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Sustainable Development in Central Asia (Central Asia Research Forum)
by Shirin Akiner Jon Hay Sander TidemanThis book is the result of a pioneering conference held in Ulaan Baatar in September 1994. The first Conference on the Sustainable Development of Central Asia brought together government officials, development professionals, academics, activists and religious representatives from Central, South and East Asia and the West. The full range of perspectives from this diverse group is presented here on how Central Asia can find paths of development which really serve its long term interests, and what the rest of the world can learn from Central Asians about living in harmony with the environment.
Sustainable Development in China (Routledge Contemporary China Series)
by Curtis Andressen Mubarak A. R. Wang XiaoyiOver the past three decades, China’s economic structure, direction and international presence have undergone a dramatic transformation. This rapid rise and China’s enormous success in economic terms has created new challenges, and this book examines how the Chinese economy can continue to flourish, whilst at the same time protecting the environment and giving people more equal access to the benefits of the country’s economic development. Examining the key issues surrounding China's continued sustainable development, in economic, political, social and more traditional environmental terms, this book assesses the costs of China's rapid development to date and in turn asks whether this can be maintained. The contributors show that the idea of sustainable development must take into account more than just the physical environment, and that there are additional problems relating to the sustainability of China’s economic growth that are much more complicated. Divided into two broad sections, the book looks first at the broader issues of sustainability in China, before turning to the more classic idea of sustainability, that of the environment. In doing so, the contributors show that sustainability is a far more complex phenomenon than is often assumed, and that economic and social sustainability are inherently linked to linked to environmental sustainability. Dealing with what are arguably the greatest challenges facing China today, this book will be will be of great interests to students and scholars of Chinese studies, Chinese economics and Chinese politics, as well as those interested in development studies and sustainable development more broadly.
Sustainable Development in India: Groundwater Irrigation, Energy Use, and Food Production (Routledge New Horizons in South Asian Studies)
by Koichi Fujita Tsukasa MizushimaThis book explores and interrogates the food–water–energy nexus, arguably the most crucial factor in sustaining India’s economic development. The book sheds light on different experiences faced in states across India, including the consequences of electricity tariff reforms and related policies on irrigated agriculture. Part 1 focuses on the historical development of agriculture and social change in India, with special reference to the mode of responses and adaptations in social systems against the inherent low and erratic rainfall and resulting water stress in India during the pre-colonial period. Additionally, it investigates how colonial development destroyed social systems and discusses future development prospects. Part 2 discusses contemporary issues of agriculture and social change in India. A comprehensive examination of various important issues related to South Asian agricultural development in the past and in the present, this book will be a valuable reference for researchers of Asian development, sustainable development, environmental policy, South Asian Studies and Development Studies.
Sustainable Development in Post-Pandemic Africa: Effective Strategies for Resource Mobilization (Routledge Studies in African Development)
by Fred OlayeleWith both domestic and external financing expected to dry up in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book argues that there is a need for fresh ideas and new strategies for achieving sustainable development in Africa. In addition to triggering the most severe recession in nearly a century, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global value chains, causing unprecedented damage to healthcare systems, economies, and well-being, hitting the world’s most vulnerable people the hardest. Even before the pandemic, Africa was suffering from the effects of low commodity prices, sluggish GDP growth, high debt levels, low levels of domestic savings, and weak private capital inflows. This book argues that now, as the continent emerges from the current crisis, it will be important to reconfigure current financing sources under a forward-looking framework that incorporates other non-traditional financing tools and mechanisms such as public-private partnerships, sovereign wealth funds, gender lens investing, new growth drivers, and emerging and disruptive technologies. Finally, the book concludes by adopting a sectoral approach and examining the real economy impacts of new growth drivers such as agriculture value chains, industrialization, tourism, and the blue economy. Drawing on a range of original research as well as insights from practice, this book will be a useful guide for Global Development and African Studies researchers, as well as for policy makers, investors, finance specialists, and global business practitioners and entrepreneurs.
Sustainable Development in Rural China: Farmer Innovation and Self-Organisation in Marginal Areas
by Bin WuSustainable development in marginal areas, especially in those where rural poverty and environmental degradation are interwoven, is a great concern of development agencies worldwide, and much effort is put into development programmes, technology transfer schemes and so on. The problem is particularly acute in China, where increasing regional differences and inequality are eroding governmental poverty reduction efforts and exacerbating ecological crises. This book, based on extensive original research, examines the situation in China, especially in the Loess Plateau of Shaanxi Province. It explores in particular how farmers have organised themselves to initiate technical innovation, and considers communication networks and co-operative mechanisms. It discusses successful self-organisation, and how interfaces with external development agencies and with institutional innovation might be handled, highlighting the potential of farmer innovation initiatives, especially when they are linked with external development and environmental improvement programmes.
Sustainable Development in the USA
by Jean-Marc ZaninettiAfter WWII, the United States of America proposed their way of life, based on an unlimited consumption of land, goods, and energy, as a model for the entire world. Nowadays, this expansionist model has reached its limits. This book provides a comprehensive study of the geographical basis of the American settlements, assuming that part of the U.S. overshooting is related to geography because of harsh climates and the continental size of the Nation, but another part is the result of a cultural habits of expansion and segregation. Urban Sprawl, for instance, is the real Achille's heel of America, because it challenges the cultural revolution required by sustainability. From the continental physiography to the New Orleans – Katrina case, this book explores these issues with maps and charts created with the help of a nationwide multiscalar GIS.
Sustainable Development of Denmark in the World, 1970–2020: A Critical Introduction (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Bo FritzbøgerThis book provides a holistic overview of the history of sustainable development in Denmark over the last fifty years, covering a host of issues central to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): ending poverty; ensuring inclusive and equitable education; reducing inequality; making cities and settlements inclusive, safe and resilient; and fostering responsible production and consumption patterns, to name a few. It argues for a new framework of sustainability history, one that is truly global in outlook. As such, it explores what truly global sustainable development would look like. It considers how economic growth has been the driver for prosperity in the global north, and considers whether sustainable development and continued economic growth are irreconcilable, and what the future of sustainable development initiatives in Denmark might look like.
Sustainable Development of Rural Household Economy: Transition of Ten Villages in Zhejiang, China, 1986-2002
by Qinghua Shi Yan GaoThis book focuses on the transition of hundreds of rural households in ten villages in Zhejiang from 1986 to 2002, based on the theme of rural household sustainable development. Drawing on a large amount of first-hand data collected from fixed observation sites for 17 consecutive years, this book has depicted the changes in household behaviour in rural Zhejiang, and analysed the origins of such changes. The contents of the book contain examinations at household and village level. Chapters One to Seven describe the changes in rural behaviour at the household level from different aspects, such as land transfer, saving and borrowing, and rural tax burden. Chapters Eight to Ten analyse the transition concerning household behaviour based on the village level data. This book will help readers with a better understanding of rural China from the micro perspective of household behaviour. This book won the Monograph Award (ranked 1st out of 6 winners in total) in the Third China Rural Development Research Award (2008). It was also awarded theSecond Class Excellent Research Achievement in Humanities and Social Sciences by the Ministry of Education (2009). With the help of rich and detailed first-hand data collected from fixed observation sites in ten villages in Zhejiang for 17 consecutive years, this book gives a panoramic analysis of Chinese rural society in transition from the viewpoint of rural household behaviour. It starts the examination from individual rural households, before develops the investigation to the whole villages, so that the study could be carried out in a coherent, reliable and systematic way. Viewing the countryside from its micro perspective under the national political economy framework, the book steps out of the traditional way of inspecting exclusively the rural households and therefore is able to generalise its conclusion at a macro level. The award selection panel in 2008 believed it a unique monography for understanding the macro transition of the Chinese “agriculture, countryside and peasant (三农)” issues from the micro aspect of household behaviour.
Sustainable Development of the North Atlantic Margin: Selected Contributions to the Thirteenth International Seminar on Marginal Regions (Routledge Revivals)
by Reginald Byron James Walsh Proinnsias BreathnachFirst published in 1997, this timely collection of papers takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining sustainable development in a wide range of countries such as Ireland, Norway and Wales on the North Atlantic Margin. It features specialists in geography, social anthropology, tourism, sociology, regional studies, business, municipality studies, health policy and the rural economy. The contributors argue that a free marketplace and natural-resource sustainability are not always incompatible for green policies to be successful.
Sustainable Energy Access for Communities: Rethinking the Energy Agenda for Cities
by Aminata Fall Reinhard HaasThis open access book examines the transition to sustainable energy systems in emerging cities. Experts from around the world present case studies from different countries and discuss efforts were needed for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The authors look into the issue of environment vs. economics and discuss the question of whether the energy transition goal can conflict with other development goals such as decent work and economic growth. Furthermore, innovation in energy transition is introduced, both in technology and citizens’ engagement. The book presents the latest developments on energy access and transition to sustainability throughout the overall value chain: from basic research in universities to documentation of lessons learned in the field. The empirical evidence presented makes this book appealing to scholars in the field of energy sustainability as well as to policy-makers and energy service companies.
Sustainable Energy and Green Finance for a Low-carbon Economy: Perspectives from the Greater Bay Area of China (Green Energy And Technology Ser.)
by Jingyan Fu Artie W. NgThe book provides readers with essential insights into key issues in connection with planning, developing and financing sustainable energy projects in China that are relevant for practitioners, investors and developers involved in the emerging sustainable energy sector. It offers readers a deeper understanding of these contemporary issues by drawing on the lessons learned in real-world sustainable energy and green finance development activities in China, which are driven by central planning and policy implementation and complemented by investments and finances from public-private partnerships.
Sustainable Energy in Central Asia: Transition Towards Renewable Energy Sources in Uzbekistan (Central Asia Research Forum)
by Nigora DjalilovaThis book argues that sustainable energy development represents a new frontier for many transitional economies, including those countries that are well endowed with traditional energy resources, as exemplified by the case of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. The book highlights the challenges and issues faced by the energy sector in countries which are undergoing a transition from government-led economic models to open market economies. Using Uzbekistan as a case study, the book demonstrates these challenges, as well as opportunities of being part of an increasingly interconnected global market, to show how governments can ensure inclusive economic growth and build pathways toward sustainable development by deploying renewable energy sources (RES). By applying the Quadruple Bottom Line strategy as a conceptual framework to evaluate social, economic, and environmental benefits and governance as a key dynamic component, the book includes recommendations for implementing a transition strategy to renewable energy consumption for developing countries and offers insights into ways of dealing with government policy in post-Soviet countries. Presenting a holistic approach to promoting RES deployment in Uzbekistan and elsewhere, this book will be of interest to researchers interested in energy transition in developing countries, development economics, Central Asian politics, and the management of natural resources and climate-change issues.
Sustainable Energy in Kazakhstan: Moving to cleaner energy in a resource-rich country (Central Asia Research Forum)
by Yelena Kalyuzhnova and Richard PomfretKazakhstan is rich in natural resources including coal, oil, natural gas and uranium and has significant renewable potential from wind, solar, hydro and biomass. In spite of this, the country is currently dependent upon fossil fuels with coal-fired plants accounting for 75% of total power generation leading to concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on human health and the environment. This book analyses the implications of the global shift to cleaner energy for a country whose economy has centred on hydrocarbon exports. The challenge is urgent for Kazakhstan, whose recent economic growth has driven increased demand for energy services, making the construction of additional generating capacity increasingly necessary for enabling sustained growth. In this context, renewable energy resources are becoming an increasingly attractive option to help bridge the demand-supply gap. Chapters written by experts in the field provide a comprehensive review of the current energy situation in Kazakhstan including fossil energy and renewable resources and analyses policy drivers for the energy sector. Emphasising that clean energy covers a variety of renewables, as well as cleaner use of hydrocarbons, this book argues that future technological change will affect the relative attractiveness of the various choices. Recognising technical, geographical and domestic and international political constraints on policymakers’ options, this book will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience in the fields of resource management and clean energy, development economics and Central Asian Studies.
Sustainable Energy Transition: Circular Economy and Sustainable Financing for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Practices (Circular Economy and Sustainability)
by Vinay Kandpal Anshuman Jaswal Ernesto D.R. Santibanez Gonzalez Naveen AgarwalThe book offers a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities associated with the transition to sustainable energy, circular economy, and sustainable financing for ESG practices. The publication is needed at this time because the world is facing urgent environmental and social challenges, such as climate change, resource depletion, and social inequality, which require a fundamental transformation of our economic and social systems. The transition to sustainable energy, circular economy, and sustainable financing for ESG practices offers a promising pathway to address these challenges and achieve sustainable development goals.The purpose of the publication is to provide a holistic and practical guide for policymakers, business leaders, investors, and other stakeholders who are interested in advancing sustainable energy, circular economy, and ESG practices. The book covers a range of topics, including the drivers of the transition, policy frameworks and regulations, technology and innovation, business models and financial instruments, and the role of stakeholders in facilitating the transition. It also emphasizes the importance of integrated approaches that balance economic, social, and environmental objectives, and provides practical examples and case studies of successful sustainable energy, circular economy, and ESG practices from around the world.The new contribution of this publication is its interdisciplinary and practical approach to sustainable energy, circular economy, and ESG practices. The book draws on the latest research from various fields, including economics, engineering, environmental science, and social science, and provides a synthesis of best practices and lessons learned from a diverse range of stakeholders, such as governments, businesses, and civil society organizations. The publication also provides a roadmap for how stakeholders can work together overcome the challenges of the transition and create a more sustainable and equitable future.The book is a timely and essential guide for anyone who is interested in advancing sustainable development goals. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities associated with the transition to sustainable energy, circular economy, and sustainable financing for ESG practices and offers practical solutions and case studies from around the world. Its interdisciplinary and practical approach makes it a valuable resource for policymakers, business leaders, investors, and other stakeholders who are committed to creating a more sustainable and equitable future.
Sustainable Energy Transitions: Socio-Ecological Dimensions of Decarbonization
by Dustin MulvaneyThis textbook introduces the key concepts that underpin sustainable energy transitions. Starting with the basic biophysical principles, current sources and environmental consequences of existing energy resource use, the book takes readers through the key questions and topics needed to understand, prescribe, and advocate just and sustainable energy solutions. The interdisciplinary nature of the book aims to build bridges across the social and natural sciences and humanities, bringing together perspectives, ideas and concepts from engineering, economics, and life cycle assessment to sociology, political science, anthropology, policy studies, the humanities, arts, and some interdisciplinary thinkers that defy categories. This accessible approach fills the gap for a textbook that integrates sustainability science and engineering studies with strong empirical social science and it will be a useful tool to anyone interested in the socio-ecological dimensions of energy system transitions.
Sustainable Family Farming and Yeoman Ideals: 1860 to 2000 in North-West Tasmania
by Rena R. HendersonWithin the frame of family farming, this book offers a longitudinal study of the Castra district in North-West Tasmania from first European settlement to the end of the twentieth century. It draws upon historical sources for yeomanry characteristics from Britain, Canada, the USA, New Zealand and Australian mainland colonies to show how these characteristics were persistently supportive of family farming. Surveying farming communities over several generations, this book explores a range of topics including colonial surveying practices, settler families’ motivation, attributes and demographics, the role of Methodism, the ways children were inculcated into yeoman farming enterprises, the role of women as companionate wives, and the political participation of farmers in the public sphere. The book also offers a new perspective of three commonly-held myths of settlement failure: the settlement of retired Anglo-Indian military and civil officers in the 1870s, the settlement of soldiers on small farms after the Great War, and the claims that the ideal of yeoman family farming was anachronistic to capitalist commodity production. The book draws from a wide selection of previously underused primary source materials, including oral histories from current and past residents, to provide a comprehensive overview of an important aspect of rural Australian history.The book is a valuable contribution to Australian historiography, and will be a useful resource for students and scholars of rural history, social history, environmental history, colonialism and sustainable agriculture.
Sustainable Food Procurement: Legal, Social and Organisational Challenges (Routledge Studies in Food, Society and the Environment)
by Mark Stein Maurizio Mariani Roberto Caranta Yiannis PolychronakisThe book examines sustainable food procurement policy and practice in the European Union and beyond, exploring the extent to which sustainability objectives have been achieved and evaluating the new developments taking place at both EU and national levels.While there is a growing recognition that public authorities can use public procurement as a policy tool to pursue multiple environmental, health and socio-economic objectives, contracting authorities still face many challenges. This volume investigates the scope for pursuing sustainable objectives in public procurement of food and catering services, examining different regulatory contexts and organisational models to answer the overall question of how to integrate sustainability concerns into the various phases of public food procurement processes. Contributions in the book examine the policy and legal procurement framework and practices for sustainable public catering in three EU Member States: Italy, France and Spain. There is a comparative survey of the Baltic Region, including Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland and Russia, and moving beyond the EU, there is examination of the UK and Brazil, as well as a cross country comparison of the UK with Denmark and Sweden. Drawing on the expertise of an interdisciplinary and intersectoral team of contributors allows the book to benefit from the insights of different disciplines, including business sciences, anthropology and law. Tapping into the global discussion on public food procurement as a means to achieve multiple social and environmental goals, this work will stimulate readers looking for new creative ways to create value through public food purchasing.This book will be of great interest to students, researchers, policymakers and public- and private-sector representatives interested in public procurement, food policy and law, sustainable food sourcing and supply chain management.
Sustainable Food Production: An Earth Institute Sustainability Primer (Columbia University Earth Institute Sustainability Primers)
by Dr. Shahid Naeem Suzanne Lipton Tiff van HuysenIndustrial agriculture is responsible for widespread environmental degradation and undermines the pursuit of human well-being. With a projected global population of 10 billion by 2050, it is urgent for humanity to achieve a more sustainable approach to farming and food systems.This concise text offers an overview of the key issues in sustainable food production for all readers interested in the ecology and environmental impacts of agriculture. It details the ecological foundations of farming and food systems, showing how knowledge from the natural and social sciences can be used to create sustainable alternatives to the industrial production methods used today. Beginning with a discussion of the role of agriculture in human development, the primer examines how twentieth-century farming methods are environmentally and socially unsustainable, contributing to global change and perpetuating inequalities. The authors explain the principles of environmental sustainability and explore how these principles can be put into practice in agrifood systems. They emphasize the importance of human well-being and insist on the centrality of social and environmental equity and justice.Sustainable Food Production is a compelling guide to how we can improve our ability to feed each other today and preserve the ability of our planet to do so tomorrow. Appropriate for a range of courses in the natural and social sciences, it provides a comprehensive yet accessible framework for achieving agricultural sustainability in the Anthropocene.
Sustainable Food Security in the Era of Local and Global Environmental Change
by Gabrielle Kissinger Mohamed Behnassi Olaf PollmannThis volume discusses a broad range of vital issues encompassing the production and consumption of food in the current period of climate change. All of these add up to looming, momentous challenges to food security, especially for people in regions where malnutrition and famine have been the norm during numerous decades. Furthermore, threats to food security do not stop at the borders of more affluent countries - governance of food systems and changes in eating patterns will have worldwide consequences. The book is arranged in four broad sections. Part I, Combating Food Insecurity: A Global Responsibility opens with a chapter describing the urgent necessity for new paradigm and policy set to meet the food security challenges of climate change. Also in this section are chapters on meat and the dimensions of animal welfare, climate change and sustainability; on dietary options for mitigating climate change; and the linkage of forest and food production in the context of the REDD+ approach to valuation of forests. Part II, Managing Linkages Between Climate Change and Food Security offers a South Asian perspective on Gender, Climate Change and Household Food Security; a chapter on food crisis in sub-Saharan Africa; and separate chapters on critical issues of food supply and production in Nigeria, far-Western Nepal and the Sudano-Sahelian zone of Cameroon. Part III examines Food Security and patterns of production and consumption, with chapters focused on Morocco, Thailand, Bahrain, Kenya and elsewhere. The final section discusses successful, innovative practices, with chapters on Food Security in Knowledge-Based Economy; Biosaline Agriculture in the Gulf States; Rice production in a cotton zone of Benin; palm oil in the production of biofuel; and experiments in raised-bed wheat production. The editors argue that technical prescriptions are insufficient to manage the food security challenge. They propose and explain a holistic approach for adapting food systems to global environmental change, which demands the engagement of many disciplines - a new, sustainable food security paradigm.
Sustainable Futures for Climate Adaptation: Wearing Our Ecology
by Benedict AndersonConsidering sustainability as a flawed and restrictive term in practice, Sustainable Futures for Climate Adaptation argues that we must radically adapt humanity and reform society, cities, buildings, and our approach to migration in order to coexist in harmony with our natural environments. The book conceives an Earth–human coexistence where the world’s regions are shared globally between all people, in contrast to a reality where we have lost touch with the natural world. It is this decoupling of humanity and nature that has brought us to the brink of climate disaster. In response, Benedict Anderson explores the concept of ‘wearing our ecology’, where human mobility is synchronized with the environment, merging people with landscapes, topographies, and geographies. Anderson argues that we need to create new migration routes for people moving between the Global South and North and establish flexible and adaptive living environments. Only by rethinking separations between urban and rural, resource extraction and consumption, racial prejudice and accessibility are we able to forge a closer partnership with nature to adapt to climate change and mitigate the worst of its effects. Touching on themes of adaptive urban design, racial and gender segregation and inequality, and climate apocalypticism, this book will be valuable reading for researchers, scholars, and upper-level students in the fields of urban studies, migration studies, human geography, ecology, politics, and design.
Sustainable Health and the Covid-19 Crisis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
by Nicole Thualagant Pelle Korsbæk Sørensen Troels Sune MønstedThis edited collection offers interdisciplinary perspectives on some of the key health challenges faced by individuals, communities, and governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking the Danish context as a starting point, it extrapolates to discuss the international relevance of a range of issues. The book contains 4 parts: · Part 1 looks at the societal reactions to COVID-19, discussing issues around health communication, legitimacy, ethics, and bio-politics. · Part 2 approaches the health and well-being of specific groups during the crisis. · Part 3 assesses how the crisis stimulated sustainable solutions to key problems, from digital methods for delivery of healthcare, to changes to the food supply chain. · Part 4 looks broadly at how historical developments in the study of epidemiology and current scientific perspectives enable the understanding and, to some extent, management of the COVID-19 pandemic. With contributions from scholars across the social sciences, health sciences, and humanities, each chapter provides not only insight into a particular issue, but also the theories and scientific methods applied to understand and overcome the COVID-19 crisis. It will be important reading for both scholars and policy makers, informing an appropriate response to future health crises.
Sustainable Health in Low and Middle Income Countries: Achieving SDG3 in the (Post) Pandemic World (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Fingani MphandeThis book highlights lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and explains how these can be used to build sustainable health systems, especially in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). It investigates the impact of outbreak response and management on health sustainability in LMIC from the perspective of SDG3: “Ensuring healthy lives and wellbeing for all at all ages”. Despite strides being made in some areas for SDG target 3.3 to fight communicable diseases, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused interruptions that will considerably affect vaccination coverage as well as the progress that was made, for example: in reducing malaria cases. Vulnerable populations who were already struggling to access their healthcare needs before the pandemic may face even greater challenges at present and in the years to come, post-pandemic. This book considers the progress on attaining the SDG3 targets, specifically: to improve early warning systems for management of national and global health risks, and the effect of pandemics - including but not limited to the COVID-19 pandemic - and emerging disease outbreaks. It explores the weaknesses and strengths in LMIC and how to strengthen capacities in these countries. The author also investigates and proposes approaches that can, or should, be implemented to ensure sustainable health systems in developing countries, including early warning systems, risk reduction, and the management of global and national health risks. This book is of great interest to public health professionals, infectious diseases experts, and epidemiologists, as well as students and researchers of public health systems and healthcare infrastructure in developing countries.
Sustainable Industrial Landscape Plan and Design: Total Human Ecosystem Formation and Evolution on Blakeley Island, Mobile, Alabama (SpringerBriefs in Geography)
by Long ZhouThis book applies the Total Human Ecosystem as a guiding concept in coastal urban communities to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship between industrial parks and their surrounding wetlands. The early 21st century has been shaped by a need for economic recovery, and by climate change. Consequently, new development models that promote both economic growth and environmental preservation are urgently needed. In turn, the book puts forward an innovative proposal to achieve the shift from a hard path to a soft path through landscape architectural interventions, one that will help industrial factories and their surrounding wetlands coevolve toward sustainability. Through the incorporation of science and design, the proposal for the Total Human Ecosystem on Blakeley Island integrates industry with its surrounding environment. The design scenarios for this new living system are based on scientific principles of landscape ecology that take into account both the human and nonhuman environments as components of the land mosaic. Sustainability is not a final status that is achieved once and for all; it is an ongoing challenge. As a case study, this proposal outlines the urgently needed reconciliation between industrial parks and their surrounding natural ecosystems, and promotes the evolution of both components toward sustainability.
Sustainable Intensification: Increasing Productivity in African Food and Agricultural Systems
by Camilla Toulmin Jules N. Pretty Stella WilliamsContinued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.
Sustainable Investing: Beating the Market with ESG
by Hanna Silvola Tiina LandauThis book reviews the latest methods of sustainable investing and financial profit making and describes how ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) analysis can identify future business opportunities and manage risk to achieve abnormal returns. Megatrends such as climate change, sustainable development and digitalisation increase uncertainty and information asymmetry and have an impact on the future returns on investments. From a profit perspective, it is largely about how ESG factors affect the long-term value added by companies and the valuation of companies in the financial markets. Although sustainability provides an opportunity for abnormal returns, this phenomenon must be considered in a critical light. The book describes the risks and limitations associated with the accountability and availability of ESG data and tools. This book provides both academic findings and practical models for assessing the sustainability of investees and introduces practical tools and methods to make ESG analysis practice. It focuses on the ESG analysis of equity investments and fund investments in institutional investment organizations and provides a handbook for all investment analysts who are involved with investment decisions. Readers will benefit from understanding the methods, opportunities and challenges that professionals use in their ESG analysis with cases, interviews and practical tools for both institutional and private investors.