Introduction to Sustainability

Acknowledgments xv

About the Author xvii

About the Companion Website xix

1 Roots of the Modern Sustainability Movement 1

Meaning of Sustainability 1

Nineteenth Century Environmentalism 3

Pinchot, Roosevelt, and Muir 5

Aldo Leopold and the Land Ethic 6

Better Living Through Chemistry, The Great Smog of 1952, and Rachel Carson 8

Environmental Activism of the 1960s and 1970s and the Development of Environmental Policy 10

The Growth of Environmental Laws in the 1960s and 1970s 13

The First Earth Day 14

International Concerns 14

Ozone and the World Comes Together 15

Globalization and the Brundtland Report 16

Deep Ecology 18

Environmental Justice 19

Measuring Sustainability 21

The Climate Change Challenge 23

The Road Ahead 24

Organization 26

2 Understanding Natural Systems 29

The Earth, its Layers, and the Rock Cycle 29

The Rock Cycle 32

Biogeochemical Cycles 33

Water and the Water Cycle 34

The Carbon Cycle and Global Climate Change 37

Global Climate Change and the Carbon Cycle 38

The Sulfur Cycle 40

The Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycles 42

Nitrate Pollution of groundwater 45

Organisms and Ecosystems 46

Urban Ecosystems 49

Understanding the Anthropocene 53

3 Measuring Sustainability 57

The United Nations Millennium Goals 58

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 59

National sustainability planning 60

Canada 64

Bhutan 67

Regional sustainability planning 69

Local sustainability measurement 73

Green local governments in Florida 75

Specific community plans 79

PlaNYC 79

London and sustainability 81

Small towns and sustainability 84

Business sustainability 85

4 Energy 89

World Energy Production and Consumption 89

Traditional or "Dirty" Energy Resources 91

Oil 91

Oil shale and tar sands 93

Natural gas 95

Coal 97

Coal mining 98

Pollution from coal 99

Green energy 100

Biomass 100

Biomass: wood, manure, peat, and other organic sources 100

Burning of garbage: waste-to-energy 101

Conversion of biomass to liquid or gas fuel 102

Wind energy 103

Solar energy 105

Passive solar energy 105

Active solar energy 106

Concentrated solar power 107

Critiques of solar power 107

Nuclear energy 107

Other innovations 110

Energy efficiency 110

Living off the grid 112

5 Global Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Management 113

The end of nature? 113

The science of global climate change: The greenhouse effect 114

Water vapor 116

Carbon dioxide 116

Methane 118

Sinks of carbon 120

Forests 120

Reefs 120

The IPCC and evidence for climate change, and the future of our planet 121

Ocean acidification 122

Phenological changes 123

Conducting greenhouse gas inventories 124

Step 1 Setting boundaries 125

Step 2 Defining scope 125

Step 3 Choosing a quantitative approach 126

Step 4 Setting a baseline year 126

Step 5 Engaging stakeholders 126

Step 6 Procuring certification 127

Greenhouse gas equivalents used in greenhouse gas accounting 127

Greenhouse gas emission scopes 128

De minimis emissions 129

Computing greenhouse gas credits 129

Climate action plans 129

Religion and climate change 135

Evangelical Environmental Network 136

Young Evangelicals for Climate Action 136

Catholic Climate Covenant 136

Jewish Climate Change Campaign 137

The International Muslim Conference on Climate Change 138

Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change 138

Hindu Declaration on Climate Change 138

Art, culture, and climate change 139

Swoon 139

Raul Cardenas Osuna and Toro Labs 139

Isaac Cordal 140

6 Water 143

Sources of water 143

Consumption trends 148

Sources of water pollution 150

Agricultural pollution 150

Industrial pollution 150

Storm water pollution 151

Sewage 152

Leaking underground tanks 153

Landfills 153

Water management and conservation 155

National and regional water conservation and management 155

Water as a tool for regional development 156

Water supply management 157

Hard path water management 157

Soft path water management 158

Water management and innovation 159

Water quality 161

Understanding drainage basins 168

Drainage basins out of synch 169

Drainage basin pollution 169

Stream profile and base level 169

Lakes 169

Seas 171

Oceans 171

7 Food and Agriculture 173

Development of modern agriculture 173

Meat production 177

Piggeries 178

Feed lots 179

Chicken houses 179

World agricultural statistics 181

Food deserts and obesity 182

Sustainable alternatives to the industrial food movement 185

Vegetarianism and veganism 185

Organic farming 186

Small farm movement 186

Locavores 188

Farm to table 189

Community sponsored agriculture 191

Community gardens 193

Farmers' markets 193

Beekeeping 195

The urban chicken movement 196

Guerilla gardening, freegans, and other radical approaches to food 196

8 Green Building 201

LEED rating systems 201

Site selection 204

Brownfield development 204

Other aspects of sustainable building siting 207

Water use 207

Energy and atmospheric health 208

Materials and resources 210

Material re-use 211

Recycled content of construction material 211

Locally derived materials 211

Renewable materials and certified sustainable wood 212

Waste management 212

Summary 213

Indoor environmental quality 213

Ventilation and air delivery monitoring 213

Construction indoor air quality management 214

Use of low-emitting materials 214

Indoor chemical and pollution source control 215

Controllability and design of lighting and temperature systems 215

Access to daylight 215

Summary 215

Innovation 215

Regional priorities 216

Expansion of green building technology 216

Other green building rating systems 216

BREEAM 217

PassivHaus 219

Green building policy 220

Critiques of green building 221

The greenest building and historic preservation 222

Small house movement 226

Further reading 229

9 Transportation 231

Transportation options 232

Vehicles 232

Cars 234

Trucks 234

Vehicles and fuels 235

Electric cars 237

Automated Vehicles 238

Rail 238

Ship transport 239

Bulk carriers 239

Container ships 239

Tankers 240

Refrigerated ships 240

Roll-on/roll-off ships 240

Environmental issues associated with ship transport 240

Air transport 241

Space travel 243

Roads 245

Environmental issues with roads 246

Storm water pollution management 246

Street sweeping 250

Ground stability 250

Mass transit 252

Forms of mass transit 252

Railways 252

Light rail 253

Buses 253

Bus rapid transit 254

Ferries 254

Transit hubs and transit-oriented development 254

The future 255

10 Pollution and Waste 259

Pollution 259

Chemical pollution 259

Metals 259

Organic compounds 260

Nutrients 261

Radioactive Pollutants 262

Pharmaceutical pollutants 263

Heat pollution 263

Light pollution 264

Noise pollution 265

Visual pollution 265

Littering 266

Understanding pollution distribution 266

The US approach to pollution 268

Clean Air Act 268

Clean Water Act 270

National Environmental Policy Act 271

Superfund 272

Sewage treatment 274

Sewage and sustainability 277

Garbage and recycling 277

Garbage composition 278

Managing garbage 278

Landfills 279

Reducing waste 280

Composting 281

Recycling 281

11 Environmental Justice 287

Social justice 287

Civil rights and the modern environmental movement in the United States 290

Lead pollution and the growth of the urban environmental justice movement 291

Environmental racism in the United States 293

Brownfields, community re-development, and environmental justice 295

US EPA and environmental justice 297

Indigenous people and environmental justice 299

Exporting environmental problems 300

Environmental justice around the world 301

Environmental justice in Europe 302

Environmental justice in Asia and the Pacific 302

The Three Gorges Dam 302

Bhopal and environmental justice in India 303

Tuvalu and global climate change 304

Environmental justice in Africa 305

Environmental justice in Latin America and the Caribbean: oil pollution in Ecuador 306

Environmental justice in a Globalized World 308

12 Sustainability Planning and Governance 313

Local governments and their structure 313

The role of citizens and stakeholders in local government 314

Community stakeholders 315

Boundaries and types of local governments 316

Leadership 319

Efforts to aid local governments on sustainability issues 319

Scale and local governments 321

Green regional development 322

Sustainable development 326

Globalization 327

Development of globalization 328

Drivers of globalization 329

Internet and communications 329

Transportation 330

Economic development 331

Transnational organizations 332

War and sustainability 339

Further reading 342

13 Sustainability, Economics, and the Global Commons 343

The global commons 343

Economic processes that put the Earth out of balance 345

Social and economic theories 346

Neoclassical economics 346

Environmental critiques of neoliberalism 347

Environmental economics 349

Cost-benefit analysis and its application in environmental economics 349

Environmental impact assessment 351

Environmental ethics 352

Green economics 352

Non-capitalistic economies 353

Deep ecology 353

Ecofeminism 356

Destruction regardless of theory 356

Environmental economics: externalities 357

Measuring the economy 358

Green jobs 362

14 Corporate and Organizational Sustainability Management 371

Cognitive dissonance 371

Why are businesses concerned with sustainability? 372

Profit 372

Public relations 372

Altruism 372

Concern over the long-term sustainability of the industry 373

Professional standards and norms 373

Total quality management and sustainability 373

People, planet, and profits 374

Ray Anderson, the father of the green corporation and the growth of green corporate environmentalism 379

Anderson's legacy 380

Greenwashing in the corporate world 380

Green consumers 380

Global Reporting Initiative 382

Sustainability reporting in the S & P 500 382

Dow Jones Sustainability Index 385

Sustainability reporting 388

International Organization for Standardization (ISO): ISO 14000 and ISO 26000 388

ISO 14000 388

ISO 26000 388

Case studies of sustainability at the corporate level 389

Walmart 391

Unilever 393

Lessons from Walmart and Unilever 395

Can businesses with unsustainable products be sustainable? 396

15 Sustainability at Universities, Colleges, and Schools 401

Curriculum at colleges and universities 401

Sustainability curriculum at K-12 schools 403

External benchmarking 405

American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education 405

Presidents' Climate Leadership Commitments 406

Other external benchmarking organizations 408

Internal initiatives 409

Sustainability officers 410

Sustainability committees 411

Food service 411

Student and faculty activism 414

Building your own case study 417

Sustainability at Oxford: a campus commitment 418

Making school lunches healthier in the United States 419

The cow powered carbon neutral campus 421

Whitman College builds wind turbines on campus farm 421

Stanford University: dumping the car for bikes 422

Green fleets: The University of South Florida's biodiesel Bullrunner 422

Community engagement at Portland State University 423

Green buildings on college campuses: University of Florida goes for gold 424

Native and sustainable landscaping at one of the largest schools in the nation: Valencia College 425

Campus archaeology at Michigan State University 425

Index 427