Sustainability Principles and Practice


Book Description

Sustainability Principles and Practice gives an accessible and comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary field of sustainability. The focus is on furnishing solutions and equipping students with both conceptual understanding and technical skills. Each chapter explores one aspect of the field, first introducing concepts and presenting issues, then supplying tools for working toward solutions. Elements of sustainability are examined piece by piece, and coverage ranges over ecosystems, social equity, environmental justice, food, energy, product life cycles, cities, and more. Techniques for management and measurement as well as case studies from around the world are provided. The 3rd edition includes greater coverage of resilience and systems thinking, an update on the Anthropocene as a formal geological epoch, the latest research from the IPCC, and a greater focus on diversity and social equity, together with new details such as sustainable consumption, textiles recycling, microplastics, and net-zero concepts. The coverage in this edition has been expanded to include issues, solutions, and new case studies from around the world, including Europe, Asia, and the Global South. Chapters include further reading and discussion questions. The book is supported by a companion website with online links, annotated bibliography, glossary, white papers, and additional case studies, together with projects, research problems, and group activities, all of which focus on real-world problem-solving of sustainability issues. This textbook is designed to be used by undergraduate college and university students in sustainability degree programs and other programs in which sustainability is taught.




Sustainability For Beginners: Introduction And Business Prospects


Book Description

This book provides a basic introduction to Sustainability & Sustainable Developments, integrated with current business models and future business prospects. In 10 chapters, the authors cover a wide array of topics comprehensively, in an accessible style of language that will appeal to the uninitiated. Many eye-catching self-illustrated artworks, coupled with in-depth analyses of numerous case studies, allow the reader to grasp the theoretical concepts with ease. Multiple-choice exercises at the end of every chapter (with answers provided) further aid readers in verifying their own understanding. Sustainability for Beginners hopes to encourage effective learning, improve abstract thinking, and culminate sustainable entrepreneurship among students and innovators.




Fundamentals of Sustainability in Civil Engineering


Book Description

This book provides a foundation to understand the development of sustainability in civil engineering, and tools to address the three pillars of sustainability: economics, environment, and society. It includes case studies in the five major areas of civil engineering: environmental, structural, geotechnical, transportation, and construction management. This second edition is updated throughout and adds new chapters on construction engineering as well as an overview of the most common certification programs that revolve around environmental sustainability. Features: Updated throughout and adds two entirely new chapters Presents a review of the most common certification programs in sustainability Offers a blend of numerical and writing-based problems, as well as numerous application-based examples that utilize concepts found on the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam Includes several practical case studies Offers a solution manual for instructors Fundamentals of Sustainability in Civil Engineering is intended for upper-level civil engineering sustainability courses. A unique feature is that concepts found in the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam were targeted to help senior-level students refresh and prepare.




Sustainable Design Basics


Book Description

An accessible, climate-diverse guide that transforms readers from sustainable design novices to whole-solution problem solvers. Sustainable Design Basics is a student-friendly introduction to a holistic and integral view of sustainable design. Comprehensive in scope, this textbook presents basic technical information, sustainability strategies, and a practical, step-by-step approach for sustainable building projects. Clear and relatable chapters illustrate how to identify the factors that reduce energy use, solve specific sustainable design problems, develop holistic design solutions, and address the social and cultural aspects of sustainable design. Requiring no prior knowledge of the subject, the text’s easy-to-follow methodology leads readers through the fundamental sustainable design principles for the built environment. Sustainably-constructed and maintained buildings protect the health and improve the productivity of their occupants, as well as help to restore the global ecosystem. The authors, leading practitioners and educators in sustainable design, have created a resource that provides a solid introduction to broad level sustainability thinking that students can take forward into their professional practice. Topics include space planning for sustainable design, integrative and collaborative design, standards and rating systems, real-world strategies to conserve energy and resources through leveraging renewable natural resources and innovative construction techniques and their impact on our environment. Usable and useful both in and beyond the classroom, this book: Covers building location strategies, building envelopes and structures, integration of passive and active systems, green materials, and project presentation Examines cultural factors, social equity, ecological systems, and aesthetics Provides diverse student exercises that vary by climate, geography, setting, perspective, and typology Features a companion website containing extensive instructor resources Sustainable Design Basics is an important resource aimed at undergraduate architecture and interior design students, or first-year graduate students, as well as design professionals wishing to integrate sustainable design knowledge and techniques into their practice.




Green Transportation Basics


Book Description

Our automobile culture is devastating for the environment, but private passenger vehicles are unlikely to disappear from our roads anytime soon. Greener cars and fuels will be a necessity for many years to come. Green Transportation Basics is a guide to greening your personal driving habits by dramatically improving the efficiency of an existing vehicle using simple measures such as trip planning and regular maintenance to improve fuel economy. This handy guide also explores the most promising new green carsand trucks, including electric vehicles, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and natural-gas cars. And it critically examines sustainable fuels includingethanol, biodiesel, straight vegetable oil, hydrogen, and biomethane, evaluating each according to a set of established criteria. Each green fuel source must: be socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable have a high net energy yield be clean, abundant, renewable, affordable. Don't let your dream of greening your transportation idle – Green Transportation Basics will guide you through the myths and misconceptions and provide clear options for the road to a more sustainable future.




Fundamentals of Sustainable Development


Book Description

Fundamentals of Sustainable Development is an accessible and interdisciplinary textbook that introduces the concept of sustainable development to students from across the disciplines from economics, management, teacher education, arts and humanities to the natural and social sciences. The impact of development needs to be considered beyond the narrow focus of economic, ecological or social concerns. This new edition builds upon the second edition’s user-friendly and comprehensive overview of the challenges linked to striving for a sustainable, holistic approach to development. Providing a multifaceted approach to the subject in order to encompass what is referred to as ‘people, planet and profit’, this third edition provides a complete update of the text, with an emphasis on topics including the Sustainable Development Goals, the circular economy, climate and energy, and sustainable and future-focused entrepreneurship. This stimulating book is an invaluable resource for students and lecturers in all disciplines who have an interest in the sustainability of our planet, and our human society and economy.




Human Ecology


Book Description

'The scope and clarity of this book make it accessible and informative to a wide readership. Its messages should be an essential component of the education for all students from secondary school to university... [It] provides a clear and comprehensible account of concepts that can be applied in our individual and collective lives to pursue the promising and secure future to which we all aspire' From the Foreword by Maurice Strong, Chairman of the Earth Council and former Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) The most important questions of the future will turn on the relationship between human societies and the natural ecosystems on which we all, in the end, depend. The interactions and interdependencies of the social and natural worlds are the focus of growing attention from a wide range of environmental, social and life sciences. Understanding them is critical to achieving the balance involved in sustainable development. Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development presents an extremely clear and accessible account of this complex range of issues and of the concepts and tools required to understand and tackle them. Extensively supported by graphics and detailed examples, this book makes an excellent introduction for students at all levels, and for general readers wanting to know why and how to respond to the dilemmas we face.




People and the Earth


Book Description

This book discusses the basic components of human interaction with the earth, and speculates on what the future may hold.




Sustainability and Law


Book Description

The book discusses sustainability and law in a multifaceted way. Together, sustainability and law are an emerging challenge for research and science. This volume contributes through an interdisciplinary concept to its further exploration. The contributions explore this exciting domain with innovative ideas and replicable approaches. It combines a variety of authors, from both the public and the private sectors, and thereby guarantees a broad view that enshrines the more theoretical arguments from the academic side as well as stronger practical applicable perspectives. The book provides space for thoughtful expansions of established theories as well as the hopeful emergence of innovative ideas. Moreover, the combination of three to five contributions into the eleven parts respectively aims toward a compression of like minded thoughts. This should lead to an intensification of exchange of viewpoints from different angles on a similar theme. Readers therefore also have the opportunity to concentrate on single chapters, but receive comprised knowledge and a variety of thoughts for new ideas on a particular theme.




Sustainability


Book Description

With "Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation," first and second-year college students are introduced to this expanding new field, comprehensively exploring the essential concepts from every branch of knowldege - including engineering and the applied arts, natural and social sciences, and the humanities. As sustainability is a multi-disciplinary area of study, the text is the product of multiple authors drawn from the diverse faculty of the University of Illinois: each chapter is written by a recognized expert in the field.