State of Sustainability Journal
Resources, Commentary, Ideas
Strategic Regenerative Whole Systems Sustainability
Inspiration: If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I knew the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than 5 minutes. Albert Einstein
The Regenerative City 2030 Challenge
I spent last Thursday and Friday at the International Living Future Institute's (ILFI) Net Positive (Energy+Water) conference in San Francisco. During the Conference, and since, I found my brain in overdrive in ways it has not been in a long time. The key insight that crystallized this morning is: becoming a world community of regenerative cities (economically, ecologically, and culturally) by 2030 is our/society's hail Mary sustainability pass.
That there is precious little time remaining to create the foundation we need for success is overwhelmingly clear. The only question is to whom to throw the pass, who will catch it and run it into the end zone? In other words, how to do it. But we don't need to know how, now, so much, as what and by when, and which direction, what level of performance, and the motivation to innovate all the way there. The way, the tools, don't all exist yet and must be invented--on the fly and just in time. Fortunately, just-in-time invention is humanity's strong suit. And then, of course, we need every team to be making the same play, in every game of the season and the focus of off season training. That is our vision, mission, goal, all wrapped up in one statement. Success will require alignment and a strong, accurate, and focused set of principles, design parameters, an integrative framework/foundation, and objectives will all be instrumental (forthcoming).
To whom to look for inspiration, motivation, example? The European Community goal of a carbon neutral, cyclical economy by 2030 is one example. The City of Palo Alto is contemplating net zero energy in 10 years. ILFI recently up-scaled its Living Building Challenge to the community and launched its Living Future Congresses as an innovative leadership response to address the policy barriers to sustainability . . . .
Scott T. Edmondson, AICP
SDSN Knowledge Cloud
The Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN.edu), is a global initiative of the United Nations. It brings together the world’s foremost experts on sustainable development – including health, education, climate change, agriculture and food systems, sustainable investment, and other related fields – to offer a comprehensive core curriculum, equipping the next generation of “Sustainable Development Practitioners” to take on the complex challenges facing our planet. Classes are free and on line. This is a fantastic new educational resource for sustainable development.
Wealth Paradox: GDP ($72T/yr) Destroys $20T/Yr in Ecosystem Services
Apparently, from 1997-2011, global GDP production ($72T; 2012) destroyed $20T/yr in ecosystem services. How long can this business model last? Would you invest in this firm? Even buy it's products and services?
Read an update to ecosystem services accounting by the father of the method himself, in an email from Robert Costanza, as follows:
Sustainable Futures Institute
The Sustainable Futures Institute was established at Michigan Technological University as an incubator for research, education and outreach efforts related to sustainability. SFI addresses sustainability from multiple disciplines - fitting the discipline to the challenge, rather than expecting the challenge to fit pre-established disciplinary methods.
Jumpstarting Solar Finance
A new crowdfunding source, "Mosaic, an Oakland-based startup company, connects solar-power-seeking businesses and nonprofits with hundreds of investors. Investors contribute a minimum of $25 to a project. Over the next 5 to 10 years -- depending on the project -- the investors will make that money back, plus interest. The return on the investment ranges from 4.5 to 6.4 percent annually, depending on the project.
WEF “Global Risks 2014” Report -- Solve Climate Change Now (or else!)
Bob Willard, consumate sustainability champion, declared that it was time for sustainability champions to unleash three risk arguments for more proactive action on climate change. Last week, he discovered a goldmine of support for the company-level and society-level risk arguments in the debate about climate destabilization: a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), “Global Risks 2014.”
America's Feel-Good Oil Bonanza - A Dangerous Policy Addiction or Renewed Prosperity?
Daniel Lerch critiques the recently released Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2014 (AEO 2014), which foresees impending and long-term US oil abundance as not just surprising—but a dangerous return to a 2004 way of thinking. Businessman and policy professionals are embracing the bonanza as a newly discovered profitable, common-sense, no-brainer bridge to a longer-term transition to renewable energy. However, it may be a siren call that could crash the economy onto the rocky shoals irreversible climate change and potentail catastrophe.
Municipal Resilience to What? - A Post Carbon Institute Report
The Post Carbon Institute announces the release of our latest report, Resilient against what?: How leading U.S. municipalities are understanding and acting on resilience. Resilience is often understood simply as the ability to “bounce back” from a single disaster like a hurricane or earthquake. This report found that leading US municipalities already have a much more sophisiticated understanding of resilience involving economic, energy, and social challenges—and they're putting it into action through policies, regulations, and programs.Post Carbon Institute announces the release of our latest report, Resilient against what?: How leading U.S. municipalities are understanding and acting on resilience.
Citizens Climate Lobby
Citizens Climate Lobby is a non-profit, grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change. We train and support volunteers to reclaim their democracy and engage elected officials and the media to generate the political will for solutions that will stabilize the Earth’s climate.
“If the political will of the people is asleep at the wheel, then the political will of government is likely to be asleep at the wheel.” - Sam Daley-Harris Founder, President RESULTS
Death of Peak Oil - NOT Likely!
If 2013 was the year the specter of peak oil died, then 2014 is the year sanity returns. Curiously, IEA reports at the beginning of 2013 fueled the death of peak oil hysteria, even as it had previously written about the irrelevance of the supply of oil for the fossil fuel industries survival. If the increasing regulation
Biomimicry Meets Planning?
See the featured Urban Greenprint project (end of post), other resources, and the conference link below for a quick glimpse of an inspiring range of innovative, leading-edge, regenerative/ecological/biomimicry-based urban planning projects.
This range of initiatives may be useful for planners in furter defining the goal, domain, and methods of sustainability planning (the profession or an individual department). These projects are too design/building focused to define the full domain of planning, but the connections to the larger city and a/the method is illuminated. There is not much biophilia or biodiversity directly featured, but it is embedded.
The question to planners: what would the “planning” behind this work look like (code, general plan policies, guidelines, themes, project types, stakeholder engagement initiatives, etc.)?
Net Zero Walgreens?! Implications for Transformation
Walgreens' embrace of net zero retail, is laudable, particularly because of the potential for its adoption to drive the normalization of net zero building performance industry wide. In addition, it's authenticity is reflected in seeking Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification, the only sustainability framework that embraces the ultimate sustainability goals of net zero as a minimum and restorative impacts as the standard. As you likely know, the LBC won the Buckminster Fuller Challenge in 2012 as the most promising innovation to drive global sustainability.
People WILL Pay for Clean Energy!
You could cut the coal-burning air pollution in Downtown Pittsburg with a knife in 1940.
By 1950, residents could see downtown again after passing an air pollution control ordinance in 1946.
Check out this photo essay by Kevin Tang on BuzzFeed.
Climate Update
Climate change is upon us, and almost every facet of California’s natural and built environment is being affected. Increasing global temperatures are causing significant effects at global, regional, and local scales. In the past century, average global temperature has increased by about 0.8°C (1.4°F), and average global sea level has increased by 17 to 21 centimeters (7 to 8 inches) (IPCC, 2013). Sea level at the San Francisco tidal gauge has risen 20 centimeters (8 inches) over the past century, and the National Research Council projected that sea level may rise by as much as 140-165 centimeters (55-65 inches) in California by 2100 (NRC, 2012). The Coastal Commission has developed this guidance to help California’s coastal communities prepare for the effects of sea-level rise.
Defining Sustainability & Planning's Role
A Formative Moment
Society finds itself in the midst of a formative step in forging approaches to sustainability. Many approaches have been tried, from those of the first-generation environmental movement of the 1960s to those of the post-1992 Rio period. They continue to be developed for businesses, organizations, municipalities, and communities. As a result, an ever-expanding set of bewidering options confronts anyone seeking to begin or enhance their sustainability initiative. This creates the challenge of choosing the "right" approach. On which basis is one to choose? These approaches differ in many respects, but one useful way of evaluating their efficacy is according to the definition of sustainability used and the role that the resulting understanding plays in success. This post explores the role that the definition of sustainability plays in an approach and then develops the implications for urban sustainability planning practice.
The Future of Sustainability
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (Future of Sustainability Video)
Ron Sims, former undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of the Obama administration, delivered the keynote address at the annual New England Smart Growth Leadership Forum December 2, 2011 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, co-sponsored with the regional offices of HUD and EPA, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston. The focus of the forum was the past, present, and future of HUD’s Sustainable Communities initiative.
Time for Outrage--A Basis for Sustainable Development?
With the recent passing of Stephen Hessel, his polemic essay, Time for Outrage, along with his corageous life, can be seen as part of the conceptual foundation and value basis of sustainable development. Acquainting ourselves with his work is a fitting way to honor his life.
Stéphane Frédéric Hessel (20 October 1917 – 26 February 2013[1]) was a diplomat, ambassador,
Alex Steffen - Powering Our Way to a Bright Green Future
Alex Steffen, a noted planetary futurist, is a prolific and inspiring thought leader. He founded and led worldchanging.com from 2003-2010 to become a leading sustainability web-based magazine with a global following. He is a motivational speaker with a knack for asking the hard questions facing humanity in paradigm-shifting ways that illuminate otherwise hidden paths to, what he likes to call, a bright green future. Hi makes the often arcane and conceptual world of the sustainability challenge concrete, accessible, and shiny. Glimpse his products and him in action as follows:
Sustainability Challenge from the "Poorest" President in the World
This excerpted BBC article on the World's "Poorest" President is noteworthy. The article is inspiring for its lesson by example (living simply voluntarily) and for its challenge to the world's leaders at Rio+20 regarding their over consumption model of sustainable development; but does living simply and consuming less go far enough for sustainability success? I found the question intriquing and offer a perspective and some resources for a strategic sustainability approach that is gaining momentum. It scales the noble goal of "living simply" (balance with nature's limits) to the global level with an economic decoupling strategy anchored in innovation, doing more with less, and biomimicry.