESSEN

Social sustainability : eo-it-yourself urbanism, start-it-yourself urbanism

Many definitions of social sustainability focus on community engagement and economic equity as the main determinants of social sustainability. Measures to achieve social sustainability need to address (a) poverty, and (b) poverty-generating mechanisms or social and political exclusion. Governments do not take adequate steps toward social sustainability. Self-help actions of communities are an alternative route to social sustainability. Self-help actions have three main features: community leadership, focus on short-term implementation, and limited resources. Do-it-yourself (DIY) urbanism often refers to the self-help actions of communities to meet their basic needs like shelter by making changes in the urban space without government permission and resources. DIY urbanism is helpful to social sustainability more in the Global South, but it has limitations in the meaningful addressing of poverty. Start-it-yourself (SIY) urbanism refers to the ‘start’ of self-help actions (or their gesture) by communities but with the intention to pressure public and private bodies for permission and resources. SIY urbanism is helpful to social sustainability more in the Global North, but it has limitations in addressing poverty-generating mechanisms. This is because of some deals that SIY urbanism makes with public and private elites in exchange for resources to better address poverty impacts. However, we propose that SIY urbanism might be able to integrate the two aspects of social sustainability

Strategic environmental risk management in South African companies

ABSTRACT Past and current corporate sustainability management approaches to natural resource use have been characterised by a short-term financial focus, while natural systems have been viewed as stable, linear and predictable. This approach disregards the multidimensional characteristics of social-ecological systems, of which humanity forms an integral part. Such systems are dynamic, complex and non-linear in space and time and can change in unpredictable ways. Human activities have led to a significant increase in the pressure on ecosystem services, resulting in severe degradation of most ecosystems and causing the global ecological system to become increasingly unstable and unpredictable and weakening the planet’s ecological resilience. To account for these dynamics, the sustainability concept has evolved from conceptualising the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) model, still giving preference to the financial aspects of business conduct, to applying risk and resilience theory. To manage natural resources more sustainably, reduce risk exposure resulting from natural resource degradation and ensure sustained human wellbeing, more strategic approaches are required by integrating environmental risks into corporate sustainability management practices to establish whether these are aligned with risk and resilience thinking as part of sustainable development. It will also identify whether businesses are starting to reconsider their position as part of a complex social-ecological system, and not as separate entities disconnected from it. A reassessment of corporate sustainability practices is necessary to enable sustainable management of natural resource use and enhance resilience during times of increasing uncertainty and unpredictability. The aim of my PhD thesis was to advance our understanding of whether businesses address social-ecological system complexity as part of their business strategy and the risks associated with ecosystem degradation to strengthen resilience. Annual, integrated and sustainability reports of 30 of the Top 100 Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)-listed companies were assessed on the quality of environmental iv impact disclosures between 2008 and 2013 as well as on the extent of environmental risk reporting between 2008 and 2015. To identify whether company reports address system complexity indicating a paradigm shift in business practices, annual, integrated and sustainability reports were compared to two risk maps that were created from existing literature. Interviews with sustainability managers were conducted to identify factors affecting environmental reporting and management as well as strategic environmental risk management approaches. The environmental impact disclosure quality was found to be average to poor and environmental risks were rarely addressed. The most frequently reported environmental risk was related to water and climate change with 20-25% in 239 reports. These were connected to other sustainability and business risks or strategic objectives in only few cases. Interviews suggest that JSE listing requirements, King III and other legal obligations appeared to be a driving force in moving businesses towards sustainable practices but that reporting fatigue, as well as resource and time constraints were found to negatively affect the advancement of corporate sustainability. Further, understanding of complexity and acknowledgement of business’ dependence on natural capital and strategic management of environmental risks were rarely evident. The findings indicate that, while the sustainable development concept has shifted towards multi-level, multi-system complexity of social-ecological systems of which businesses are a part, corporate sustainability still displays a disconnection from the system as well as short-term, linear and retrospective views and management approaches. The ability to sustain economic, social and environmental wellbeing during and after the planet’s transition from a stable state to a new, unpredictable one is thus compromised. Some companies were found to practice strategic environmental risk management, thus creating a resilient business and providing long-term value to all parties involved and affected by their business operations. A number of recommendations are made that could advance corporate sustainability.EM201

The sustainability imperative and urban New Zealand : promise and paradox

'Urban sustainability' is an increasingly ubiquitous term now featuring in all manner of policy documents and promotional material. As an ambitious attempt to address social, economic and bio-physical environmental issues it appears to balance philanthropic ideals, such as social development, with environmental concern and fiscal efficiency. Yet, my research involving in-depth interviews with 35 urban practitioners in Christchurch, New Zealand, exposes much of the apparent consensus around its meaning as illusory. Though the concept's promise rests on an apparently neutral reconciliation of disparate goals and aspirations, it is conceptually paradoxical, difficult to implement and extremely political. While the orthodox tripartite promotes a combination of social, economic and environmental elements, I have found practitioners tend to emphasise bio-physical aspects of the concept. As a corollary, urban sustainability is often reified as a technical problem to be managed within certain budget constraints. The ways in which the concept is quite literally made concrete in our cities and towns naturalises certain social arrangements, such as, for example, the spatial segregation of different groups. The processes of reification also serve to legitimise particular rationalities, one of which encourages a particular reading of 'the environment' that rests on an unhelpful and possibly dangerous separation of nature and the city. In this thesis I use techniques associated with discourse analysis and symbolic interaction, informed by an eclectic literature around social geography, and urban political economy and ecology, to explore and elaborate upon these themes

Environment Statistics of Indonesia 2013

The 2013 Environment Statistics of Indonesia is the compilation of primary and secondary data of environment status in Indonesia. The environment data are grouped into three categories: Natural Environment, Man- Made Environment, and Social Environment. Each of them is discussed on three point of views: pressure, state or impact, and response