MEC, 4 ano, 1 sem, 2010-11

Desafios Ambientais e de
Sustentabilidade em Engenharia

Landscape, Lifestyles, Livelihoods

Green Economy
Sustainable Consumption
Triple helix of sustainability
12 aula
Maria do Rosrio Partidrio

Content
-Why sustainable development
-Ways to improve sustainability approaches:
1. Resilience
2. Sustainable consumption
3. Dematerialization
4. Fair distribution
5. Valuation of resources
6. Green economy
7. Triple helix for sustainability -Landscapes, Lifestyles,
Livelihoods

Why sustainable development?

Much of the environmental change that will occur over
the next 30 years has already been set in motion by past
and current actions and many of the effects of
environmentally relevant policies put into place over the
next 30 years will not be apparent until long afterwards.
(United Nations Environment Program, 2002. Global Environment Outlook
3: Past, Present and Future perspectives).

Sustainability
A global objective, many definitions and underlying
interpretations
Time line: 4, 100, 1000 years..
Different levels of integration:
-Global changes (climatic, desertification, biodiversity,
demographic)
-Over-exploitation of resources, such as fisheries, soil
-Contamination: water and air pollutatnts, nano-materials,..
-Equitative distribution of resources and opportunities
-Innovation and technological progresses
-Business opportunities
-Time of change, new development paradigms

The metrics of sustainability

1. Environmental: GHG emmissions, use of primary
energy, territorial breach
2. Social: Employment, income, governmental revenues
3. Financial: Profits, potential exports, penetration of
imports
Fonte: Hendrickson, 2006, based on Balancing Act: a triple-bottom-line
analysis of the Australian Economy

What can be done for

sustainability?

1. Increase Resilience

Resilience is...
The ability to absorb disturbances, to be changed and
then to re-organise and still have the same identity
(retain the same basic structure and ways of
functioning).
It includes the ability to learn from the disturbance.
Resilience shifts attention from purely growth and
efficiency to needed recovery and flexibility.
http://www.resalliance.org/564.php

The adaptive cycle

Fore-loop and back-loop

Source: (originally CS Holling, Adaptive Management Systems)

The Resilience Alliance
http://rs.resalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/4box-adaptive-cycle.gif)

2. Sustainable
consumption

Consumer environmental awareness and willingness

to act

Source:

Why consumers are sometimes unwilling to pay more

for environmental performance

Source:

Global used resource extraction, per material used

Source:

Global resource extraction trends, between 1980 and

2005 (in %, as per 1980 levels)

Source:

3. Desmaterialization /
decoupling

Relative decoupling of economic growth from resource

use between 1980 and 2005

Source:

4. Fair distribution

The gap is
growing
1960-1990

The income gap

5. Valuation of resources
- ecosystem services

3 levels of diversity
3 management objectives
ecosystems

species diversity

genetic diversity

conservation

sustainable
use

BIODIVERSITY IS ABOUT
equitable
sharing

PEOPLE !

Translating biodiversity
Source:
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Degradation of ecosystem services causes

harm to human well-being & economy

6. Green Economy

Green Economy
http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/
New economic development model, based on
ecological economics knowledge
UNEP called for a Global Green
New Deal in 2008
An investment of 1% of global GDP over the next two
years could provide critical mass of green
infrastructure needed to seed a significant greening of
the global economy - green stimulus

Green Economy
http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/

Greening the economy refers to the process of

reconfiguring businesses and infrastructure to
deliver better returns on natural, human and
economic capital investments, while at the
same time reducing greenhouse gas
emissions, extracting and using less natural
resources, creating less waste and reducing
social disparities.

Green Economy Initiative

http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/

UNEP

Reshaping and refocusing policies

Smart investments and spending towards a range
of sectors, such as:
- clean technologies,
- renewable energies,
- water services,
- green transportation,
- waste management,
- green buildings and
- sustainable agriculture and forests.

7. Triple helix of
sustainability

- Triple Helix:
Landscapes, Lifestyles, Livelihoods
More constructive than triple bottom-line
(Campbell, 2006, Australian Government, Land&Water Australia)

-Where nature meets culture

-Where landscape are social constructions
-Beyond ecological apartheid
-Managing natural resources means managing people
-Engages values, perceptions, expectations, behaviours

Sustainable vision - interconnectivity

Landscape

Landscape - to think about

people and its activities as part
of the physical environment

Lifestyle - it is not only to have

a job, it is the capacity to chose
the lifestyle in a given social and
physical context

Livelihood - source of
income, related to conservation
of resources, community-based
living

Lifestyle Livelihood

Landscape

Landscapes
Physical and chemical factors such as air,
water, soil pollution and due diligence
Biological factors e.g. Disease vehicles (e.g.
malaria!)
Noise, vibrations, radiation, humidity (buildings),
etc
Safety aspects (disasters, risks, transports,
safety at work)

Lifestyle

Lifestyles

Physical exercise
Recreation and leisure
Open spaces
Distances, travel and mobility
Independency, isolation vs social interaction
Work relationships

Livelihood

Livelihoods

Education
Employment
Labour and income
Labour security
Social cohesion/social capital/social networks
Criminality, violence and social safety

Triple Helix - Landscapes, Lifestyles,

Livelihoods
- Impacts on Sustainable Construction
Planning - efficiency metrics - spatial planning and
design, icons versus rational buildings, planning for
happiness (new well-being indicators: GNH: gross
national happiness instead of GNP)
Construction - materials, labour, waste, exploring building
and infra-structures, green building
Demolition or reconstruction - act upon the existent but
avoid repairs - create value (rehabilitation), minimize
waste, lean management

World in transition
Driving forces and trends (I)
Growth (population + activities) - exploration of natural
resources
Population changes - impacts on local landscapes,
lifestyles, economies and social contexts

World in transition
Driving forces and trends (II)
A world centred in the exploration of natural resources
(e.g. forestry, cattle breeding, mining) in transition to a
world that explores regional amenities (e.g. climate,
landscape, open spaces, independency)
Landscape that sustains a livelihood (e.g. mining or dense
residential landscape) in transition to a world that offers a
lifestyle (e.g. natural areas for leisure and sports, urban
diversity)

Landscape, Lifestyle, Livelihoods

Key values in strategies for a sustainabile livelihood:
Knowledge, health and work capacity
Natural values are livelihood basis (e.g. land, water, biodiversity,
other environmental resources)
Physical production means and basic infra-structures (transport,
shelter, energy and communication)
Financial resources available for people (savings, credit, regular
financial inputs, pensions)
Social networks, group associations, trust and access to
collective institutions
Cultural values - identity, meaning of good life and means of
enabling basic human needs that are culturally feasible (e.g.
subsistance, protection, careness, participation, free time,
freedom).

What delays sustainability?

Ignorance regarding methods and the effects of

our actions: e.g. Climate change debate, limits of
growth, the slow impacts on health
Reaction time: political and social changes
happen more slowly that technology and
economy
Need for an integrated approach, rather than a
trade-off approach

F. Almeida, 2007, Desafios da Sustentabilidade

(Sustainablity challenges)

Way of thinking and doing

Natural resources need to be perennial ruin of planetary ecosystems is business
ruin
Do business with the poor - move beyond
the comfort zone of producing only for those
already in the market
Ethical behaviours bring economic benefits
F. Almeida criticizes:

President Brazilian Business

Council for Sustainable
Development

Social corporate responsibility - kind

of filantropy
Continous improvement - innovation
is missing

Path to sustainability: inovation, cooperation, sustainable survival

and inclusive capitalism

Sustainability is about:
-Environmental management and nature
conservation
-Growth and profit (e.g. Increase in renewables)
-Social performance
But it is also about governance:
- create capacities
- learn to integrate
- value, beyond protection and conservation
- dialogue, conciliate objectives and perspectives
- communicate

Final message
1. Sustainability is the great challenge of our
time - and we are its key players
2. Business as usual is not an option
3. We will not reach unknown places if we keep
using the same usual routes
4. Futures Thinking.Todays action