Greener Living

Living Sustainably
Green Streets, Jobs and Towns Program
Protecting Bees from Pesticides
Greener Lawn and Garden Care
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD)
Greener Products and Services
Safer Household and Industrial Chemicals
Greening Industrial and Business Processes
Green Engineering

ENVIRONMENTAL
We focus on areas where we can make the
biggest positive impact. We are focusing on SUSTAINABILITY
the areas where we believe we can make the
biggest positive difference—Climate, Water
and Waste.

Ref.s
Prepared by:
http://www.thwink.org/sustain/glossary/
EnvironmentalSustainability.htm
Ma. Teresa A. Lopez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability

https://www.movenpick.com/fileadmin/files/Hotels/Turkey/
Istanbul/PDF/MP-TR-IST_SustainabilityBrochure1115_I_BE.PDF

BSI-HE 4c
Professor Verayo
 I. INTRODUCTION

In the middle of the

20th century, we
saw our planet
from space for the
first time… From
space, we see a
small and fragile
ball dominated not by human activity and edi-
fice but by a pattern of clouds, oceans, green-
ery, and soils. Humanity’s inability to fit its
activities into that pattern is changing plane-
tary systems, fundamentally. Many such
changes are accompanied by life-threatening
hazards. This new reality, from which there is
no escape, must be recognized - and managed
(From One Earth).

History

Renaissance and Enlightenment philosophers

would express concern about resources and
over-population and whether these were sus-
tainable in the long term, these people were
not taken seriously at the time other than as a
hypothetical question.
It would take until the 20th century before we
would understand the impact that we could
have on our environment.

Environmental damage, pollution, destabilis-

ing soils by cutting down trees, fossil fuels
and other environmental issues led to a grow-
ing concern about the environment and wheth-
er we were or could damage our own ecosys-
tem.

The United Nations was founded after World

War II and in 1945, UNESCO was established to
promote the importance of human culture and
of science. Today, their remit is "to contribute
to the building of peace, the eradication of
poverty, sustainable development and inter-
cultural dialogue through education, the sci-
ences, culture, communication and infor-
 The
Envi-

ronment

Let's say that Timmy wants to pick the apples

from his apple tree.

As Timmy sees it, he has two options. He can

grab a stepladder and go up to where the ap-
ples are or he can grab an ax and cut down the
apple tree. Timmy thinks the second option is
a great idea because, instead of bothering with
a cumbersome ladder, he can just chop down
the tree and bring the apples to ground level,
where he can easily pick them up. Timmy is
pretty proud of himself for coming up with a
there will be no tree to produce fruit. In other
words, Timmy did not sustain his natural re-
source and it will no longer be available to
him. By chopping down the apple tree, Timmy
overlooked the importance of environmental
sustainability. In this lesson, we will look at
this concept and a few ways it is being applied
to ensure that future generations can enjoy
the natural resources our planet has to offer.

To define Environmental Sustainability, we

must first
define sustainability. Sustainability is the
ability to continue a defined behavior indefi-
nitely.

Sustainability in the context of a Profession

While the concept of sustainability is increas-
ingly discredited as a useful concept by itself,
it appears to be serving some purpose when
preceded by a delineating modifier like
“ecological” or “agricultural” or “economic.”

In ecology, sustainability (from sustain and ab

ility) is the property of biological sys-
tems toremain diverse and productive indefini
tely. Long-lived and
healthy wetlands and forests are examples of
sustainable biological systems. In more
general terms, sustainability is the endurance
of systems and processes.

The organizing principle for sustainability

is sustainable development, which includes
the four interconnected domains: ecology,
economics, politics and culture.
In Science Sustainability is the study of sus-
tainable development and environmental sci-
ence.
Sustainability is based on a simple principle:
Everything that we need for our survival and
well-being depends, either directly or indirect-
ly, on our natural environment. To pursue sus-
tainability is to create and maintain the condi-
tions under which humans and nature can ex-
ist in productive harmony to support present
and future generations.
What Is Sustainabil-
ity and Why Is It Im-
portant?
SUSTAINABILITY is one
the newest degree sub-
jects that attempts to
bridge social science
with civic engineering
and environmental sci-
ence with the technol-
ogy of the future.
When we hear the
word “sustainability” we
tend to think of renewa-
ble fuel sources, reducing
carbon emissions, pro-
tecting environments and
a way of keeping the deli-
cate ecosystems of our
planet in balance. In
short, sustainability looks to protect our natu-
ral environment, human and ecological health,
while driving innovation and not compromis-
ing our way of life. Because of this growing re-
quirement, a master's will not necessarily be
required for most jobs as bachelor's programs
(and in some cases lower than this) prepares
people for a career in sustainability.

about the various sustainability degrees and

education
 Sustainability principles
Reduce dependence upon
fossil
fuels,underground met-
als, and minerals
Reduce dependence upon
synthetic

Environmental sustainability is "the ability 3) Reduce encroachment up-

to maintain things or qualities that are val- on nature
ued in the physical environment ". This is 4) Meet human needs fairly &
the simplest and most fundamental way to efficiently chemicals and
express the concept. But people using the
term environmental sustainability can speci-
fy or elaborate the term further to add extra
meaning or to apply the concept to more
Cultural dimension
specialized context.

Tourism
WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINA- Sustainability is central to underpinning feel-
BILITY? ings of authenticity in tourism.[261] Experiences
can be enhanced when substituting the con-
trived for the genuine, and at the same time
Environmental sustainability is defined as re- inspire a potentially deleterious appetite for
sponsible interaction with the environment follow-up visits to the real thing: objectively
to avoid depletion or degradation of natural authentic sites untouched by repair or rejuve-
resources and allow for long-term environ- nation
mental quality. The practice of environmen-
tal sustainability helps to ensure
How Can I Help with Sustainability?
 Giving economic priority to the fulfillment
of human needs while staying within
ecological limits, as sustainable devel- that the needs of to-
opment demands, is in conflict with the day's population are
structural workings of capitalism.A met without jeopardiz-
steady-state capitalist economy is im- ing the ability of fu-
possible further, a steady-state capital- ture generations to
ist economy is socially undesirable due meet their needs.
to the inevitable outcome of mas-
sive unemployment and underemploy- When we look at the
ment natural environment,
we see that it has a ra-
Capitalism will, unless overcome ther remarkable ability
by revolution, run up against the physi- to rejuvenate itself
cal limits of the biosphere and self- and sustain its viabil-
destruct ity. For example, when a tree falls, it de-
composes, adding nutrients to the soil.
These nutrients help sustain suitable condi-
Social dimension tions so future saplings can grow.
When nature is left alone, it has a tremen-
dous ability to care for itself. However,
Peace, security, social justice
when man enters the picture and uses many
Poverty of the natural resources provided by the en-
Human relationship to nature vironment, things change. Human actions
can deplete natural resources, and without
Human settlements the application of environmental sustaina-
Human and labor rights bility methods, long-term viability can be
compromised.
 Sustainability economics represents: "... a
Learn the applications of environmental sus- broad interpretation of ecological economics
tainability, including sustainable agriculture, where environmental and ecological variables
forestry and energy. and issues are basic but part of a multidimen-
sional perspective. Social, cultural, health-
related and monetary/financial aspects have to
be integrated into the analysis.

Basic Concept of Decoupling environmental degradation and

Environmental Sus- economic growth
tainability
Nature as an economic externality
Around for centuries.
Logging activities in Economic opportunity
the past already pre-
sented the concern
that new trees need to Ecosocialist approach
be planted to main- This theory rests on the premises that:
tain supply and for Capitalism’s sole economic purpose is
future use. The use of “unlimited capital accumulation” in the
trees for various pur- hands of the capitalist class.The urge to
poses resulted in bar- accumulate (the profit motive) drives
ren lands and deforestation. This condition capitalists to continually reinvest and
certainly had an immediate impact on the sur- expand production, creating indefinite
rounding neighborhoods as more floods oc- and unsustainable economic growth.
curred from heavy rain. People back then also “Capital tends to degrade the conditions
realized that resources such as trees need to of its own production” (the ecosystems
be replenished steadily not only to keep up and resources on which any economy
with existing demand but also to make sure depends)
that future generations have enough resources
Thus, according to this analysis:
for their own needs.
equally applied to any ecosystem from a trop- Today, government agencies and private com-
ical rainforest to a home garden. panies environmental or ecological balance.
Many promote the idea of recycling so as not
Atmosphere
to deplete resources at the present time. Vari-
Freshwater and oceans ous recycling drives are promoted across dif-
ferent communities to encourage every person
Land use
to take responsibility for the present health of
Management of human consumption the environment and to protect it from abuse.
The underlying driver of direct human im- Along with recycling drives, people are also
pacts on the environment is human consump- encouraged to reduce consumption of re-
tion.[128]This impact is reduced by not only sources and re-use items that can be still of
consuming less but by also making the full value. All these efforts are
cycle of production, use and disposal more aimed at promoting sus-
sustainable. Consumption of goods and ser- tainability in the environ-
vices can be analysed and managed at all ment so that future genera-
scales through the chain of consumption, tions will have enough re-
starting with the effects of individual lifestyle sources to meet all their
choices and spending patterns, through to the needs.
resource demands of specific goods and ser-
vices, the impacts of economic sectors,
ALSO Environmental Sustainability refers to
through national economies to the global
actions and/or projects done by people that
economy
can be performed or done continuously or for
long periods of time with little or no adverse
Energy impact to the environment. This is the typical
Water “mantra” of various environmental groups all
Food over the world not only to protect resources
for the present generation but to preserve
Materials, toxic substances, waste them for future generations.
Economic dimension
 harm and do harm people's health, livelihoods
and lives.

Many governments also promote various ac- Sustainability to include health of the land, air
tivities and development plans that are de- and sea
signed to provide for the needs of present
times and projects that do not compromise
environmental resources for future times.

THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

Finally, it acknowledged the concept of nature
This is the physical surrounds to something. having certain rights - that people have stew-
For example, the land, waters and atmos- ardship of the world and the importance of
phere, physical resources and the buildings putting people at the forefront of solving the
and roads and other physical elements go to above global issues.
make up the urban environment. Rural envi-
ronments are made up of the farms and living Through management of the environment and
areas of people and the land and waters and of consumption (for example, reducing pack-
atmosphere and biological elements (species aging and discouraging food waste as well as
utilised by agriculture, pest species, and na- promoting the use of recyclable materials).
tive species, and ecological communities both
human induced and natural).
Natural environments are those where the in- Environmental dimension
fluence of wild species (indigenous and natu-
ralised) is dominant or very strong. At the global scale and in the broadest sense
environmental management involves
the oceans, freshwater systems, land
and atmosphere, but following the sustainabil-
ity principle of scale it can be
how technology will drive our greener future;
the EPA recognized that developing technolo-
gy and biotechnology is key to this sustaina-
bility, and protecting the environment of the
future from potential damage that technologi-
cal advances could potentially bring

The Primary Goals of Sustainability

Physical Resources, of all sorts, including
The sustainable development professional net- mineral resources, can be considered to be
work thinks, acts and works globally. In 2012, part of the environment.
the United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Physical environments can be considered on
Development met to discuss and develop a set
all scales from the micro to the local, global
of goals to work towards; they grew out of the
and even larger scales.
Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that
claimed success in reducing global poverty For example, most people want to sustain
while acknowledging there was still much (maintain):
more to do. The SDG eventually came up with human life
a list of items which included amongst other
the capabilities that the natural environ-
things:
ment has to maintain the living condi-
The end of poverty and hunger tions for people and other species (eg.
clean water and air, a suitable climate)
Better standards of education and healthcare -
particularly as it pertains to water quality the aspects of the environment that pro-
and better sanitation duce renewable resources such as water,
timber, fish, solar energy
To achieve gender equality
the functioning of society, despite non-
Sustainable economic growth while promoting renewable resource depletion
jobs and stronger economies
the quality of life for all people, the livabil-
All of the above and more while tackling the ity and beauty of the environment
effects of climate change, pollution and other
environmental factors that can
 It is also about maintaining access to basic
For renewable resources, the rate of resources without compromising the quality
harvest should not exceed the rate of life. The biggest hot topic for many people
right now is sustainable housing and how we
of regeneration (sustainable yield);
can better build the homes we live in from
[For pollution] The rates of waste gen-
sustainable material. The final element is edu-
eration from projects should not
cation - encouraging people to participate in
exceed the assimilative capacity of
environmental sustainability and teaching
the environment (sustainable waste
them about the effects of environmental pro-
disposal); and
For nonrenewable resources the de- tection as well as warning of the dangers if we
pletion of the nonrenewable re- cannot achieve our goals .
sources should require comparable
development of renewable substi-
tutes for that resource. Environmental Protection
We all know what we need to do to protect the
environment, whether that is recycling, reduc-
ing our power consumption by switching elec-
tronic devices off rather than using standby,
by walking short journeys instead of taking
the bus. Businesses are regulated to prevent
pollution and to keep their own carbon emis-
sions low. There are incentives to installing
renewable power sources in our homes and
businesses. Environmental protection is the
third pillar and to many, the primary concern
of the future of humanity. It defines how we
should study and protect ecosystems, air qual-
ity, integrity and sustainability of our re-
sources and focusing on the elements that
Threats to these aspects of the environment place stress on the environment It also con-
cerns
mean that there is a risk that these things will
not be maintained.
Economic Development For example, the large-scale extraction of
This is the issue that proves the most prob- non-renewable resources (such as minerals,
lematic as most people disagree on political coal and oil) or damage done to the natural
ideology what is and is not economically environment can create threats of serious de-
sound, and how it will affect businesses and cline in quality or destruction or extinction.
by extension, jobs and employability.

The supply and demand market is consumer- Environmental sustainability programs in-
ist in nature and modern life requires a lot of clude actions to reduce the use of physical
resources every single day ; for the sake of the resources, the adoption of a ‘recycle every-
environment, getting what we consume under thing/buy recycled’ approach, the use of re-
control is the paramount issue. newable rather than depletable resources,
the redesign of production processes and
Economic development is about giving people products to eliminate the production of toxic
what they want without compromising quality materials, and the protection and restoration
of life, especially in the developing world, and of natural habitats and environments valued
reducing the financial burden and “red tape” for their livability or beauty. These sustaina-
of doing the right thing. bility programs need to operate on an ade-
quate scale and need to continue operating
reliably for as long as the threats continue.
Social Development
There are many facets to this pillar. Most im-
portantly is awareness of and legislation pro- Some of the issues that pose major environ-
tection of the health of people from pollution mental sustainability problems include:
and other harmful activities of business and
other organisations (6). In North America, Eu-
rope and the rest of the developed world, destruction of the living environments
there are strong checks and programmes of (habitats) of native species
legislation in place to ensure that people's
health and wellness is strongly protected. discharge of polluting chemicals and oth-
er materials into the environment
 emission of greenhouses gases into the at-
mosphere than can cause climate change
depletion of low cost oil and other fossil
fuels

Environmental sustainability is the rates of

renewable resource harvest, pollution crea-
tion, and non-renewable resource depletion
that can be continued indefinitely. If they can-
not be continued indefinitely then they are not
sustainable.

In 2005, the World Summit on Social Develop-

THE THREE PILLARS OF SUSTAINABILITY
ment identified three core areas that contrib-
ute to the philosophy and social science of
When all three pillars are strong, people live in sustainable development. These “pillars” in
a system where high quality life is the norm. many national standards and certification
They have a clean healthy environment, a sat- schemes, form the backbone of tackling the
isfactory level of economic well-being, and a core areas that the world now faces. The
robust level of social fulfillment. Brundtland Commission described it as
“development that meets the needs of the pre-
sent without compromising the ability of fu-
ture generations to meet their own needs" We
must consider the future then, in making our
decisions about the present.