7 Steps To Securing A Sustainable Future
For example, “The Future We Want,” a road map for the future of sustainable development, was an official outcome of the 2012 Rio+20 U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development. Will convene member states to outline Sustainable Development Goals aimed at building upon the earlier Millennium Development Goals. But with the proposed shifts in food, water and energy use, we can do better for nearly all habitats in our more sustainable scenario.
It includes networks, communication channels, families, communities, businesses, trade unions, schools, voluntary organizations, legal and political systems and educational and health bodies, as well as social norms, values, and trust. Reproducible capital consists of material goods and infrastructure owned, leased, or controlled by an organization that contribute to production or provision of services . Financial capital consists of an organization’s assets that exist in a form of currency that can be owned or traded, including shares, bonds, and banknotes. It has no intrinsic value; its value is representative of the other forms of capital.
In ecological terms, development is sustainable if the stock of natural capital does not decline over time, or if resources are managed so as to maintain a sustainable yield of ecosystem services. The economic definition defines sustainability in terms of the economy’s ability to maintain material production or consumption indefinitely. Since this is not possible without ongoing use of environmental resources, economic interpretations imply that there must be at least some degree of environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability concerns the natural environment and how it endures and remains diverse and productive.
His year has brought catastrophic weather events around the world, including another record-breaking fire season here in California. The extreme weather has underlined the urgency of the climate crisis, which has the potential to transform not only our planet, but also the health and well-being of humanity. Still, for anyone wishing to peek into the future and explore a hopeful vision of what sustainability in action might actually look like over the next 36 years, I highly recommend picking up a copy of The World We Made.
There are a few sustainability related legislations that demand awareness, monitoring for changes such as new or expired exemptions, understanding of its myriad of complexities, and ultimately full and proven compliance. No electronic enclosure, housing, and package developer or manufacturer can afford to be found negligent in these areas. Every one of these laws' jurisdiction is limited but in a globally interconnected economy, their true influence is indeed world-wide. After this conference, sustainable development attracted much broader attention by most of the countries of the world, and it has been greatly developed through a wide range of agreements, national legislations, and scientific studies. In a more general scientific sense, sustainability is equivalent to continuum, or the ability to continue a course without termination.
As the visual language of geography, maps reveal to us just how interrelated everything is in the world and how interrelated we are to each other—something we understand all the more in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Geography integrates disciplines like sociology, biology, economics, and even psychology by uniting them within the context of location. Sustainable strategies for the future don’t have to be technically complex or sweeping. Geographer Christopher Swan of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, studies biodiversity in parks, backyards and other natural areas around the city of Baltimore. Swan wants to see what species thrive in cities and how human activities affect them.
If your goal is to create a more sustainable energy system, does that mean reducing carbon emissions — thus including nuclear energy — or are you referring to “clean” sources of renewable energy such as solar and wind? Protecting nature and providing water, food and energy to the world can no longer be either-or propositions. We have at our disposal the cross-sector expertise necessary to make informed decisions for the good of life on our planet, so let’s use it wisely. Meeting the sustainable targets we propose requires a second front on land to shift how we use available real estate and where we choose to conduct necessary activities. Overall, the changes we include in our more sustainable view allow the world to meet global food, water and energy demands with no additional conversion of natural habitat for those needs—an outcome that is not possible under business as usual. We need this level of integration in our thinking and problem-solving as our planet faces dire and complex sustainability challenges—related to environmental viability, social equity, global and economic prosperity.
Understanding sustainable development and its goals is the first step to learning what we can do to make it happen. There are many initiatives already in place, but still many roadblocks to sustainable development that have to be overcome. This means we want companies to expand, people to have the best jobs, everyone to afford nutritious foods wherever they live, quality and affordable education for everyone, freedom of speech without violence, and our economies to grow exponentially. We want to develop innovative technologies while keeping the environment safe. We’ve also launched a multiyear effort to reduce Stanford’s Scope 3 emissions—the indirect emissions generated by activities like travel, investments, and producing and transporting food and goods.