Pursuing Sustainability

by Pamela Matson

Sustainability is a global imperative and a scientific challenge like no other. This concise guide provides students and practitioners with a strategic framework for linking knowledge with action in the pursuit of sustainable development, and serves as an invaluable companion to more narrowly focused courses dealing with sustainability in particular sectors such as energy, food, water, and housing, or in particular regions of the world.Written by leading experts, "Pursuing Sustainability" shows how more inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches and systems perspectives can help you achieve your sustainability objectives. It stresses the need for understanding how capital assets are linked to sustainability goals through the complex adaptive dynamics of social-environmental systems, how committed people can use governance processes to alter those dynamics, and how successful interventions can be shaped through collaborations among researchers and practitioners on the ground.The ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate students and an invaluable resource for anyone working in this fast-growing field, "Pursuing Sustainability" also features case studies, a glossary, and suggestions for further reading.Provides a strategic framework for linking knowledge with actionDraws on the latest cutting-edge science and practicesServes as the ideal companion text to more narrowly focused coursesUtilizes interdisciplinary approaches and systems perspectivesIllustrates concepts with a core set of case studies used throughout the bookWritten by world authorities on sustainabilityAn online illustration package is available to professors

Genres: Sustainability

Unknown Binding

First published March 22, 2016

Reviews

[Tran Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of this book is a pretty dry because it theorizes and discusses sustainability frameworks. But it does so in an accessible language. The frameworks are important to re-read later in life for me.

Read the Appendix A (p.143-186) first before reading the book. It's the most interesting part too. This section has 4 case studies on sustainability that are used to discuss the frameworks throughout the book 1) London's 1000-year struggles with waste, water, air, fire, and plague, 2) Farmer-managed irrigation system in Nepal that works better than modern engineering, 3) Role of credit unions of Yaqui Valley in reducing fertilizer application and protecting water resources, 4) Montreal Protocol and successful international ozone negotiation.

Sustainability is a noble and vague term that is very difficult to achieve. This book defines sustainability as inclusive well being, which consists of the aggregated wellbeing of people across relevant intervals of space and time.

It provides a guide to sustainability by recognizing sustainability issues in their complex social-environmental systems that have multiple interconnected components that interact in diverse ways. Within a social-environmental system, there are five assets: natural capital, human capital, manufactured capital, social capital, and knowledge capital. And the balance of these assets affect the system's wellbeing. Some constituents of wellbeing are material needs, health and education, opportunity, community, and security.

The way the system's components interact together result in positive and negative feedback loops, connections across time and space, and nonlinearities and tipping points that influence the system and the way it changes. Resilience is the ability of the system faced with stresses, shocks, or surprises to continue to perform its current function or even to extract benefits from those disturbances. Vulnerability is the likelihood of suffering harm. A system that can learn (knowledge, skills, behaviors), can be more resilient.

Governance and governance processes also influence the system's dynamics. Having a good governance process facilitates sustainability (Montreal protocol has an adaptive governance process that facilitates negotiation).

In order to link knowledge with actions, the knowledge must be salient, credible, and legitimate (aka. relevant, true, fair/unbiased). Since there are many actors in the system, collaboration and interdisciplinary work are essential in identifying a challenge and reaching sustainability.

Qualities of a sustainability leader: 1) system thinking, 2) reflective and adaptive, 3) self-aware, empathetic and compassionate for the wellbeing of others, 4) creativity and innovation for change at scale.

[Cynthiking · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m using this book in my undergraduate “Innovation for Sustainability” course this semester. I like the frameworks that it provides for thinking about sustainability and the considerable interdisciplinary research that it distills. The systems approach that it presents is helpful (and essential to understanding social-environmental systems), but the concepts are quite abstract and difficult for some undergrads to grasp. I enjoyed this for my own education, but probably won’t use it in my course for business undergrads again. It might be more suited to environmental studies or environmental policy students.

[Lovis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Den här boken är säkert inte så dålig egentligen men med tanke på varför jag läste den så är den värdelös smh. Hela boken är typ common sense, sånt här går man igenom i grundskolan?? Visst, det finns en del statistik men då kan man lika gärna kolla på Rosling och ha lite kul. Sen lyckades de ordbajsa HELA boken ?? Den hade kunnat vara typ hälften så kort. Men man fattar iaf vad som stod så good job I guess?

[Megan Fugitt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love learning about sustainability and environmental work, but this book...it’s hard to read. I give it 2 stars because the information is good and the case studies are great but the layout and wording is so dry, it’s hard to keep reading. I had this as a book for a sustainability class for engineering, I remember now why I never finished it and barley looked at it.

[Tala Parker]

For sust210

[Lesezeichensetzen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book, it's so well written with tangible examples.

[Fred Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meant to be a textbook, catching up on reading for next academic year. Overall I like this more analytical, harder economic edge to sustainability and the fact there are frameworks here for use going forward (an important aspect). And there are a few cases studies involving people I know, and I agree with the author's assessment, so that helps me accept the overall message. My biggest complaint is that it is still written too much like an academic paper, and could use some serious editing into something more readable. That would be a very useful book if it came out.