This slideshow provides an overview of the field of sustainability, providing its various definitions and applications.

1. An Introduction to Sustainability
Created by Pablo Martin with material from Jaime Rossiter and Diana Richardson

2. Sustainability Definitions
The Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development as
“…development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
The Brundtland Commission uses the terms “sustainable development,”
“sustainable,” and “sustainability” how?
Interchangeably, focusing on the connections among social equity, economic
productivity, and environmental quality.
Is “sustainable development” an oxymoron? What exactly are “needs?”

3. Sustainability Definitions
Sustainable development
(in the interactive zone)
Unsustainable
development
Social
System
Economic
System
Biological
Systems
Sustainable Development as a Process of
Trade-Offs (Barbier 1987)

4. Sustainability Definitions
Rather than three partially connected circles, a
better model of sustainability may be circles
placed within or on top of other circles
Environment
Society
Economy
In these concentric circles, the
economy exists within society, and
both the economy and society exist
within the environment.
Where do you think
about Hillier’s notion of
spatial sustainability?

5. The Three Pillars or Triple Bottom Line
Planet People Profit

6. Environmental movements tended to use negative terminology:
--stop, restrict, prevent, regulate, constrain
--such words direct our thinking at stopping the bad, rather than
creating the good
Sustainability movements tend to use more positive words, asking:
--“What allows us to thrive?” or “What sustains us?”
--might this help encourage us to “create the good?”
So how do we talk about it?

7. “I have a dream…”

8. “I have a nightmare…”

9. For environmental historian William
Cronon, Sustainability offers us
“a language of hope and generosity…
a framework in which to debate the
hard choices for humankind.”

10. Your Thoughts?
What do you think about these approaches to promoting more sustainable
practices?
1. Berkeley, CA Approves 25-Cent Fee on Disposable Cups
2. San Diego Approves Ban on Polystyrene (styrofoam)
3. Housing First

11. A closer look at
the
Three Pillars

12. The Environment
=
 We are part of the environment, not separate or outside of it
 We are constantly altering it
 It is constantly altering us
 We rely on it for a multitude of ecosystem services

13. Social Systems
 “No human being has the right to diminish the life and well-being of another and
no generation has the right to inflict harm on generations to come.” (Orr, 2006)
 To survive, people need:
• Food
• Water
• A healthy environment
• Access to medical care?
• Education?
• Gender equality?
• The ability to thrive?

14. Economic Systems
How can we
make money
while being
sustainable?

15. Unequal Consumption/Emission
According to a 2014
Oxfam report

16. Strong or Weak?
• Strong sustainability puts the emphasis on ecological scale
over economic gains
• Weak sustainability focuses on the opposite and tradeoffs are
unrestricted and unlimited
• “‘human capital' can substitute 'natural capital’”