Download Introduction to Sustainability

Reading Assignment #4
Also prepare to present your works
for about 5 minutes (3-5 slides)
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Engineering & Developing
Communities
• Appropriate technology
– A technology (or design) is appropriate “when it is
compatible with local, cultural, and economic
conditions (i.e., the human, material and cultural
resources of the economy), and utilizes locally
available materials and energy resources, with
tools and processes maintained and operationally
controlled by the local population” (Conteh, 2003,
p. 3).
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Technical Approaches to
Quantifying Sustainability
• Terminology: measure vs. metric vs. indicator
• EPA categories of indicator outcomes:
– Adverse Outcomes Indicator (AOI)
– Resource Flow Indicator (RFI)
– System Condition Indicator (SCI)
– Value Creation Indicator (VCI)
• Sustainability models and metrics
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Technical Approaches to
Quantifying Sustainability
• Measure – a value that is quantifiable against a standard at a point in
time (e.g., area size)
• Metric – a standardized set of measurements or data related to one or
more sustainability indicators
• Indicator – a measurement or metric based on verifiable data that can
be used to communicate important in formation to decision makers and the
public about processes related to sustainable design or development
• Index – Several individual indicators may be combined to form more
complex tools that make up a sustainability index. A sustainability index is a
numerical-based scale used to compare alternative designs or processes with
one another.
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EPA Sustainability Indicators
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EPA Sustainability Indicators
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Sustainable systems are Illustrated by
those systems that balance eco-centric,
techno-centric, and socio-centric concerns.
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EPA Sustainability Indicators
Adverse Outcomes Indicator (AOI)
Resource Flow Indicator (RFI)
System Condition Indicator (SCI)
Value Creation Indicator (VCI)
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Measuring the rate resource
consumption/sustainability by country
Examples of sustainability models
(1)IPAT Model
(2)Ecological Footprint
The Impact of Population
Model developed by Paul Ehrlich
and John Holdren - 1970’s
• The IPAT Equation:
– Impact = I
– Population = P
– Affluence = A
– Technology = T
(linkage to HDI)
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Environmental Impact
Consumption Technology impact per
Population × per person × unit of consumption
Environmental impact
of Population
I=P×A×T
The IPAT Equation
• The Impact term: anything that contributes to
diminishing the sustainable rate of resource
consumption and waste discharge.
– Types: Depletion, Pollution Emission, Disturbances
– Degree of severity
– Scale of impact
– Scale of the area directly affected
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Impact Types
• Severity
– Critical: potentially lead to irreversible changes
– Significant: depletion of non-fossil fuel resources,
smog
– Less Significant: radionuclide contamination, oil
spills, depletion of landfill capacity
• Scale:
– Global: climate change, ozone layer depletion
– Regional
– Local
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Environmental Impact
How Are Our Ecological Footprints
Affecting the Earth?
• Concept 1-2 As our ecological footprints grow,
we are depleting and degrading more of the
earth’s natural capital.
Cultural Changes Have Increased
Our Ecological Footprints
• 12,000 years ago: hunters and gatherers
• Three major cultural events
– Agricultural revolution
– Industrial-medical revolution
– Information-globalization revolution
• Current need for a sustainability revolution
IPAT vs. Ecological Footprint
• The product of the affluence (A) and technology (T) terms in
the IPAT Equation can be visualized as the per capita demand
on ecosystem resources. This demand is sometimes
quantified as an ecological footprint.
• Ecological footprint accounting, based on the biological
concept of carrying capacity, tracks the amount of land and
water area a human population, needed to produce the
resources the population consumes and to absorb its waste,
under prevailing technology.
• The biocapacity (supply) represents the area able to
regenerate resources and assimilate waste
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Ecological Footprints: A Model of
Unsustainable Use of Resources
Ecological footprint: the amount
of biologically productive land
and water needed to provide the
people in a region with indefinite
supply of renewable resources,
and to absorb and recycle wastes
and pollution.
Our Ecological Footprint, by M. Wackernagel and W. Rees
Ecological Footprint
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Ecological Footprint
Ecological Footprint Comparison
Measure of the biologically productive land and
water needed to support each person.
1 hectare = 100 acres or 10,000 square meters (about 100 football fields)
hecto : 100
Natural Capital Use and Degradation (2008)
Fig. 1-13, p. 16
Ecological Footprint
Number of planet Earths we need
(9/29/2016)
Ecological Footprint
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Ecological Footprint (2006) - HDI
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Ecological Footprint (2008)
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Ecological Footprint Comparison
gha (global hectares) /person
Biocapacity—the amount of resources its
ecosystems can supply each year
(2.1)
Unsustainable: footprint > biocapacity
GLOBAL OUTLOOK:
What are the world’s trends?
Environmental Impact
The Nine Planetary Boundaries
Regime-Shifts in Ecosystems
Climate change
Nitrogen &
Phosphorus
overload
Regime-Shifts in Ecosystems
Land &
freshwater use
Ocean
warming,
Overfishing,
Nutrient
overload
What do you think?
If all people on Earth had the same
consumption habits as Americans do, how
many Earths would be needed to provide what
the world’s population would consume?
a. 1 Earth
b. 2 Earths
c. 6 Earths
d. 20 Earths
Did you know that the ecological
footprint in the U.S. is about…
9.7 hectares
per person,
whereas the
planet has a
capacity of only
1.8 hectares
per person?
If everyone lived the lifestyle of the average
American we would need more than 5 planets.
US Life Style is Unsustainable
• Between 1900 and 1989 U.S. population tripled
while its use of raw materials grew by a factor
of 17.
• With less than 5 percent of world population,
the U.S. uses a third of the world’s paper, a
quarter of the oil, coal and aluminum, and 19
percent of the copper. The U.S. ranks highest
by a considerable margin in most consumer
categories as well.
US Life Style is Unsustainable
• Americans account for only five percent
(5%) of the world’s population but create
half of the globe’s solid waste.
• National Geographic’s Greendex found that
American consumers rank last of 17
countries surveyed in regard to sustainable
behavior
Population, Consumption, and Climate
A Conversation with Al Bartlett