...Sustainable Development: From Brundtland to Rio 2012 Background Paper* prepared for consideration by the High Level Panel on Global Sustainability at its first meeting, 19 September 2010 September 2010 United Nations Headquarters, New York _________________________ *Prepared by John Drexhage and Deborah Murphy, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) GSP1-6 Executive Summary The term, sustainable development, was popularized in Our Common Future, a report published by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987. Also known as the Brundtland report, Our Common Future included the “classic” definition of sustainable development: “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Acceptance of the report by the United Nations General Assembly gave the term political salience; and in 1992 leaders set out the principles of sustainable development at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is generally accepted that sustainable development calls for a convergence between the three pillars of economic development, social equity, and environmental protection. Sustainable development is a visionary development paradigm; and over the past 20 years governments, businesses, and civil society have accepted sustainable development as a guiding principle, made progress on sustainable development metrics, and improved...
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...SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Student Name: Student Number: Instructor: Class: Date: The concept of Sustainable development has in the recent past, raised concerns in all aspects of day to day living. Consequently, over the years a number of definitions and connotations have been associated with this concept, so as to apply it in different professional settings. Particularly, different professions have adopted various codes of ethical; conduct centered on sustainable development. Accordingly individuals working in various sectors constantly seek to adhere to these codes of conduct within their mandates. The engineering sector is one such area where the concept of sustainable development is regarded as a key tenet guiding ethical conduct among engineers. This paper traces the history of the concept of sustainable development and how it is practically incorporated into the engineering profession. Further, this paper examines the current Engineers’ Code of Ethics and how it addresses the issue of sustainable development. There have been various definitions regarding the concept of sustainable development. However, all these definitions revolve around the concept of need and limitation. The all time famous definition was one brought forward by the world Commission on Environment and Development in 1987 that termed sustainable development as, ”development that satisfies present needs without undermining the ability of future generations to satisfy their own needs.”. This definition...
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...Sustainable Tourism Development in Heritage sites -Examination paper- Andra G Table of contents | Page | 1. Introduction ...………………………………………………………………………… | 1 | 2. Limitations ……….…………………………………………………………..…….…. | 1 | 3. Methodology ……………………………………………………………………….…. | 1 | 4. Theoretical framework ……………………………………………………..………… | 2 | 5. Analysis and discussions ..…………………………………………….……………… | 5 | 6. Conclusions …………………………………………………………...……………… | 11 | References …………………………………………………………………….…………. | 12 | 1. Introduction The aim of this paper is to analyze some of the main problems that occur when trying to implement sustainable development tourism in heritage sites and how can they be overcome. The obstacles which appear during the implementation process of sustainable tourism development are the realistic and practical part of the idea itself of being sustainable in developing and practicing tourism within the heritage sites. Theoretically, almost every official heritage site, registered within United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s list of sites (UNESCO), has been supported, either by government or stakeholders, with various policies, regulation and standards which are especially dedicated to the sustainable development of the heritage tourism, involving economical development, environment protection and both cultural and social advantages. But, in practice, there are several issues occurring when trying to apply all...
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...Upton, an exemplar development with houses built to high levels of sustainability. The buildings pictured were designed by Gale & Snowden Architects Ltd, who also acted as ecological design consultants for the site. http:/ /www.ecodesign.co.uk Good Practice Guidance: Sustainable Design and Construction The purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development ... ... To achieve sustainable development, economic, social and environmental gains should be sought jointly and simultaneously through the planning system ... ... Good design is a key aspect of sustainable development, is indivisible from good planning, and should contribute positively to making places better for people ... ... Local planning authorities should adopt proactive strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change, taking full account of flood risk, coastal change and water supply and demand considerations ... National Planning Policy Framework, Department for Communities and Local Government, March 2012 Cross Sector Group on Sustainable Design and Construction August 2012 Contents Introduction Background The role of planning, and its relation to Building Regulations Formulating planning policies on sustainable design and construction Justifying local requirements: evidence and viability Examples of local plan policies Development management 03 04 05 06 06 07 08 Annex 1 – Example policies on sustainable design and construction ...
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...The dynamics of social and ecosystem for the sustainable development of mankind: a system dynamics perspective B. GIRIDHAR KAMATH, VASANTH VASUDEVA PANDUBETTU KAMATH, LEWLYN L.R RODRIGUES Department of Humanities and Management, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India Email: giridharbk@yahoo.com, kamath.vasanth@manipal.edu, rodrigusr@gmail.com Abstract: Human beings depend on the ecosystems for material and energy sources. Human-ecosystem interaction is closely related with the growing demands placed by people on ecosystems. Human activities have always had an impact on the ecosystem as a whole and over a period of time, this has had an irreversible impact on the ecosystem and the imbalance caused in the ecosystem have started to take its toll on the flora and fauna. The challenge now ahead of mankind is to focus on sustainable development and fight against issues like global warming and delayed rainfalls. Both the renewable and nonrenewable resources are under the threat of depletion. Issues like growing human population, deforestation, acute fuel shortage, and food production crisis drives our attention to sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development is making rounds ever since its inception in 1987. This paper proposes to build a conceptual model that relates social system and ecosystem with social, economic and environmental factors so as to build a System Dynamics model highlighting sustainable development. Keywords: Social Sustainability, Ecological...
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...SECTION A PERSONAL ATTRIBUTE VENSUS CAREER DEVELOPMENT Introduction Due to the change of social construction and production mechanism in Hong Kong, Knowledge-based Society is essential for the sustainability development of Hong Kong in the 21st century that cultivates talent labors (MediaDigest, RTHK, 2006). Recently, the globalization is allied and compounded around the world. It indicates the trend of “Whole People Education” for undergraduates to develop their own strategic vision and analytical technology for the externally globalized environment – social and economy (Y.K. Pang, HKIE, 2009). Integrated with the upward paragraph, this promotion has rapidly developed owing to the advocate of “Lifelong Learning” (executed by Tung Chee-hwa, the first Chief Executive of HKSAR). Based on the data generation, the percentage of growth rate of continuous education has increasing from 18 in 2002 to 28 in 2003 (Professor K.M. Yeung, HKU SPACE). In the literature aspects, “Lifelong Learning” is the recognition that learning may stretch out across a lifetime for anyone sustainability use and renew throughout each lifespan (Field, 2006). Based on Role of Reflection in Learning (Kolb, 1984), its operation is coordinated with 3 main items – (1) 1 Action, (2) Reflect on Experience; and (3) Conclude and Learn. For my own view, it could be comprehended with using the outcome of your lifespan to strengthen the core competence to make the continuous improvement...
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...urban development Introduction Sustainability is the ability to maintain and retain a particular process in an existing system (Pieterse, 2004). The word sustainability has been used since in 1980s. Its application has been mainly on the human sustainability on earth, which has resulted in the term sustainability that forms part of the sustainable development concept. The term sustainable development means a kind of development that satisfies the requirement of the present generation without compromising the capability of the future generation to be able to meet their needs. There are three main sustainable development goals. These goals are also known as the pillars of sustainability. They include environmental protection, social development and economic development. These three pillars of sustainability have served on common grounds for several sustainability standards as well as certification systems in the past and even today. These three pillars can be illustrated in details as follows: 1. Environmental protection: this is the capability of an environment to provide a given environmental quality and also natural resource extraction rate indefinitely. 2. Social development: this is the capability of a social system like a country or an organization to function at a particular level of social well-being and in harmony. 3. Economic development: this is the indefinite capability of an economy to provide a specific level of economic production. Sustainable development...
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...International business, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development This article discusses the issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the sustainable development which associate with international business (IB) and the multinational enterprises (MNEs) role in these matters. The social and environmental problems caused by international business have emerged for a period, however, they only being seen as an important issue under the pressure of global problems such as climate change, poverty, human rights violation and HIV. In this situation, MNEs have to play an appropriate role using their global activities and influences as these issues exist as both a problem and an opportunity for MNEs. In the modern globalization era, the landscape of international business is no longer like a decade ago or past few decades. Therefore, MNEs will need to adjust their internationalization strategy to better suit with today’s globalization challenges. CSR is now considered something to be taken into account in MNEs in order to compete better in market. CSR activities are gradually become important as they influence the core business of the firm and determine firm’s ability to grow, earn profit and sustain in the tough environment. Some firms are actually work hard with CSR in order to get the competitive advantages in managing international operation or earning a ‘pass’ to operate business in countries with different cultures and values or different institutional...
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...market while protecting the capital base. The balance of power has shifted between corporations and it is important to balance economic prosperity along with environmental and social dimensions. Sustainable business strategy represents a marked shift in traditional business practices and companies who do not adapt to the changes in these practices in order to achieve sustainable profitability will be more likely to face the brand value decline or even extinction in the future. For instance, the change represents the need to understand how all three dimensions affect each other and companies ought to consciously create new consumer preferences. However, a lot of companies still are missing guidelines to implementing a marketing strategy of sustainability as an essential part, which is at the core of ensuring organizational, social, economic and environment growth while managing overconsumption issues (White, 2011). Current researches tend to focus on developing a more sustainable approach on product design, pricing, promotion and distribution when it comes to the sustainable business strategy and companies are widely integrating this approach. On the other hand, the theoretical practices of promoting sustainable consumption in customer-citizens are an emerging potential for further development of sustainability. As a...
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...THE NEED OF SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT AS A HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE ABSTRACT Environmental protection is a recent concept, developed in the international or regional human right protection systems or mechanisms. In those early days, especially when modern human rights protection mechanisms such as UDHR, ICCPR, IESCR and other human rights instruments adopted, the concern given to environmental protection was not that much significant . The only few provisions in these instruments recognizes some rights like the right to healthy and favorable condition of work, the right to get adequate food, clothing and shelter and the like. It was during in 1992, earth summit, that the relationship between human rights and sustainable environment is addressed. The need for the protection of environment becomes a necessity. In fact environment is a totality of human life; it means that it is sources of food, clothing, and shelter. The denial of environmental protection could bring about the denial of some fundamental rights such as the right to health, life, food and so on. It is true that, environment should be properly managed in order to make it favorable to human life. However; the effort to protect the environment faces different challenges like the issue of locus-standi, justifiability, conflict between developmental efforts and environmental protection, burden of proof, lack of cooperation among states...
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...REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON WOMEN AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BEIJING, CHINA 9 – 11 NOVEMBER 2011 BACKGROUND International Forum on Women and Sustainable Development was organized by the All China Women’s Federation in Beijing, China. The All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) was founded on April 3rd, 1949. It is a mass organization of Chinese women of all ethnic groups in all walks of life, striving for women’s advancement. Its mission is to represent and safeguard women’s rights and interests and to promote equality between women and men. ACWF is also a member of the National Working Committee on Women and Children under the State Council. It is in consultative status with the ECOSOC of the United Nations. INTRODUCTION Sustainable development, as a visionary development paradigm shift, represents a big step forward in the progress of human society. It demonstrates the resolve and efforts of people around the world to ensure sound development and the well-being of the current and future generations. Sustainable development can neither be achieved nor sustained without the participation of women who are an important driving force. The United Nations and member states have already initiated different kinds of activities to prepare for the Rio+20 Summit. Both sustainable development and empowerment of women are considered a priority of the United Nations in 2011. As such, it is of special significance to reflect women’s needs and concerns and heed women’s...
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...developing and implementing National Sustainable Development Strategies (NSDS). Sustainable Development competes with many deeply entrenched values and therefore progress has been slow. Tensions between long term and short term thinking, and between economic growth and social and environmental sustainability, are not easy to resolve. The NSDS process has gained impetus following the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, where it was agreed that countries need to take immediate steps to elaborate and formulate NSDS systems that can continuously improve. The UN Guidance Document describes an NSDS as a comprehensive, adaptable, continuous and long term undertaking that helps a country to achieve economic prosperity and higher levels of social welfare, while at the same time preserving the environment. An NSDS is not just something that can be put together in a document and be promulgated. Development of an NSDS requires multi-stakeholder participation, partnerships, country ownership, shared vision with a commitment to continuous improvement, capacity development and the ability to build on existing knowledge and processes and a clear focus on outcomes. Education is a central dimension of achieving sustainable development, and needs to be incorporated into the NSDS process. Learning is central to the process of NSDS development and implementation. Education for Sustainable Development and National Sustainable Development Strategies Education has been identified...
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...TASTE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CSR ____________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Sustainable development is a vision and a way of thinking and acting so that we can secure the resources and environment for our future generation. It will not be brought through policies only - it must be taken up by society as a principle guiding the many choices each citizen makes every day, as well as the big political and economic decisions that affect many. It is clear that environmental degradation tends to impose the largest costs on those generations that are yet to be born. We can only improve sustainable development when it will put an emphasis on involving citizens and stakeholders. Ultimately, the vision will become reality only if everybody contributes to a world where economic freedom, social justice and environmental protection go hand in hand, making our own and future generations better off than now.1 Sustainability has emerged as a challenge before entire civilization. The challenge before us is to reduce disparity through capacity building and providing poor and dispossessed access to the knowledge and resources needed for meaningful life. National Development through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability ensures the well-being of individual by integrating business practices in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner that is transparent and ethical. CSR is...
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...Individual Assessment Cover Sheet / Plagiarism Declaration Form This form must be completed and included with each assessment you submit for marking to the School. Although this assessment is submitted electronically, you must still complete and include this form with your assessment. | | | | | | |Student Number: |201413996 | | | | |Unit Code No.: |HOS201 | | | | |Unit Title: |Operation and Environmental Management | | | | |Assessment No.: |Individual essay ...
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...‘GM food advances the goal of sustainable development.’ To what extent do you think this is true? The Earth is facing severe environmental degradation. Years of resource exploitation and pollution have caused environmental problems and their effects are being felt globally. It has been estimated that if the world’s population reaches between10-11 billion then 5 more Planet Earths would be needed to maintain the present level of ecological decline. The environmental use in some countries is already unsustainable. Technology has allowed the world to cope with agriculture and an increasing population, however the FAO expects a long term decrease in food production in rich countries (Alexandratos 1988). 800 million people are affected today by hunger and malnutrition(Food Future 2000). The FAO claims that 650 million of these people will still be in the same situation by 2010. The world produces enough food, often it is the distribution process that causes problems. However this food may be produced in a non sustainable way. Pesticides, use of non farming land and the demand for cash crops over self sufficiency are not necessarily in the environments best interest. Factors such as poverty, wealth and inequality place burdens on the environment and possible sustainability. Genetically modified foods could be a key factor in advancing the goal of sustainable development. Biotechnology is the use of biological science to alter living organisms for the benefit of mankind. Every...
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