Educating future leaders for a sustainable path

The unprecedented population growth of recent years and the requisite economic activity to support that growth have heightened public awareness of the resultant environmental challenges we now face. Today it is widely acknowledged that we must change course to assure the same quality of life for future generations as has been experienced by those of the past. These changes in human behavior must occur in individuals, organizations, businesses, communities, and governments. The basis of this change will occur through education and leadership. Many initiatives have evolved to begin this movement toward sustainability, but the higher education sector, which prepares our leaders, has been slow to respond. The founders of one new initiative, BRIDGES, explore what needs to be done to drive this change, what is already being done, and how the BRIDGES program uses partnerships with these existing efforts to create a model of what higher education must offer in order to prepare effective leaders for tomorrow.     

Practical Minimum Energy Requirements for Chemical Product Manufacturing: A Management Decision Tool for Achieving Sustainable Products

Practical Minimum Energy requirements comprise a management decision tool designed to assist companies in adopting strategies for more sustainable products through improved energy efficiency. This tool allows managers to gauge the potential for reducing the energy intensity of chemical processes as well as the environmental impacts associated with energy consumption, such as greenhouse gas emissions. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Assessing societal costs associated with environmental impacts

A study of “harmless” odors was utilized as a platform for determining the cost impact of envi‐ronmental effects resulting from management decisions. The cost to society of “harmless” odors eventually leads to internal costs for companies emitting the odors. It is easier to determine societal costs for “harmless” odors than to estimate the internal costs that eventually accrue to a company. However, larger societal costs will lead to larger company costs; larger societal costs prob‐ably also lead to faster company internalization of costs.c 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A rational procedure for estimation of greenhouse-gas emissions from municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Municipal wastewater treatment may lead to the emission of greenhouse gases. The current Intergovenmental Panel on Climate Change (Geneva, Switzerland) approach attributes only methane emissions to wastewater treatment, but this approach may overestimate greenhouse gas emissions from the highly aerobic processes primarily used in North America. To better estimate greenhouse gas emissions, a procedure is developed that can be used either with plant-specific data or more general regional data. The procedure was evaluated using full-scale data from 16 Canadian wastewater treatment facilities and then applied to all 10 Canadian provinces. The principal greenhouse gas emitted from municipal wastewater treatment plants was estimated to be carbon dioxide (CO2), with very little methane expected. The emission rates ranged from 0.005 kg CO2-equivalent/m3 treated for primary treatment facilities to 0.26 kg CO2-equivalent/m3 for conventional activated sludge, with anaerobic sludge digestion to over 0.8 kg CO2-equivalent/m3 for extended aeration with aerobic digestion. Increasing the effectiveness of biogas generation and use will decrease the greenhouse gas emissions that may be assigned to the wastewater treatment plant.     

Nation‐building policies in Timor‐Leste: disaster risk reduction,including climate change adaptation

Few studies have explored the relationships between nation‐building, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Focusing on small island developing states, this paper examines nation‐building in Timor‐Leste, a small island developing state that recently achieved independence. Nation‐building in Timor‐Leste is explored in the context of disaster risk reduction, which necessarily includes climate change adaptation. The study presents a synopsis of Timor‐Leste's history and its nation‐building efforts as well as an overview of the state of knowledge of disaster risk reduction including climate change adaptation. It also offers an analysis of significant gaps and challenges in terms of vertical and horizontal governance, large donor presence, data availability and the integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation for nation‐building in Timor‐Leste. Relevant and applicable lessons are provided from other small island developing states to assist Timor‐Leste in identifying its own trajectory out of underdevelopment while it builds on existing strengths.