Introduction to Sustainability, Second Edition, reviews all the major themes in the cutting-edge field of sustainability. The book is suitable for introductory interdisciplinary courses on sustainability, as well as those in the fields of geography, geology, sociology, planning, political science, and anthropology. Allowing students to see the world in new ways while also encouraging them to become part of the change needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the planet, this book is an invaluable introduction to this multifaceted and ever-changing subject.
Now fully revised and updated, this second edition includes new material on the most recent developments in the field of sustainability; environmental sustainability issues like water, food, and energy; social sustainability themes like environmental justice and transportation; and economic sustainability topics like green businesses and economic development. The book concludes with a chapter on sustainability issues in college and universities. Brinkmann intersperses many fascinating case studies and text boxes that encourage students to deeply explore the material. This is a book that not only organizes the complex field of sustainability, but also encourages students to take action to make the world a better place.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xv
About the Author xvii
About the Companion Website xix
1 Roots of the Modern Sustainability Movement 1
Meaning of Sustainability 1
Nineteenth Century Environmentalism 3
Pinchot, Roosevelt, and Muir 5
Aldo Leopold and the Land Ethic 6
Better Living Through Chemistry, The Great Smog of 1952, and Rachel Carson 8
Environmental Activism of the 1960s and 1970s and the Development of Environmental Policy 10
The Growth of Environmental Laws in the 1960s and 1970s 13
The First Earth Day 14
International Concerns 14
Ozone and the World Comes Together 15
Globalization and the Brundtland Report 16
Deep Ecology 18
Environmental Justice 19
Measuring Sustainability 21
The Climate Change Challenge 23
The Road Ahead 24
Organization 26
2 Understanding Natural Systems 29
The Earth, its Layers, and the Rock Cycle 29
The Rock Cycle 32
Biogeochemical Cycles 33
Water and the Water Cycle 34
The Carbon Cycle and Global Climate Change 37
Global Climate Change and the Carbon Cycle 38
The Sulfur Cycle 40
The Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycles 42
Nitrate Pollution of groundwater 45
Organisms and Ecosystems 46
Urban Ecosystems 49
Understanding the Anthropocene 53
3 Measuring Sustainability 57
The United Nations Millennium Goals 58
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 59
National sustainability planning 60
Canada 64
Bhutan 67
Regional sustainability planning 69
Local sustainability measurement 73
Green local governments in Florida 75
Specific community plans 79
PlaNYC 79
London and sustainability 81
Small towns and sustainability 84
Business sustainability 85
4 Energy 89
World Energy Production and Consumption 89
Traditional or “Dirty” Energy Resources 91
Oil 91
Oil shale and tar sands 93
Natural gas 95
Coal 97
Coal mining 98
Pollution from coal 99
Green energy 100
Biomass 100
Biomass: wood, manure, peat, and other organic sources 100
Burning of garbage: waste-to-energy 101
Conversion of biomass to liquid or gas fuel 102
Wind energy 103
Solar energy 105
Passive solar energy 105
Active solar energy 106
Concentrated solar power 107
Critiques of solar power 107
Nuclear energy 107
Other innovations 110
Energy efficiency 110
Living off the grid 112
5 Global Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Management 113
The end of nature? 113
The science of global climate change: The greenhouse effect 114
Water vapor 116
Carbon dioxide 116
Methane 118
Sinks of carbon 120
Forests 120
Reefs 120
The IPCC and evidence for climate change, and the future of our planet 121
Ocean acidification 122
Phenological changes 123
Conducting greenhouse gas inventories 124
Step 1 Setting boundaries 125
Step 2 Defining scope 125
Step 3 Choosing a quantitative approach 126
Step 4 Setting a baseline year 126
Step 5 Engaging stakeholders 126
Step 6 Procuring certification 127
Greenhouse gas equivalents used in greenhouse gas accounting 127
Greenhouse gas emission scopes 128
De minimis emissions 129
Computing greenhouse gas credits 129
Climate action plans 129
Religion and climate change 135
Evangelical Environmental Network 136
Young Evangelicals for Climate Action 136
Catholic Climate Covenant 136
Jewish Climate Change Campaign 137
The International Muslim Conference on Climate Change 138
Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change 138
Hindu Declaration on Climate Change 138
Art, culture, and climate change 139
Swoon 139
Raul Cardenas Osuna and Toro Labs 139
Isaac Cordal 140
6 Water 143
Sources of water 143
Consumption trends 148
Sources of water pollution 150
Agricultural pollution 150
Industrial pollution 150
Storm water pollution 151
Sewage 152
Leaking underground tanks 153
Landfills 153
Water management and conservation 155
National and regional water conservation and management 155
Water as a tool for regional development 156
Water supply management 157
Hard path water management 157
Soft path water management 158
Water management and innovation 159
Water quality 161
Understanding drainage basins 168
Drainage basins out of synch 169
Drainage basin pollution 169
Stream profile and base level 169
Lakes 169
Seas 171
Oceans 171
7 Food and Agriculture 173
Development of modern agriculture 173
Meat production 177
Piggeries 178
Feed lots 179
Chicken houses 179
World agricultural statistics 181
Food deserts and obesity 182
Sustainable alternatives to the industrial food movement 185
Vegetarianism and veganism 185
Organic farming 186
Small farm movement 186
Locavores 188
Farm to table 189
Community sponsored agriculture 191
Community gardens 193
Farmers’ markets 193
Beekeeping 195
The urban chicken movement 196
Guerilla gardening, freegans, and other radical approaches to food 196
8 Green Building 201
LEED rating systems 201
Site selection 204
Brownfield development 204
Other aspects of sustainable building siting 207
Water use 207
Energy and atmospheric health 208
Materials and resources 210
Material re-use 211
Recycled content of construction material 211
Locally derived materials 211
Renewable materials and certified sustainable wood 212
Waste management 212
Summary 213
Indoor environmental quality 213
Ventilation and air delivery monitoring 213
Construction indoor air quality management 214
Use of low-emitting materials 214
Indoor chemical and pollution source control 215
Controllability and design of lighting and temperature systems 215
Access to daylight 215
Summary 215
Innovation 215
Regional priorities 216
Expansion of green building technology 216
Other green building rating systems 216
BREEAM 217
PassivHaus 219
Green building policy 220
Critiques of green building 221
The greenest building and historic preservation 222
Small house movement 226
Further reading 229
9 Transportation 231
Transportation options 232
Vehicles 232
Cars 234
Trucks 234
Vehicles and fuels 235
Electric cars 237
Automated Vehicles 238
Rail 238
Ship transport 239
Bulk carriers 239
Container ships 239
Tankers 240
Refrigerated ships 240
Roll-on/roll-off ships 240
Environmental issues associated with ship transport 240
Air transport 241
Space travel 243
Roads 245
Environmental issues with roads 246
Storm water pollution management 246
Street sweeping 250
Ground stability 250
Mass transit 252
Forms of mass transit 252
Railways 252
Light rail 253
Buses 253
Bus rapid transit 254
Ferries 254
Transit hubs and transit-oriented development 254
The future 255
10 Pollution and Waste 259
Pollution 259
Chemical pollution 259
Metals 259
Organic compounds 260
Nutrients 261
Radioactive Pollutants 262
Pharmaceutical pollutants 263
Heat pollution 263
Light pollution 264
Noise pollution 265
Visual pollution 265
Littering 266
Understanding pollution distribution 266
The US approach to pollution 268
Clean Air Act 268
Clean Water Act 270
National Environmental Policy Act 271
Superfund 272
Sewage treatment 274
Sewage and sustainability 277
Garbage and recycling 277
Garbage composition 278
Managing garbage 278
Landfills 279
Reducing waste 280
Composting 281
Recycling 281
11 Environmental Justice 287
Social justice 287
Civil rights and the modern environmental movement in the United States 290
Lead pollution and the growth of the urban environmental justice movement 291
Environmental racism in the United States 293
Brownfields, community re-development, and environmental justice 295
US EPA and environmental justice 297
Indigenous people and environmental justice 299
Exporting environmental problems 300
Environmental justice around the world 301
Environmental justice in Europe 302
Environmental justice in Asia and the Pacific 302
The Three Gorges Dam 302
Bhopal and environmental justice in India 303
Tuvalu and global climate change 304
Environmental justice in Africa 305
Environmental justice in Latin America and the Caribbean: oil pollution in Ecuador 306
Environmental justice in a Globalized World 308
12 Sustainability Planning and Governance 313
Local governments and their structure 313
The role of citizens and stakeholders in local government 314
Community stakeholders 315
Boundaries and types of local governments 316
Leadership 319
Efforts to aid local governments on sustainability issues 319
Scale and local governments 321
Green regional development 322
Sustainable development 326
Globalization 327
Development of globalization 328
Drivers of globalization 329
Internet and communications 329
Transportation 330
Economic development 331
Transnational organizations 332
War and sustainability 339
Further reading 342
13 Sustainability, Economics, and the Global Commons 343
The global commons 343
Economic processes that put the Earth out of balance 345
Social and economic theories 346
Neoclassical economics 346
Environmental critiques of neoliberalism 347
Environmental economics 349
Cost-benefit analysis and its application in environmental economics 349
Environmental impact assessment 351
Environmental ethics 352
Green economics 352
Non-capitalistic economies 353
Deep ecology 353
Ecofeminism 356
Destruction regardless of theory 356
Environmental economics: externalities 357
Measuring the economy 358
Green jobs 362
14 Corporate and Organizational Sustainability Management 371
Cognitive dissonance 371
Why are businesses concerned with sustainability? 372
Profit 372
Public relations 372
Altruism 372
Concern over the long-term sustainability of the industry 373
Professional standards and norms 373
Total quality management and sustainability 373
People, planet, and profits 374
Ray Anderson, the father of the green corporation and the growth of green corporate environmentalism 379
Anderson’s legacy 380
Greenwashing in the corporate world 380
Green consumers 380
Global Reporting Initiative 382
Sustainability reporting in the S & P 500 382
Dow Jones Sustainability Index 385
Sustainability reporting 388
International Organization for Standardization (ISO): ISO 14000 and ISO 26000 388
ISO 14000 388
ISO 26000 388
Case studies of sustainability at the corporate level 389
Walmart 391
Unilever 393
Lessons from Walmart and Unilever 395
Can businesses with unsustainable products be sustainable? 396
15 Sustainability at Universities, Colleges, and Schools 401
Curriculum at colleges and universities 401
Sustainability curriculum at K-12 schools 403
External benchmarking 405
American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education 405
Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments 406
Other external benchmarking organizations 408
Internal initiatives 409
Sustainability officers 410
Sustainability committees 411
Food service 411
Student and faculty activism 414
Building your own case study 417
Sustainability at Oxford: a campus commitment 418
Making school lunches healthier in the United States 419
The cow powered carbon neutral campus 421
Whitman College builds wind turbines on campus farm 421
Stanford University: dumping the car for bikes 422
Green fleets: The University of South Florida’s biodiesel Bullrunner 422
Community engagement at Portland State University 423
Green buildings on college campuses: University of Florida goes for gold 424
Native and sustainable landscaping at one of the largest schools in the nation: Valencia College 425
Campus archaeology at Michigan State University 425
Index 427
