Sustainable Development: What is it? Why does it matter? Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustinability: Slide 1 What is Sustainable Development? •Context – Sustainable Development as a concept dominates much of the literature concerning the broader implications of technology and modernity •Goal: To make students aware of – Prevailing thinking about sustainability – Challenges regarding synthesizing the impact of a technology within a broader context Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustainability: Slide 2 1What is Sustainable Development? Firstly, what is “Development”? Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustinability: Slide 3 Development Economics •Emerged in the 1940’s •Goal: To raise the standard of living throughout the world •After World War II, often tied up with Cold War goals. – Seminal Text: The Stages of Economic Growth: A Noncomunist Manifesto (Rustow) •Led to the creation of World Bank, IMF, and GATT Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustainability: Slide 4 2Development Economics: Measures of Success • Concept widely accepted • Global improvement – Possible exception Sub-saharan Africa Source: Figure 1.4, Human Development Report 2005, UNDP Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustainability: Slide 5 Courtesy of United Nations Development Programme. What is Sustainable Development? Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustinability: Slide 6 3Classic Definition •“Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (The World Commission on Environment and Development, United Nations,1987) Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustainability: Slide 7 Other Definitions of Sustainable Development • Improvement in the quality of human life within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems (World Wildlife Fund) • A condition in which the ecosystem maintains its diversity and quality— and thus its capacity to support people and the rest of life—and its potential to adapt to change and provide a wide change of choices and opportunities for the futureA condition in which all members of society are able to determine and meet their needs and have a large range of choices to meet their potential • Economic growth that provides fairness and opportunity for all the world's people, not just the privileged few, without further destroying the world's finite natural resources and carrying capacity(Pronk and ul Haq 1992). Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustainability: Slide 8 4Key Questions: What? … to Sustain? … to Develop? Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustinability: Slide 9 What is to be Sustained?: Broadly Accepted Elements of Sustainability • Economic – Human Capital – Human-made Capital • Environment – Natural Capital • Social – Social Capital Social Environ mental Economic Sustain able Healthy Just Efficient Adapted from http://www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/sustainable-state/what-is.htm Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustainability: Slide 10 5What is Economic Sustainability? • Human-made Capital – Traditional economic capital – Produced means of production • Human Capital – Often simply refers to labor – More subtly, the ability of an individual to produce or increaseincome •Knowledge • Skills • Health •Values – Activities that increase human capital •Education • Training • Medical care Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustainability: Slide 11 Environmental Sustainability •Maintenance of Natural Capital – Ecosystem services that enable life •Sources – Stocks of raw materials – Flows of renewable resources •Sinks – Capacity to assimilate wastes Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustainability: Slide 12 6Environmental Sustainability: Goodland 95 •Output Rule: – Waste emission can’t exceed assimilative capacity of local environment •Input Rule – Renewables: Harvest rates should be within regenerative rates – Non-renewables: Harvest rates should be below that rate at which renewable substitutes are developed Massachusetts Institute of Technology ESD.123/3.560: Industrial Ecology – Systems Perspectives Engineering Systems Division Randolph Kirchain Department of Materials Science & Engineering Sustainability: Slide 13 Social Sustainability • Social Capital – No Consensus definition – Knowledge and rules of interaction in culture and institutions • Legal system •Government • Social Sustainability general includes addressing basic needs of population • Recognitions of social issues in traditional development