Eco-Resorts is a design guide for low impact, environmentally friendly tourist resorts in the tropics. The book is the first to offer architects practical, detailed guidance in developing resort buildings that work with a tropical climate and meet the needs and expectations of the client and building inhabitants. The book includes both architectural design and material solutions, supported by theoretical principles, to present a sustainable approach to resort design. It demonstrates that tropical resort buildings do not necessarily require large energy input, in compliance with green building standards. Case studies show how principles of sustainable design have been successfully applied in tropical environments. written by an industry insider with practical design experience, knowledge and expertise demonstrates design practices related to site planning and layout, and re-assesses best practices for a tropical environment, allowing architects to apply design principles to their own projects includes international case studies from several countries to illustrate best practice from a variety of tropical climate destinations around the world.

From Finland to Kenya to Stockton, California, more and more governments and private philanthropic organizations are putting the idea of a Universal Basic Income to the test. But can the reality live up to the hype? The motivating idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) is radically simple: give people cash and let them do whatever they want with it. But does this simple idea have the potential to radically transform our society? Is a UBI the ultimate solution to the problem of poverty? Is it the solution to automation-induced unemployment? Can it help solve gender and racial inequality? This book provides the average citizen with all the information they need to understand current debates about the UBI. It recounts the history of the idea, from its origins in the writings of 18th century radical intellectuals to contemporary discussions centered on unemployment caused by technological advances such as artificial intelligence. It discusses current pilot programs in the United States and around the world, including how much (or little) we can learn from such experiments about how a large-scale UBI would fare in the real world. It explores both the promises and pitfalls of a UBI, taking seriously the arguments of both supporters and detractors. It also explains why the UBI has attracted supporters from all across the ideological spectrum-from conservatives to liberals, libertarians to socialists-and what the implications of this fact are for its political future. How much would a UBI cost? Who would be eligible to receive it? Would it discourage work? Would people squander it on drugs and alcohol? Would it contribute to inflation? And how is it different from existing social welfare programs? This book provides an objective, expert guide to these questions and more, and is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand what could be the 21st century's most important public policy debate.

This book calls for the conditions of transition to sustainability: How to take into consideration new global phenomena such as and of the dimension of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, financial crises, demographic dynamics, global urbanization, migrations and mobility, while bearing in mind short-term or local place-based issues, such as social justice or quality of life? Meeting this challenge requires an inclusive approach of sustainability. It is a matter of designing a new social contract: Sustainability requires more than developing the right markets, institutions and metrics, it requires social momentum. To do so, many issues need a clear and complete answer: How to link social justice with sustainability policies? What governance tools to do so? What linkage between one decision-making level and the other? These are major issues to design sound transitions to sustainability.

How should regional cities develop regional development strategies for their sustainable future? How can such strategies work effectively? Regional cities are now at a crossroads: will they decline or be regenerated under the impacts of globalization? Their sustainable regeneration as creative regional centers will play a decisive role in their sustainable development as a whole, but only with viable regional spatial strategies that strengthen the network of cities and their hinterlands. The concern here lies in urban regeneration and strategic spatial planning at the city-region level. This book records observations of 12 dynamically changing regional cities in Asia, Europe and the United States. The form of the city region, urban regeneration and strategic spatial planning as well as the local and regional governance of each city are examined. Through this empirical and comparative analysis, essential lessons are drawn, which will add a new perspective to discussions on the sustainable future of regional cities in an age of globalization.

This book looks into the increasing conflict between the demand of economic growth and the already fragile ecological system condition in China. The prolonged urbanization process has escalated the erosion of natural environments and is increasing energy consumption. China's role as a "world plant" is also demanding more and more resource supply as well as energy consumption. This book argues that to correctly respond to these emerging issues, apart from upgrading industry and improves environmental protection techniques, China needs to establish an "ecological civilization" that provides an ideological basis for the construction of a green low-carbon model of economic growth.

The book aims to capture, describe and convey the current significance, the values and potentials of urban biodiversity and ecosystem services to scientists and professionals in the context of sustainable urban development and ongoing urbanization processes. Current developments, different approaches and future challenges in the competition of green spaces and urban land consumption in China and Germany are elaborated, discussed and illustrated within case studies and good practice examples. The strategic goal is a long-term appreciation of the potentials and increased consideration of urban green spaces in city planning and development. This book provides tangible recommendations for urban planners, politicians and stakeholders in the fields of green infrastructure at the interface of environment and urban landscape.

Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment describes the relationship of agriculture, society, nature and the environment, sustainable agriculture and sustainable development goals, management of biophysical resources for sustainable food and environment, traditional knowledge and innovative options, and social and policy aspects of sustainable agriculture. The book presents both environmental and economic principles, helping readers in the development and application of robust policy and good institutional systems that execute on sustainable agriculture practices for a healthy environment and to combat climate resilience.

The liberalization of U.S. and European electric power markets presents a critical challenge for renewable sources of energy. Edinger and Kaul survey the technological state-of-the-art and economic aspects of renewable electricity generation, and outline the role of other renewable sources, such as solar, wind, and micro-hydroelectric technologies. Offering an empirical and theoretical assessment of these technologies and their assets and liabilities, the book shows how it is possible to restructure our electric power systems and reorient them toward sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives.

International climate conferences such as those in Rio de Janeiro and Kyoto have proclaimed the need for environmentally hospitable technologies. A new electricity system, based on renewable resources and small-scale power technologies, is needed badly; their economics and other efficiencies over conventional central power generation with fossil fuels is clear. Edinger and Kaul assess the rewards and risks associated with renewable technologies and outline a feasible path toward a more environmentally friendly, and reasonable, use of limited natural resources and the global ecosystem. One promising approach for industrialized countries is the decentralization of our current public grid systems. This offers an opportunity for developing countries to leapfrog the stage of fossil fuel, held responsible now for environmental pollution, resource depletion and possibly global climate change. The authors present theoretical analyses and empirical evidence to buttress their contentions, mainly, that electric power systems founded on renewable resources are vital prerequisites if we are to achieve the United Nations' target of globally sustained development.

In recent years' research on business and sustainability, particular attention is being given to the motivations driving business managers to incorporate social and environmental strategies into their day-to-day business activities. Such research is critical to the evaluation of green management whether viewed from the perspective of academics, managers, policy makers or business students. This volume aims to assist readers to navigate the conceptual maze surrounding discussions of business and sustainability by offering critical reflection on the state of business action for environmental sustainability and providing evidence about what is actually taking place in real localities and businesses. The chapters in the volume are focusing on sustainability issues that are critical, topical, and needed at this stage of the discussion. The volume makes three main contributions. First, it offers a critical review of business engagement with sustainability from four perspectives: sustainability as a political project; sustainability as a response to environmental crisis, sustainability as business opportunity and sustainability as stakeholder management. Second, the volume examines actual experience in terms of the steps being taken by business and how these have affected business performance. Third, the volume provides case studies of individual organizations or institutions that reveal tensions and challenges to progressing sustainable business strategies and that offer insight into the prospects for changing the relationship of business to the environment.

Knowledge and information have significant impacts on individuals' daily lives and activities, especially when referring to the new economy and the global knowledge societies. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive disruptions in the creation of the vital inclusive global information society. Due to this change, further study on the current difficulties and best practices of creating global knowledge societies is required in order to ensure communities can continue to advance and information is shared appropriately. The Handbook of Research on Building Inclusive Global Knowledge Societies for Sustainable Development aims at providing an updated view of the newest trends, novel practices, and latest tendencies concerning building inclusive global knowledge societies for sustainable development while focusing on the benefits and the opportunities derived from the new economy and the global knowledge societies. Covering topics such as smart cities, food security, and climate change, this major reference work is ideal for policymakers, government officials, business owners, managers, academicians, scholars, researchers, practitioners, instructors, and students.

This book is a collection of chapters concerning the use of biomass for the sustainable production of energy and chemicals-an important goal that will help decrease the production of greenhouse gases to help mitigate global warming, provide energy security in the face of dwindling petroleum reserves, improve balance of payment problems and spur local economic development. Clearly there are ways to save energy that need to be encouraged more. These include more use of energy sources such as, among others, manure in anaerobic digesters, waste wood in forests as fuel or feedstock for cellulosic ethanol, and conservation reserve program (CRP) land crops that are presently unused in the US. The use of biofuels is not new; Rudolf Diesel used peanut oil as fuel in the ?rst engines he developed (Chap. 8), and ethanol was used in the early 1900s in the US as automobile fuel [Songstad et al. (2009) Historical perspective of biofuels: learning from the past to rediscover the future. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Plant 45:189-192). Brazil now produces enough sugar cane ethanol to make up about 50% of its transportation fuel needs (Chap. 4). The next big thing will be cellulosic ethanol. At present, there is also the use of Miscanthus x giganteous as fuel for power plants in the UK (Chap. 2), bagasse (sugar cane waste) to power sugar cane mills (Chap. 4), and waste wood and sawdust to power sawmills (Chap. 7).

A number of arguments are made by an international group of authors in this though provoking book about an understudied and socially important context. A future in which financial wealth transfers across the North-South divide from richer to poorer countries is far from sufficient for the relief of poverty and the pursuit of sustainability. Caution must be taken when growth is achieved through the liquidation of the natural wealth of poorer nations, in order to maintain a global economic status quo. Neither poverty reduction nor sustainability will ultimately be achieved. The financial collapse and social upheaval that might result will make the most recent economic downturn look trivial by comparison. What is more urgently needed instead, as argued in this book, is collaboration for sustainability and innovation in the global South, especially building on models originally developed in the South that are transferable to the North. In pursuit of a sustainable and more equitable future, the book examines such topics as Cross-Border Innovation in South-North Fair Trade Supply Chains; Potential Pollution Prevention Programs in Bangladesh; Digital Literacy and Social Inclusion in the South through Collective Storytelling and Eco-innovation at the 'Bottom of the Pyramid'. Many of these stories and have not been told and need greater visibility. The book contributes in a meaningfully to the discussion of how innovation and sustainability science can benefit both sides in South-North innovation collaborations. It provides useful introduction to the topics, as well as valuable critiques and best practices. This back-and-forth flow of ideas and innovation is itself new and promising in the modern pursuit of a fair and sustainable future for all regions of our planet.

Energy technologies in the future will need to be based on renewable sources of energy and will, ultimately, need to be sustainable. This book provides insight into unintended, negative impacts and how they can be avoided. In order to steer away from the pitfalls and unintended effects, it is essential that the necessary knowledge is available to the developers and decision makers engaged in renewable energy. The value of this book lies in its presentation of the unintended health and environmental impacts from renewable energies.

The book presents results from cross-disciplinary research on the implementation of alternative fuels in the transport sector, namely hydrogen, electricity and biodiesel. This is followed by an assessment of environmental impacts from the production of solar cells. Critical reviews on the use of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in the energy technologies is then provided, with the formation of nanoparticles during combustion of bio-blended diesel and their toxic effects, discussed in detail."

This book reports on cutting-edge technologies that have been fostering sustainable development in a variety of fields, including built and natural environments, structures, energy, advanced mechanical technologies as well as electronics and communication technologies. It reports on the applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Internet-of-Things, predictive maintenance, as well as modeling and control techniques to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings, enhance their environmental contribution and positively impact the social equity. The different chapters, selected on the basis of their timeliness and relevance for an audience of engineers and professionals, describe the major trends in the field of sustainable engineering research, providing them with a snapshot of current issues together with important technical information for their daily work, as well as an interesting source of new ideas for their future research. The works included in this book were selected among the contributions to the BUE ACE1, the first event, held in Cairo, Egypt, on 8-9 November 2016, of a series of Annual Conferences & Exhibitions (ACE) organized by the British University in Egypt (BUE).

Prefaced by Bj rn Stigson, President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, this book is one of the few that treats this topic by putting representatives of industry at centre stage. The book systematically addresses the drivers, the tools, and sector-specific elements that play a role in this process. The five chapters in Part I are devoted to a general introduction to eco-efficiency and the related challenges to industry in its implementation. Part II contains 23 case studies, almost all written by industrial experts who tell how they deal with the challenge: what the motivators are, what tools can be used and how they can be implemented, and what are the specific elements in sectors like building, electronics and packaging. These contributions come from multinationals like Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Akzo Nobel, Philips and Ciba-Geigy, as well as small and medium sized enterprises from such sectors as the building and furniture trades.

With the enlargement of the European Union, the accession countries are coming under pressure to develop and meet EU standards for environmental protection and sustainable development. In this ongoing process, global economic liberalization, regulatory policy, conservation, and lifestyle issues are all involved, and creative solutions will have to be found. Historians, geographers, economists, ecologists, business management experts, public policy specialists, and community organizers have come together in this volume and examine, for the first time, environmental issues ranging from national and regional policy and macroeconomics to local studies in community regeneration. The evidence suggests that, far from being mere passive recipients of instruction and assistance from outside, the people of Central and East Central Europe have been engaged actively in working out solutions to these problems. Several promising cases illustrate opportunities to overcome crisis situations and offer examples of good practices, while others pose warnings. The experiences of these countries in wrestling with issues of sustainability continue to be of importance to policy development within the EU and may serve also as examples for both developed and developing countries worldwide. Zbigniew Bochniarz, is affiliated to the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington in Seattle. He spent over twenty years at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute where he founded a Center for Nations in Transition. The Center became an international leader in delivering foreign assistance for Central and Eastern Europe. His work focuses on economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability of transforming economies. He is the author, co-author and/or editor of over 100 publications. Gary B. Cohen, has been director of the Center for Austrian Studies and professor of history at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, since 2001. He teaches and publishes on modern Central European social and political history. He is the author of numerous articles and essays as well as two books, The Politics of Ethnic Survival: Germans in Prague, 1861-1914 (first edition, Princeton Univ. Press,1981; rev. 2nd ed., Purdue Univ. Press, 2005) and Education and Middle-Class Society in Imperial Austria, 1848-1918 (Purdue Univ. Press, 1996).

This book discusses the dynamics and resource management qualities of the peri-urban interface to address climate change consequences, focusing on the peri-urban region of the global city of Bengalaru. In 5 chapters, the authors document the unique challenges experienced in peri-urban areas, including soil-water vegetation dynamics, local and regional impacts on water bodies (surface and groundwater), food production issues, and the inhibited adaptive capacity of local communities. The book also provides knowledge on implementations of environmental management by local institutions, government interventions that have acted as catalysts in promoting community based adaptation strategies, and the physical, social and economic aspects of rural-urban dynamics. The book not only adds to the scarce existing literature on peri-urban contexts, but also addresses the role of culture in protecting ecological landscapes and how traditions play an important role in coping with climate change. Furthermore, the authors expand on these climate change coping mechanisms in peri-urban areas, taking into account local cultural factors and interesting governance interventions in the context of health. The book will be of interest to planners, policy makers, and students and researchers engaged in rural-urban dynamics and climate change adaptation.

This book collects a selection of the best articles presented at the CUPUM (Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management) conference, held in the second week of July 2013 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The articles included were selected by external reviewers using a double blind process.

As the importance of sustainability in strategy and development grows, so does the importance of cross-border cooperation (CBC) to facilitate green projects. Border territories, however, are complex and fragile areas, and thus, their planning through CBC projects should be deeply analyzed and studied. It has become crucial to understand this issue across many different disciplines. Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) Strategies for Sustainable Development is a pivotal reference source that provides relevant theoretical frameworks and trends in border area dynamics as well as cross-border cooperation's influence on sustainable development. Highlighting topics such as CBC in insular territories, biodiversity policy, and sustainable planning and development, this book is ideally designed for culture analysts, sustainability specialists, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students.

This book was written to support community involvement in the design process, to help prevent negative outcomes that can result from a top-down design approach. The combination of community involvement and design is, at least in literature, not very extensive. Although much has been written about stakeholder involvement, this is often not directly related to design processes, which - most importantly - deprives community members of the opportunity to design their desired future themselves. The Design Charrette: Ways to Envision Sustainable Futures provides a theoretical foundation establishing the benefits of organizing a design charrette for community-based planning, supported by many practical examples. The book includes sections on collaborative learning, practical guidance, theory and case studies in many different contexts: long and short charrettes, urban and rural subjects, and Dutch, Chinese, Australian, Indian and European examples. Part I: General Theory offers a detailed overview of the charrette process, a chapter on innovations in organizational and community learning and a chapter on shifting paradigms in the design charrette. Part II presents a number of case studies, including the INternational Conference on Renewable Energy Approaches for the Spatial Environment (INCREASE); charrettes accomplished in two days in the communities of Sea Lake and Bendigo in Australia; a chapter on lessons for the future, describing rural participatory design in Rajasthan, India; a description of learning by practice in a high-pressure student atelier; a chapter entitled Design Charrettes for Sustainable Building in China and more. The Design Charrette challenges the conventional wisdom that good design by itself will bring about the benefits the designer envisions. By demonstrating and analyzing the effectiveness of design charrettes in personal development and learning, and as a way to share desired future pathways, the book benefits everyone who may be leading, considering or participating in a design charrette.

Integrating Amartya Sen's approach with the literature on place-based territorial development processes, this book recognises the interplay between the evolution of local development systems and the expansion of individual and collective capabilities.

The introduction is free to download here.This book is about empowering ordinary people to make a difference in the world. It explores the transformation that emerges when groups spread around the world working on similar issues discover synchronicities, often cross-pollinating, and collaborate rather than compete. A Collaboratory is a facilitated space where stakeholders meet to discuss burning societal issues. Each collaboratory is different and needs to be carefully designed to fit the context, ambition, purpose, stakeholders, culture, and space.Part 1 of the book sets the stage by explaining what a collaboratory is, where it emerges from, how it is defined and how it fits into the larger context of the social lab revolution that is happening all over the world.Part 2 of the book unpacks the many dimensions and considerations that contribute to the magic of a collaboratory experience. We offer nine unique insights and perspectives that need to be considered and form an integral part of a successful collaboratory.Part 3 offers eight inspiring examples of how a collaboratory could be applied. We look at applications in the educational field, within organizations, among institutions, and as movements.Part 4 offers a pragmatic outlook on how to get started if you want to use the Collaboratory in your own field of work. The book offers a narrative roadmap using a real-life example of a co-designed and co-created Collaboratory in Norway.Offering practical recommendations and benefits, and bringing together insights from a range of experienced academics, practitioners and facilitators, The Collaboratory is a handbook for experienced or aspiring practitioners in all fields of change: in society, in organizations of all kind and in the field of education.