White Papers
By Beatrice K Otto
- SUSTAINABLE OFFICE DESIGN & BUILDINGS
- WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
- WHAT SHOULD I LOOK FOR?
- AIR
- LIGHT
- ENERGY
- WATER
- MATERIALS
- GOVERNMENT RESPONSES
- OVERVIEW OF SUSTAINABILITY
- WHERE CAN I DIG DEEPER?
- GLOSSARY
OVERVIEW OF SUSTAINABILITY
WHAT'S IN A WORD?
Our biggest challenge in the new century is to take the idea that seems abstract - sustainable development - and turn it into a daily reality for all the world's people.Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General
People & Planet
The official, text-book definition of sustainable development (or 'sustainability') suggests holding up the edifice by the three 'pillars' of the environment, the economy and society.
This works in principle and even practice, but isn't an easy trio to digest conceptually, and nor does it readily engage the imagination. Yet sustainability can appeal to our instinctive admiration for systems or solutions that stun us with their elegant response to complexity. The UK government, recognising that the standard language didn't have people begging for more, came up with a warmer definition most people can relate to.
At the heart of sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come.
UK Government, Strategy for Sustainable Development, 1999
The essence, then, is to bring about a mode of living and working that allows humanity to flourish in a flourishing natural environment, that irons out inequities between countries and regions, without compromising future flourishing. It 'converges human and natural flourishing so they work for rather than against one other over the long term'.
Planet & Poverty
The midwife of 'sustainable development' was a collective realisation that we couldn't keep living as we were, 'borrowing' resources from poorer regions and future generations. The tipping point in terms of sustainability came recently, when we crossed a line from living within our ecological means to overspending accumulated natural capital and even selling off the family silver. In the 1960s we were at about 70% of carrying capacity (the human footprint the earth can bear without potentially triggering irreversible consequences). The US National Academy of Sciences has confirmed that we are now at about 120%. Do the maths.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, drawing on about 1,400 experts in 95 countries, has found that ecosystems have been changed more in the last 50 years by human activity than at any comparable time in history. About two thirds of the ecosystems they looked at were degraded or being used unsustainably, and 0.5% of natural habitats are being lost each year, mostly to farmland.
The warp and woof of weaving towards sustainability (it isn't a straight path) is to simultaneously bring our collective overspend back within ecological, biodiversified budget, adapting to or repairing damage already done, while addressing inequities which mean that roughly 20% of the world's population consumes 80% of resources.
Balancing The Budget
Tipping the budget into credit, buildings can already be designed that are not merely 90% less resource consuming, but which can be net producers of energy and clean air, feeding their surplus energy into the communal grid.
Government Responses
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (the clunkily acronymed UNFCCC) was signed in 1992 and provides a non-binding target to stabilise global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The Convention established a yearly Conference of Parties, the so-called COP.
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and became legally binding in 2005 after Russia ratified, bringing the emissions represented by signatories to 61% of the global total. The treaty provides targets for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2008-2012 against a 1990 baseline year.
- EU target is minus 8% against 1990 figures
- The UK, responsible for about 2.3% of global carbon emissions, has a target of 12.5%
- The UK government has committed a minimum 60% reduction in carbon emissions from a 1997 base, by 2050
Kyoto also allows for 'flexible mechanisms' such as the Clean Development Mechanism whereby developed countries gain 'credits' for investing in carbon-reducing projects in developing countries. Such market mechanisms have been adopted by the EU through its Emissions Trading Scheme, launched in 2005.
Fun with Factoids
- The UN Development Programme estimates that if the whole world were to have a similar lifestyle to that of developed countries today, it would need the resources of 5.5 earth planets.
- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that an increase in average temperatures of 2-4 degrees will bring more extreme weather events, leading to sea level rises and threatening sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs.
- Access to clean water is a major concern in developing countries. 5,500 children die each day from diseases caused by water or food polluted with bacteria.
UNICEF, UN Environment Programme & World Health Organisation, Children in the New Millennium , 2002. - Climate related disasters occurred twice as often in Europe during the 1990s as in the 1980s with an average annual cost of US$11 billion.
Impacts of Europe's Changing Climate (http://reports.eea.eu.int/climate_report_2_2004).
WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE?
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk
The government's mouthpiece on its sustainable development strategy.
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/progress/indicators/sdiyp.htm
Sustainable Development Indicators in your Pocket 2005 is an excellent, comprehensive overview of sustainable development indicators and facts in the UK, compiled by the government and presented in a graphic-rich design, even though it isn't quite pocket-sized.
www.wbcsd.org
Website of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, a coalition of 190 multinational companies looking for ways to make business and sustainability work for each other. The website has been twice voted the best on-line resource on sustainable development and the organisation was also voted as second only to the EU in promoting sustainability over the next five years.