scholarly journals Do we Understand Sustainability? An Architectural Insight Into the Origin of the Concept

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tushar Mondal
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
Current Definition ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Architecture And Design ◽  
Brundtland Commission ◽  
Insight Into

Sustainability is a concept shrouded in abstraction. While we have definitions in existence, it is often difficult to explain the concept itself. The current definition of ‘sustainable development’ was given by the Brundtland Commission’s report in 1987. The Earth Summit at Rio in 1992 gave us Agenda 21, an action plan to achieve sustainable development. Now in the 21st century, philosophers, academicians, and researchers across the globe are paving the way for a new understanding of the term ‘sustainability’, its contextual nature, and its relation to humans, politics, and ecology. This article investigates the origins of the term ‘sustainability’, its derivatives, and the concept of sustainable development. A semantical analysis is carried out to understand the differences between ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’. Next, the development of the three pillars of sustainability and the application of these concepts in the field of architecture and design is also investigated.

scholarly journals Trade, environment and sustainable development: What changed in Doha

2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-353
Author(s):  
Jessica Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Policy Issue ◽  
World Summit ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
Environmental Negotiations ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World

Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development, adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, does not have a chapter dedicated to trade. Yet since 1992, trade has become increasingly important to democracy, human rights, women's rights, economic development, employment and the environment. "Trade and environment" has been identified by many governments and civil society organisations as an important policy issue in preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. At the same time, environment has become a highly politicised word in the world inhabited by trade negotiators. The aim of this paper is to examine whether or not the inclusion of WTO environmental negotiations, as outlined in the Doha Ministerial Declaration, advances or retards sustainable development.

scholarly journals Methodologies for Sustainable Energy Action Plan design and monitoring applied to the Municipality of Avezzano, Abruzzo Region, Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 197 ◽  
pp. 08013
Author(s):  
Andrea Cinocca ◽  
Luca Di Paolo ◽  
Simona Abbate ◽  
Roberto Cipollone
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Planning ◽  
Emission Inventory ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Sustainable Energy ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Abruzzo Region ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Definition Of

The increasing attention and sensitivity to issues related to Global Warming and Climate Change are strengthening the actions and policies related to Sustainable Development trying to give to this concept a clearer engineering dimension. Not only policymakers are involved in this aim and experts of interdisciplinary aspects but also the irreplaceable involvement of citizens which with their behavior can make the difference and get much closer to the seventeen goals of the sustainable development by 2030. In this framework, the Territorial Energetic and Environmental Planning provides operational solidity to the concept of Sustainable Development, giving more responsibility to local administrations (as it is due according to subsidiarity), with the Central Government that guarantees the respect of the principles of Subsidiarity and Glocalization. Province of L’Aquila (in the Abruzzo Region, Italy) has been a leading player of this program and, in 2012, has realized the ambitious goal of having favored a Covenant, joining all the 108 Municipalities of the Province. Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics (DIIIE) of the University of L’Aquila designed the Sustainable Energy Action Plants (SEAP) and the monitoring phase of all the Municipalities through a scientific methodology which matched the goal of SEAPs with the dimension of the Municipality. In order to go deep into SEAP’s analysis, in this paper Authors describes the second uploading and necessary steps: a quantitative analysis of the Baseline Emission Inventory, the quantification of the SEAPs planning actions and the definition of the Monitoring Emission Inventory. This second step was done for the Municipality of Avezzano, one of the main Municipality of the L’Aquila Province, and gave the quantitative dimension of the CO2 emissions referred to the year 2017, compared with 2005 baseline emissions. The reduction commitments to be reached in 2020 defines the present distance to the target.

Integrated water management plans towards sustainability: the Taiwan experience

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.C. Chiang ◽  
E.E. Chang ◽  
C.P. Huang
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Water Environment ◽  
Sustainable Transportation ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Local Agenda 21 ◽  
The Government

This report summarizes past and current activities in water management in Taiwan based on four major programs: (1) Taiwan 2000: Balancing Economic Growth and Environmental Protection (The 1985–1988), (2) Taiwan Agenda 21: National Sustainable Development (1998–2003), (3) Local Agenda 21: Environmental Action Plan Towards Sustainability (2003–2006), and (4) Sustainable Water Environment. Taiwan 2000 was for the first time in Taiwan the government encouraged industries to seek a balance between economic development and environmental protection. According to the principles and visions of Agenda 21, the Government has implemented visions and strategies for national sustainable development to serve as the basic guidelines for keeping up with the development in the 21st century. Local Agenda 21 was also developed by the local city and county governments from 2003 to 2006. It has an emphasis on sustainable water environment, total emission control, eco-industrial parks, sustainable transportation, and green community promotion. In addition, a fifth program, Water Safety Plan, was developed as the “Green Blue-Print” for the development of strategies and guidelines of national sustainable water environment. It focuses on Source Water Implementation Plan Rule (SWIPR), modernization of water treatment plants, and the implementation of Integrated Performance Evaluation (IPE) Program.

scholarly journals A thermoeconomic indicator for the sustainable development with social considerations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umberto Lucia ◽  
Debora Fino ◽  
Giulia Grisolia
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Human Development Index ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Thermodynamic Quantity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
Development Index ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Economic Considerations

AbstractThe United Nations action plan Agenda 21 has represented a milestone toward Sustainable Development. On its 40th Chapter, it is introduced the requirement to dispose of an accurate and continuous collection of information, essential for decision-making. Besides bridging the data gap and improving the information availability, it is highlighted the need to dispose of sustainable development indicators, in order to assess and monitor the performances of countries toward sustainability. In this paper, we develop an improvement of a new indicator, recently introduced linking environmental anthropic footprint and social and industrial targets. Here, we suggest a link with the Income Index, in order to consider also a condition of people well-being. Our results consists in an improvement of the present approaches to sustainability; indeed, we link the socio-economic considerations, quantified by the Income Index and the Human Development Index, to the engineering approach to optimization, introducing the thermodynamic quantity entropy generation, related to irreversibility. In this way, two different new indicators are introduced, the Thermodynamic Income Index and the Thermodynamic Human Development Index, which quantitatively express a new viewpoint, which goes beyond the dichotomy between socio-economic considerations on one hand and engineering and scientific approach to sustainability on the other one. So, the result leads to a unified tool useful for the designing of new policies and interventions for a sustainable development for the next generations.

scholarly journals Rural development and sustainable innovation how systemic design approach can contribute to the growth of marginal regions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Bicocca
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Rural Development ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Local Resources ◽  
Local Problems ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Architecture And Design ◽  
Systemic Design

The objective of the project is to reach sustainable development in rural areas through Design Aapproaches. Sustainable means that matches the three dimensions, people, planet and profit. Sustainable development consists of goals and strategies that together provide alternative tracks to conventional development, offering improved livelihoods to the poor in ways that promote both their empowerment and the conservation or improvement of key natural resources so that the basis of productive activities can be maintained into the future (Lele 1991; Pretty 1998). The topic of rural development is relevant becouse of the quantity  of people, poor or extremely poor, living in rural territories. More than 3 billion people live in rural areas. Design rarely deals with rural development and with the definition of a system that can facilitate the growth and the development of the territory. If it does, it usually focuses on products or services. The most important futures, which globally all rural areas share in common, are remoteness and isolation. Many rural sociologists argue that small structure and cooperation are important strengths that contribute to ethic and social identity. The central role that play territorial context and relationships in the Systemic Design Approach (SDA) makes it a very effective approach to support and encourage rural development in a sustainable way. Applying the SDA, it is possible to manage local resources and local products in a way that allows the economic strengthening of the farmers and communities that live in the territory. The Systemic Design team of the Deparment of Architecture and Design (DAD) of Politecnico di Torino has been engaged for years into the develop of the Systemic Design Approach, that can be summed up by five principles (Bistagnino, 2011): Output > Input: the output (waste) of a system becomes the input (resource) for another one Relationships that generate the system, each one contributes to the system Auto-generation systems sustain themselves by reproducing automatically Act locally: context is fundamental because it values local resources (humans, cultures and materials) and it helps to modify local problems in new opportunities Man at the centre of the project: Man is connected to social, cultural and ethic environment It is essential to start from the current state of the art, that allows to define strengths and weaknesses, before to design the system, made of flows between actors.

Constructing definitions of sustainable development

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth Abrahams
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Construction Industry ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Universal Definition ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Purposive Sample ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to ask how two normative definitions of sustainable development identified in the Brundtland report contribute to individual definitions constructed by a network of professional actors working in the construction industry. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on 74 questionnaires generated from a purposive sample of professional actors working in the construction sector. These questionnaires are analysed using a coding strategy based on pre-defined categories generated from a review of academic and policy literature. Findings The results show that these definitions mostly appeal to actors working in roles with a strong input into the design process. The evidence suggests that all professional actors in the construction industry construct definitions of sustainable development to valorise their professional role, to support professional critiques of the industry or to reinforce their personal ideological beliefs. Research limitations/implications These results present a challenge to a normative agenda aimed at “pinning the concepts down” to an unequivocal, universal definition. It suggests that research might be better redirected towards a context dependent and pragmatic use of the term. Practical implications These findings suggest that future policy making should acknowledge multiple, sector and role-specific definitions of sustainable development. It also suggests that a better understanding of this diversity within the construction industry could improve the efficiency of the design, procurement and construction process. Originality/value These findings provide new insight into the “in use” definitions of sustainable development in the construction industry and question some of the academic arguments that support a single, universal definition of the term.

scholarly journals The Definition of UTC

2000 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 363-371
Author(s):  
Dennis D. McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Time Scale ◽  
Rotation Rate ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Universal Time ◽  
International Astronomical Union ◽  
Current Definition ◽  
The Earth ◽  
International Astronomical ◽  
Definition Of

AbstractThe current definition of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is related to the unpredictable, variable rotation rate of the Earth. This is accomplished by irregular insertions of leap seconds, creating unpredictable discontinuities in UTC. With the increasing importance of a continuous, uniform time scale for users, it is appropriate to re-examine the current definition of this time scale. There are several possibilities to address this problem, and it is appropriate that the International Astronomical Union establish a working group to investigate the continuing need for leap seconds and possible changes in the definition of UTC.

scholarly journals Definition of the Celestial Ephemeris Pole and the Celestial Ephemeris Origin

2000 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 153-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Capitaine
Keyword(s):  
Earth Rotation ◽  
Polar Motion ◽  
Sidereal Time ◽  
Earth Orientation Parameters ◽  
Current Definition ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Celestial Reference System ◽  
Orientation Parameters ◽  
New Strategies

AbstractThe adoption of the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) by the IAU in use since 1 January 1998, and the accuracy achieved by the most recent models and observations of Earth rotation call for a redefinition of the Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP). First, the precession-nutation parameters and Greenwich sidereal time, which are currently defined in the FK5 System, have to be re-defined to be consistent with the ICRS. Second, the current definition of the Celestial Ephemeris Pole (CEP) has to be extended in order to be consistent with the most recent models for nutation and polar motion at a microarsecond accuracy including diurnal and sub-diurnal components, as well as with new strategies of observations. Such issues have been under consideration by the subgroup T5 named “Computational Consequences” of the IAU Working Group “ICRS”. This paper gives, as the basis for future recommendations, the preliminary proposals of the subgroup T5 for a modern definition of the CEP, for the definition of more basic EOP in the ICRS and for the choice of a new origin on the equator of the CEP in place of the equinox. Then, the paper emphasizes the use of the Celestial Ephemeris Origin (CEO) which is defined as the “non-rotating origin” in the celestial frame on the equator of the CEP.

scholarly journals Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development in South Asia (The Quaid-i-Azam Lecture)

2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (4I) ◽  
pp. 273-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajendra K. Pachauri
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Region I ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Energy Environment ◽  
Planning Development ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Brundtland Commission ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Simple Definition

Honourable Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform, his excellency Mr Ahsan Iqbal, the President, Pakistan Society of Development Economists, discussants, Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan and Dr Rehana Siddiqui, Dr Durr-e-Nayab, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me say at the outset that it is a great privilege for me to be here and to be given this opportunity to deliver the Quaid-i-Azam Lecture. I regard this as a signal honour and I feel particularly privileged coming from India being able to speak in honour of the Quaid-i-Azam, the founder of this country. I want to express my gratitude for this particular privilege which I have been given. I also want to acknowledge the very warm sentiments expressed by his Excellency the Minister. I certainly believe that in this day and age we have to look forward, we have to look at the future and I think we have to erase some of the problems, demolish some of the barriers and the hindrances that have prevented South Asian cooperation in the past. So Sir, your words in that context are certainly appreciated and I would say that we have to put them into effect by ushering in a new future for this region. I want to mention that when I had the privilege of accepting the Nobel peace prize on behalf of Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 along with Mr Al Gore, in my acceptance speech I used a Sanskrit phrase which is Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and that means the universe is one family. Now if the universe is one family, may I submit that, we particularly in Pakistan and India are really the core of that family. I believe the future lies in our ability to develop a model of economic growth and development that serves as an example for the rest of the world. Let me at the very outset say that we have been somewhat negligent and perhaps short sighted in emulating what has been established as a form of development in other parts of the world and I will say a little more about this as I move on. Let me start by referring to the definition of sustainable development which essentially comes out of the work of the Brundtland Commission that was completed in 1987 and it’s a very simple definition. It defines sustainable development as that form of development which allows the current generation to meet their own needs without compromising on the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. So, therefore, it essentially takes into account the issue of intergenerational equity. Whatever we do today should not be selfishly oriented by which we might meet more than our needs today

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