Development paths of drylands: thresholds and sustainability

Drylands (41 and 35% of global land and population, respectively) have the lowest biological productivity of any ecosystem, contain populations with the highest growth rates on earth, and share a significant fraction of global poverty for which desertification is implicated. A global assessment of the available information indicates that the inherent low productivity of drylands, when combined with other adverse factors, can generate poverty. It additionally indicates that while the drylands may exist in a locally stable and sustainable state, this is readily destabilized by non-linear, threshold-crossing transitions to an alternative steady-state leading to desertification, poverty and conflicts. The “desertification paradigm” (human and climatological pressures driving overexploitation of land resources, leading to desertification, poverty and reduced security) is challenged by its “counter-paradigm” (adversity elicits innovation, leading to ingenuous solutions for avoiding desertification). But the latter does not account for the inevitability of continued and increasing pressure on the finite dryland resources, expected to be further exacerbated by a globally increasing need for agricultural land. A companion paper points out that this situation can be avoided by reducing dependence on land productivity, through adoption of “alternative livelihoods.” These livelihoods, while economically advantageous, reduce pressure on land resources.     

Basic Framework and Conception of Promoting the Sustainability of Population,Resources, Environment and Socio-Economic Development in China

Abstract

Population, resources, environment and socio-economic development are four major issues of increasing world attention today and are also four major factors constraining China's development tomorrow. Through an analysis of the international situation and an assessment of China's actual conditions, this article proposes a basic framework and conception of promoting the sustainability of China's population, resources, environment and socio-economic development.     

Creating a Place for Environmental Communication Research in Sustainability Science

Environmental communication scholarship is critical to the success of sustainability science. This essay outlines three pressing areas of intersection between the two fields. First, environmental communication scholarship on public participation processes is essential for sustainability science's efforts to link knowledge with action. Second, sustainability science requires collaborations across diverse institutional and disciplinary boundaries. Environmental communication can play a vital role in reorganizing the production and application of disciplinary knowledge. Third, science communication bridges environmental communication and sustainability science and can move communication processes away from one-way transmission models toward engaged approaches. The essay draws on Maine's Sustainability Solutions Initiative to illustrate key outcomes of a large project that has integrated environmental communication into sustainability science.     

Sustainable Everyday Life and Celebrity Environmental Advocacy in Hugh’s War on Waste

ABSTRACT

This study employs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s television program, Hugh’s War on Waste, to explore representations of sustainable everyday life and the functions of celebrity environmental advocacy. The analysis is located within broader understandings of the discursive and contested nature of sustainability and the representative functions of environmental celebrities who act as figures of both distinction and equivalence. It discusses Fearnley-Whittingstall within the context of the stable of celebrity chefs, and it demonstrates how Hugh’s War on Waste is an example of the burgeoning televisual genre based on forms of campaigning about food issues. The analysis specifically explores how Hugh’s War on Waste is informed by: narratives of self-transformation where individuals are marshaled into appropriate practices of waste management and sustainability, presentations of the pleasures associated with such practices, and revelations of the networks of food production, distribution and consumption across the contexts of domestic everyday life, farms, supermarkets, and other corporations.     

Modelling and analysis of sustainable manufacturing system using a digraph-based approach

Abstract

Sustainable manufacturing practices have many benefits like cleaner production, resource efficiency along with economic benefits. Sustainable manufacturing practices focuses on four dimensions environment, economy, business and society. The effective deployment of sustainable concepts mostly depends on interaction of these sustainable dimensions. In this study, an attempt on assessment through modelling has been presented. Mostly two factors determine the sustainable performance of organisation: the performance of the criteria is identified under four dimensions (inheritance) and their interaction (interdependency) among each other. Thus, graph theory-based modelling has been done considering both inheritance and interdependency for computing Overall Organisation Sustainability (OOS) score. Finally, permanent scores for matrices obtained from experts’ team have been computed. OOS score for the organisation has been computed and is compared with the scores of hypothetical scenarios. Through the comparison with hypothetically generated practical best and worst-case scenario, insights have been derived.     

Application of TISM and MICMAC for analysis of influential factors of sustainable development of tablet devices: a case study

Abstract

With the advancements in technology and increase in demand for eco-efficient products, manufacturers are focusing on sustainable development of products. Enticing a huge demand over the recent years, sustainable development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products are a subject of interest for most practitioners and academicians. A number of factors are found to influence the sustainable development of ICT products. It is necessary to identify the most important factors and determine the dependencies of factors among themselves. In this regard, a case study has been conducted in the context of sustainable development of tablet devices. The most influential factors have been identified from literature and with experts input. The factor dependencies are established using Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) methodology. MICMAC analysis is used to classify the factors based on their ability to influence other factors. The output of TISM forms the input for MICMAC analysis. From the study, it was found that the factors, ‘Customer pressure’, ‘Government regulations’, ‘Competitiveness’, ‘Organization initiative’ and ‘Technological advancements’ are the most driving factors. Factors ‘Environmental impact’, ‘Energy efficiency’ and ‘Opportunities to upgrade’ were found to be dependent.     

An analysis of factors leading to the establishment of a social licence to operate in the mining industry

Communities around the world have increasingly come to demand more involvement in decision making for local mining projects, a greater share of benefits from them if they are to proceed, and assurances that mineral development will be conducted safely and responsibly. At the same time, Bridge (2004) notes full legal compliance with state environmental regulations has become an increasingly insufficient means of satisfying society's expectations with regards to mining issues. There is now a recognised need for mineral developers to gain an additional ‘social licence to operate’ (SLO) in order to avoid potentially costly conflict and exposure to business risks. However, there is a correspondingly limited amount of scholarship specifically focused on SLO. More particularly, there is a need for research that uncovers those factors that lead to the issuance (or non-issuance) of a SLO in the complex and changeable environments that often characterise mineral development. In an effort to identify key determinants of SLO outcomes in the mining industry, this paper presents a comparative case study analysis of four international mining operations: Red Dog Mine in Alaska, USA; Minto Mine in Yukon, Canada; the proposed Tambogrande Mine in Peru; and the Ok Tedi Mine in Papua New Guinea. The analysis that is presented also makes use of insights from supplementary key informant interviews conducted by the author and the emerging literature on mining and communities. Five lessons for earning a SLO emerged from this analysis: (1) context is key; (2) a social licence to operate is built on relationships; (3) sustainability is a dominant concern for communities; (4) local benefits provision and public participation play a crucial role; and (5) adaptability is needed to confront complexity.     

Greening the state? The framing of sustainability in Dutch infrastructure governance

This paper investigates how the notion of ‘sustainability’ is strategically framed in the context of Dutch infrastructure governance in the Netherlands. By conducting a frame analysis (based on policy documents, websites and semi-structured interviews), the paper discerns six sustainability frames. These frames concern substantive (e.g., more focus on ecology), process (activating new networks) and organizational (e.g., new practices of work) aspects. The paper also illustrates how these sustainability frames relate to the changing institutional context of infrastructure policy and governance more broadly. The paper discusses some of the productive and challenging implications of the dynamics of sustainability in today’s complex and multi-dimensional world of governance.