全球主要国家环境可持续性综合评估——基于碳、水、土地的足迹-边界整合分析

随着地球生态系统的交互性、复杂性与整体性特征日益显现,综合分析和比较各类人为环境影响及其最大安全阈值,对于从整体上判断人类活动的可持续性、揭示承载力的超载程度具有重要意义.基于环境足迹和行星边界两项新概念,运用极差法和目标距离法对全球30 个主要国家的碳、水和土地赤字数据进行了标准化与权重化处理,得到一个复合的国家环境可持续性压力指数,并结合3 项环境赤字的实际分布状况,将所有国家划分为4 类:环境强可持续性(3 国)、环境弱可持续性(8 国)、环境弱不可持续性(9 国)、环境强不可持续性(10 国).总体上,环境可持续性压力呈现南美洲国家低、亚洲和非洲国家居中、欧美发达国家高的地域格局,亚洲是4 类国家并存的唯一大洲.全球的碳、水和土地足迹-边界比分别为3.0、0.6、0.7,表明就全球尺度而言,温室气体排放已处于严重超载状态,水资源消费和土地利用尚处于盈余状态,这与现有文献结果相吻合,从而在一定程度上验证了本研究结论的可靠性.     

Rural development with environmental sustainability

ＲｕｒａｌｄｅｖｅｌｏｐｍｅｎｔｗｉｔｈｅｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔａｌｓｕｓｔａｉｎａｂｉｌｉｔｙＬｕＹｏｎｇｌｏｎｇ；ＷａｎｇＲｕｓｏｎｇ（ＲｅｓｅａｒｃｈＣｅｎｔｅｒｆｏｒＥｃｏ－ＥｎｖｉｒｏｎｍｅｎｔａｌＳｃｉｅｎｃｅｓ，ＣｈｉｎｅｓｅＡｃａｄｅｍ...     

Gold mining in Australia: linking historical trends and environmental and resource sustainability

The mining of gold has been and continues to be an important aspect of Australian industry. Gold mining moved quickly from fossicking and alluvial sources in the 1850's to hard rock mining. This paper presents, arguably for the first time, a detailed historical compilation of Australian gold mining production data. This data is then analysed in the context of sustainability, focussing particularly on mineral resource sustainability and the broader aspects of environmental impacts now commonly reported by some mining companies in annual sustainability performance reports. The key trends which are demonstrated by the data include a long-term decline in ore grade, increased open cut mining, substantive increases in tailings and waste rock production, as well as showing the impact of new technologies and economics on available gold resources. The available environmental data on material and energy inputs to and pollutant emissions from gold production is also presented, showing a clear sensitivity to ore grade. In terms of sustainability, these relationships raise significant issues such as increasing greenhouse footprint per unit gold produced, potential impacts on energy and water consumption, as well as overall gold resource sustainability. The paper presents a unique case study of the resource and environmental sustainability of the Australian gold mining sector with major implications for sustainability policy and reporting.     

Environmental management and audit schemes implementation as an educational tool for sustainability

The trail to sustainability requires a revolution on the way environmental professionals perceive and solve environmental problems. In a globalisation context, environmental professionals have to develop new personal, interpersonal, societal and technical skills to become active throughout their professional lives and to be of value in the quest for sustainability. Professionals have to develop open mindsets, a holistic perspective of the problems and integrated solutions. Current environmental engineer courses fail to provide the required skills, due to the traditional higher education structure. The role of implementation of an Environmental Management System on campus, in providing students with the ‘hands-on’, ‘on-the-job’ business skills that will make them useful in the search for sustainability is discussed.     

Improving agricultural sustainability: the case of Swedish greenhouse tomatoes

Of major concern to agriculturists and society are issues of sustainability and land and resource requirements for food and fiber. Sustainability of Swedish domestic agriculture is explored using the production of tomatoes in greenhouses as a case study. Issues of sustainability are related to net yields, environmental loading, greenhouse gases, employment and land use. A model for evaluation of sustainability is developed and illustrated using the concepts and theories of analysis. The intensive tomato production system investigated was shown to be highly dependent on non-renewable resources and human service fed back from society. Substituting wood powder from logging residues for the oil used for heating reduced the environmental load and improved the sustainability of the system significantly.     

Developing policy integrating sustainability: A case study into aviation

Support for the notion that policy should embrace sustainability is widespread but the actual incorporation of the concept into policy is proving to be difficult. To insert the word into a policy document, accompanied by some marginal changes, is enough to allow policy makers to claim that sustainability has been considered. The novel research reported here has applied sustainability analysis to the case of aviation which is one of the areas of policy where the conflict between environmental and economic objectives is most intense. It was found that sustainable policy options are blocked whilst sustainability is regarded as an add-on to existing policy. The policy stalemate exists because it is neither understood nor accepted that sustainability requires systemic change. The empirical stage of the research comprised 28 stakeholder interviews and identified four categories of action with the potential to break the stalemate in aviation which could be applied also to other areas of policy: long-term strategic planning; facilitation of dialogue between stakeholders; government support for innovation; and educating the public. The study concluded that fundamental change to the process of crafting policy is required if sustainability is to fulfil its potential to reconcile environmental and economic objectives.     

Cross-cultural education for sustainability: development of an introduction to sustainability course

This paper reports on Ball State University's activities in the area of education for sustainability and current activities to develop an Internet-based Introduction to Sustainability course. As the course will be Internet-based, it will mesh well with and can serve as the introductory course in the sustainability curriculum of Ball State University Land Design Institute's international network of Sustainability Consortia, and can be used in sustainability education programs within the context of other international partnerships. This course will serve as a foundation for that effort and for a broader curriculum that can be delivered across cultures. Ball State University's Clustered Minors in Environmentally Sustainable Practices utilizes three courses to address the social, environmental, and economic aspects of sustainability: environmental ethics; ecology; and environmental economics. The intention is to compose a course comprising elements from all three dimensions. The course will include Internet content and assignments and will exploit the emerging ability for Internet-based teleconferencing for real-time interactions among students and faculty at diverse international sites.     

Handling trade-offs in Ecodesign tools for sustainable product development and procurement

Trade-off situations often occur in the product development and procurement processes when alternative solutions emphasize different aspects that have to be balanced against each other. Ecodesign tools can be used in both product development and purchasing, for example to prescribe design alternatives, assess environmental impacts or to compare environmental improvement alternatives. However, it is not always clear what should be chosen in trade-off situations. In this study, 15 different Ecodesign tools were analyzed to ascertain whether a valuation is included in the tools, in what way the tools give support in different types of trade-off situations and whether the tools provide support from a sustainability perspective.Nine of the 15 tools analyzed included a valuation and were able to provide support in a trade-off situation, but the support was not sufficient. The valuation should include a life cycle perspective and a framework for sustainability. Otherwise, it can lead to strategically incorrect decisions from a sustainability perspective with concomitant risks of sub-optimized investment paths and blind alleys. However, all the analyzed tools can be complemented with other tools and methods based on strategic planning towards sustainability in order to include a framework for sustainability.     

Comparison of sustainability issues in two sensitive areas of China

After 30 years of economic reform since opening to the outside world in 1978, China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased by 150% over the past 15 years. The sustainability of such intense economic activity has been questioned from the perspectives of the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability. In this study, we assessed the spatial and temporal trends in sustainable development in two sensitive agricultural areas of China: Dezhou district, a well-developed region, and Guyuan district, an underdeveloped region. We used the pressure–state–response (PSR) model and a participatory approach that involved local experts to select and evaluate 27 area-specific indicators, then calculated changes in their values from 1985 to 2002. We aggregated these indicators into dimension- and PSR-specific indices to assess the sustainability of development in both regions. There two regions differed greatly in sustainability, but the current status of sustainable development raises concerns in both areas, especially from the perspective of balancing the three dimensions of sustainability. In 2002, Dezhou district performed well economically, with an index value of 0.78 (where 1.0 = sustainable), followed by environmental and social sustainability (both with index values of 0.48). All three indices have increased since 1985 (by 0.17, 0.25, and 0.13, respectively). In Guyuan district, environmental sustainability was highest (with an index value of 0.73), followed by economic and social sustainability (values of 0.55 and 0.37, respectively), but economic sustainability has decreased by 0.04 since 1985, whereas environmental and social sustainability increased by 0.18 and 0.12, respectively. To promote sustainable regional development, development priorities should be determined by considering both the regional and temporal variation in the three sustainability indices.     

Cleaner technologies for sustainable tourism: Caribbean case studies

Tourists are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their selection of tourism destination. A major factor that has been gaining importance in their choice set is the environmental quality of their preferred destination. Tourism planners need to recognize that the sustainability of their destination and its various offerings necessitates the consideration of environmental protection and conservation-related issues. This paper undertakes the case study methodology to explore the link between implementing cleaner technologies, a major environmental issue, and sustainable tourism.The analysis of the case studies indicates that cleaner technologies are playing a role in enhancing the sustainability of the Caribbean tourism industry. It was also found that there is a Caribbean tourism cluster focused on developing an environmentally sound tourism product.     

Teaching sustainability as a contested concept: capitalizing on variation in engineering educators' conceptions of environmental,social and economic sustainability

This study documents variation in engineering academics conceptions of sustainability. We investigated how a group of Australian engineering academics described environmental, social and economic sustainability, and identified a broad range of actions that participating academics associated with achieving sustainability. The study suggested marked variation in the actions that participating academics viewed as coherent with sustainable engineering practice, and therefore, potentially marked variations in the sustainability actions academics might advocate to their undergraduate students. Rather than framing this variation as problematic for teaching and learning sustainable engineering, we suggest that such variation in conception of sustainability, and explicit contestation of this variation in the engineering classroom, offers opportunities to enrich undergraduate sustainability learning and teaching. We develop this argument by using some generic environmental, economic, and social theoretical frameworks to characterize the differences according to the values and assumptions that may underpin the observed variation. Validated frameworks are useful to move beyond discussions based on ‘opinion’, because they provide a framework for critical reflection by engineering students and academics about the values and assumptions that inform engineering practice generally and sustainable engineering practice, particularly.     

The diffusion of environmental management in Greece through rationalist approaches: driver or product of globalisation?

Globalisation trends in economy and governance have resulted in a change in policy instruments towards harmonised initiatives, which are considered to a great extent pivotal for countries to engage with. ISO14001 is seen as constitutive of these wider concepts and is the focus here in explaining their diffusion in national contexts.This article questions the extent to where the adoption of ISO14001 in Greece is motivated by environmental sustainability or processes of economic globalisation. It indicates that in order to facilitate progress towards sustainability through environmental management, proper institutional arrangements and a legal framework must be established and executed by the government and society at large.     

Envisioning sustainability three-dimensionally

Sustainability has arisen as an alternative to the dominant socio-economic paradigm (DSP). However, it is still a difficult concept for many to fully understand. To help to communicate it and make it more tangible visual representations have been used. Three of the most used, and critiqued, sustainability representations are: (1) a Venn diagram, i.e. three circles that inter-connect, where the resulting overlap that represents sustainability can be misleading; (2) three concentric circles, the inner circle representing economic aspects, the middle social aspects, and the outer environmental aspects; and (3) the Planning Hexagon, showing the relationships among economy, environment, the individual, group norms, technical skills, and legal and planning systems. Each has been useful in helping to engage the general public and raising sustainability awareness. However, they all suffer from being highly anthropocentric, compartmentalised, and lacking completeness and continuity. These drawbacks have reduced their acceptance and use by more advanced sustainability scholars, researchers and practitioners. This paper presents an innovative attempt to represent sustainability in three dimensions which show the complex and dynamic equilibria among economic, environmental and social aspects, and the short-, long- and longer-term perspectives.     

Sustainability management in product development projects – the ABB experience

This article describes how ABB worked with environmental considerations when they developed their new capacitor. The sustainable development priorities are now integrated within their mainstream product development process model. The fact that ABB started a mandatory use of their GATE Model, including the sustainability considerations, verifies that ABB considers it to be a commercially sound methodology. The studied project resulted in a product with considerably better environmental performance than the traditional technology. One key factor is that the sustainability interest was truly advocated and supported by the management of the project.     

Sustainability assessment of a farm in the Chianti area (Italy)

In the study of agricultural systems, where land fertility and environmental conditions are primary factors, it is essential to consider both the efficiency and the environmental sustainability of processes. Emergy analysis, introduced by H.T. Odum [Science 242 (1988) 1132], is an approach developed at the interface between thermodynamics systems ecology. It was here used to obtain sustainability indicators and to assess the efficiency of a complex agricultural system, a farm in the Chianti area.The results for different crops were compared with Italian averages to obtain an idea of the long-term sustainability of this agricultural system. The cultivation of all the crops on the farm, except grapes, was more efficient and had less impact on the environment than the Italian standards. The Chianti grapes were compared not only with the Italian average but also with grapes of similar high quality, ‘Brunello di Montalcino’ and ‘Nobile di Montepulciano’, both grown in the same region. The production of grapes in the Chianti vineyard was more efficient and had an intermediate environmental impact, in the emergy sense, with respect to the other two systems.The proportion of emergy inputs to the farm that are local or renewable is quite high. Thus the emergy analysis demonstrated that the Chianti farm has a relatively good long-term sustainability considering both the whole system, and its individual crops.     

Improvement of agility and sustainability: A case study in an Indian rotary switches manufacturing organisation

Increasing competition has been forcing the modern manufacturing organisations to adopt advanced manufacturing paradigms. Agile Manufacturing (AM) is an advanced manufacturing paradigm that enables an organisation to survive in the competitive business environment. Agility is the performance measure of AM practices. Simultaneously, modern business organisations are forced to evolve environmental friendly products. Sustainability is regarded as an important concept for survival by the modern organisations. In this context, agility and sustainability are regarded as performance measures for contemporary organisations. This paper reports a case study which has been carried out in an Indian rotary switches manufacturing organisation. The candidate product is the knob of rotary switch. Initially Computer Aided Design (CAD) has been used to digitalise the baseline model. Keeping the baseline model as reference, five new knob models have been evolved. Then the sustainability analysis has been carried out to determine the environmental impact of the knob models. The analysis results indicated that the proposed knob models possess minimal environmental impact. The conduct of case study has lead to an inference that there is a significant improvement of agility and sustainability in the design and development of knob of rotary switch.     

Why environmental sustainability can most probably not be attained with growing production

The concepts of welfare, economic growth, production, environmentally sustainable national income, environmental sustainability, environmental function and asymmetric entering are defined, because the confusion about these concepts hampers sound information. Based on these concepts the arguments are enumerated why it is plausible that environmental sustainability most probably cannot be attained with a growing production level (national income, NI) and why broad acceptance of a lower production level, meaning de-growth of production, will make attaining this goal much easier or at least possible. Some consequences of unsustainable development are provided and the alleged conflict between employment and environment is refuted. The conclusion is that our planet is threatened by a wrong belief in a wrongly formulated growth.     

Sustainability in Mexican Higher Education: towards a new academic and professional culture

This article focuses on institutions of higher education and the introduction of sustainability in the curricula of these institutions. It states that a very important part of developing new curricula is the focus on a new academic and professional culture. The key argument is as follows. Normally institutions of higher education build upon the training that students received in previous phases of education. That is why institutions of higher education can focus on education in highly specific and specialized knowledge and skills. Education for sustainability, however, cannot follow this ‘normal’ pathway because much of what students learned in their previous education does not fit into the paradigm of sustainability. That is why sustainability education should include a partial ‘re-education’ and ‘re-programming’ of students. The article presents a framework for such a new academic and professional culture focussing on sustainability. It shows how this framework is developed within the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Azcapotzalco (UAM-A) in Mexico. The article also shows how the development of this framework is embedded in various initiatives on a national and international level. First of all the framework is developed as part of the design and implementation of an environmental plan for the whole university. The making of this plan is encouraged by the Mexican National Association of Universities and Higher Educations Institutions. Since the year 2002 this Association stimulates all major universities in Mexico to develop and implement such an environmental plan. These activities on their turn fit very well into the “United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development” that started in January 2005. Finally the article presents the first promising results of the new course “The environmental challenges” that is based on many elements of the framework. It was started in 2005 in the Division of Basic Sciences and Engineering of UAM-Azcapotzalco, Mexico.     

长江大保护环境与经济可持续发展问题及对策研究

实现长江大保护环境与经济可持续发展对打好长江保护修复攻坚战、持续推动长江经济带实现高水平保护和高质量发展具有重要意义.为了系统研究长江大保护的环境与经济可持续性,探索以生态优先、绿色发展为导向的高质量发展新路子,在查阅分析文献资料和对政府相关部门和企业开展实地调研访谈的基础上,梳理长江经济带11省市大保护工作的基本情况,分析环境与经济可持续发展面临的问题与挑战,并提出有针对性的对策建议.结果表明:①当前长江大保护各项工作稳步高效推进,取得了阶段性进展和成效.②长江大保护面临生态环境保护系统性不足、资金缺口大且渠道窄、运营效率低、政策支持力度不足等问题.③建议长江经济带在规划、管理、模式等方面系统推进,拓宽长江大保护资金渠道,增强规模化运营效益,加大对长江大保护的政策支持和倾斜.研究显示,长江大保护虽已取得初步成效,但环境与经济可持续发展形势依然严峻,需要在生态环境系统保护、投融资、项目建设运营、政策支持等方面进一步加强.      

基于农户经济和环境“双优”目标的粮食主产区化肥施用优化模拟分析——以邯郸地区小麦生产为例

我国目前面临着粮食供求紧平衡和化肥过量施用导致农业面源污染的严峻挑战。利用河北邯郸地区1026户小麦种植农户的调研数据,构建经济理性与环境可持续双目标下的农户化肥施用模型,并进行优化模拟分析,旨在探讨应该如何优化粮食主产区农户的化肥施用行为,以实现经济与环境的“双优”目标。结果表明：农户对化肥的认知和化肥价格是实现“双优”目标的关键因素。现阶段农户过高估计了化肥投入对粮食增产的效果,农户的预期化肥产出弹性显著高于化肥实际产出弹性,化肥使用效率偏低;当前粮食主产区化肥价格是模拟优化分析结果中最优化肥价格的一半左右,较低的化肥施用成本促使农户倾向高化肥投入以实现粮食增产。基于研究结果,提出了矫正农户施肥认知偏差、科学高效施肥和适当提高化肥价格水平、优化化肥使用结构等政策建议。