Sustainability analysis of SEEA indicators for non-renewable resources

Despite the fact that the non-renewable resources industry contributes greatly to regional and national gross domestic product(GDP),it casts massive negative impacts on the environment,which fails to be deducted from economic growth.Hence,sustainable development of non-renewable resources(extraction and processing)is playing an essential role in boosting economic growth continuously.The System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting(SEEA)proposed by the United Nations Statistics Division(UNSD)provides a brand-new perspective for sustainability study.This paper designs a fundamental approach of green accounting for non-renewable resources based on SEEA.Three main aspects of the accounting are extracted to explore the way of analysis for sustainability indicators,which are not touched upon by SEEA.Main analyses are as follows:(1)the analysis on the influence of the change of the discount rate in user cost(UC);(2)correlation analysis between environmental degradation and pollutants emission intensity;(3)analysis of the accounting results of green GDP and green GCF(gross capital formation).Then taking petroleum resources in Shandong Province as an example,this paper will calculate and analyze green data based on the accounting and analytical approaches discussed above.However,sustainability indicators studied in the paper are just associated with past economic activities,while investigation into the factors of the change of sustainability indicators is the one most critical point in relevant policymaking.     

Sustainability indicators for clean development mechanism projects in Vietnam

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is one of the flexible instruments of the Kyoto Protocol designed to combat climate change so as to bring advantages to developing countries and developed countries alike. Indeed, CDM projects have a two-fold objective: to offset greenhouse gas emissions and to contribute to sustainable development in the host country. However in many cases, the latter objective appears to be marginalized. This is at least partly due to the difficulties surrounding the definition and the measurement of sustainability, in particular in a developing country context. To assess CDM projects’ contribution to sustainable development in the host country, scholars and practitioners need adapted indicator sets. A set of indicators were developed by way of an iterative Delphi approach amongst selected Vietnamese experts. The Delphi approach allowed a systematic collection of the experts’ judgements on the sustainability indicators through a set of sequentially applied questionnaires, interspersed with feedback from earlier responses. This exercise resulted in the selection of a set of 36 indicators, which emphasise economic efficiency, public health and pollution issues. The exercise yielded a locally supported and context-specific set of sustainability indicators that will allow Vietnamese decision-makers to enhance the sustainability of the approved CDM projects. In the future this set should be continually improved through real-life application and further participation from local stakeholders. This study is a first step in a long-term process towards developing an adapted toolkit for sustainability assessment of CDM projects in Vietnam.     

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.     

Sustainability indicators for tourism destinations: bibliometric analysis and proposed research agenda

Environment, Development and Sustainability - This study aims to provide various maps of the evolution, current situation and future lines of sustainability indicators for tourism destinations...     

Perspectives and limitations of indicators in water management

This paper addresses the issue of indicators for water management by considering why we need them, what the characteristics of a good indicator should be, how they can add value to policy and decision-making, and what are their limitations. There are a vast quantity of data available on water in Europe from which a range of basic trend indicators has been derived. Most of these indicators address "what is happening?"-type questions. Some indicators go further and address "does it matter?" questions by assessing trends against prescribed standards and targets. There have been some interesting developments in indicators which help to understand the demand side of water management and to assess the relative efficiencies of resource usage in different socio-economic sectors. More effort is needed to bring together relevant social, economic and environmental information interactively to define indicators that address questions about the sustainability of water use and the contribution of the water environment to our overall quality of life. The development of indicators to date has concentrated on making the best use of available information. However, we now need to move from a position of "best available information" towards "best needed information". This will require better communication between information users and providers. It will also require a rethinking of exactly what our priority knowledge needs are to support policy-making and environmental management. This is essential if we are to obtain the best value from limited monitoring resources by eliminating the current redundancy in reporting requirements and refocusing programmes to deliver priority information needs. Electronic Publication     

Sustainability applied to the design of water treatment plants in Iraq

From the standpoint of international organisations, sustainability is an important aspect of assistance design and provision in developing countries. The paper analyses how technical options or projects can be considered to address the needs of drinkable water in Iraq, and why the sustainability of the project is a key factor in guaranteeing the durability and the efficacy in time of the action. The design suggested in this paper can update current technology in Iraq in terms of water treatment process for medium size plants, and help resolve the major problems faced today.     

Sustainability in water resources management: changes in meaning and perception

The meaning of sustainability in water resources management has changed through the time. Initially, meeting water demand was the dominant concern. While later quality issues became more important followed by wider water reuse, today sustainability must include a whole range of aspects (e.g., energy, pollution, persistent chemicals) on various spatial and time scales. New approaches to define sustainability metrics are needed that include three essential elements: the sphere of sustainability, its time horizon and its metric.     

Sustainability assessment of water governance alternatives: the case of Guanacaste Costa Rica

Many new forms of water governance are emerging in response to economic and social needs and wants, as well as water-related problems such as scarcity, injustice, and conflict. However, there is little evidence on how sustainable these governance regimes are, which would be critical for making progress toward sustainable and just water governance. In this article, we present the results of a transdisciplinary multi-criteria sustainability assessment of alternative governance regimes for Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. The assessment specifies differences between sustainable and unsustainable governance regimes, while also pinpointing how the current water governance regime performs in comparison to those alternatives. The findings indicate that those governance regimes with just and deliberative stakeholder involvement, secure groundwater reserves, and healthy dry tropical ecosystems were considered sustainable and just. In contrast, the current state of water governance was found to be at high risk of digressing toward unsustainable systems where rural communities lack rights and influence, where economies favor agro-industry and high impact tourism at the expense of rural livelihoods, and where water scarcity overwhelms weak governance. This assessment study clarifies water sustainability goals, asserts the need for transformational change, and offers a pragmatic foundation for actions toward sustainable water governance.     

The Sustainability Babel Fish

This paper proposes a quantitative measure of sustainability. Using primary energy as a metric, it enables decisions to be made across different activities such as electricity, fuel and water use. By relying on bill data, we eliminate the need for new measurements and readily connect to economics through market prices. We choose the primary energy content of a gallon of gasoline as the basic unit, which turns out to be the right size to appeal to common intuition. We highlight that there are no ‘one size fits all’ rules governing sustainability decisions. Rather, the appropriate choices depend on location, time, and personal attributes.     

Sustainability of radiologically contaminated territories

Decisions on appropriate countermeasures in the case of a contamination of large areas due to fallout from a weapon's detonations or a serious reactor or reprocessing plant accident depend on fallout level and the time period required for the exposure levels to fall below a given intervention limit. This is particularly relevant for countermeasures with high costs and substantial consequences to the population involved, such as relocation or soil perturbation. Natural processes which result in a decrease in activity concentrations in foodstuffs and external exposure with time, are least detrimental to the soil among all countermeasures proposed for rehabilitation of contaminated areas. The impact of these natural self-healing effects (soil sustainability) on the temporal activity reduction in foodstuffs, as well as their effect on the time period required for exposure levels to decrease to sufficiently low levels to allow unrestricted re-utilization and re-settlement of the land, are discussed. Depending on the type of foodstuff, in Central Europe this temporal decrease follows an effective half life of about 0.25-1.3 y from first to second year after fallout, followed by a decrease in milk with an effective half-life of 1-2 y in the next 7 y and about 5 y thereafter, while in cereals and vegetables in Austria a decrease by 2.3 y and in fruit by 1.3 y over a period of more than a decade is observed. In contrast, the decrease in foodstuffs derived from semi-natural environs is much slower by an effective half-life of roughly 8 y. The time-span for adequate recovery of a contaminated territory, therefore, depends on the fallout level and the radionuclides involved and the contribution of natural and semi-natural derived foodstuffs to the diet. It is shown that for 137Cs and a typical Central European diet the time span amounts to about 1 y for a deposition of 300 kBq m(-2) and to about 10 y for a deposition of 10,000 kBq m(-2). Thus it is demonstrated that natural restoration effects may contribute significantly to the environmentally safe and sustainable resettlement of an area substantially contaminated with fission products.     

Blogging for Sustainability: The Intermediary Role of Personal Green Blogs in Promoting Sustainability

The rise of social media radically broadens the sources and platforms used for environmental communication. Especially personal green blogs are worthy of study as they are spaces of everyday cultural politics through which people make sense of sustainability issues, and because they entail a radical break from conventional media in terms of legitimacy, form, and content of environmental communication processes. This paper studies the representation of sustainability on personal green blogs, and the communication processes through which these representations are constructed. It does so through a qualitative study of Swedish-language blogs. We study three blogs in-depth: a living experiment blog on sustainable food practices; a lifestyle blog centered around green family life; and a blog about consuming green beauty products. The analysis shows that all three blogs translate the complex landscape of sustainability to individual everyday practices. Yet, what these sustainability practices entail differs considerably between the blogs, ranging from a-political and doable lifestyle choices to an onset to radical redefining of consumption. Also, the communication processes on the blogs differ in quality and quantity. The paper uses these insights to reflect on the debates about how environmental communication is shaped by blogging and social media practices.     

The Spatial Dimension of Landscape Sustainability

Sustainability indicators are mostly derived from parameters which are, in the spatial dimension, more or less distribution-free. In the majority of cases, the indicators are based on statistical data on production, consumption, pollutants emission, land use, etc. This statistical approach is liable to mask sustainability risks which are primarily caused by specific spatial and temporal patterns of landscape and land use structure, such as degradation of soil functions, disturbances in the landscape's water balance, and losses in functional habitat quality.Sustainability risks due to ecologically non-adapted spatial landuse patterns require measures on regional to local scales, based on disaggregated, spatially explicit indicators. Depending on the respective planning and decision level, different levels of spatial aggregation/disaggregation have to be considered.In the concept presented here, a differentiated approach is proposed. For an aggregated assessment of landscape sustainability, long term monitoring of the dynamics of water flow and matter load at the outlet point of river catchments is recommended. A prerequisite for analyzing those measurements in terms of the catchments' land cover and land use pattern, as well as changes thereof, is a Geographic Information System (GIS) holding relevant up-to-date geodata sets. For a spatially more detailed indication of sustainability risks, an approach of GIS-based functional landscape assessment was demonstrated in a regional case study.The results show GIS on regional to local scales together with satellite remote sensing data on land cover and landuse to be a powerful data basis for spatially explicit landscape evaluation, provided that suitable models for assessing specific landscape functions are applied.     

Sustainability issues for biodiversity business

Biodiversity is acknowledged as one of the most important resources that helps to sustain life’s processes. Additionally, it is also one of the most important sources of livelihood for different kinds of stakeholders at various levels of resource markets—local, domestic, or international. With globalization and increasing sophistication in the methods of commercial trade in biological resources, various issues arise related to the sustenance of resources, of ecological balances, and equity in transactions. All of these are concerns to be addressed to achieve a state of ‘sustainability.’ This paper prescribes to the definition of ‘sustainability’ as the capacity to maintain a certain process or state for “improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems” (IUCN/UNEP/WWF, in Caring for the Earth: a strategy for sustainable living. Gland, Switzerland, 1991). This goes beyond ensuring inter- and intragenerational equity in access to resources and includes several other parameters, including equity among stakeholders to returns from biological resources, related knowledge, trade-offs, and ethical business practices related to these resources. Through the prism of an examination of a simplistic supply route(s) and value addition chain of biodiversity resources for commercial use, this paper reviews and highlights issues related to ‘sustainability’ at each stage. Evidence points to shortcomings in the sustainable use of biological resources at each stage of value addition, calling for focused and specific measures to address them.     

可持续发展理论三项进展

过去10年间,可持续发展理论和实践都取得重大进展。在这些进展当中,本文辨识出3个核心的概念:地球系统观、生态文明思想、低碳经济概念,对这3个看起来没有直接关联的概念分析了其中十分密切的理论联系。地球系统观的发展深刻地改变了人类对自身和所处地球环境的认识,被称为"第二次哥白尼革命",从而强化了可持续发展理论的科学基础;生态文明思想从根本上颠覆了工业文明的思想基础,深化了可持续发展理论的哲学和伦理学内涵;低碳经济概念是全球应对气候变化过程中提出的新的理念,以提高能效、减少排放和发展可再生能源为特征的经济发展模式是可持续发展理论在实践的具体化,并具有可操作性。3个概念都突出了地球系统作为一个整体来研究、开发、利用和保护;同时也都强调了对地球表层这个自然与社会剧烈交互作用的生态圈和人类圈的理解必须运用全新的视角和多学科的研究方法。深入理解这3个概念的内涵及相互关系是把握可持续发展理论10年进展的关键。     

Sustainability science: an ecohealth perspective

Sustainability science is emerging as a transdisciplinary effort to come to grips with the much-needed symbiosis between human activity and the environment. While there is recognition that conventional economic growth must yield to policies that foster sustainable development, this has not yet occurred on any broad scale. Rather, there is clear evidence that the Earth’s ecosystems and landscapes continue to degrade as a consequence of the cumulative impact of human activities. Taking an ecohealth approach to sustainability science provides a unique perspective on both the goals and the means to achieve sustainability. The goals should be the restoration of full functionality to the Earth’s ecosystems and landscapes, as measured by the key indicators of health: resilience, organization, vitality (productivity), and the absence of ecosystem distress syndrome. The means should be the coordinated (spatially and temporally) efforts to modify human behaviors to reduce cumulative stress impacts. Achieving ecosystem health should become the cornerstone of sustainability policy—for healthy ecosystems are the essential precondition for achieving sustainable livelihoods, human health, and many other societal objectives, as reflected in the Millennium Development Goals.     

Sustainability risk identification in product development

Sustainability-related issues present significant financial, strategic, compliance and operational risks to manufacturers. Many of these risks directly or indirectly result from the way a product is designed and managed across its life cycle. Assessing sustainability risk (S _R) at the product design stage is crucial for the development of products that both minimise sustainability risk exposure and are environmentally sustainable. Managing the costs associated with these risks requires risk management intervention at the design stage before these costs are committed throughout the life cycle (production, use, end-of-life). The goal of the sustainability risk assessment (SRA) methodology is to provide an approach to comparing the financial cost of a ‘sustainable product’ vs. an ‘unsustainable product’, by factoring in the effects of S _R on life-cycle cost. The SRA methodology demonstrates that, in some cases, sustainable products cost less than unsustainable products when sustainability risk is considered in the costing analysis. This paper outlines the first step of the SRA methodology, which is a process for identifying S _R inherent in the product life cycle. Once key risks are identified, the subsequent steps of the SRA assess and prioritise these risks for treatment through changes to product design and materials composition.