It's the new rock and roll. It's the new black. Sustainability is trendy, and not just among hipsters and pop stars. The uncool chemical sector helped pioneer it, and today, companies inside and outside the sector have embraced it. But what have they embraced? Surely not the Brundtland definition of meeting "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Sustainability describes a change in the chemical industry's approach to the external world: to regulators, to greens, to neighbors, to investors and to the general public. Displacing the adversarialism of the 1970s-80s, sustainability is a new approach to social/political conflict, and an attempt to rebuild the industry's long-suffering public image. In practice, it consists of:
A 'stakeholder' approach to communications and external relations
A rebranding of regulatory compliance and risk management, with the emphasis on their benefits to stakeholders
Recognition (and even celebration) of the opportunities, not just the costs, of environmental and social protection

The core of this book is a survey of the world's 29 largest chemical companies: how they put sustainability into action (six of the 29 do not), and the six 'sustainability brands' they have created. It begins with a history of stakeholders conflict, before looking at various definitions of sustainability - by academics, by the public and by investors. After the survey and analysis, the book covers sustainability and 'greenwash' plus the ROI of sustainability, and it gives five recommendations.

At the dawn of the third millennium, planet Earth entered a zone of turbulence. The 2008 crisis added economic uncertainty to the threat of global warming and extreme events such as droughts, floods and cyclones, the persisting crisis of p- erty and the spectrum of pandemics and terrorism. Against this global landscape in an era of fragility, cities, already sheltering more than half of humankind, appear as Janus-faced realities, the best and worst of places, vulnerable but still full of hope and will to overcome the crisis of societal values and progress in the path of susta- able development. This book addresses the most critical challenges for cities, humanity's collective masterpieces in danger, and analyses breakthrough responses for sustainable dev- opment, a globalisation with human face and the transition to inclusive post carbon communities. The ultimate wish is that experts, city planners, decision-makers and citizens in search of sustainable cities could find here some sources of information and inspiration to enhance the immense possibilities of cities and embrace the best possible trajectories of change.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of sustainability and management in India and through its insightful essays highlights the complex and multifaceted nature of sustainability as a concept. It also demonstrates the debates surrounding the concept of sustainability and its ramifications for ground-level practice in managing organisations and for public policy. The contributions from sustainability enthusiasts, practitioners from disparate fields and academics working at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, have been divided into five themes: (1) sustainability as a normative concept; (2) sustainability concept at the global level, (3) sustainability practices in Indian organisations and consumer behaviour; (4) sustainability, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility and (5) sustainability: a critique of organisational practice and government regulation. The themes reflect both new and continuing issues confronting management in the country today. Examples and in-depth studies make it relevant to the grounded reality in India. The expertise and experience of the contributors ensure that readers are left with a grasp of our current understanding of how sustainability is related to society and business, the direction this understanding will take in the future.

Taking Complexity Seriously applies the advanced policy analysis technique of triangulation to what is now the world's most complex public policy challenge: sustainable development. One central problem of public policy analysis has been to find new ways of analyzing issues of increasing complexity and uncertainty. Triangulation is perhaps the best example of these novel techniques, as it uses various methods, databases, theories, and approaches to converge on what to do about the complex issue in question. Taking Complexity Seriously uses four different theoretical approaches (Girardian economics, cultural theory, critical theory, and the local justice framework) to triangulation in order to converge on answers to four major policy questions: What is sustainable development? Why is it an issue? What needs to be done? What can actually be done? These four approaches are used to analyze the sustainable development controversy that recently arose in the pages of Science magazine and the journal Ecological Applications. These different approaches prove highly potent in defamiliarizing conventional wisdom about sustainable development. Ultimately the different approaches will converge on novel answers to the four questions. The practical implications of these conclusions are drawn out at the end of Taking Complexity Seriously in a detailed case study of ecosystem management.

Limited availability of grid-based electricity is a major challenge faced by many developing countries, particularly the rural population. Fuel-based lighting, such as the kerosene lantern, is widespread in these areas, but it is a poor alternative, contributing to global warming and causing serious health problems. Several developing countries are therefore now encouraging the use of sustainable lighting. Solar Lighting gives an in-depth analysis of energy-efficient light production through the use of solar-powered LED systems. The authors pay particular attention to the interplay between energy transformation and device efficiency. They also discuss diverse aspects of renewable energy, including how an improvement in the efficiency of appliances can reduce the cost of energy. Solar Lighting is written for physicists, environmental experts and lighting engineers. It is also suitable for undergraduate students in the fields of environmental science, electrical engineering and renewable energy.

Lakes are an essential element of some of the world's most popular tourism destinations. However, increased pressure from visitors and the tourism industry as well as from other, sometimes competing, land and water uses has made the sustainable development of lakes increasingly problematic. This book represents the first attempt to bring together some of the key elements of lake tourism within a single volume in order to present the urgent need for an integrated approach to lacustrine tourism systems management.The book presents comprehensive overviews of lake tourism including branding and marketing, visitor management and planning, historical and cultural dimensions, and environmental quality. The volume is international in scope with cases from Europe, North America and Oceania. The book concludes by noting that tourism needs to be established as a complimentary land and water use at a time when lakes and their watersheds are facing challenges in the form of climate and environmental change, increasing numbers of visitors as well as an overall increase in competing demands for water.

Lakes are an essential element of some of the world's most popular tourism destinations. However, increased pressure from visitors and the tourism industry as well as from other, sometimes competing, land and water uses has made the sustainable development of lakes increasingly problematic. This book represents the first attempt to bring together some of the key elements of lake tourism within a single volume in order to present the urgent need for an integrated approach to lacustrine tourism systems management.The book presents comprehensive overviews of lake tourism including branding and marketing, visitor management and planning, historical and cultural dimensions, and environmental quality. The volume is international in scope with cases from Europe, North America and Oceania. The book concludes by noting that tourism needs to be established as a complimentary land and water use at a time when lakes and their watersheds are facing challenges in the form of climate and environmental change, increasing numbers of visitors as well as an overall increase in competing demands for water.

* State-of-the-art examination of the theory and practice of system innovation* Introduces the concept of PSS innovation and outlines the characteristics* Examines a wide range of potential research directions on sustainable PSS design* Valuable resource for design students, teachers and practicing designersThis book is a state-of-the-art examination of the theory and practice of system innovation through Product-Service System (PSS) design for sustainability from a trans-cultural viewpoint. PSS design incorporates innovative strategies that shift businesses away from designing and selling physical products to developing integrated systems of products and services. The book provides background, advice and tools for designers and design students interested in sustainable PSSs and has a wealth of case studies for practitioners to digest. The first part of the book introduces the concept of PSS innovation, outlining the characteristics and features of such innovation, how different types of PSS can be classified, and which are the related benefits, drivers and barriers. It argues that such innovation has the capability to potentially bring radical reductions in the current levels of resource consumption, without minimizing consumer levels of satisfaction.The second part of the book examines a wide range of potential research directions on sustainable PSS design including: Sustainable PSS in different socio-economic contexts (industrialized, emerging and low income) Sustainable PSS in different organizational bodies (companies, public administrations, NGOs) Sustainable PSS and consumption patterns Sustainable PSS and social innovations Sustainable PSS and aesthetics Sustainable PSS and distributed economies Sustainable PSS and social enterprises Sustainable PSS and socio-technical transitions Sustainable PSS and the sufficiency economy: combining efficiency with sufficiencyThis book is the outcome of the LeNS, the Learning Network on Sustainability, a project funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropAid, European Commission, for curricula development and teaching diffusion in worldwide design Higher Education Institutions. It is a hugely important teaching resource for undergraduate, graduate and PhD design students, design teachers and practicing designers worldwide."

With capitalism in crisis, academics from a range of disciplines and from a number of European and Latin American countries come together to question what it means to have a `sustainable society' and to ask what role alternative social and solidarity economies can play in developing convivial, humane and resilient societies.

In an atmosphere where civilization is progressing and becoming more aware of the consequences of careless development decisions, rethinking sustainable development-particularly sustainable urban and infrastructure development-has become an inevitable necessity. Rethinking Sustainable Development: Urban Management, Engineering, and Design considers the role of urban, regional and infrastructure planning in achieving sustainable urban and infrastructure development, providing insights into overcoming the consequences of unsustainable development. This companion volume to Sustainable Urban and Regional Infrastructure: Technology, Planning and Management, overviews all aspects of sustainable urban and infrastructure development.

It is more and more evident that our living system is completely disturbed by human intrusion. Such intrusion affects the functioning of entire systems in ways we do not yet fully understand. We use paradigms such as the disturbance to cover large and deep gaps in our scienti?c knowledge. Human ecology is an uncertain terrain for anthropologists, geographers, and ecologists and rarely is expanded to include the social and economic realms. The integration of different disciplines and the application of their many paradigms to problems of environmental complexity remains a distant goal despite the many efforts that have been made to achieve it. Philosophical and semantic barriers are erected when such integration is pursued by pioneering scientists. Recently, evolutionary ecology has shown great interest in the spatial processes well described by the emerging discipline of landscape ecology. But this interest takes the form of pure curiosity or at worst, of skepticism toward the real capacity of landscape ecology to contribute to the advancement of ecological science. The past two centuries have been characterized by huge changes occurring in the entire ecosphere. Global changes are the effects of human intervention at a planetary scale, with consequent degradation of the environment creating an e- logical debt for future generations. On the other side of the issue, new technologies have improved the welfare of billions of people and have given hope to many other billions that they may also see such improvement in the near future.

With respect to the developing and threshold economies, it is no longer the poor who are the only focus of media attention. Today, the new middle classes are about to take centre stage, too. With their lifestyles and attitudes, the new middle classes are considered to be both the products as well as the promoters of globalization. They are a highly heterogeneousgroup in socio-economicterms as well as in habits 1 and preferences, including their societal role as consumers and citizens. The ?rst wave of scholarly and political attention can be traced back to the mid-nineties. The focal point was surprise and unease about indubitable symptoms of consumerism which, until then had been seen as a characteristic of the richest western societies. However, since the nineties, consumerism has run rampant in - velopingcountriestoo.Thishasparticularlybeennotedwithrespecttotheemerging middle classes in South East Asia. The "will to consume seemed inexhaustible, and appetites insatiable. This rage to consume ...] was both celebrated and feared by political leadersand other social/moralgatekeepers, who beganto condemnthe p- cess as 'Westernization' and even 'westoxi?cation"' (Chua 2000: xii). Ever since, the debate about the lifestyles of the new middle classes and their role in society has gained momentum.

World population and the number of city dwellers are steadily growing. Globalization and digitalization lead to an increased competition for skilled and creative labor and other economic resources. This is true not only for firms, but increasingly also for cities. The book elaborates on resulting challenges and opportunities for urban management from the European perspective, and discusses theories, methods and tools from business economics to cope with them. Contributions in this volume come from scholars and practitioners of economics, business administration and urban management, and cover aspects ranging from urban dynamics to city marketing. They draw on experiences from several European cities and regions, and discuss strategies to improve city performance including Open Government, Smart City, cooperation and innovation. The book project was initiated and carried out by the Center for Advanced Studies in Management (CASiM), the interdisciplinary research center of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. It is addressed to scholars and managers in Europe and beyond, who will benefit from the scientific rigor and useful practical insights of the book.

Informed Cities looks at the knowledge brokerage processes between cities and higher education institutions, and in particular evaluates governance mechanisms for monitoring local sustainability and the role of research within this. The first part of the book provides an analysis of tools for governing sustainable cities and develops a typology of existing tools. It then considers approaches to monitor local sustainability on a European level, focusing on a number of key tools such as the Covenant of Mayors, Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities, and Green Capital Award. The second part of the book introduces an explorative application of two tools that the author team have used in practice to monitor local sustainability, Urban Ecosystems Europe and Local Evaluation 21, presenting and evaluating European level data collected from local governments. The third part of the book looks deeper into a number of case studies discussing how a working and rewarding city-university connection can be created and nourished in an administrative and political setting. Finally, the last part of the book reflects on lessons learned from the application of the tools and accompanying research process and makes recommendations for further developing monitoring tools for urban sustainability on a European level. This book will be essential reading for professionals in urban and regional planning who are tasked with monitoring the effects of sustainability policies, as well as for graduate students in planning, environmental governance, sustainable development and related disciplines.

This book opens new approach to the study of global environmental changes having unfourable character for peoples and other living systems. Main advantage of this book consists in the accumulation of knowledge from different sciences to parameterize global biogeochemical cycles in the context of globalization and sustainable development. Basic global problems of the nature-society system dynamics have been considered and the key problems of ensuring its sustainable development have been discussed. An analysis has been made of the present trend in changing ecological systems and characteristics of the present global ecodynamics have been estimated. The emphasis has been placed on the accomplishment of global geoinformation monitoring, which could provide a reliable control of the environmental processes development with further obtaining prognostic estimates of consequences of realization of anthropogenic projects. A new approach to the nature-society system numerical modelling has been proposed and demonstrative results have been given of modelling the dynamics of this system s characteristics in cases of realization of some scenarios of anthropogenic impact on the biogeochemical cycles. The importance and the need has been emphasized of development of adaptive algorithms of monitoring data processing which make it possible to reduce the economic expenses on its accomplishment and raise the reliability of the obtained estimates of the global ecodynamics characteristics. Perspective approaches have been suggested for the development of technology to estimate the risk of realization of decisions on ecosystems management. The realization of this approach allows integration within a complex structure of all international and national means of environmental monitoring and provides a tool for objective evaluation of the environmental quality. The main purpose of this book is to develop an universal information technology to estimate the state of environmental subsystems functioning under various climatic and anthropogenic conditions and to assess the dependence of global bviogeochemical cycles on the globalization processes. Applied mathematicians, geophysicists, hydrologists, socio-economists, statesmans and other researchers of global change will find a wealth of information and ideas in this book."

The Mekong Delta of Vietnam is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. The Mekong River fans out over an area of about 40,000 sq kilometers and over the course of many millennia has produced a region of fertile alluvial soils and constant flows of energy. Today about a fourth of the Delta is under rice cultivation, making this area one of the premier rice granaries in the world. The Delta has always proven a difficult environment to manipulate, however, and because of population pressures, increasing acidification of soils, and changes in the Mekong's flow, environmental problems have intensified. The changing way in which the region has been linked to larger flows of commodities and capital over time has also had an impact on the region: For example, its re-emergence in recent decades as a major rice-exporting area has linked it inextricably to global markets and their vicissitudes. And most recently, the potential for sea level increases because of global warming has added a new threat. Because most of the region is on average only a few meters above sea level and because any increase of sea level will change the complex relationship between tides and down-river water flow, the Mekong Delta is one of the areas in the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. How governmental policy and resident populations have in the past and will in coming decades adapt to climate change as well as several other emerging or ongoing environmental and economic problems is the focus of this collection.

Presently, peri-urbanisation is one of the most pervasive processes of land use change in Europe with strong impacts on both the environment and quality of life. It is a matter of great urgency to determine strategies and tools in support of sustainable development. The book synthesizes the results of PLUREL, a large European Commission funded research project (2007-2010). Tools and strategies of PLUREL address main challenges of managing land use in peri-urban areas. These results are presented and illustrated by means of 7 case studies which are at the core of the book. This volume presents a novel, future oriented approach to the planning and management of peri-urban areas with a main focus on scenarios and sustainability impact analysis. The research is unique in that it focuses on the future by linking quantitative scenario modeling and sustainability impact analysis with qualitative and in-depth analysis of regional strategies, as well as including a study at European level with case study work also involving a Chinese case study.

Will the future be a climate disaster? Will biotechnologies bring huge improvements in lifespan and lifestyle? Predictions vary, but children's status as human embodiments of the future puts them at the centre of current attempts to shape the world. In this book, Nicholas Lee argues that, if it can adapt, the discipline of childhood studies can make a critical and creative contribution to future making.
"Childhood and Biopolitics" develops new ways to navigate and analyse childhood as a biopolitical phenomenon that is intimately connected with today's major political and scientific challenges. It addresses cognitive enhancement and mental capital, preventable disease and vaccine development, epidemics, public order, climate change and sustainability. It argues that children should be seen as a reservoir of the creative human ability to 'reframe' and so to respond to challenges and opportunities.

This volume addresses the dynamics of sustainable development in the healthcare industry, covering all major aspects, including R&D, manufacturing, regulation, market access, commercialization, and general management. Healthcare markets are evolving under demographic and economic pressures. In mature markets, patients navigate complex systems with limited control on healthcare quality and outcomes, while in developing markets, patients have limited awareness, access, and ability to pay for healthcare. The industry needs to identify which business targets are genuinely attractive for major or new investments. At the same time, development of new products and services must be tackled within the context of environmental sustainability. Rather than focusing on the traditional issues of innovation, cost management, and commercial effectiveness associated with growth, the authors explore such emerging topics as: The mutations of innovation management The need to foster patient-centricity along the entire value chain of the healthcare industry and company-wide Issues related to improving healthcare access and disease management The allocation of educational resources focused on the patient to increase the effectiveness of disease management The preservation of natural resources and the environmental effect of pollution and hazards created by the handling of pharmaceutical products Issues related to the size of medical need and/or market demand The private-public partnerships necessary to address the full spectrum of public health issues, from basic patient access to care to managing global health crises The required organizational and governance evolutions for the healthcare industry to maintain profitability and sustainable growth. Featuring contributions from leading academics and industry insiders with emphasis on environmental, economically, and socially sustainable practices, the authors present a unique, multi-faceted set of perspectives on this vital and rapidly evolving field.

The world is entering the Third Industrial Revolution, an era of remarkable progress in science and technology that will require a global shift away from reliance on fossil-fuel and carbon-based energy. This book explains how America can lead the effort to reverse global warming and become the world leader in global energy innovation. America is trailing other parts of the developed world in terms of its development of-and commitment to-renewable energy. In Europe and Asia, sustainable communities, smart green grids, and emerging environmentally sound technologies are becoming common. The United States must move beyond the lethargy and defeatism of the 9/11 era, rediscover its ability to lead in technological inventiveness, and revitalize its economy via the creation of green jobs and sustainable, carbon-neutral communities. Because the lives of America's children and grandchildren are at stake, America must act quickly. Global Energy Innovation: Why America Must Lead explains why the emerging Third Industrial Revolution will become the largest social and economic megatrend of the post-modern era. With its comprehensive, up-to-date examination of renewable energy systems and related green technologies, this book represents a call-to-action that will benefit any reader, regardless of their status as a lay person, scholar, or scientist. Describes numerous examples of Europe and Asia's emerging activities in the Third Industrial Revolution, as well as the EU and Asia's historical and current activities in climate change mitigation, renewable energy technologies, and economic models to promote the green revolution Covers new technologies across the globe, ranging from single-hut solar energy generation for African villages to industrial-scale wind farms in Mongolia Includes materials from the United Nations and information from scientific studies on climate change, global population growth, and environmental degradation Offers directions for the creation of successful public policies and sustainability strategies on a community level, from colleges and universities to towns and cities Details the benefits that the United States could enjoy in this new era of energy innovation

How can human communities sustain a long-term existence on a small planet? This challenge grows ever more urgent as the threat of global warming increases. Planning for Sustainability presents a wide-ranging, intellectually well-grounded and accessible introduction to the concept of planning for more sustainable and livable communities. The text explores topics such as how more compact and walkable cities and towns might be created, how local ecosystems can be restored, how social inequalities might be reduced, how greenhouse gas emissions might be lowered, and how more sustainable forms of economic development can be brought about. The second edition has been extensively revised and updated throughout, including an improved structure with chapters now organized under three sections: the nature of sustainable planning, issues central to sustainable planning, and scales of sustainable planning. New material includes greater discussion of climate change, urban food systems, the relationships between public health and the urban environment, and international development. Building on past schools of planning theory, Planning for Sustainability lays out a sustainability planning framework that pays special attention to the rapidly evolving institutions and power structures of a globalizing world. By considering in turn each scale of planning-international, national, regional, municipal, neighborhood, and site and building-the book illustrates how sustainability initiatives at different levels can interrelate. Only by weaving together planning initiatives and institutions at different scales, and by integrating efforts across disciplines, can we move towards long-term human and ecological well-being.

This book addresses carbon footprint calculation and mitigation in various industrial sectors. There are numerous sectors whose carbon footprints need to be calculated, and effective ways to mitigate the greenhouse-gas emissions from these sectors need to be found. This book highlights the carbon sequestration potential of the Western Ghats ecosystems, the carbon footprint of Spanish households and residential buildings, and agricultural products in Canada; it also includes a case study on urban carbon footprints.

Climate change and the pressures of escalating human demands on the environment have had increasing impacts on landscapes across the world. In this book, world-class scholars discuss current and pressing issues regarding the landscape, landscape ecology, social and economic development, and adaptive management. Topics include the interaction between landscapes and ecological processes, landscape modeling, the application of landscape ecology in understanding cultural landscapes, biodiversity, climate change, landscape services, landscape planning, and adaptive management to provide a comprehensive view that allows readers to form their own opinions.

Professor Bojie Fu is an Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chair of scientific committee at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Professor K. Bruce Jones is the Executive Director for Earth and Ecosystem Sciences Division at Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.

Biodiversity, sometimes simply understood as "diversity of species," is a specific quality of life on our planet, the dimensions and importance of which have just lately been fully realized. Today we know that "biological diversity is a global asset of incalculable value to present and future generations" (Kofi Annan). Biodiversity is spread unequally over the world: in fact, the main share of biological resources worldwide is harboured predominantly by the so-called developing countries in the tropics and sub tropics. Therefore, Biodiversity - A Challenge for Development Research and Policy was chosen as the title for an international conference which was held in Bonn in 1997 as one of the first major events organized by the then newly established North-South Centre for Development Research (ZEF) at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn (Germany). Since the ZEF, founded by the Senate of the University of Bonn in 1995, has played a central role in turning Bonn into a centre for international cooperation and North-South dialogue. The Centre is a product of the Bonn Berlin agreement of July 1994 which was adopted to offset the effects caused by the Parliament and much of the Government moving to Berlin. It fits in well with the double strategy to strengthen Bonn's position as an interna tional science arena and as an eminent place for development policy and the national and supranational agencies dealing with this issue."