Showing papers on "Sustainability published in 2004"

Sustainable Hydrogen Production

Abstract: Identifying and building a sustainable energy system are perhaps two of the most critical issues that today's society must address. Replacing our current energy carrier mix with a sustainable fuel is one of the key pieces in that system. Hydrogen as an energy carrier, primarily derived from water, can address issues of sustainability, environmental emissions, and energy security. Issues relating to hydrogen production pathways are addressed here. Future energy systems require money and energy to build. Given that the United States has a finite supply of both, hard decisions must be made about the path forward, and this path must be followed with a sustained and focused effort.

Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction

Abstract: List of Figures.List of Tables.List of Boxes.Introduction.The Goals of the Text.The Rest of the Book.Many Acknowledgments.Part I: What is Political Ecology?.1. The Hatchet and the Seed:.What is Political Ecology?.Challenging Apolitical Ecologies.Ecoscarcity and the Limits to Growth.Other Apolitical Ecologies: Diffusion, Valuation, and Modernization.Common assumptions and modes of explanation.The Hatchet: Political Ecology as Critique.The Seed: Political Ecology as Equity and Sustainability Research.The Dominant Narratives of Political Ecology.Big Questions and Theses.The Degradation and Marginalization Thesis.The Environmental Conflict Thesis.The Conservation and Control Thesis.The Environmental Agency and Social Movement Thesis.The Target of Explanation.2. A Tree with Deep Roots:.The Determinist Context.A Political Ecological Alternative.The Building Blocks.Critical Approaches in Early Human/Environment Research.Continental Critique: Humboldt, Reclus, Wallace, and Sommerville.Critical Environmental Pragmatism.From Sewer Socialism to Mitigating Floods: Hazards Research.The Nature of Society: Cultural Ecology.Historicism, Landscape, and Culture: Carl Sauer.Julian Steward: A Positivist Alternative.System, Function, and Human Life: Mature Cultural Ecology.Beyond Land and Water: The Boundaries of Cultural Ecology.The Limits of Progressive Contextualization.Taking the Plunge.3. The Critical Tools:.Common Property Theory.Green Materialism.Materialist History.The Case of Oriental Despotism.Dependency, Accumulation, and Degradation.Lessons from Materialism: Broadly Defined Political Economy.The Producer is the Agent of History: Peasant Studies.Chayanov and the Rational Producer.Scott and the Moral Economy.Gramsci and Peasant Power.Breaking Open the Household: Feminist Development Studies.Critical Environmental History.Whose History & Science? Postcolonial Studies and Power/Knowledge.Power/Knowledge.Critical Science, Deconstruction, and Ethics.Political Ecology Emergent.4. A Field Crystallizes:.Chains of Explanation.Peanuts and Poverty in Niger.Marginalization.The "Silent Violence" of Famine in Nigeria.Broadly Defined Political Economy.Struggle in Cote D'Ivoire's Fields and Pastures.25 Years Later.Part II: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges:.5. Destruction of Nature - Human Impact and Environmental Degradation:.The Focus on Human Impact.Defining and Measuring Degradation.Loss of Natural Productivity.Loss of Biodiversity.Loss of Usefulness.Socio-Environmental Destruction: Creating or Shifting Risk Ecology.Limits of Land Degradation: Variability, Disturbance, and Recovery.What Baseline? Non-Human Disturbance and Variability of Ecological Systems.What Impact? Variable Response to Disturbance.Can We Go Back? Variable Recovery from Disturbance.Methodological Imperatives in Political Analysis of Environmental Destruction.6. Construction of Nature: Environmental Knowledges and Imaginaries:.Why Bother to Argue That Nature (or Forests or Land Degradation...) is Constructed?.Choosing Targets for Political Ecological Constructivism.Three Debates and Motivations.Hard and Soft Constructivism."Radical" Constructivism."Soft" Constructivism.Constructivist Claims in Political Ecology."Barstool" Biologists and "Hysterical" Housewives: The Peculiar Case of Local Environmental Knowledge.Eliciting Environmental Construction.Talk and Text: Construction in Discourse.Categories and Taxonomies.Spatial Knowledge and Construction.Narratives of Ecological Process and Change.Genealogies of Representation: Environmental History.Methodological Issues in Political Analysis of Environmental Construction.Part III: Political Ecology Now:.7. Degradation and Marginalization:.The Argument.Degradation and Reversibility.Accumulation and Declining Margins.The Evidence.Amazonian Deforestation.Contract Agriculture in the Caribbean.Evaluating the Thesis.Research Example: Common Property Disorders in Rajasthan.Eliciting Rules of Use.Recording Environmental Practices and Response to Authority.Determining Ecological Outcomes.8. Conservation and Control:.The Argument.Coercion, Governmentality, and Internalization of State Rule.Disintegration of Moral Economy.The Constructed Character of Natural Wilderness.Territorialization of Conservation Space.The Evidence.New England Fisheries Conservation.Fire in Madagascar.Social Forestry Conservation in Southeast Asia.The Consistency of Colonial and Contemporary Forestry.The Limits of Social Reform in Forestry.Evaluating the Thesis.Riven Bureaucracies and Efficacious Species.Alternative Conservation?.Research Example: The Biogeography of Power in the Aravalli.A Classic Case of Conservation and Control?.Establishing historical patterns of access.Understanding contemporary land uses and enclosure impacts.Tracking unintended consequences.9. Environmental Conflict:.The Argument.Social structure as differential environmental access and responsibility.Property institutions as politically partial constructions.Environmental development and classed, gendered, raced imaginaries.The Evidence.Agricultural Development in Gambia.Gambia and the Gendered Land/Labor Nexus.Land Conflict in the US West.Evaluating the Thesis.Stock Characters and Standard Scripts.Research Example: Gendered Landscapes and Resource Bottlenecks in the Thar.Determining Differential Land Uses and Rights.Tracking Changes in Availability.Evaluating Divergent Impacts.10. Environmental Identity and Movement:.The Argument.Differential Risk and Ecological Injustice.Moral Economies and Peasant Resistance.Postcolonialism and Rewriting Ecology from the Margins.The Evidence.Andean Livelihood Movements.Modernization and Identity.Hijacking Chipko: Trees, Gender, Livelihood, and Essentialism in India.Women's Movement or Peasant Movement?.Evaluating the Thesis.Making Politics by Making a Living.The risk of primitive romances and essentialisms.The reality of dissent.In the Field: Pastoral Polities in Rajasthan.Agrarian Alliances and Traditional Technology as Resistance.Ambivalence, Research, and Ethics.Part IV: Where to Now?.11. Where to Now?."Against Political Ecology"?.Too Much Theory or Too Little?.Denunciations versus Asymmetries.Three Calls for Symmetry.From Destruction to Production.From Peasants to Producers.From Chains to Networks.The Hybridity Thesis.Political Ecologies of Success.New Substantive Research Mandates.Population Is Too Important to be Left to the Malthusians.Genetic Modification Won't Go Away.Cities are Political Ecologies.Against "Against Political Ecology": Retaining Both Theory and Surprise.In the Meantime...References.Index

Stakeholders and Environmental Management Practices: An Institutional Framework

Abstract: Despite burgeoning research on companies' environmental strategies and environmental management practices, it remains unclear why some firms adopt environmental management practices beyond regulatory compliance. This paper leverages institutional theory by proposing that stakeholders – including governments, regulators, customers, competitors, community and environmental interest groups, and industry associations – impose coercive and normative pressures on firms. However, the way in which managers perceive and act upon these pressures at the plant level depends upon plant- and parent-company-specific factors, including their track record of environmental performance, the competitive position of the parent company and the organizational structure of the plant. Beyond providing a framework of how institutional pressures influence plants' environmental management practices, various measures are proposed to quantify institutional pressures, key plant-level and parent-company-level characteristics and plant-level environmental management practices. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Weak Versus Strong Sustainability: Exploring The Limits Of Two Opposing Paradigms

Abstract: In the debate about sustainable development, the key question is whether natural capital can be substituted by man-made capital. Proponents of weak sustainability maintain that man-made and natural capital are substitutable in the long term whilst followers of strong sustainability believe they are not. This insightful book assesses whether science can unambiguously endorse either paradigm and explores the extent to which, and at what cost, certain forms of natural capital should be preserved. The book explores the limits of the two opposing paradigms of sustainability in an accessible and illuminating way. The author begins by examining the availability of natural resources for the production of consumption goods and the environmental consequences of economic growth. He also identifies the critical forms of natural capital in need of preservation given risk, uncertainty and ignorance about the future, and addresses the important topic of sustainability indicators. In doing so, he analyses indicators of weak sustainability such as Genuine Savings and the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare, and indicators of strong sustainability including ecological footprints, material flows, sustainability gaps and other measures which combine the setting of environmental standards with monetary valuation. For the most part, requiring only a basic knowledge and understanding of economics, this accessible book will ensure the important theoretical and empirical debates surrounding sustainable development are available for a wide audience including undergraduate and postgraduate students of environmental and ecological economics. It will also be of interest to researchers and policymakers involved in the sustainable management of environmental resources.

Combining Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Monitoring Populations for Co-Management

Abstract: Using a combination of traditional ecological knowledge and science to monitor populations can greatly assist co-management for sustainable customary wildlife harvests by indigenous peoples. Case studies from Canada and New Zealand emphasize that, although traditional monitoring methods may often be imprecise and qualitative, they are nevertheless valuable because they are based on observations over long time periods, incorporate large sample sizes, are inexpensive, invite the participation of harvesters as researchers, and sometimes incorporate subtle multivariate cross checks for environmental change. A few simple rules suggested by traditional knowledge may produce good management outcomes consistent with fuzzy logic thinking. Science can sometimes offer better tests of potential causes of population change by research on larger spatial scales, precise quantification, and evaluation of population change where no harvest occurs. However, science is expensive and may not always be trusted or welcomed by customary users of wildlife. Short scientific studies in which traditional monitoring methods are calibrated against population abundance could make it possible to mesh traditional ecological knowledge with scientific inferences of prey population dynamics. This paper analyzes the traditional monitoring techniques of catch per unit effort and body condition. Combining scientific and traditional monitoring methods can not only build partnership and community consensus, but also, and more importantly, allow indigenous wildlife users to critically evaluate scientific predictions on their own terms and test sustainability using their own forms of adaptive management.

Are We Consuming Too Much

Abstract: This paper articulates and applies frameworks for examining whether consumption is excessive. We consider two criteria for the possible excessiveness (or insufficiency) of current consumption. One is an intertemporal utility-maximization criterion: actual current consumption is deemed excessive if it is higher than the level of current consumption on the consumption path that maximizes the present discounted value of utility. The other is a sustainability criterion, which requires that current consumption be consistent with non-declining living standards over time. We extend previous theoretical approaches by offering a formula for the sustainability criterion that accounts for population growth and technological change. In applying this formula, we find that some poor regions of the world are failing to meet the sustainability criterion: in these regions, genuine wealth per capita is falling as investments in human and manufactured capital are not sufficient to offset the depletion of natural capital.

The problem of the future: sustainability science and scenario analysis

Abstract: Unsustainable tendencies in the co-evolution of human and natural systems have stimulated a search for new approaches to understanding complex problems of environment and development. Recently, attention has been drawn to the emergence of a new “sustainability science”, and core questions and research strategies have been proposed. A key challenge of sustainability is to examine the range of plausible future pathways of combined social and environmental systems under conditions of uncertainty, surprise, human choice and complexity. This requires charting new scientific territory and expanding the current global change research agenda. Scenario analysis—including new participatory and problem-oriented approaches—provides a powerful tool for integrating knowledge, scanning the future in an organized way and internalizing human choice into sustainability science.

Networks of action: sustainable health information systems across developing countries

Abstract: Our paper is motivated by one simple question: Why do so many action research efforts fail to persist over time? We approach this question, the problem of sustainability, building on a perspective on action research identifying the pivotal importance of networks. More precisely, local action research interventions need to be conceptualized and approached as but one element in a larger network of action in order to ensure sustainability. A vital aspect of our perspective is that local interventions depend heavily on the support of similar action research efforts in other locations. This is essential for the necessary processes of learning and experience sharing. We suggest that the scaling (i.e., spreading) of intervention is a prerequisite, not a luxury, for sustainable action research. Empirically, we base our analysis on an ongoing, large-scale action research project within the health care sector (called HISP) in a number of developing countries. HISP provides a fruitful occasion to investigate key criteria for our approach to action research, namely sustainability, scalability, and capacity to be politically relevant to the participants. We contribute to three discourses: (1) models of action research, (2) lessons for health information systems in developing countries, and (3) more generally, IS implementations that are dispersed, large-scale, and have scarce resources.

The enigma of tropical homegardens

Abstract: Tropical homegardens, one of the oldest forms of managed land-use systems, are considered to be an epitome of sustainability. Although these multispecies production systems have fascinated many and provided sustenance to millions, they have received relatively little scientific attention. The objective of this review is to summarize the current state of knowledge on homegardens with a view to using it as a basis for improving the homegardens as well as similar agroforestry systems. Description and inventory of local systems dominated the ‘research’ efforts on homegardens during the past 25 or more years. The main attributes that have been identified as contributing to the sustainability of these systems are biophysical advantages such as efficient nutrient cycling offered by multispecies composition, conservation of bio-cultural diversity, product diversification as well as nonmarket values of products and services, and social and cultural values including the opportunity for gender equality in managing the systems. With increasing emphasis on industrial models of agricultural development, fragmentation of land holdings due to demographic pressures, and, to some extent, the neglect – or, lack of appreciation – of traditional values, questions have been raised about the future of homegardens, but such concerns seem to be unfounded. Quite to the contrary, it is increasingly being recognized that understanding the scientific principles of these multispecies systems will have much to offer in the development of sustainable agroecosystems. Research on economic valuation of the tangible as well as intangible products and services, principles and mechanisms of resource sharing in mixed plant communities, and realistic valuation and appreciation of hitherto unrecognised benefits such as carbon sequestration will provide a sound basis for formulating appropriate policies for better realization and exploitation of the benefits of homegardens.

Domestic Wastewater Treatment in Developing Countries

Abstract: Affordable and effective domestic wastewater treatment is a critical issue in public health and disease prevention around the world, particularly so in developing countries which often lack the financial and technical resources necessary for proper treatment facilities. This practical guide provides state-of-the-art coverage of methods for domestic wastewater treatment and provides a foundation to the practical design of wastewater treatment and re-use systems. The emphasis is on low-cost, low-energy, low-maintenance, high-performance 'natural' systems that contribute to environmental sustainability by producing effluents that can be safely and profitably used in agriculture for crop irrigation and/or in aquaculture, for fish and aquatic vegetable pond fertilization. Modern design methodologies, with worked design examples, are described for waste stabilization ponds, wastewater storage and treatment reservoirs; constructed wetlands, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors, biofilters, aerated lagoons and oxidation ditches. This book is essential reading for engineers, academics and upper-level and graduate students in engineering, wastewater management and public health, and others interested in sustainable and cost-effective technologies for reducing wastewater-related diseases and environmental damage.

CONTESTED TERRAIN: Mining and the Environment

Abstract: ▪ Abstract This review critically surveys an extensive literature on mining, development, and environment. It identifies a significant broadening over time in the scope of the environment question as it relates to mining, from concerns about landscape aesthetics and pollution to ecosystem health, sustainable development, and indigenous rights. A typology compares and contrasts four distinctive approaches to this question: (a) technology and management-centered accounts, defining the issue in terms of environmental performance; (b) public policy studies on the design of effective institutions for capturing benefits and allocating costs of resource development; (c) structural political economy, highlighting themes of external control, resource rights, and environmental justice; and (d) cultural studies, which illustrate how mining exemplifies many of society's anxieties about the social and environmental effects of industrialization and globalization. Each approach is examined in detail.

Social principles for agricultural extension to assist in the promotion of natural resource management

Abstract: An understanding of social issues, the social nature of farming, and the social basis of adoption is needed if agricultural extension is to be effective in addressing natural resource management issues, and in promoting sustainability in its triple bottom line conceptualisation. Twenty-seven principles are presented here, with the key principles being: awareness of farming as a social activity; recognition of the social diversity of farmers and the social drivers in agriculture; and the socio-cultural basis of adoption.

'Just sustainability': the emerging discourse of environmental justice in Britain?

Abstract: Environmental justice is both a vocabulary for political opportunity, mobilization and action, and a policy principle to guide public decision making. It emerged initially in the US, and more recently in the UK, as a new vocabulary underpinning action by community organizations campaigning against environmental injustices. However, as the environmental justice discourse has matured, it has become increasingly evident that it should play a role in the wider agendas for sustainable development and social inclusion. The links between sustainability and environmental justice are becoming clearer and more widely understood in the UK by NGOs and government alike, and it is the potential synergy between these two discourses which is the focus of this paper. This paper argues that the concept of ‘just sustainability’ provides a discourse for policymakers and activists, which brings together the key dimensions of both environmental justice and sustainable development.

Wild edible fungi : a global overview of their use and importance to people

Abstract: Wild edible fungi are an important group of non-wood forest products: they are used as both food and medicine and provide income to many forest users and traders. This publication reviews the characteristics of fungi biology and ecology, as well as fungi management and their importance to people. Information is provided that will help forestry technicians, nutritionists, natural resource planners, policy makers and other stakeholders concerned appraise the opportunities and constraints in promoting the sustainable use of wild edible fungi.

The importance of pay in employee motivation: Discrepancies between what people say and what they do

Abstract: A majority of human resources professionals appear to believe that employees are likely to overreport the importance of pay in employee surveys. However, research suggests the opposite is actually true. We review evidence showing the discrepancies between what people say and do with respect to pay. We then discuss why pay is likely to be such an important general motivator, as well as a variety of reasons why managers might underestimate its importance. We note that pay is not equally important in all situations or to all individuals, and identify circumstances under which pay is likely to be more (or less) important to employees. We close with recommendations for implementing research findings with respect to pay and suggestions for evaluating pay systems. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Corporate social responsibility and the mining industry: conflicts and constructs

Abstract: In response to widespread and increasing criticism, the mining industry has started to pay serious attention to its environmental and social impacts. This has recently manifested itself in the formulation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and strategies and a proliferation of CSR, environmental, sustainability and community reporting. Several brief case studies are used to illustrate the issues and conflicts that arise between mining company operations and the environment and community, and how these have led to the development of corporate strategies to deal with environment and community issues. The paper then examines mining company reports, revealing the language and constructs used by the mining industry to frame its responsibility to the environment and community and role in possible conflicts. Companies need to better understand the complex nature of the communities in which they operate in order that suitably tailored strategies are developed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

A decade of sustainability reporting: developments and significance

Abstract: Since the publication of the first separate environmental reports in 1989, the number of companies that has started to publish information on its environmental, social or sustainability policies and/or impacts has increased substantially. This article gives an overview of worldwide trends in the frequencies of reporting in the past decade, based on surveys carried out since the early 1990s. Although clear differences between countries and sectors can be noted, reporting continues to rise, and there is a clear tendency towards the inclusion of societal, and sometimes also financial, issues. The article also analyses the latest developments with regard to the contents of these sustainability reports, focusing on economic aspects and business drivers, stakeholder dialogue and feedback, and benchmarking of performance. The final section discusses the significance of reporting, introducing the concept of 'implementation likelihood', and the components of an analytical scheme to assess this for sustainability reports.

Together at the Table: Sustainability and Sustenance in the American Agrifood System

Abstract: Together at the Table explores alternative food movements within the context of broader social movements. Patricia Allen, at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California–Santa Cruz, argues that alternative food movements have emerged because of an “increased knowledge of the agrifood system and an increased understanding that the system can be changed” (p.1). To make this argument, Allen focuses on agriculture in California and the United States because of their dominance in the world market. Allen begins with the assumption that our current agrifood system is not sustainable and that it cannot meet global food security needs. In order to “achieve ecological soundness and social justice” (p.16), the current agrifood system must be altered on three levels: environmental, social, and economic—echoing John Ikerd’s contention that sustainable agriculture must be “environmentally compatible, socially supportive, and commercially competitive.”1 Allen further contends that these changes take place inside the farm gate and beyond—paralleling Thomas Lyson’s suggestion that we shift from the current industrial agriculture paradigm and adopt a “civic agriculture” that better links farms and communities.2 Chapter two, “Perspectives on Alternative Food Movements,” effectively draws linkages between seemingly disparate social movements based on women’s suffrage, the environment, and alternative food. Allen also establishes that alternative food movements tend to be against capitalism and the disparities that result from the social stratification of wealth and power. Chapter three explores how those involved in these movements benefit by challenging the status quo. There are practical ramifications of improving the food security and welfare of consumers. By changing their consumption patterns, Allen argues that individuals make a political statement about the status of their food system. In doing so, consumers recognize their power to alter the food system and become more willing to participate in other social movements. Chapter four examines how alternative agrifood movements are embedded within the existing capitalist system and hence do not challenge that system. This, of course, belies a core pillar of this social movement—anticapitalism. Allen goes on to suggest that political ecology represents a viable framework for examining both the environmental and social aspects of the agrifood system. While this position may be true, Allen does not fully use this framework to explore complex issues like gender and ethnicity that affect every agrifood system, including those in California. Chapter five explores how alternative agrifood movements may reproduce the same systemic problems they are trying to demolish. Chapter six explains that this result can occur because participants in the alternative agrifood movement come from middle-class backgrounds. This chapter shows how closely aligned privilege and power are to empowerment and social change. As an anthropologist and geographer, respectively, the reviewers found this discussion lacking, as it did not fully explore the historical and geographical specifics of California and how the variables of gendered and ethnic landownership, migrant labor, and environmental assets have allowed the agrifood movements to flourish in this setting. In chapter seven, Allen addresses the concerns some have about localized food movements. She deftly explores asymmetries of power within and between communities based on differences in access to resources. In chapter eight, “The Politics of Sustainability and Sustenance,” Allen succinctly explains how current agricultural policy is formed and argues that the agrifood movement must work with the environmental movement to change agricultural policy. By joining forces, a stronger coalition can reach more people to “‘transcend particularities, and arrive at some conception of a universal alternative to that social system which is the source of their difficulties.’”3 The final chapter, “Working toward Sustainability and Sustenance,” addresses the failure of social movements like the agrifood movement to fully examine the differences between reform and transformation. If the alternative agrifood movement wants to avoid further institutionalization, it must speak to some of the core issues inherent to our agrifood system and devise ways in which to address them successfully. Scholars, consumers, and activists interested in the alternative food movement will find this book useful. Allen does a fine job of addressing her objective: “to offer information and insights that can contribute to the reflexive efforts of the alternative agrifood movement as it continues to develop” (p.19). Ultimately, Together at the Table enables one to think about the agrifood movement in a more holistic manner, question our individual roles in the food system, and analyze our consumer nature and place in the world.

Land Use Planning Challenges: Coping with Conflicts in Visions of Sustainable Development and Livable Communities

Abstract: Sustainable development and livable communities represent the big visionary ideas of contemporary urban planning. But attempts to implement these popular visions can encounter a host of conflicts. The future of land use planning may well depend on how it copes with these conflicts. I propose the sustainability/livability prism as a tool to understand and express the conflicts, and I illustrate the prism's usefulness through an application to plans in the Denver area.