The Promise of Sustainability

The Promise of Sustainability
Author: R. I. T. Libraries
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2009-04-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0557029910

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) students and alumni were challenged by a contest to submit poetry, creative prose, scholarly works, creative nonfiction, or images that speak to caring for our Planet in a sustainable fashion. Twenty six varied submissions representing many disciplines speak with one voice in concert with promoting strategies that ensure a quality of life. RIT College of Business professor and contest judge, Sandra Rothenberg, observes "It is interesting that people with such different backgrounds can see things the same!" This common goal can create an unprecedented collective effort to use our resources to benefit all.

The Promise

The Promise
Author: Nicola Davies
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1536221716

“This tale is a sturdy one that is made even more emphatic by Davies’s terse writing style. The text is heightened in every way by Carlin’s outstanding mixed-media artwork.” — Booklist (starred review) On a mean street in a mean, broken city, a young girl tries to snatch an old woman’s bag. But the frail old woman says the thief can’t have it without giving something in return: the promise. It is the beginning of a journey that will change the girl’s life — and a chance to change the world, for good.

A Safe and Sustainable World

A Safe and Sustainable World
Author: Nancy Jack Todd
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2012-07-16
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1597267813

In the late sixties, as the world was waking to a need for Earth Day, a pioneering group founded a small non-profit research and education organization they called the New Alchemy Institute. Their aim was to explore the ways a safer and more sustainable world could be created. In the ensuing years, along with scientists, agriculturists, and a host of enthusiastic amateurs and friends, they set out to discover new ways that basic human needs--in the form of food, shelter, and energy--could be met. A Safe and Sustainable World is the story of that journey, as it was and as it continues to be. The dynamics and the resilience of the living world were the Institute's model and the inspiration for their research. Central to their efforts then and now is, along with science, a spiritual quest for a more harmonious human role in our planet's future. The results of this work have now entered mainstream science through the emerging discipline of ecological design. Nancy Jack Todd not only relates a fascinating journey from lofty ideals through the hard realities encountered in learning how to actually grow food, harness the energy of the sun and wind, and design green architecture. She also introduces us to some of the heroes and mentors who played a vital role in those efforts as well, from Buckminster Fuller to Margaret Mead. The early work of the Institute culminated in the design and building of two bioshelters--large greenhouse-like independent structures called Arks, that provided the setting for much of the research to follow. Successfully proving through the Institute's designs and investigations that basic land sustainability is achievable, John Todd and the author founded a second non-profit research group, Ocean Arks International. Here they applied the New Alchemy's natural systems thinking to restoring polluted waters with the invention and implementation of biologically based living technologies called Ecomachines and Pond and Lake Restorers. A Safe and Sustainable World demonstrates what has and can be done--it also looks to what must be done to integrate human ingenuity and the four billion or so years of evolutionary intelligence of the natural world into healthy, decentralized, locally dreams hard won--and hope.

The World's Greenest Buildings

The World's Greenest Buildings
Author: Jerry Yudelson
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2013
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0415606292

Provides the first comparison of green building performance, using cost and energy use data that has been verified by independent third parties.

Digital Technology and Sustainability

Digital Technology and Sustainability
Author: Mike Hazas
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2017-11-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1315465957

This book brings together diverse voices from across the field of sustainable human computer interaction (SHCI) to discuss what it means for digital technology to support sustainability and how humans and technology can work together optimally for a more sustainable future. Contemporary digital technologies are hailed by tech companies, governments and academics as leading-edge solutions to the challenges of environmental sustainability; smarter homes, more persuasive technologies, and a robust Internet of Things hold the promise for creating a greener world. Yet, deployments of interactive technologies for such purposes often lead to a paradox: they algorithmically "optimize" heating and lighting of houses without regard to the dynamics of daily life in the home; they can collect and display data that allow us to reflect on energy and emissions, yet the same information can cause us to raise our expectations for comfort and convenience; they might allow us to share best practice for sustainable living through social networking and online communities, yet these same systems further our participation in consumerism and contribute to an ever-greater volume of electronic waste.By acknowledging these paradoxes, this book represents a significant critical inquiry into digital technology’s longer-term impact on ideals of sustainability. Written by an interdisciplinary team of contributors this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of human computer interaction and environmental studies.

Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability

Higher Education and the Challenge of Sustainability
Author: Peter Blaze Corcoran
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2007-05-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 030648515X

This book challenges universities to rethink their missions and to re-structure courses, research programs, and campus life in terms of sustainability. The author offers valuable theoretical and practical resources for students, teachers, researchers, and administrators who seek sustainability in higher education. Sustainability is explored as an outcome and a process of learning, and also as a catalyst for educational change and institutional innovation.

Great Transition

Great Transition
Author: Paul Raskin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 99
Release: 2002
Genre: Economic development
ISBN: 9780971241817

Thriving Beyond Sustainability

Thriving Beyond Sustainability
Author: Andres R. Edwards
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2010-05-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1550924508

Every fifteen seconds on our Earth, a child dies from waterborne disease. Three times an hour, another species becomes extinct. Each day we consume eighty-five million barrels of oil and pump twenty-three million tons of carbon dioxide into an already warming atmosphere. But against this bleak backdrop, beacons of hope shine from thousands of large and small initiatives taking place everywhere from isolated villages to major urban centers. Thriving Beyond Sustainability draws a collective map of individuals, organizations, and communities from around the world that are committed to building an alternative future—one that strives to restore ecological health; reinvent outmoded institutions; and rejuvenate our environmental, social, and economic systems. The projects and initiatives profiled are meeting the challenges of the day with optimism, hope, and results, leading the way in: Relocalization Green commerce Ecological design Environmental conservation Social transformation Overflowing with inspiration, the stories and ideas in these pages will cause the most chronic pessimist to see the glass as half full—to move beyond a perception of surviving with scarcity to one of flourishing with abundance. The comprehensive resource section provides the tools for everyone to become a catalyst for change. Andres R. Edwards is the author of The Sustainability Revolution, which has sold over twenty thousand copies. He is an educator, media designer, LEED-accredited green building and sustainability consultant, and the founder of EduTracks, a firm specializing in developing education programs and providing consulting services on sustainable practices.

Green, Fair, and Prosperous

Green, Fair, and Prosperous
Author: Charles Connerly
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 160938721X

At the center of what was once the tallgrass prairie, Iowa has stood out for clearing the land and becoming one of the most productive agricultural states in the nation. But its success is challenged by multiple issues including but not limited to a decline in union representation of meatpacking workers; lack of demographic diversity; the advent of job-replacing mechanization; growing income inequality; negative contributions to and effects of climate change and environmental hazards. To become green, fair, and prosperous, Connerly argues that Iowa must reckon with its past and the fact that its farm economy continues to pollute waterways, while remaining utterly unprepared for climate change. Iowa must recognize ways in which it can bolster its residents’ standard of living and move away from its demographic tradition of whiteness. For development to be sustainable, society must balance it with environmental protection and social justice. Connerly provides a crucial roadmap for how Iowans can move forward and achieve this balance.