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Introduction to Sustainable Development for Engineering and Built Environment Professionals
Unit 1 - A New Perspective
Keynote
Lecture
1: The Call for Sustainable Development
To
provide the context within which the call for sustainable
development arose. In its 2003 report, ‘Sustainable
Development in a Dynamic World’, the World
Bank summed up why so many people are now concerned
about achieving sustainable development,[1]
The
next 50 years could see a fourfold increase in
the size of the global economy and significant
reductions in poverty, but only if governments
act now to avert a growing risk of severe damage
to the environment and profound social unrest.
Without better policies and institutions, social
and environmental strains may derail development
progress, leading to higher poverty levels and
a decline in the quality of life for everybody.
Lecture 2: What has lead
to a lack of Sustainability?
To develop an understanding of the core reasons
for the current unsustainable situation. To also
cover some of the reasons why there are ever increasing
pressures on the planet’s ecosystems and natural
resources to provide enough for the increasing global
population. Fundamentally, modern society’s
development is unsustainable, as the real cost of
these increasing pressures - and further increasing
negative social and environmental impacts in the
future - are not included in the price of goods
and services.
Lecture 3: Sustainability as a Driver
of Innovation
To present theory regarding the next ‘wave
of innovation’ and the emerging critical mass
of enabling technologies that will achieve business
competitiveness, improved economic growth and a
more sustainable world. To explain that the transition
to a sustainable economy, if focused on improving
resource productivity through innovation, may actually
lead to higher economic growth than business-as-usual.
At the same time, it may also reduce environmental
pressures and enhance employment. To also show that
the rapid uptake of this next wave of innovation
in sustainable development (to ensure development
occurs within ecological limits) will depend significantly
on the action of engineers. Hence it is vital that
engineers are literate and trained in all these
new methods to help society achieve sustainable
development in the near future.
Lecture 4: Emerging Technological Innovations
To provide some examples of technological innovations
that are beginning to drive what we have referred
to as ‘the next Industrial Revolution’,
for sustainable development. To also note the importance
of existing innovations that may have the potential
to be dramatically transformed.
Preliminaries
The engineering profession will play
a significant part in moving society to a more sustainable
way of life. Recognising this, the Engineering Sustainable
Solution Program (ESSP) seeks to provide engineers
and built environment professionals with a basic
understanding of sustainability issues and opportunities
as they relate to their practice. The ESSP is designed
to facilitate the effective incorporation of key
pieces of information, or ‘critical literacies’,
relating to sustainability into engineering curricula
and capacity building. This program provides an
alert to sustainability principles and activity
in the engineering profession.
In the preparation of any education program, and
in particular an introductory course, it is a challenge
to cover all possible questions or uncertainties
that may arise during delivery of the material.
In response to this challenge, this program will
be supported (in its critical academic rigour and
structure) by engineering related material in the
publication, The Natural Advantage of Nations,
and its companion web site (www.naturaledgeproject.net)
along with other key texts.
Hargroves,
K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage
of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and
Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan,
London.
The
Text Book along with each of the units has an online
companion to provide additional supporting material.
Optional reading material is provided after each
lecture for those who wish to explore the content
in more detail.
Acknowledgements
The development of the Engineering Sustainable
Solutions Program – Critical Literacies
Portfolio has been supported by grants from the
following organisations:
-
UNESCO,
Division of Basic and Engineering Sciences,
Natural Sciences Sector (with particular support
and mentoring from Tony Marjoram, Senior Programme
Specialist - Engineering Sciences, and Françoise
Lee).
-
The Institution of Engineers Australia, College
of Environmental Engineers (with particular
support and mentoring from Martin Dwyer, Director
Engineering Practice, and Peter Greenwood, Doug
Jones, Andrew Downing, Tim Macoun, Julie Armstrong
and Paul Varsanyi).
-
The Society for Sustainability and Environmental
Engineering (with particular support and mentoring
from Terrence Jeyaretnam).
Expert review and mentoring has been received from
Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumeister, The Biomimicry
Guild (USA); Paul Anastas, Green Chemistry Institute
(USA); Alan Pears RMIT University (AUS); Amory Lovins,
Rocky Mountain Institute (USA); Tom Conner, KBR
(AUS); and Mia Kelly, TNEP Working Group (AUS).
We would like to add a special thank you to the
Engineers Australia review panel Trevor Daniell,
Thomas Brinsmead and David Hood.
Citation
Smith, M., Hargroves, K. and Paten, C. (2007) Engineering
Sustainable Solutions Program: Critical Literacies
Portfolio, The Natural Edge Project, Australia
(TNEP).
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Brief
Background Information |
Where
Has Sustainability Come From?
A Geological Perspective
The following text excerpts are drawn with permission,
from a presentation delivered by Molly Harris-Olsen
to the 2005 Outdoor Education Conference (Tallebudgera,
Australia, July 2005).
Today I want to challenge you to ‘Think like
a Mountain’, to look back over the last 4.5
billion years, and forward to the next 1000 years
of planet Earth. I want to challenge you to step
out of your comfort zone, to contemplate the evolution
of the planet that brought you here and grapple
with the enormous challenges we face today. I want
to challenge you to imagine what a sustainable civilisation
will look like in the year three thousand (3000).
Humanity in all its wonderful diversity, living
on an ecologically rich, climate stable, healthy,
peaceful planet Earth.
John Seed and Joanna Macy in their ground breaking
book titled Thinking Like a Mountain created one
of the earliest modern methods of changing the way
we look at the world and humanity’s place
in it. The workshops that they began in the 1980s
called ‘Towards a Council of all Beings’
included a meditation of ‘Evolutionary Remembering’,
it begins:
Let
us go back, way back before the birth of our planet
Earth, back to the mystery of the universe coming
into being. We go back to a time of primordial
silence… of emptiness… before the
beginning of time… the very ground of all
being. From this state of immense potential, an
unimaginably powerful explosion takes place…
energy travelling at the speed of light hurtles
in all directions, creating direction, creating
the universe. It is so hot in these first moments
that no matter can exist; only pure energy in
the form of light… thus time and space are
born. Using a compressed time scale (one day =
750, 000, 000 years), the Earth is formed out
of the solar nebula Sunday at midnight, the beginning
of the 1st day. All day Monday is spent getting
geologically organized. There is no life until
Tuesday noon. Amazingly, life, beginning with
that first prokaryote cell in the primordial oceans,
lifts itself by its own bootstraps, and survives!
About Wednesday at midnight, photosynthesis gets
going into high gear. Early Thursday morning in
the wee hours, the eukaryote cells appear. Life
begins then to really flourish and evolve into
more complex forms. By Saturday morning (the sixth
day, the last day of creation) there’s finally
enough oxygen that the amphibians come onto the
land, and there’s been enough chlorophyll
manufactured for the fossil fuels to begin to
form. Around four o’clock Saturday afternoon,
the giant reptiles begin to appear. They hang
around for quite a long time as species go, until
9:55pm, nearly six hours. Humanity should be so
lucky.
About 20 minutes after they are gone, at 10:15
pm Saturday night, the primates appear. The Grand
Canyon begins to take shape 16 minutes before
midnight. Australapithecus, the first species
on our branch off the main primate tree, shows
up at 11:53 pm, seven minutes ago. Homo Sapien
Sapien arrives at 11:59:54 pm – that is
us!
Arriving on the scene just six seconds ago! ‘Let
the party begin!’ with just a little over
one second to go, 1.2 seconds in geologic time,
we (i.e. our forbearers) throw off the habits
of hunting and gathering to become farmers, and
begin to change and sacrifice the environment
to suit, and feed our appetites... one fortieth
of a second ago, the industrial revolution ushers
in the age of technology; an eightieth of a second
ago, we discover oil (the party picks up steam);
one/two-hundredth of a second ago, we learn how
to split the atom. The party gets very dangerous
indeed. And now it’s midnight, the beginning
of the seventh day.
The Union of Concerned Scientists, numbering some
2000 (including more than 100 Nobel Laureates),
say we have ‘one to a few’ decades
to reverse course. In other words, the next 200th
of a second will be decisive; the time since we
learned to split the atom, that short span of
time projected not backward, but into the future,
will decide our fate.
John Seed and Joanna Macy, 1998[2]
Looking Back at Sustainability Discussions
When was the first articulation of engineering for
sustainable development? Most would expect this
occurred sometime during the 1960s or 1970s. In
fact, the first documented articulation about the
need for engineers to design sustainably and with
awareness of the needs of future generations (intergenerational
equity), comes from Professor Svante August Arrhenius
(1859–1927) in his work, Chemistry in
Modern Life (1925).[3]
Arrhenius was the Director of the Nobel Institute
in Sweden at the time that he wrote,
Engineers must design more efficient internal
combustion engines capable of running on alternative
fuels such as alcohol, and new research into battery
power should be undertaken… Wind motors
and solar engines hold great promise and would
reduce the level of CO2
emissions. Forests must be planted… To conserve
coal, half a tonne of which is burned in transporting
the other half tonne to market… so the building
of power plants should be in close proximity to
the mines… All lighting with petroleum products
should be replaced with more efficient electric
lamps.
Professor Svante August Arrhenius, 1925[4]
Arrhenius called for the amount of waste from industry
to be reduced, to ensure that future generations
could also meet their needs for living. He argued
that the industrial world had given rise to a new
kind of international warrior, who he called the
‘conquistador of waste’. Arrhenius wrote,
Like insane wastrels, we spend that which
we received in legacy from our fathers. Our descendants
surely will sensor us for having squandered their
just birthright… Statesman can plead no
excuse for letting development go on to the point
where mankind will run the danger of the end of
natural resources in a few hundred years.
Arrhenius invoked the chemist’s commandment
‘Though Shall Not Waste’ to
argue that legislation be enacted aimed at both
reducing consumption and promoting conservation.
Arrhenius above all believed in humanity’s
capacity for innovation and foresight to solve these
problems:
Doubtless
humanity will succeed eventually in solving this
problem… Herein lies our hope for the future.
Priceless is that forethought which has lifted
mankind from the wild beast to the high standpoint
of civilized humanity.
He
also saw the danger of resource wars, fearing a
return to ‘dark times’ after the end
of World War One:
Concern
about our raw materials casts its dark shadow
over mankind. Those states which lack [them] throw
lustful glances at neighbours, which happen to
have more than they use. Still more tempting is
the desire for gain from lands on the other side
of the seas, inhabited by uncivilized natives,
with interest unawakened in guardianship.
Recognition of Ecological Limits
There have been many interesting findings about
the way forests and trees were managed by villages
in India in ancient times, and their careful methods
of harvesting medicines, firewood, and building
material in accordance with natural renewal rates.
There is now a database being built of these 'sacred
groves' across India. The Indian (Indus-Sarasvati)
Civilisation was the world's first to build planned
towns, with underground drainage, civil sanitation,
hydraulic engineering, and air-cooling architecture.
Oven baked bricks were invented in India in approximately
4,000 BC. From complex Harappan towns to Delhi's
Qutub Minar and other large projects, India's indigenous
technologies were very sophisticated in design,
planning, water supply, traffic flow, natural air
conditioning, complex stone work, and construction
engineering.
Comparatively, it was a fuel crisis which led Ancient
Greeks to use passive solar energy by orienting
toward the sun. Greeks planned whole cities (Priene
for instance) so all homes had access to sunlight
during winter. John Perlin and co-author Ken Butti
have written a history of passive solar design in
A Golden Thread - 2500 Years of Solar Architecture
and Technology;[5]
an approach to heating and cooling homes through
simple devices and architectural design rather than
mechanically operated systems.
Note: Students may be interested in exploring
the successes and failures of past civilisations
in Jared Diamond’s book ‘Collapse: How
Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed’[6].
The chapter on Australia’s journey and the
final chapters provide a good snapshot of his argument
- that there is nothing inevitable about the survival
of a civilisation, and that population and material
consumption are currently outrunning the planet’s
capacity. Diamond’s hypothesis is that a common
factor in civilisation decline is environmental
decline that is ignored by the population and its
leaders.
Past Developments Powered by the Sun
Before the industrial revolution, many societies
used renewable solar energy from the Sun as the
cheap energy source. For instance, wind-driven mills
were used as early as 700 AD in Persia for irrigation
and milling grain. Solar power was used in everything
from sailing boats and ships, to passive solar designed
homes/buildings, to the drying of bricks for buildings,
to the burning of biomass for the refining of metal
and the making of swords.
In the early 1600s the rising cost and scarcity
of wood led to authorities in England looking for
alternative energy forms as well as a cheaper and
more efficient means of transporting them to the
capital. Engineers, politicians and the general
public became aware that the amount of forests being
cut down for building materials, furniture, heating
fuel, and for the needs of industry and the military
was unsustainable.
In 1603 James the First of England ordered that
clean burning anthracite coal be burned in the fireplaces
of his household. With the King of England setting
the example, by 1700 London had made the transition
from a wood burning city to one that relied mainly
on imported coal. In 1784 when Benjamin Franklin
visited Europe, he noted that the switch from wood
to coal had saved what remained of England’s
forests and he urged France and Germany to do the
same. Scientists and engineers at the time were
not aware of the scale of impact that the burning
of coal could contribute to climate change.
Early Alarms over Burning Fossil Fuels
Guy Challender, a coal engineer, was one of the
first to sound the alarm over increasing CO2
levels in the Earth’s atmosphere. Challender
measured Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
levels in his spare time during the 1930s-1940s
as well as researching historic CO2
levels. When he realised they were increasing in
the Earth’s atmosphere he warned that burning
fossil fuels would contribute to global warming.
In the 1950s scientists explored the science behind
why CO2 was not being significantly
absorbed by the oceans and with Challenger’s
empirical results, began recent efforts to understand
and address climate change.
But it was not until 1987 that a critical mass of
people round the globe realised how far greenhouse
gas emissions were overshooting the planet’s
ecological limits. In 1987 Antarctic results showed
that the Earth’s atmospheric concentrations
of CO2 and another greenhouse
gas, methane (CH4), were well above the historic
levels of the last 160,000 years. It was concluded
that significant ‘Factor 10’[7]
type reductions in these emissions would be needed
to bring the planet back within its ecological limits.
Why Do We Need to Think ‘Sustainably’?
A key aspect to understanding why sustainability
is so important, is understanding ecological system
limitations and thresholds, so we can design within
these systems. Although the planet is a complex
system, our understanding has improved by orders
of magnitude in the last two centuries. Raymond
J. Cole, from the University of British Columbia
cautions that, ‘irrespective of the social
and economic context, the health of the biosphere
is the limiting factor for sustainability’.[8]
The following information provides a brief overview
of the related background material. For a detailed
description on the content of this part refer to
Chapter 2, pages 36-42 of The Natural Advantage
of Nations.
The State of the Atmosphere
According to the International Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), effects on climate due to pollution,
land clearing and the industrial economy are now
very apparent. As shown in Figure i and Figure ii
below (based on air extracted from ice cores drilled
in the Antarctic ice-cap), we appear to be experiencing
a peaking of the natural cycle of greenhouse
gases and temperatures, and to this peak we are
adding more greenhouse gases from human activities.
Figure i. Changes in atmospheric
carbon dioxide and methane concentrations in the
atmosphere, in the last millennium.
Source: Etheridge et al
(1996), pp 4115–4128[9]
Figure ii. Plot of CO2
Concentrations and Temperature from 400,000 years
ago to 1950
Source: Petit, J. et al
(1999), pp 429-436[10]
When considering Figure i and Figure ii, two points
can be made:
-
In
2006, CO2 levels in the
atmosphere were at 380 parts per million (ppm)
- they have not been above 300ppm for at least
400,000 years. Further, data based on isotope
ratios in marine micro fossils suggests strongly
that CO2 levels have not,
in fact, been much above 300ppm for around 23
million years.
-
CO2 pumped into the atmosphere
will remain there for 80 to 100 years and so
will influence temperature and contribute to
the greenhouse effect long after its release.
This means that even if new emissions of carbon
dioxide are reduced the overall concentration
of CO2 will continue to
increase as the continuing emissions combine
with background levels.
The
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded
in their 2001 report that at whatever level global
warming is stopped, it will require a 70 percent
cut in global emissions to do so. According to Dr
Pearman, former chief of the CSIRO's Atmospheric
Physics Division and Australia's representative
on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), ‘we don't have that much longer’.
These conclusions may seem extreme but they come
from a detailed understanding of atmospheric science
and the future global trends in development, material
and energy flow.
Stabilising concentrations at double the pre-industrial
levels will require deep cuts in annual global
emissions, eventually by 60 percent or more. To
achieve stabilisation of atmospheric CO2
concentrations at 550 ppm (double the ‘natural’
levels of CO2) it is necessary
to reduce emissions by 40-60 percent by the end
of the century, and 65-85 per cent by 2150. Further
reductions will be required beyond 2150.
International Panel on Climate Change,
2001[11]
Climate Change Scenarios
Some students may have seen fictional dramas like
the movie The Day After Tomorrow directed
by Roland Emmerich.[12]
Although climate change in these types of fictional
movies is often highly dramatised for viewer entertainment,
the possible consequences of planetary climate change
are increasingly popular topics of discussion and
the IPCC has developed a number of climate change
scenarios to evaluate future impacts. These scenarios
show that even if it is assumed that rapid changes
in economic structure and technology are adopted,
CO2 concentrations will double
by the end of the century, resulting in an increase
in average global temperatures of around 2°C
and a sea-level rise of 30cm.
The IPCC sums up by stating, ‘the climate
system is subject to great inertia so that stabilization
of CO2 concentrations, at
any level, requires eventual reduction of global
CO2 net emissions to a small
fraction of the current emission level’.[13]
Therefore it is vital that efforts to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions start sooner than later. The IPCC
clearly states that, ‘the greater the
reductions in emissions and the earlier they are
introduced, the smaller and slower the projected
warming and the rise in sea levels’.[14]
Doubling of atmospheric concentrations of CO2
is forecast to cause a rise in global warming in
the range of 1.4-2.6°C by the end of the century.[15]
The loss of ecosystem services from global warming
may well be the largest hidden consequence and cost
of greenhouse gas emissions to the global economy.
When talking about global temperature rises in the
order of 1-2°C it is easy to think that this
is negligible and the impacts will be minor. However
as the following table from the CSIRO shows, small
increases in global temperature are expected to
have massive impacts across a range of ecological
and social areas in Australia.
Table
i. Summary of climate change impacts on
Australia across selected areas
Source:
CSIRO Marine & Atmospheric Research
(2006)[16]
The 2006 Stern Review states, ‘Carbon
emissions have already pushed up global temperatures
by half a degree Celsius. If no action is taken
on emissions, there is more than a 75% chance of
global temperatures rising between two and three
degrees Celsius over the next 50 years. There is
a 50% chance that average global temperatures could
rise by five degrees Celsius.’ The following
Figure (iii) from the Review correlates to the levels
of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere with the expected
impacts across a range of factors such as food,
water and ecosystems.
Figure
iii. Stabilisation levels and probability
ranges for temperature increases.
Source:
Stern, Sir N. (2006)[17]
Research published in Science in 2005 indicates
that for 650,000 years Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
levels have been at, or less than, 260 parts per
million (ppm).[18]
Up until the Industrial Revolution, CO2
was the most significant contributor to global warming
of the various types of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) -
although methane has a Global Warming Potential
(GWP) of 21 times that of CO2
it has a much shorter atmospheric lifetime. Since
the Industrial Revolution, industrial processes
have created and emitted new forms of potent GHG’s
such as Nitrous Oxide (with a GWP 310 times that
of CO2 lasting 150 years),
Hydrofluorocarbons (GWP x11,700, lasting 264 years),
Perfluorocarbons (GWP x9,200, lasting 10,000 years)
and Sulfur Hexafluoride (GWP x23,900, lasting 3,200
years). The research indicates that in 2006 CO2
was at 380ppm. When combined with the other GHGs
being emitted, the equivalent level of CO2
(shown as CO2e) is currently
430ppm and is rising at more than 2ppm each year.[19]
George Monbiot, in his 2006 book, Heat: How
to Stop the Planet from Boiling,[20]
argues that ‘to avert catastrophic effects
on both humans and ecosystems, we should seek to
prevent global temperatures from rising by more
than two degrees above pre-industrial levels, as
two degrees is the point at which some of the most
dangerous processes catalysed by climate change
could become irreversible’. Monbiot suggests
that these impacts include the drying out of many
parts of Africa, and the inundation of salt water
into the aquifers used by cities such as Shanghai,
Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok, Kolkata, Mumbai, Karachi,
Lagos, Buenos Aires and Lima. Researchers at the
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact (Germany) have
estimated that holding global temperature change
to below two degrees means stabilising concentrations
of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at or below
440ppm equivalent CO2 (CO2e).
Therefore if the Stern Review estimate of 430ppm
of CO2e is accurate then greenhouse
gas concentrations cannot increase much more than
they are today if we are to avoid serious damage
to the world’s ecosystems.
How likely is this to happen based on current trends?
Monbiot points out that ‘according to
a paper published by scientists at the Met Office
we currently produce around 7 billion tonnes per
year of carbon dioxide’,[21]
let alone the other five types of GHG. The Meteorological
Office paper suggests that, ‘the current
total capacity of the biosphere to absorb this CO2
is 4 billion tonnes a year’.[22]
Therefore we need to at least reduce our emissions
from seven billion tons to four billion tonnes (i.e.
by 43 percent) to stay within the current biospheres
capacity. One of the many complicating factors
when considering climate science is that the capacity
of the biosphere will reduce non-linearly as the
impacts of global warming affect the planets ecosystems.
The Met Office paper goes on to suggest that ‘by
2030 the capacity of the biosphere will reduce to
2.7 billion tonnes’. Therefore we
need to reduce the current seven billion tonnes
produced per year down to 2.7 billion tonnes a year
(i.e. by 62 percent) by 2030.
The Stern Review states that most climate models
show a sobering reality: that we will actually increase
rather than decrease levels and reach approximately
560ppm CO2e sometime
between 2030 and 2060 - effectively a doubling of
the pre-industrial levels. This is expected to result
in a warming of at least 5°C.
On
a global scale [this] would be far outside the
experience of human civilisation … such
impacts as the Greenland or West Antarctic Ice
Sheets melting [would commit] the world to a sea
level rise of between 5 and 12 metres.
Sir
Nicholas Stern, 2006[23]
As Al Gore points out with vivid clarity in his
acclaimed film, An Inconvenient Truth,
information such as this tends to have two effects
on people, either denial or despair, both resulting
in little or no action. The main risk is that people
will shift quickly from denial to despair and miss
the opportunity space in between. What will help,
is every person in a position to influence doing
all they can as fast as they can, in the hope that
what survives our development experiment is capable
of maintaining life as we know it.
Addressing Global Warming[24]
Hunter Lovins, President of Natural Capitalism Solutions,
dedicates her life to demonstrating that a wide
array of opportunities exists to reduce emissions
of greenhouse gases (GHG) and save energy in ways
that reduce cost and confer substantial competitive
advantage to companies that embrace them. However
she has found that too few corporate executives
are aware of such opportunities; let alone how to
capture them. Working with our team from The Natural
Edge Project on strategies to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions for the Chicago and European Climate
Exchanges Hunter Lovins has concluded that the struggle
to understand the science of complex carbon cycles
has afforded business leaders and politicians the
luxury of waiting. And, for better or for worse,
that time has passed.
In the report to the climate exchanges in March
of 2005 Hunter Lovins and The Natural Edge Project
highlighted the following points:
-
Science has revealed deeper trouble and shorter
timelines for solving global warming problems
than had previously been thought. In January,
2005, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), the international scientific body charged
with establishing the science of climate change,
told an international conference in Mauritius
attended by 114 governments that global warming
has already hit the danger point that international
attempts to curb it are designed to avoid. Pachauri
stated that he personally believes the world
has ‘already reached the level of
dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere,’ and called for immediate
and ‘very deep’ cuts in emissions.
Pachauri cited a multi-year study by 300 scientists
which showed that the Arctic was warming twice
as fast as the rest of the world, and that its
ice cap have shrunk by up to 20 percent in the
past three decades. Remaining ice is 40 percent
thinner than it was in the 1970s and is expected
to disappear altogether by 2070. The levels
of carbon dioxide have leapt abruptly over the
past two years, suggesting that climate change
may be accelerating out of control. Pachauri
stated that because of inertia built into the
Earth's natural systems, the world is now only
experiencing the result of pollution emitted
in the 1960s, and much greater effects will
occur as the increased pollution of later decades
work their way through. Carbon released into
the atmosphere today will still be insulating
the earth for decades. Pachauri concluded: ‘we
are risking the ability of the human race to
survive.’
-
To adopt an aggressive climate strategy is equally
important for business, as competent greenhouse
gas management is becoming a proxy for competent
corporate governance. Leaders already capturing
the sustainability advantage often start because
they realise that acting now is actually a ‘no
regrets’ strategy - if climate change
turns out to be real, they will already be in
a leadership position in dealing responsibly
with it, but even if the scientists are wrong
and there is no threat to the climate, these
are actions they want to take anyway, because
doing so is profitable. In a world that overwhelmingly
recognises climate change as a serious threat,
behaviour that ignores it is becoming seen as
irresponsible.
Far from being a burden, recent studies in the United
Kingdom and Australia show that deep cuts in carbon
emissions are achievable and affordable. Organisations
in the U.S. have also undertaken studies on how
to reduce greenhouse emissions significantly over
the next 30-50 years,[25]
while in the U.K. the Blair Government has released
a detailed plan for how a 60 percent reduction in
emissions might be achieved. There are now over
13 major studies showing how nations could achieve
deep cuts in greenhouse emissions cost-effectively
and even profitably.[26]
In a landmark speech, Tony Blair remarked that,
[The Scientists have] said that by using known
technologies, or those very close to market, the
world could reduce emissions by over 60 percent.
This would not involve huge shifts in the economy,
or enormous changes in lifestyles. It would allow
developing countries to increase emissions, in
the medium term, on a conventional development
path. And it could be achieved gradually, over
a period of years by 2050. There is huge potential
from wind, wave and other renewable technologies.
Improving the efficiency with which we operate
our energy processes also offers enormous savings
- up to half our energy use could be saved by
the use of known efficiency techniques.
Tony Blair, PM Great Britain, 2003[27]
Even a cautious study by the UK’s Department
of Trade and Industry concluded that the economic
costs of reducing emissions in the UK would be small,
costing approximately six months of GDP between
now and 2050.[28]
And these calculations made no effort to tabulate
the benefits of climate action. The study found
that, if phased in over 50 years, the economic impacts
do not impose significant costs on the economy but
rather, it can create more energy-efficient businesses,
less congested traffic in cities, and new export
opportunities for firms and nations that lead the
charge. European nations such as the UK, Sweden,
France, Denmark, and The Netherlands have already
made significant reduction commitments of approximately
60 percent by 2050.
Sweden, for example, has called for a European-wide
target of 60 percent by 2050. France has also taken
a very aggressive position regarding its longer-term
commitment, promising to reduce emissions by 75
percent by 2050. Denmark, meanwhile, has renewed
its commitment to a 21 percent reductions target
by 2010, with wind already generating 20 percent
of its electricity needs.
Globally, numerous companies and communities are
achieving their GHG reduction targets ahead of schedule,
and are achieving higher than expected returns on
investment. In the UK, a range of companies, many
from the heaviest industrial sectors, have committed
to 12 percent reductions by 2010. The UK Government
signed 10-year Climate Certification Agreements
(CCA) in 2000 with 44 industry sectors, representing
more than 5,000 companies. They include the UK's
most energy-intensive industries: steel, aluminium,
cement, chemicals, paper, and food and drink. Of
12,000 individual sites covered by CCAs, 88 percent
met their targets and have had their reductions
renewed.
The most successful climate change companies (i.e.
from energy-intensive DuPont and BP to consumer
product companies like Nike and Interface) are using
climate mitigation strategies to conduct profitable
transformations in their businesses. With the advent
of carbon dioxide trading through the Kyoto Protocol
and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme,
and the capabilities of the Chicago and European
Climate Exchanges to mitigate risks through futures
markets and derivatives, business and government
organisation managers have the opportunity to explore
the business case for systematic approaches to climate
change. Such strategies make sense, and make money.
Far from being a burden, strategically addressing
Green House Gases (GHGs) can be a catalyst for dramatic
improvements for business performance, facilities
management, and brand enhancement. In effect, a
strategy to identify opportunities to reduce emissions
will lead to the discovery of opportunities to achieve
multiple benefits throughout the organisation.
What are the Opportunities in ‘Sustainability’?
The following information provides a brief
overview of the related background material, from
Hargroves, K. and Smith, M. (2005) The Natural
Advantage of Nations, Chapter 1: Natural Advantage
of Nations, ‘A Critical Mass of Enabling
Technologies’, pp 16-22; Chapter 6: Natural
Advantage and the Firm, ‘What will be the
major driver of innovation in the 21st century?’
pp 83- 84; and Chapter 13: National Systems of
Innovation, pp 244-271.
Looking at the Waves of Innovation
Figure
iv. Waves of Innovation Model
Source:
Hargroves, K. and Smith, M. (2005), p 17.[29]
Nations and firms are increasingly aware of being
ahead of the next so-called ‘waves’
of innovation in order to increase prosperity
and maintain economic growth. Recent developments
and studies in economics now place innovation
and better technical design at the heart of sustained
economic growth over long periods. Increasingly
everyone, from business leaders to policy makers,
to politicians, to academics, are now asking,
‘what will give rise to the sustainable
areas of innovation?’ In the past,
major breakthroughs in innovation have occurred
when there have been enough effective technologies
complementing each other, and providing more efficient
ways to meet people’s needs. In order for
a wave of innovation to occur there needs to be
a significant range forming a critical mass of
relatively new and emerging technologies and a
recognised genuine need in the market that will
lead to a market expansion. As discussed in Natural
Capitalism,[30]
the first industrial revolution began with the
steam engine and the new machines made to increase
the labour productivity of cotton spinning and
the production of steel. This was followed by
further industrial shifts with the engineering
that evolved out of advances in the understanding
of, for instance, electro-magnetism.
A focus on mass production of the automobile and
electrification of cities ensued, a wave that
lasted until the 1940s. The rise of semiconductors
and electronics provided just some of the ‘enabling
technologies’ that helped create new business
opportunities throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
In the case of the Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) wave of innovation, it is easy
to identify the technologies that were driving
the growth of capacity in the industry. Innovations
in computer processing power, network bandwidth
and data storage have all helped achieve the predictions
of Gordon Moore in the 1970s, that ‘computing
power will continue to double every 18 months,
while costs hold constant’. This last
wave of industrial activity was largely based
on semiconductors, fibre optics, networks and
software.
Many of the applications in the previous IT wave
of innovation were based on the idea of reducing
transaction costs.[31]
In the book, Unleashing the Killer App,
Downes and Mui[32]
suggest that the market for the many internet
applications was in the reduction of transaction
costs. For instance, e-mail is a cheap and fast
means of communication, finding information in
general is now much faster and cheaper online
with internet booking, purchasing and banking,
significantly reducing the costs of customer transactions.
The ICT revolution is just one in a series of
long waves of industrial innovation first noted
in the 1940s by Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian-born
economist. In his work, Schumpeter tracked the
rise and flow of economies with respect to technology.
There is now a critical mass of enabling eco-innovations
making integrated approaches to sustainable development
economically viable. As reported in Small
is Profitable,[33]
‘these developments form not simply
a list of separate items, but a web of developments
that all reinforce each other. Their effect is
thus both individually important and collectively
profound.’
If the last wave of innovation, ICT, was driven
by market needs such as reducing transaction costs,
many believe there is significant evidence that
the next waves of innovation will be driven by
the need to simultaneously improve resource productivity
while lightening our environmental load on the
planet.
Looking at Opportunities
The examples that will be featured throughout
this portfolio provide evidence and add weight,
to what many have already sensed; namely, that
the problems are serious but there are exciting
efforts and solutions being developed around the
world through many industry sectors.[34]
Not only do we now have solutions to many problems,
but we are also gaining insight as to which solutions
are the most cost-effective and profitable. Hence,
nations and companies that work together to address
sustainable development can position themselves
to be at the forefront of the next waves of innovation.
Consider some interesting points:
-
The
recent Australian Federal Government’s
white paper on energy stated that there was
at least AU$5 billion worth of energy efficiency
savings possible in the Australian economy,
and maybe as much as AU$15 billion. Studies
in the USA show there is over US$300 billion
worth of potential energy efficiency savings
yet to be realised.[35]
-
The Institution of Engineers Australia writes,[36]
It appears that some Australian businesses
have made the assumption that compliance with
Kyoto will increase business costs, and fail
to acknowledge that many opportunities for improving
efficiency are presented. For example, mining
company MIM has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions
per unit of output by around 50 percent since
1990. Participants in the NSW Sustainable Energy
Development Authority’s Energy Smart Business
program are saving millions of dollars at internal
rates of return of 40 percent per annum or better.
Transfer of cement production from the old ‘wet’
process to the ‘dry’ process has
halved energy consumption per tonne, while blending
blast furnace slag and fly ash with cement (emerging)
can again halve energy consumption per tonne
of cement.
-
The Lighting Council of Australia explains that,
‘in 1999, Australia had spent approximately
$15 billion on electricity. Of this, lighting
accounted for some $5 billion. Well-designed,
energy-efficient lighting and lighting controls
can slash $1.25 billion a year off this bill’.
Hargroves and Smith in The Natural Advantage
of Nations[37]
argue that such a new wave of innovation will
significantly assist economic growth, in line
with the work of Stanford University Professor
of Economics Professor Paul Romer.
We now know that the classical economic suggestion
that we can grow rich by accumulating more and
more pieces of physical capital is simply wrong…
Economic growth occurs whenever people take resources
and rearrange them in ways that are more valuable.
A useful metaphor for production in an economy
comes from the kitchen. To create valuable products,
we mix inexpensive ingredients together according
to a recipe. The cooking one can do is only limited
by the supply of ingredients, and most cooking
in the economy produces undesirable side effects.
If economic growth could be achieved only by doing
more and more of the same kind of cooking, we
would run out of raw materials and suffer from
unacceptable levels of pollution and nuisance.
Human history teaches us however that economic
growth springs from better recipes, not just from
more cooking. New recipes generally produce fewer
unpleasant side effects and generate more economic
value per unit of raw material. Every generation
has perceived the limits to growth that finite
resources and undesirable side effects would pose
if no new recipes or ideas were discovered. And
every generation has underestimated the potential
for finding new recipes and ideas. We constantly
fail to grasp how many ideas remain to be discovered.
Prof.
Paul Romer, Stamford University, 1994[38]
Earth Systems Engineering[39]
Earth Systems Engineering (ESE) was first used
by Dr Braden Allenby in 1998 with reference to
industrial ecology. Industrial ecology is an emerging
field of engineering defined as ‘the
multidisciplinary study of industrial systems
and economic activities, and their links to fundamental
natural systems’.[40]
The success of industrial ecology motivated the
National Academy of Engineering to organise a
meeting on Earth System Engineering in 2000, from
which ‘Earth Systems Engineering’
was defined by the US National Academy for Engineering
(NAE) as, ‘a multidisciplinary (engineering,
science, social science, and governance) process
of solution development that takes a holistic
view of natural and human system interactions’.
The goal of ESE (defined during a NAE meeting
on ESE in 2000) is to better understand complex,
nonlinear systems of global importance, and to
develop the tools necessary to implement that
understanding.
Earth System Engineering emphasises five main
characteristics that apply to all branches of
engineering:
-
Many engineering decisions cannot be made independently
of the surrounding natural and human-made systems
because modern engineering systems have the
power to significantly affect the environment
far into the future. Our ability to cause planetary
change through technology is growing faster
than our ability to understand and manage the
technical, social, economic, environmental,
and ethical consequences of such change.
- The traditional
approach that engineering is only a process to
devise and implement a chosen solution amid several
purely technical options must be challenged. A
more holistic approach to engineering requires
an understanding of interactions between engineered
and non-engineered systems, inclusion of non-technical
issues, and a system approach (rather than a Cartesian
approach) to simulate and comprehend such interactions.
- The quality of
engineering decisions in society directly affects
the quality of life of human and natural systems
today and in the future.
- There is a need
for a new educational approach that will give
engineering students (undergraduate and graduate)
a broader perspective beyond technical issues
and an exposure to the principles of sustainable
development, renewable resources management, and
systems thinking. This does not mean that existing
engineering curricula need to be changed in their
entirety. Rather, new holistic components need
to be integrated, emphasising more of a system
approach to engineering education.
- Multi-disciplinary
research is needed to create new quantitative
tools and methods to better manage non-natural
systems so that such systems have a longer life
cycle and are less disruptive to natural systems
in general.
In concluding this introduction, we provide a
cautionary note to the opportunities presented.
It is important that we use a common language.
For example, we need to be careful with regard
to what we call ‘sustainable’ practices,
versus practices that are progressively improving
their position along the ‘sustainability
journey’. The parts of this course on ‘Learning
the Language’ explore the language of sustainability
in more detail, providing students with critical
tools to discuss, debate and research in this
field.
| |
Additional
Reading Material |
Further to the footnotes provided within this document,
the following references are provided in full, for
students wishing to explore some of them in further
detail (an optional activity):
- Arrhenius, S. (1925) Chemistry in Modern Life,
Library of Modern Sciences, D. Van Nostrand company.
A bibliographical summary of Arrhenius’ life
is available at: http://nobelprize.org/chemistry/laureates/1903/arrhenius-bio.html.
Accessed 7 June 2006.
- Cole, R. (1999) ‘Building environmental
assessment methods: clarifying intentions’,
Building Research & Information, vol
27 (4/5), pp 230-246, Routledge Publishing, London.
- Commonwealth of Australia (2004) Securing
Australia's Energy Future, produced by the
Energy Taskforce. Available at www.pmc.gov.au/energy_future.
Accessed 7 June 2006.
- Downes, L. and Mui, C. (1998) Unleashing the
Killer App, Harvard Business School Press,
Boston.
- Etheridge, D. M., Steele, L. P., Langenfelds,
R. L., Francey, R. J., Barnola, J.M. and Morgan
V. I. (1996) ‘Natural and anthropogenic changes
in atmospheric CO2 over the
last 1000 years from air in Antarctic ice and firn’,
Journal of Geophysical Research, vol 101(D2),
pp 4115–4128.
- IPCC (2001) Climate Change 2001: Synthesis
Report, Synthesis of the Third Assessment Report,
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, United
Nations Environment Program/World Meteorological
Organisation, Cambridge University Press, London.
- Lovins, A.B. et al. (2002) Small Is Profitable,
Rocky Mountain Institute Publications, Old Snowmass.
Available at www.smallisprofitable.org.
Accessed 7 June 2006.
- McDonough, W. and Braungart, M. (2002) Cradle
to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things,
North Point Press, New York.
- Monbiot, G. (2006) How to stop the planet
burning, Allen Lane, Penguin Press, New York.
- Perlin, J. and Butti, K. (1980) A Golden Thread
- 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology,
Cheshire Books, Palo Alto.
- Petit, J.R., Jouzel, J., Raynaud, D., Barkov,
N.I., Barnola, J.M., Basile, I., Bender, M., Chappellaz,
J., Davis, M., Delaygue, G., Delmotte, M., Kotlyakov,
V.M., Legrand, M., Lipenkov, V.Y., Lorius, C., Pepin,
L., Ritz, C., Saltzman, E., and Stievenard, M. (1999)
‘Climate and atmospheric history of the past
420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica’,
Nature, vol 399, pp 429-436.
- Price Waterhouse Coopers (1999) Report from
the Prime Ministers Science Engineering and Innovation
Council. Read about the Council’s
work. Accessed 7 June 2006.
-
United Nations Environment Program (2002) Industry
as a partner for sustainable development - 10 years
after Rio: the UNEP assessment, UNEP, United
Kingdom. This UNEP report documents sector-specific
progress in implementing Agenda 21, building on
the 22 industry-driven sector reports of the ‘Industry
as a Partner for Sustainable Development’
series.
-
von Weizsaecker, E., Lovins, A. and Lovins, L.H.
(1997) Factor 4: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource
Use, Earthscan, London.
[1]
World Bank (2003) World Development Report 2003:
Sustainable Development in a Dynamic World, World
Bank, Washington D.C. (Back)
[2]
Seed, J. and Macy, J. (1998) Thinking Like a Mountain,
New Society Publishers, Philadelphia. (Back)
[3]
Arrhenius, S. (1925) Chemistry in Modern Life,
Library of Modern Sciences, D. Van Nostrand Company,
New Jersey. (Back)
[4]
Ibid. (Back)
[5]
Perlin, J. and Butti, K. (1980) A Golden Thread
- 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology,
Cheshire Books, Palo Alto. Perlin and Butti provide
a short summary of the evolution of passive solar
design online at www.californiasolarcenter.org/history_passive.html.
Accessed 26 November 2006. (Back)
[6]
Diamond, J. (2005) Collapse: How Societies Choose
to Fail or Succeed, Penguin Books, New York.(Back)
[7]
The term ‘Factor 10’ reduction in emissions
means reducing emissions by 90 percent. (Back)
[8]
Cole, R. (1999) ‘Building environmental assessment
methods: clarifying intentions’, Building
Research & Information, vol 27 (4/5), pp
230-246, Routledge, London (part of the Taylor &
Francis Group). Available at http://www.architecture.ubc.ca/people/raycole/research/research_pdf_files/building_clarifying.pdf.
Accessed 26 November 2006. (Back)
[9]
Etheridge, D.M., Steele, L.P., Langenfelds, R.L.,
Francey, R.J., Bernola, J.M. and Morgan, V.I. (1996)
‘Natural and anthropogenic changes in atmospheric
CO2 over the last 1000 years from air in Antarctic
ice and firn’, Journal of Geophysical Research,
vol 101, no D2, pp 4115-4128. (Back)
[10]
Petit, J. (1999) ‘Climate and atmospheric history
of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core,
Antarctica’, Nature, vol 399, pp 429-436.
(Back)
[11]
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2001)
Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report, Synthesis
of the Third Assessment Report, Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, United Nations Environment
Program/World Meteorological Organisation, Cambridge
University Press. (Back)
[12]
The website for The Day After Tomorrow is at www.thedayaftertomorrowmovie.com
which includes interesting interactive data on extreme
weather events from around the planet. (Back)
[13]
IPCC (2001) Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report,
Synthesis of the Third Assessment Report, Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, United Nations Environment
Program/World Meteorological Organisation, Cambridge
University Press, p 16. (Back)
[14]
Ibid, p 19. (Back)
[15] Ibid,
Figure 22, p 209. (Back)
[16]
Preston, B.L. and Jones R.N. (2006) Climate Change
Impacts on Australia and the Benefits of Early Action
to Reduce Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions, CSIRO.
Available at http://www.csiro.au/files/files/p6fy.pdf.
Accessed 3 January 2007. (Back)
[17]
Stern. Sir N. (2006) Stern Review: The Economics
of Climate Change, Chapter 13: Towards a Goal
for a Climate, p 294, Figure 13.4. Available at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/8A7/C6/Chapter_13_Towards_a_goal_for_climate.pdf.
Accessed 3 January 2007. (Back)
[18] Siegenthaler,
U. Stocker, T.F. Monnin, E. Lüthi, D. Schwander,
J. Stauffer, B. Raynaud, D. Barnola, J.M. Fischer,
H. Masson-Delmotte, V.M. Jouze, J. (2005) 'Stable
Carbon Cycle–Climate Relationship During the
Late Pleistocene', Science, 25 November:
Vol. 310. no. 5752, pp. 1313-1317. (Back)
[19]
Stern, Sir N. (2006) Stern Review: The Economics
of Climate Change. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge. (Back)
[20]
Monbiot, G. (2006) How to stop the planet burning,
Allen Lane, Penguin Press, New York. (Back)
[21] Ibid.
(Back)
[22]
United Kingdom Meteorological Office (2005) International
Symposium on the Stabilisation of Greenhouse Gases,
Hadley Centre, Met Office, Exeter, UK. Available at
http://www.stabilisation2005.com/impacts/impacts_earth_system.pdf.
Accessed 3 January 2007. (Back)
[23]
Stern. Sir N. (2006) Stern
Review: The Economics of Climate Change. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge. (Back)
[24] The
background information for this part is an edited
extract from Hargroves, K., Smith, M. and Lovins,
H (2005) Prospering in a Carbon Constrained World:
Profitable Opportunities for Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Reduction, Chicago Climate Exchange and European
Climate Exchange Member Report. (Download from www.tnep.net)
(Back)
[25]
Interlaboratory Working Group (1997) Scenarios
of U.S. Carbon Reductions: Potential Impacts of Energy-Efficient
and Low-Carbon Technologies by 2010 and Beyond,
Oak Ridge, TN and Berkeley, CA: Oak Ridge National
Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
ORNL-444 and LBNL-40533, September (Apparently no
longer available on the Internet); Mintzer I. Leonard,
J.A. and Schwartz, P. (2003) US Energy Scenarios
for the 21st Century, Pew Center on Global Climate
Change. (Back)
[26]
References to reports that show that deep cuts in
greenhouse emissions are possible: Turton, H., Ma,
J., Saddler, H. and Hamilton, C. (2002) Long-Term
Greenhouse Gas Scenarios, Discussion Paper No.
48, The Australia Institute, Canberra; Department
of Trade and Industry (2003) Our Energy Future
– Creating a Low Carbon Economy, Energy
White Paper, UK Department of Trade and Industry,
version 11. Available at www.dti.gov.uk/energy/whitepaper.
Accessed 3 January 2007; Denniss, R., Diesendorf,
M. and Saddler, H. (2004) A Clean Energy Future
for Australia, a report by the Clean Energy Group
of Australia. (Back)
[27]
Tony Blair (2003) Speech on Sustainable Development.
Available at http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page3073.asp.
Accessed 1 February 2007. (Back)
[28] Department
of Trade and Industry (2003) Our Energy Future
– Creating a Low Carbon Economy, Energy
White Paper, UK Department of Trade and Industry,
version 11. (Back)
[29]
Hargroves, K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural
Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation
and Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan,
London. (Back)
[30]
Hawken, P., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1999) Natural
Capitalism: creating the next industrial revolution,
Earthscan, London. (Back)
[31] Transaction
costs are the costs of undertaking transactions between
purchaser and seller, supplier and distributor. (Back)
[32]
Downes, L. and Mui, C. (1998) Unleashing the Killer
App, Harvard Business School Press, Boston. (Back)
[33]
Lovins, A.B. et al. (2002)
Small Is Profitable, Rocky Mountain Institute
Publications, Old Snowmass. Available at www.smallisprofitable.org.
Accessed 26 November 2006. (Back)
[34]
United Nations Environment
Program (2002) Industry as a partner for sustainable
development - 10 years after Rio: the UNEP assessment,
UNEP, United Kingdom. This UNEP report documents sector-specific
progress in implementing Agenda 21, building on the
22 industry-driven sector reports of the ‘Industry
as a partner for sustainable development’ series.
(Back)
[35]
Commonwealth of Australia (2004)
Securing Australia's Energy Future, produced
by the Energy Taskforce. (Back)
[36]
Institution of Engineers Australia (2000) Inquiry
into the Kyoto Protocol: Submission to the Joint Standing
Committee on Treaties, IEAust, Canberra. (Back)
[37] Hargroves,
K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage
of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and
Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London.
(Back)
[38] Romer,
P. (1994) ‘From Beyond Classical and Keynesian
Macroeconomic Policy’, Policy Options,
July–August. (Back)
[39]
National Academy of Engineering (2002) Engineering
and Environmental Challenges: Technical Symposium
on Earth Systems Engineering, NAE. Freely downloadable
from www.nap.edu/catalog/10386.html
(accessed June 2006). (Back)
[40]
Earth Systems Engineering (n.d.)
‘What is ESE?’ Available at http://ese.colorado.edu/what_is_ese.htm.
Accessed 1 February 2007. (Back)
The
Natural Edge Project Engineering Sustainable Solutions
Program is supported by the Australian National
Commission
for UNESCO through the International Relations
Grants
Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade.
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