Discussing why population growth is still ignored or denied

Due to a number of factors outlined in this article, the issue of population growth is excluded from the sustainability discussion. In this article, we explore some of the ethical presumptions that underlie the issues linking population growth and sustainability. Critics argue that action to address population creates social and economic segregation, and portray overpopulation concerns as being “anti-poor,” “anti-developing country,” or even “antihuman.” Yet, de-linking demographic factors from sustainability concerns ignores significant global realities and trends, such as the ecological limits of the Earth, the welfare and long-term livelihood of the most vulnerable groups, future prospects of humanity, as well as the ecosystems that support society.     

ICT applications in the research into environmental sustainability: a user preferences approach

Whether information and communication technology (ICT) constitutes a threat or a cure to environment??s deterioration is controversially discussed. Empirical evidence on the impacts of ICT is rare, so that generalizable lessons can hardly be drawn. This study provides empirical results on the role of ICT in research for environmental sustainability, but instead of ascertaining the impact of ICT on environmental protection, we conduct an analysis of the use of ICT in sustainability research. We assess the preferences of experts in different thematic sustainability fields for applying ICT tools, and we investigate ways to improve the application of these tools in order to augment their returns with respect to environmental protection research. This analysis is based on a set of surveys that were administered to international experts to evaluate the importance of ICT in environmental sustainability research and the research demands in key environmental sectors, such as climate change, natural resources, energy and biodiversity. The methodological framework is built on the analysis of users?? preferences for future developments in ICT tools using stated preferences techniques. Overall results suggest that ICT tools need to be developed in specific contexts, taking into account users?? needs and expectations. Our analysis shows that the use of ICT in environmental research is of great importance in the scientific community, but it can also play a crucial role in the policy context.     

External Communication About Sustainability: Corporate Social Responsibility Reports and Social Media Activity

External communication about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability activities may vary significantly across firms. Communication channel, content, and frequency may reflect a company’s resource allocation priorities, its culture, and its leadership in the sustainability domain. This empirical research compares n?=?11 global consumer apparel companies, with brands ranging from Adidas to Prada to Wrangler, in terms of their communication about CSR and sustainability in both formal outlets (annual CSR reports), informal channels (Twitter and Facebook social media), and voluntary participation in external rankings (the Global Reporting Initiative). In addition, the sample is divided into “High-Ranked” and “Low-Ranked” subsamples, using Newsweek’s Greenest Companies 2014 rankings, to examine if companies ranked highly by Newsweek communicate more often and display higher levels of engagement in sustainability reporting, compared to low-ranked firms. Results provide support for our research propositions. We conclude with recommendations for companies seeking to strengthen their CSR external communication.     

Crossing technology and sustainability in cities’ development

This paper deals with sustainability in cities and the role technology plays in furthering sustainable results. Recently, many interventions have been implemented in cities to propose paths and models promoting the sustainability of cities from an overall perspective. Technologies are favouring the achievement of aims recalling the three spheres of sustainability as proposed by Arcadis (2017), namely “planet”, “profit”, and “people”. The ties between technology and the three spheres are investigated through a content analysis of reports issued by the 10 cities with the most significant advances in terms of becoming sustainable cities, as indicated in the Arcadis Report 2016. The results highlight technology as an element crossing sustainability, as processes and models in cities management and service provisions to citizens are significantly changing. New tools are innovating the processes addressing environmental issues, thus leading to cost efficiency and better economic conditions. Parallel to this, new models for city management and the provision of public services are addressing the need for a better quality of life for citizens and cities’ other stakeholders. Technology itself is thought of as sustainable because it should lead to efficiency and being efficient itself. A qualitative cluster analysis and a focus on excerpts from reports are proposed to highlight the ties between technologies and the elements representing key issues in managing and leading a city towards more sustainable conditions.     

Closing remarks: novel approaches to complex societal change and sustainability

This paper summarizes some personal impressions of the 7th conference of the International Complex Systems Society, co-organized with “Future Earth”, held in Stockholm on August 24–26, 2017. The main point is that it is urgent and important to consider the sustainability conundrum as long-term, society-driven one, and to place societal dynamics at the core of how we, as a global society, came to this point, how ongoing dynamics are driving us towards a tipping point, and which role the Information and Communication Technology revolution plays in that process. A much wider involvement of the social sciences is essential. This also requires major changes in our thinking about sustainability—we need to develop an approach in which change is the natural state of affairs and societies attempt to impose stability on the dynamics involved. We need to focus on learning from the past, about the present, but above all for the future. And we need to shift from an entity-focused approach to a relational one, which pays more attention to contexts and networks. Other issues raised by such a shift in our thinking are about the role of science, the adoption of complex systems approaches and a few others that the paper points to.     

Sustainability indicators in the swine industry of the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina

In recent decades, there has been a growing concern about measuring and evaluating the results of intensive production practices, such as the mode of integration practiced on a large scale by agro-industries. The present study discusses the application and the results of a Sustainability Indicators System in the context of the swine industry in the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina. These indicators, focused on the level of sustainability maturity, can be used as a way to diagnose and compare the efficiency of the industry from a broader perspective. The research findings indicate that most of the pig farms that have been studied can be classified as “in search of sustainability or sustainable.” Nevertheless, there are differences among the dimensions and between the most ranked farms and the others which must be considered for a better design and application of public policies and company strategies toward an effective and balanced social, economic and environmental sustainability.     

The idea of weak sustainability is illegitimate

Since the introduction of the sustainability challenge, scientists disagree over the interpretation of the term “sustainability.” Weak and strong sustainability are the two main interpretations of sustainability, which are opposing each other. Some researchers stated that the interpretation of the term depends on the context; others disagree pointing out that it always implies the meaning of continuation. The term “sustainability” can be used as attribute, which adds a certain characteristic to the noun. If something can be attributed as being sustainable, it can also be unsustainable. The sustainability challenge consists of shifting from the current unsustainable towards a sustainable system. This paper outlines that the weak sustainability term is illegitimate, as it leads to a contradiction with the acknowledged assumption that the current state is unsustainable. This contradiction is revealed through an analysis of the occurrence of decoupling in agriculture: Agricultural land use could be decoupled from agricultural production, but only with the trade-off of massive increases in fertilizer, pesticide, energy and water usage. This paper outlines an inherent inconsistency within the ongoing discussion about the interpretation of sustainability. Through identifying the invalidity of the weak sustainability interpretation the focus can be shifted form the discourse to the sustainability challenge itself.     

Reimagining Sustainability: An Interrogation of the Corporate Knights' Global 100

This study examines sustainability reports of the Corporate Knights' “Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the World” in order to examine if and how they have been affected by Arturo Escobar's original critique of sustainable development (SD). Via thematic analysis, the study reveals that these corporations have circumvented Escobar's assessment by emphasizing sustainability as corporate growth and profit, without addressing some of the most prominent social concerns in our world today. The goal of this study was to trigger new ways of imagining SD, which speak to issues of equality and justice. Thus, it advances a view of sustainability that is driven by the logic of nature rather than by the logic of market. This study also suggests that researchers and practitioners should define praxis through engagement with local communities rather than through the traditional top-down approaches to sustainability.     

Theorizing stakeholders of sustainability in the digital age

Stakeholder theory, originally introduced in 1984 by philosopher Edward Freeman, is among the most influential theories today addressing the complex interplay of societal actors. It underwent several transformations and expansions, but the original Freeman model as well as the latest approaches places the corporation at the center positioning the theory as management driven. In this article—from a sustainability science perspective—we argue that sustainability could also be considered as the center, around which societal actors are grouped, because everyone, individuals as well as stakeholders, have a stake in a ‘common future’ that is built on the transformative concept of sustainability. Next to this shift of perspective from corporation to sustainability at the center, we advance the concept of sustainability stakeholders with the new paradigm of the digital age we (are about to) live in: the proposed sustainability-centered stakeholder theory is developed to incorporate novel parameters as brought about by digitalization (such as big data, real-time transparency, algorithmic correlations, predictive analytics, or changing privacy standards). Hence, we classify the stakeholders of sustainability according to their roles as “big data stakeholders:” collectors, generators, and utilizers of big data. This digital sustainability stakeholder model operationalizes the complex interplay between stakeholders focused on their ‘stake’ in sustainability and a common future and illustrates their roles in the digital age. Thus, it offers a normative framework to analyze stakeholders’ responsibility to contribute to, advance, promote, and achieve sustainability.     

Animal production in a sustainable agriculture

This paper discusses the role of animal production systems in a sustainable society; sustainability problems within animal production systems; and four measures for the improvement of the contribution to societal sustainability from animal production. Substantial potentials for improvements are identified that were not previously known. The methodological basis is multi-criteria multi-level analysis within integrated assessment where elements in Impredicative Loop Analysis are integrated with management tools in Swedish agriculture and forestry developed during thousands of years, during which the well-being of the Swedish society and its economic and military power were functions of the land-use skill. The issue—the sustainability footprint of global animal production—is complex and available data are limited. The Swedish case is used as a starting point for an analysis of international relevance. Data from FAO and OECD support the relevance of extrapolating results from the Swedish case to level. The four measures are (i) decrease the consumption of chicken meat in developed nations with 2.6 kg per capita and year; (ii) develop the capacity of ruminants to produce high-quality food from otherwise marginal agroecosystems; (iii) improve milk production per cow with a factor four on global level; and (iv) increase feeding efficiency in milk production globally would substantially improve the societal contribution in terms of increased food supply and decreased pressure on land. The impact of measures (i), (iii) and (iv) on increased global food security was estimated to in total 1.8 billion people in terms of protein supply and a decreased pressure on agricultural land of 217 million ha, of which 41 relate to tropical forests. The 41 million ha of tropical land are due to a decreased demand on soymeal, where this represents more than a halving of total area now used for the production of soymeal. These impacts are of the character either or. The quality of the measures is as first-time estimates, supporting choices of where to direct further efforts in analysis. Two areas were identified as critical for achieving this potential: Feeding strategies to dairy cows as well as methods commonly used to evaluate the sustainability contribution of animal production needs adjustment, so that they comply with the “laws” of diminishing returns, Liebig’s “law” of the minimum and Shelford’s “law” of tolerance, that is, in agreement with well-known principles for efficient natural resource management and the priorities of UN Millennium Development Goals. If not, global food security is at risk.     

From Narrative of Promise to Rhetoric of Sustainability: A Genealogy of Oil Sands

Since its conception, “oil sands” has been the name of a pro-development narrative seeking to convince skeptics that bitumen saturating the sandstone of Alberta’s Athabasca region ought to be extracted and chemically altered into Synthetic Crude Oil (SCO). Over the decades, the nature of skepticism has changed, and thus oil sands (along with its meanings and claims) has been continually reproduced so as to placate new criticisms. This paper offers a discursive genealogy of the oil sands narrative, demonstrating how it has been transformed from what was throughout the twentieth century a materially situated “narrative of promise” aiming to prove that SCO production was physically possible and that it could be commercially profitable, into what by 2015 was at its core a largely reactive “rhetoric of sustainability” aiming to convince a new class of critics that, contrary to their claims, SCO was in fact being produced in an environmentally responsible manner.     

E-participation for environmental sustainability in transitional urban China

Using information and communication technologies (ICTs), e-participation is a tool that promotes the inclusion of the public in participative and deliberative decision-making processes, thus contributing to a transformation of the interaction between government and citizens in environmental governance and sustainable development. In a number of Chinese cities, citizens increasingly draw on ICTs to promote environmental sustainability and to encourage community-based actions aimed to address various environmental concerns. The potential success of e-participation and the role of ICTs in China has, however, not been well explored. The objective of this study is to understand the role that ICTs can play in promoting public participation about environmental sustainability issues in urban China. Based on an online survey with 630 respondents, the study aims to: (1) analyze what public motivations, perception/attitudes and actions drive environmental e-participation; (2) identify barriers to e-participation, and (3) assess the different applications and functions of ICT for citizen participation in environmental sustainability. The analysis illustrates how ICTs have helped the public to obtain sensitive information about sustainability issues, to mobilize people and to gain media coverage for their actions. The central finding is that new technologies have taken citizen engagement to new heights online. More specifically, the age of ICTs has unleashed a stronger public voice on environmental governance and sustainability issues in urban China, which does not go unnoticed by the Chinese state authorities.     

Flood risk and climate change in the Rotterdam area,The Netherlands: enhancing citizen's climate risk perceptions and prevention responses despite skepticism

Effective communication about climate change and related risks is complicated by the polarization between “climate alarmists” and “skeptics.” This paper provides insights for the design of climate risk communication strategies by examining how the interplay between climate change and flood risk communication affects citizens’ risk perceptions and responses. The study is situated in a delta area with substantial geographic variations in the occurrence and potential impact of flood risk, which has led to initiatives to make the area more “climate proof.” We developed a research model that examines individual differences in processing information about climate change related flood risk, based on the postulate that individuals often make an implicit trade-off between motivation to know “what is real” and motivation to maintain prior beliefs. A field experiment, embedded in a survey (n = 1887), sought to test out how the participants responded to risk frames in which a story on flood was either or not combined with climate change information. The results show that it was possible to increase the participants’ local climate risk perception in combination with increased motivation for flood damage prevention, despite a certain level of climate change skepticism. A general implication of our study is that relevant and diagnostic information about local climate-related flood risks can stimulate citizens’ need to know “what’s real” and their willingness to take responsibility for preparedness.     

Comprehensive emergy evaluation and optimization of corn straw power generation system: a case study

Biomass energy has become an important measure to alleviate ecological environment security and energy supply security in China. Emergy accounting method is used to analyze and evaluate economy, environment, and sustainability of corn straw generation system, which includes corn planting subsystem, collection and transportation subsystem, and corn straw power generation subsystem. The key substances that need to be optimized in the system are identified by using sensitivity analysis. Based on the position of key substances in the system, emergy accounting optimization methodology is conducted. Corresponding optimization design scheme is proposed based on the “3R” (reduce, reuse, and recycle) principle of circular economy. Current study shows that emergy yield ratio, emergy investment ratio, environmental loading ratio, and emergy sustainability index of the corn straw power generation system are 3.69, 2.68, 1.61, and 2.29, respectively, which are better than wind power generation system and thermal power generation system. In addition, it is proposed that the fertilizer alternative plan and the transportation redesign plan can replace 50,000 tons potash and reduce equipment resources by 20% and energy resources input by 30%. Economy and sustainable development of the system is significantly improved. The optimization design method based on the “3R“ principle proposed in this paper can provide a useful reference for the research in the field of resource recycling.     

安徽省县域公路交通与经济发展空间格局及耦合研究

交通与经济系统相互影响又互为合作,二者的良性反馈与循环是区域协调均衡发展的切实保证。基于安徽省77个县(市)域研究单元,利用公路交通路网和社会经济数据,借助交通优势度模型、经济发展水平综合评价模型和耦合协调发展评价模型,考量分析了公路交通和经济发展的空间格局及其耦合协调特征。结果表明:(1)安徽省县域公路交通路网密度北高南低,总体较优;交通可达性呈"单核"圈层分异;区位优势度呈"多核"圈层分异;交通优势度正介于"多核"向"单核"圈层转变的过渡状态。(2)各县(市)经济发展水平整体呈"金字塔型"分化,低发展水平单元基数较大;优势单元多集中于皖江城市带地域;地级市市辖区经济发展水平普遍高于周边县(市)。(3)全省县域公路交通与经济发展耦合关系整体良好,但协调度水平总体偏低,绝大多数县(市)公路交通发展超前经济。如何依托既有公路交通支撑,加快推进县域经济发展,是打造全省公路交通与经济协调发展新格局的关键。     

The Moral Appeal of Environmental Discourses: The Implication of Ethical Rhetorics

Environmental sustainability demands civic action through both changes in individual and community behaviors in addition to national and international agreements and cooperation. In moral appeals to the environment, individuals are often called upon to behave in “good” ways—reduce, reuse, recycle—to “save the planet.” Behavior, and our attitudes about it, is therefore an important component to ongoing sustainability efforts. This pilot study, conducted in Fall 2009, brings together research methods in sociolinguistics and rhetorical studies to examine the discourses that students produce when describing issues and practices concerning sustainability. In interviews with 15 students in an earth sustainability general education core, our study found that students were knowledgeable about environmental issues and expressed intentions to engage in sustainable behaviors. Yet, students produced accommodating discourses when addressing competing demands on their time and resources. The sociolinguistic analysis of interview data shows a disassociation from environmental issues at the symbolic level of language use. The rhetorical analysis shows that this disassociation manifests as guilt, largely because when choosing between various moral appeals in their social context, students are left without tangible direction for engaging in new sustainable behaviors.     

A system dynamics perspective on a viable systems approach definition for sustainable value

Aim of this work is to shed light on sustainable value and develop a model, based on vSa and translated at applicative level through the system dynamics methodology for measuring sustainable value. By adopting vSa perspective, value, characterized by strongly subjective contents, will be considered as a vector quantity, as the result of the subjective weighting of the different dimensions that may change according to the considered organization. Starting from the analysis of system dynamics and vSa, we will implement the theoretical framework into a model developed with system dynamics, hence through a methodology capable of addressing systemic problems which is also an expressive approach to solve issues arising in complex systems (characterized by interdependence, mutual interaction, information feedback, circular causality). In order to translate theory into “action and application” we will develop a model through which it will be possible to exploit the advantages of vSa implemented into an SD model, which ultimately can also be instantiated to specific cases and then simulated for further quantitative insights. Currently, there is no theoretical/practical approach to sustainable value measurement for business organizations that simultaneously considers the dimensions of the triple bottom line together with the subjective perspective of decision-makers. From these considerations, we derived the idea to integrate vSa and system dynamics with the aim of analyzing the issue of sustainable value, whose triple dimension is usually (erroneously) seen under a perspective that does not consider the interactions among those three dimensions. The integration of the subjective perspective within a model for calculating sustainable value can be seen as considering vSa as the theoretical framework, and system dynamics as the methodology that allows translating such an approach into a model that can later be simulated. It is also worth mentioning that through the application of the vSa theory to the case of sustainable value, by means of a transcoding approach like the system dynamics one, we are somehow trying to “redefine”, or better “enhance”, the vSa theory itself, by “operationalizing” it.     

“Degrowth” vs. Other Types of Growth: Labeling Affects Emotions but Not Attitudes

Questioning the compatibility of economic growth and environmental sustainability, some scholars and activists call for a degrowth strategy. This idea presents an attack on the economic growth paradigm, and it has thus raised considerable attention. Yet, although many agree with questioning economic growth, a debate continues as to whether the term “degrowth” is (dis)advantageous in wider public communications. This debate, however, lacks empirical evidence. Here, we present two studies on how “degrowth” is perceived compared to other relevant terms. In Study 1, we show that “degrowth” elicits more negative affective and emotional reactions compared to “post-growth” and “prosperity without growth.” In Study 2, we find that the effects of labeling on attitudes and voting intentions toward a sustainable economy are relatively small. These initial results suggest that “degrowth” may evoke somewhat more negative emotional reactions than similar terms, but this may not have significant consequences. We discuss the results and draw implications for communication and further research.     

Towards a Paradigmatic Shift in Sustainability Studies: A Systematic Review of Peer Reviewed Literature and Future Agenda Setting to Consider Environmental (Un)sustainability of Digital Communication

The materiality of digital communication inflicts substantial environmental damage: the extraction of resources needed to produce digital devices; the toxicity of e-waste; and the rapidly increasing energy demands required to sustain data generated by digital communication. This damage, however, is paradoxically under-theorized in scholarship on environmental sustainability. Despite the existing critique of the “techno-fix” approach in sustainability studies, digitization – and digital communication in particular – continue to be celebrated as the tool for environmental sustainability; an approach we coin “digital solutionism.” The article presents the first systematic review of the literature to map the implicit assumptions about the relationships between digital communications and environmental sustainability, in order to examine how digital solutionism manifests, and why it persists. We propose a concept matrix that identifies the key blind spots with regards to environmental damages of the digital, and call for a paradigmatic shift in environmental sustainability studies. An agenda for future research is put forward that advocates for the following: (1) a systematic account of material damages of devices, platforms and data systems adopted into sustainability research and practice, resulting in changes in both research framing and methodological foundations; (2) a reconceptualization and denaturalization of the digital itself as a promising solution; (3) a theoretical dialogue between sustainability studies and environmental communication. (4) an expansion of environmental communication as a field, from focusing on the communication aspect of environmental change to include the environmental footprint of communication itself.     

Toward knowledge structuring of sustainability science based on ontology engineering

In sustainability science (SS), it is difficult to identify what needs to be solved, and it is also not clear how to solve the problems that are identified. There has been no consensus on the underlying question of “What is structuring knowledge in SS?” This paper focuses on knowledge structuring accompanied by supporting of thinking. It addresses the key challenges associated with knowledge structuring in SS, identifies the requirements for the structuring of knowledge, proposes a reference model, and develops an ontology-based mapping tool as a solution to one layer of the reference model. First, we identify the important requirements for SS knowledge structuring. Second, we develop a reference model composed of five layers based on three of the requirements. Third, we develop an ontology-based mapping tool at Layer 2 of the reference model for meeting the two major challenges for SS, namely, identifying what problems should be addressed in SS itself and proposing solutions for those problems. The tool is designed to store and retrieve information regarding SS, to provide access to a prototype ontology for SS, and to create multiple maps of conceptual chains depending on a user’s interests and perspectives. Finally, we assess whether the developed tool successfully realizes the targeted part of the reference model for SS by examining the tool’s conformity to the reference model, as well as its usability, effectiveness, and constraints. Although several issues were identified in the prototype ontology and the mapping tool, the study concluded that the mapping tool is useful enough to facilitate the function of Layer 2. In particular, the mapping tool can support thinking about SS from the viewpoint of: (a) finding new potentials and risks of technological countermeasures studied in SS; (b) helping users to get a more comprehensive picture of problems and their potential solutions; and (c) providing an effective opportunity to come up with new ideas that might not be thought of without such a tool.