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Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 09:18:58 -0400
Reply-To: List Moderator <ecgrants**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
Sender: DCHAS-L Discussion List <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU>
From: List Moderator <ecgrants**At_Symbol_Here**UVM.EDU>
Subject: Re: Environmental sustainability in labs? responses and resources
I received a wide response to my question about sustainability in
labs; some around definitions, others pointing out web resources. The
definitions responses are first and the web resources at the bottom.
Thanks for all for their response.
- Ralph
From: "Debbie M. Decker"
Date: August 31, 2009 7:48:01 PM EDT
Subject: RE: [DCHAS-L] Environmental sustainability in labs?- Friday
Hilarity Ensues
Harry:
I am reminded of a conversation I had with my cousin, who was the
outreach coordinator for the Tillamook Bay Estuary project - if you
don't think we had different ideas of what "sustainability" meant! So
I've been thinking about your question and poking around in my LEED,
Labs21, UC Green Building Council Stuff. And this is what I've come
up with:
Sustainability means making decisions (business, social, personal,
professional) that won't mess up the planet for those who come after us.
You could come up with a more colorful word than "mess" but this is a
g-rated listserv. ;-)
Debbie
--------------
Debbie Decker
EH&S UCDavis
(530)754-7964
FAX (530)752-4527
dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**ucdavis.edu
Co-Conspirator to Make the World A
Better Place -- Visit www.HeroicStories.com and join the conspiracy
Birkett's hypothesis: "Any chemical reaction
that proceeds smoothly under normal conditions,
can proceed violently in the presence of an idiot."
===
From: awr_ara**At_Symbol_Here**onelinkpr.net
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Environmental sustainability in labs?- Friday
Hilarity Ensues
Date: August 31, 2009 4:36:11 PM EDT
Before anyone can try to define sustainability, he, she or it must
first understand unsustainability. Perhaps those of you that are
attempting to define sustainability in two sentences (I have not
stopped laughing since hilarity ensued) may like to see:
1. Global sustainability: Toward definition
Journal
Environmental Management
Publisher
Springer New York
ISSN
0364-152X (Print) 1432-1009 (Online)
Issue
Volume 11, Number 6 / November, 1987
Becky J. Brown (1), Mark E. Hanson (1), Diana M. Liverman (1)
and Robert W. Merideth Jr. (1)
(1)
Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
1007 WARF Building, 53705 Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Abstract: Sustainability is increasingly viewed as a desired goal of
development and environmental management. This term has been used in
numerous disciplines and in a variety of contexts, ranging from the
concept of maximum sustainable yield in forestry and fisheries
management to the vision of a sustainable society with a steady-state
economy. The meaning of the term is strongly dependent on the context
in which it is applied and on whether its use is based on a social,
economic, or ecological perspective, Sustainability may be defined
broadly or narrowly, but a useful definition must specify explicitly
the context as well as the temporal and spatial scales being
considered. Although societies differ in their conceptualizations of
sustainability, indefinite human survival on a global scale requires
certain basic support systems, which can be maintained only with a
healthy environment and a stable human population. A clearer
understanding of global sustainability and the development of
appropriate indicators of the status of basic support systems would
provide a useful framework for policy making.
Key words Global sustainability - Ecologically sustainable
development - Sustainable use of the biosphere
http://www.springerlink.com/content/tuv6tl3h570134j2/
and
2. Prosperity without Growth?
Sustainable Development Commission (SDC)
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
March 30, 2009
The economy is geared, above all, to economic growth. Economic policy
in the current recession is all about returning to growth - but an
economic crisis can be an opportunity for some basic rethinking and
restructuring.
Two objectives other than growth - sustainability and wellbeing -
have
moved up the political and policy-making agenda in recent years,
challenging the overriding priority traditionally given to economic
growth.
SDC's "Redefining Prosperity" project has looked into the connections
and conflicts between sustainability, growth, and wellbeing.
As part of a two year programme of work, we commissioned thinkpieces,
organised seminars, and invited feedback. This project has now
resulted in a major SDC report: 'Prosperity without Growth?: the
transition to a sustainable economy' by Professor Tim Jackson, SDC=92s
Economics Commissioner. Prosperity without growth? analyses the
relationship between growth and the growing environmental crisis and
'social recession'. In the last quarter of a century, while the global
economy has doubled, the increased in resource consumption has
degraded an estimated 60% of the world=92s ecosystems. The benefits of
growth have been distributed very unequally, with a fifth of the
world=92s population sharing just 2% of global income. Even in developed
countries, huge gaps remain in wealth and well-being between rich and
poor.
While modernising production and reducing the impact of certain goods
and services have led to greater resource efficiency in recent
decades, our report finds that current aspirations for 'decoupling'
environmental impacts from economic growth are unrealistic. The report
finds no evidence as yet of decoupling taking place on anything like
the scale or speed which would be required to avoid increasing
environmental devastation.
Prosperity without growth? proposes twelve steps towards a sustainable
economy and argues for a redefinition of "prosperity" in line with
evidence about what contributes to people=92s wellbeing.
SDC intends to generate discussion and debate on the challenges on the
issues that Prosperity without Growth? raises. We have sent the report
to the Prime Minister, government leaders in the devolved
administrations, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and other government
ministers, as well as business and civil society leaders.
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/redefining-prosperity.html
I hope you find them useful in your definition efforts.
Tony
Antonio Rodriguez Figueroa, PhD, PE
Environmental Consultant
San Juan, PR
===
From: painter2**At_Symbol_Here**llnl.gov
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Environmental sustainability in labs?- Friday
Hilarity Ensues
Date: September 1, 2009 1:13:24 AM EDT
Here's the definition from the book "Environmental Policy -New
Directions for the Twenty-First Century" edited by Norman Vig and
Michael Kraft, CQ Press 2003.
Sustainability can be defined either broadly or narrowly. Broadly,
environmental sustainability is the capacity to continuously produce
the necessities of a quality human existence within the bounds of a
natural world of undiminished quality. Sustainability in this sense is
a long term societal objective rather than something achieved once and
for all at any given time.
Environmental Sustainability encompasses high performance levels
within three measurable sets of environmental values:
1. human health
2. ecosystem health
3. resource sustainability
Resource sustainability, the narrower sense of sustainability is
achieved through the effective management of society's total material
and energy requirements.
Corry Painter
Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Management Division
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
P.O. Box 808 L-547
Livermore, CA, 94551
Tel.: (925) 423-1473
Fax: (925) 422-3469
E-mail: painter2**At_Symbol_Here**llnl.gov
===
Lab sustainability resources that were pointed out to me:
Harvard has a decent Lab Sustainability program started
(http://www.greencampus.harvard.edu/labs).
Otherwise, the other stuff I've been working on is in reference to
waste minimization efforts, lab recycling, and fume hood / lights out
behavior change in labs. You can always send him to the MIT EHS site
green pages under Sustainability Tool Kit.
http://web.mit.edu/environment/reduce/sustainability.html
===
From: jisteinf**At_Symbol_Here**MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Environmental sustainability in labs?]
Date: August 30, 2009 1:09:24 PM EDT
(1) We have developed an alternative chemicals "expert system" with
support from the USEPA P3 program. You can find this at
http://web.mit.edu/environment/academic/wizard/greenChemWiz5.html
(2) There is a Department supported initiative under way to reduce
energy usage associated with laboratory fume hoods. There is no web
site about this that I know of.
More generally you may want to browse the web site of the student
group "Sustainability**At_Symbol_Here**MIT" at http://sustainability.mit.edu. You might
take a look at the menu item "Revolving Doors" on the list for a nice
"Tech-y" approach to behavior modification!
In reply to Harry Elston's request below for a CONCISE DEFINITION
(sic) of what sustainability really means, I can offer the following
options [please pass these along to him -- I could not find an e-mail
address]:
(1) When MIT joined the Alliance for Global Sustainability [see
http://globalsustainability.org
] it was decided that nothing would be accomplished by trying to
define sustainability -- we should just go ahead and do it.
(2) Alternatively we have an eight page essay on "The Concept of
Sustainable Development" with eight theses. I can send this along if
you would like to see it.
Jeffrey I. Steinfeld
2 - 221 M.I.T.
Cambridge Mass. 02139
(617) 253 - 4525
jisteinf**At_Symbol_Here**mit.edu
===
Finally, on the ACS Communities page, there is a discussion group
talking about sustainability at
https://communities.acs.org/groups/sustainability-stakeholders-group
that people interested in this topic may want to join. They are
struggling with definiton issues as well as practical aspects of
greeiing national metings...
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