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Sustainable Thinking explores how values and sustainability can reshape the way design management is practised and applied. The book discusses how designers can combine innovative creative thinking with analytical problem-solving skills to produce outputs that are business ready and ethically driven. Examples from a wide range of practitioners who work within the field of sustainable design are examined through case studies, and engaging activities suggest ways for students and practitioners to explore introducing sustainable thinking into their work.
How we talk about what we do is just as important as what we do, and in communicating the value of libraries to our society what our profession needs is confidence, determination, and the will to succeed. In this inspiring and pragmatic new book, Aldrich shows that the first step towards a sustainable library is sustainable thinking: a determined yet realistic attitude that will help your library spot opportunities for institutional advancement, advocate for and safeguard operating funds, and generate intense loyalty from the communities you serve. Nothing less than a compass to help chart the course of your library’s future, this book begins with a situation report that examines the myriad societal disruptions that are impacting libraries and discusses why resiliency is a key component of sustainability;defines how sustainable thinking encompasses not just the environment but economics and social equity as well;provides strategies for supporting the core values of librarianship by following the Three Es of Sustainable Libraries;lays out a host of tactics to build intense loyalty to your library from the inside out, including ways to foster an organizational culture of sustainable thinking through policy changes and purposeful leadership; guides you in communicating effectively with the community, thereby ensuring that your advocacy connects with the maximum number of residents, opinion leaders, and decision makers;demonstrates how to use construction and renovation projects as unique opportunities for positive changes; andoffers worksheets, discussion questions, checklists, additional resources, and many other useful tools that will help you put sustainable thinking into action. This book will show you how to harness sustainable thinking to move forward with confidence into the unknown.
This book presents a systems thinking approach in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals for sustainable national development in vulnerable countries. Systems thinking is a process for understanding the interrelationships among the key components of a system; this book illustrates sustainable development as a system. Key environmental issues are discussed showing their relationship to socioeconomic aspects of development, in the light of increased climate threats and environmental disasters.
This book brings together a series of working papers, produced by interdisciplinary groups of academics within the project, on progress made under the Millennium Development Goals and introduces current debates surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals and the post-2015 agenda. Originating from an interdisciplinary, multi-institution research collaboration, Thinking Beyond Sectors for Sustainable Development, funded by UCL Grand Challenges. The project brought together over thirty academics from UCL, SOAS, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Birkbeck, Institute of Education, and the Royal Veterinary College, and was coordinated by the London International Development Centre (LIDC). The book explores potential interactions between sustainable development goals in the post-2015 development agenda.
Hawaii is a rare and special place, in which beauty and isolation combine to form a vision of paradise. That isolation, though, comes at a price: resources in modern-day Hawaii are strained and expensive, and current economic models dictate that the Hawaiian Islands are reliant upon imported food, fuels, and other materials. Yet the islands supported a historic Hawaiian population of a million people or more. This was possible because Hawaiians, prior to European contact, had learned the ecological limits of their islands and how to live sustainably within them. Today, Hawaii is experiencing a surge of new strategies that make living in the islands more ecologically, economically, and socially resilient. A vibrant native agriculture movement helps feed Hawaiians with traditional foods, and employs local farmers using traditional methods; efforts at green homebuilding help provide healthy, comfortable housing that exists in better harmony with the environment; efforts to recycle wastewater help reduce stress on fragile freshwater resources; school gardens help feed families and reconnect them with local food and farming. At the same time, many of the people who have developed these strategies find that their processes reflect, and in some cases draw from, the lessons learned by Hawaiians over thousands of years. This collection of case studies is a road map to help other isolated communities, island and mainland, navigate their own paths to sustainability, and establishes Hawaii as a model from which other communities can draw inspiration, practical advice, and hope for the future.
Activating Critical Thinking to Advance the Sustainable Development Goals in Tourism Systems focuses on the role of critical thinking and inquiry in the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in tourism systems. The impetus for the development of this book emerged from the declaration by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly of 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. This declaration purposely positions tourism as a tool to advance the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 SDGs, thus mutually serving as an opportunity and responsibility to appraise from a critical lens what the SDGs signify and how they can be understood from multiple perspectives. The chapters in the book foster the next phase of sustainable tourism scholarship that actively considers the interconnections of the UN’s SDGs to tourism theory and praxis, and activates critical thinking to analyze and advance sustainability in tourism systems. It articulates the need for the academy to be more intrinsically involved in ongoing iterations of multilateral accords and decrees, to ensure they embody more critical and inclusive transitions toward sustainability, as opposed to market-driven, neoliberal directives. The contributions in this book encourage various worldviews challenging, shaping, and more critically reflecting the realities of global communities as related to, and impacted by, sustainable tourism development. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
Organic waste composting is another excellent example to demonstrate the power and the benefits of nexus thinking. Even though organic waste composting itself is not a new topic, those who want to start a new project or align an ongoing project with nexus thinking, find it difficult to gather the necessary information. With nine case studies from four continents, this book aims to fill above gap in literature. While current literature on composting is often found to be limited to either soil/agriculture sector or waste management sector, this book presents a combined point of view. This open access book starts with an introductory chapter that describes the need to bring the waste management aspects and soil nutrient management aspects of compost production into one integrated theme. The relevance of nexus thinking and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are also presented in this introduction. The first three chapters after the introduction covers composting from the solid waste management and its policy aspects, taking examples from three developing countries. The next three examples are mostly about the benefits composting can provide to the soil and agriculture. These examples are also from three developing countries, but with a mixture of urban as well as rural settings. Last three chapters present more insight into the latest developments taking examples from Europe, as well as new methods adapted from the traditional styles from Africa.
Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking explores a radical new conception of business and management. It is grounded on the reconnection of humans with nature as the new competitive advantage for living organizations and entrepreneurs that aspire to regenerate the economy and drive a positive impact on the planet, in the context of the Anthropocene. Organizations today struggle in finding a balance between maximizing profits and generating value for their stakeholders, the environment and the society at large. This happens in a paradigm shift characterized by unprecedented levels of exponential change and the emergence of disruptive technologies. Adaptability, thus, is becoming the new business imperative. How can, then, entrepreneurs and organizations constantly adapt and, at the same time, design the sustainable futures they’d like? This book uniquely explores the benefits of applying Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking to sustainable management. Grounded in Taoist and Zen Buddhist philosophies, it offers a modern scientific perspective fundamentally based on the concepts of bio-logical adaptability and lifefulness amidst complexity and constant change. The book introduces the new concept of the Gaia organization as a living organism that consciously helps perpetuate the conditions for life on the planet. It is subject to the natural laws of transformation and the principles of oneness, emptiness, impermanence, balance, self-regulation and harmonization. Readers will find applied Eastern systems theories such as the Yin-Yang and the Five Elements operationalized through practical methodologies and tools such as T-Qualia and the Zen Business model. They are aimed at guiding Gaia organizations and entrepreneurs in leading sustainable transformations and qualifying economic growth. The book offers a vital toolkit for purpose-driven practitioners, management researchers, students, social entrepreneurs, evaluators and change-makers to reinvent, create and mindfully manage sustainable and agile organizations that drive systemic transformation.
