Sustainability
Australia
- Powerhouse
Museum- Ecologic: EcoLogic resources; What
is ecologically sustainable development ?
 Excellent
range of ESD resources, with an Australian
empahsis.
- Australian
Academy of Science – Symposium proceedings Transition
to sustainability Papers
from symposium presentations including economics,
environment, future settlements, energy and social aspects.
- Australian
Greenhouse Office Home Page"Greenhouse
abatement is a cross-cutting issue. All sectors
of the economy are implicated in the production
of greenhouse gases. Similarly, each sector
also presents opportunities for greenhouse
abatement. The Government’s climate
change strategy is centred on five
key areas – emissions management;
international engagement; strategic
policy support; impacts and adaptation;
and science and measurement." Part
of the Department of Environment and
Heritage, this site has enough information
to keep you going until, well .... the
ice caps melt.
- AGO
- Renewable Energy Publications and
Resources"Links
to organisations, industry associations,
databases and publications". Solutions
solutions everywhere!
- National
Carbon Accounting System"The
National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS)
tracks greenhouse gas sources and sinks from
the land. Land-based sources and sinks are
of key interest to Australia, forming around
30% of the national emissions profile from
activities such as land clearing, cropping,
grazing and forestry. Accurate emission data
are needed to plan for optimal greenhouse
and natural resource management outcomes." Extensive
resources. (Ed NB:
While OECD and other fast developing countires
stuggle with greenhouse, climate change
and ways to counter it, existing old growth
tropical rainforests around the world are
being cleared for more Soya bean/palm oil
and other crops to go into Biodiesel. DOUW!)
- NSW Department of Energy,
Utilities and Sustainability"...
promotes sustainable, safe, reliable and affordable energy
and urban water in New South Wales."
- Carbon
Accounting A
useful introduction to the concept of carbon
accounting in plantation and old growth forests,
from the NSW Dept of Primary Industries - State
Forests.
- Ecologically
Sustainable Development in Australia "To
achieve sustainable development, changes
in policy and activities at all levels -
from the individual to the international
- are needed. The Department of the Environment
and Heritage has an important part to play
in Australia's transition to ecologically
sustainable development. To this end, the Department
of the Environment and Heritage has formulated
a large number of initiatives aimed at promoting
and facilitating sustainable development at the
local, regional and national level. Specific initiatives
are targeted to industry groups, Australian Government
departments and local governments." Links
to major strategies, reports, papers and initiatives.
- Australia's
National Strategy for Ecologically
Sustainable Development (1992)
So you wanna be sustainable? Here's
the checklist, with lot's of common-sense
solutions. Everything you need to consider
is here, no matter what kind of development
or enterprise you're contemplating. Now in
its 15th year, it would be interesting to find
out what the uptake by Australian business
has been.
- CSIRO
- Reshaping Cities for a More
Sustainable Future "Unless
significant changes
are made to the way
we shape and build
our cities, the 21st
century looks very
bleak for Australia,
according to a CSIRO
study, Reshaping Cities
for a More Sustainable
Future, that explores
the link between urban
form, energy and air
quality."
- Ecosustainable "Improving
the quality of life for ourselves and for future
generations. This
site is intended as our contribution towards
ecology, environment and sustainability by
providing a one-stop connection to resources
and tools that are made available to visitors
and researchers without charge. It is also
intended to provide a means of introducing
Eco Sustainable Developments to a broader
audience." Comprehensive selection of resources
in Australia and worldwide.
- The
Institute for Sustainable Futures
(ISF) "was established
by the University of Technology,
Sydney in 1996 to work with industry,
government and the community
to develop sustainable futures
through research, consultancy
and training. Sustainable futures
result from economic and social
development that protects and
enhances the environment, human
well-being and social equity." Well
designed and clean web site with
excellent Publications
and Reports available in
PDF, html and for sale, including
Buildings and Design, Economic
Instruments, Energy and Greenhouse,
International Development, Local
Government, Planning, Science
Policy, Social Policy, Sustainable
Development, Transport and Urban
Form and Water Futures.
- The Office of the Renewable
Energy Regulator (ORER) "Increasing
Australia's renewable electricity generation.
... [it] is a statutory authority established to oversee
the implementation of the Australian Government's mandatory
renewable energy target (MRET)." So how can
something as important to the planet, and potentially
exciting as renewable energy generation, be made as dull
as ditchwater? Click
on the link to this web site, and you'll
find out. Still,
if you've got, or intend to get a solar water
heater or small generation unit, or want to be an even
bigger player in the Australian renewable energy market,
you might qualify under the Mandatory Renewable Energy
Target, so go visit.
- Parliament
of Australia Parliamentry Library (The
inclusion of a source in any of these lists does
not in any way imply the Parliamentary Library's
approval or endorsement of the source, its owner, or its content.)
A veritable licorice allsorts of info and resources!
- Urban
Ecology Australia (UEA)"is
a community based non profit
educational association that
provides information on urban
ecological issues. ... working
to promote and create ecologically
integrated human settlements." Excellent
South Australian based site with
conference proceedings, papers,
projects and a great links page
to additional sustainable/ecofriendly
resources, including EcoBuildings,
EcoCities, EcoVillages and EcoPolitics.
International
- The
Bulletin Online "A
non-profit organization dedicated
to security, science & survival
since 1945." Home of the Doomsday
Clock, the site also provides
in depth analysis and policy
options.
- Creating
our future: Sustainable development for New
Zealand [Parliamentary
Commissioner for the Environment]
"A review of New Zealand's progress
towards sustainable development, with particular
reference to environmental management performance
since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The report highlights the opportunities and
challenges in maintaining a healthy environment,
social well-being, and a strong economy."
- David
Suzuki Foundation: "Since
1990, the David Suzuki Foundation
has worked to find ways for society
to live in balance with the natural
world that sustains us. Focusing
on four program areas – oceans
and sustainable fishing, climate
change and clean energy, sustainability,
and the Nature Challenge - the
Foundation uses science and education
to promote solutions that conserve
nature and help achieve sustainability
within a generation." Great
looking web site with newsroom,
reports, publications and weekly
columns. Issues are clearly
described and solutions guides
are available for download in
PDF, with additional externsive
links resources to other Canadian
and international solutions based
web sites.
- The International
Bicycle Fund"is an independent,
non-profit organization. Its primary purpose
is to promote bicycle transportation. Most
IBF projects and activities fall into one
of four categories: planning and engineering,
safety education, economic development assistance
and promoting international understanding.
IBF's objective is to create a sustainable,
people-friendly environment by creating opportunities
of the highest practicable quality for bicycle
transportation."
- Earth Council
for Sustainable Development A must visit!
Zipped html docs from Rio, in English, Français,
Español, plus papers, speeches, ongoing
projects and conferences. "The Earth
Council is an international non-governmental
organization (NGO) created in September 1992
to promote and advance the implementation
of the Earth Summit agreements. It is led
by a body of 18 Members, drawn from the world's
political, business, scientific and non-governmental
communities."
- "The
Ecology Project is ... supported by a
grant from the National Science Foundation
and in conjunction with the Philosophy Department
and the Conservation Biology Program of the
University of California, Riverside. The
formal title of the project is Implications
of Disequilibrium Ecology for Environmental
Ethics and Policy." An interesting
paper on the emerging dispute between the "old-paradigm" and "new-paradigm"
ecologists.
- A
'Green Airport'? Meet the Star Port. by
Jim Starry (Earth Island Institute Journal
Autumn 2001 Vol. 16, No. 3). Economic Development
Through Environmental Design. "Thousands
of new airports are set to be built worldwide
within the next decade. An innovative design
called the StarPort could produce fuel savings
of 300 million gallons a year at each airport,
would require only one-third of the land
as a conventional facility and yield four
times the revenue." It's one of the
big dilemmas for any type of tourism. We
usually want to get to where we're going
as quickly as possible, and much of the time,
it's by decidedly environmentally unfriendly
modes of transport. Whilst it's US
centric, here's one possible way to help
mitigate the effects of using air travel.
- See also How
to clean up your act.
The Guardian Saturday November
23, 2002. "Feeling
guilty about the pollution
your flights cause? Environment
correspondent John Vidal
reveals how to do something
about it." (Short
of walking!)
- International Dark-Sky
Association "To preserve
and protect the nighttime environment and
our heritage of dark skies through quality
outdoor lighting." ... Light pollution
is not a matter of life and death. Yet it
is important nonetheless, ... It produces
only glare and clutter, costing more than
$1 billion annually in wasted energy in the
United States alone. Reducing light pollution
is not difficult, but it does require that
public officials and ordinary citizens be
aware of the problem and act to counter it.
..." What can YOU DO? Lot's! And
there's plenty of practical material on this
site to ... (ahem) show you the light at
the end of the tunnel.
- The International
Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) "For
development to be sustainable it must integrate
environmental stewardship, economic development
and the well-being of all people—not
just for today but for countless generations
to come. This is the challenge facing governments,
non-governmental organizations, private enterprises,
communities and individuals. [IISD] meets
this challenge by advancing policy recommendations
on international trade and investment, economic
policy, climate change, measurement and indicators,
and natural resource management to make development
sustainable."
- Man
and the Biosphere "Biosphere reserves
are sites established by countries working
with the UNESCO-MAB Programme to promote
biodiversity conservation and sustainable
development, based on local community efforts
and sound science. As places which
seek to reconcile economic development, social
development and environmental protection,
through partnerships between people and nature,
they are ideal to test and demonstrate approaches
to sustainable development at a regional
scale."
- Overpopulation
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Overpopulation
is the condition of any organism's numbers
exceeding the carrying capacity of its ecological
niche. In common parlance, the term usually
refers to the relationship between the human
population and its environment, the Earth."
- Doctors
for a Sustainable Population "FOR
ALL LIFE TO BE SUSTAINABLE ON
EARTH, the impact of human beings
must be addressed. There is a
limit to the numbers of people
that Earth can support without
severely affecting the survival
of other species as well as human
health and well-being."
- The
United Nations International
Conference on Population and
Development (ICPD) "...was
held from 5-13 September 1994
in Cairo, Egypt. During this
two week period world leaders,
high ranking officials, representatives
of non-governmental organizations
and United Nations agencies gathered
to agree on a Programme of Action." Extensive
links on the conference and related
documentation.
- Overpopulation.net
- We Have Passed Our Sustainability by
Mark Elsis "Zero
Population Growth Will Occur
Somewhere Between 2020 To 2029" Another
take on human overpopulation
and carrying capacity, with lots
of links to Amazon titles, and
what might be considered by
some as "lunatic
fringe"
material.
- Population
Connection "Overpopulation
threatens the quality of life for people
everywhere. Population Connection is
the national grassroots population
organization that educates young people
and advocates progressive action to
stabilize world population at a level
that can be sustained by Earth's resources."
- Rezachek & Associates'
Energy & Environmental Resources Comprehensive
list of links to renewable energy, energy
incentives, sustainable economy, carrying
capacity and development sites world-wide.,
including academic, government, NGO and commercial
organisations.
- Sustainable
Measures: Thanks to Maureen Hart and
staff for providing this well designed and
comprehensive site, with lot's of valuable
sustainable indicators information (in html)
and links to related sites world-wide."This
web site is about indicators of sustainable
community: ways to measure how well a community
is meeting the needs and expectations of
its present and future members. One of the
primary goals of our site is to explain what
indicators are, how indicators relate to
sustainability, how to identify good indicators
of sustainability, and how indicators can
be used to measure progress toward building
a sustainable community."
- "Stern
Review on the economics of climate change" Like
Grandma always said, "An ounce of prevention
is worth a pound of cure". Link goes
to a page with PDF links to executive summaries,
chapters and full report.
- Revisiting
Carrying Capacity: Area-Based Indicators
of Sustainability. by William E. Rees
PhD. "Conventional wisdom suggests
that because of technology and trade, human
carrying capacity is infinitely expandable
and therefore virtually irrelevant to demography
and development planning. By contrast, this
article argues that ecological carrying capacity
remains the fundamental basis for demographic
accounting."
If you've seen "carrying capacity" bandied
about and wondered what it meant, here's
an an excellent discourse on why current
economic measures are no longer relevant,
and future options available.
- U.S.
Department of Energy Smart Communities Network "Information
and services on how your community can adopt
sustainable development as a strategy for
well-being. You'll be in good company. We're
finding that more and more cities, villages,
neighborhoods and regions are using sustainable
development as a guiding principle not only
for near-term projects, but also for planning
their futures." Read about
other communities that have discovered the
benefits of sustainable development; Locate
technical and financial resources that can
help your community plan and carry out sustainable
development projects; and Access model
codes and ordinances other communities have
used to implement sustainable development." Concise,
informative and readable, with useful links
to other related resources. Oh for the day
that the "white shoe greenwash" brigade
must heed these ideas!
- United
Nations Division for Sustainable Development "The
Division for Sustainable Development provides
leadership and is an authoritative source
of expertise within the United Nations system
on sustainable development. It promotes sustainable
development as the substantive secretariat
to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development
(CSD) and through technical cooperation and
capacity building at international, regional
and national levels. The context for the
Division’s
work is the implementation of Agenda 21,
the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and
the Barbados Programme of Action for Sustainable
Development of Small Island Developing States."
- The World Resources
Institute "... mission is to move
human society to live in ways that protect
Earth's environment and its capacity to provide
for the needs and aspirations of current
and future generations. Because people are
inspired by ideas, empowered by knowledge,
and moved to change by greater understanding,
WRI provides -- and helps other institutions
provide -- objective information and practical
proposals for policy and institutional change
that will foster environmentally sound, socially
equitable development."
 Policy
wonk* heaven with solid real world solutions
as examples!
See also Australian Government Agencies, Development
and Environment, Sustainable
Design & Management and Ecotourism
Projects & Tourism Planning |
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