Guiding questions
- What is sustainability and how can it be measured?
- To what extent are challenges of sustainable development also ones of environmental justice?
Click here for guided notes aligned with the slide deck for topic 1.3 Sustainability, including an answer key.
SL and HL knowledge statements
1.3.1 Sustainability is a measure of the extent to which practices allow for the long-term viability of a system. It is generally used to refer to the responsible maintenance of socio-ecological systems such that there is no diminishment of conditions for future generations.
1.3.2 Sustainability is comprised of environmental, social and economic pillars.
1.3.3 Environmental sustainability is the use and management of natural resources that allows replacement of the resources, and recovery and regeneration of ecosystems.
1.3.4 Social sustainability focuses on creating the structures and systems, such as health, education, equity, community, that support human well-being.
1.3.5 Economic sustainability focuses on creating the economic structures and systems to support production and consumption of goods and services that will support human needs into the future.
1.3.6 Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development applies the concept of sustainability to our social and economic development.
1.3.7 Unsustainable use of natural resources can lead to ecosystem collapse.
1.3.8 Common indicators of economic development, such as gross domestic product (GDP), neglect the value of natural systems and may lead to unsustainable development.
1.3.9 Environmental justice refers to the right of all people to live in a pollution-free environment, and to have equitable access to natural resources, regardless of issues such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, nationality.
1.3.10 Inequalities in income, race, gender and cultural identity within and between different societies lead to disparities in access to water, food and energy.
1.3.11 Sustainability and environmental justice can be applied at the individual to the global operating scale.
1.3.12 Sustainability indicators include quantitative measures of biodiversity, pollution, human population, climate change, material and carbon footprints, and others. These indicators can be applied on a range of scales, from local to global.
1.3.13 The concept of ecological footprints can be used to measure sustainability. If these footprints are greater than the area or resources available to the population, this indicates unsustainability.
1.3.14 The carbon footprint measures the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced, measured in carbon dioxide equivalents (in tonnes). The water footprint measures water use (in cubic metres per year).
1.3.15 Biocapacity is the capacity of a given biologically productive area to generate an ongoing supply of renewable resources and to absorb its resulting wastes.
1.3.16 Citizen science plays a role in monitoring Earth systems and whether resources are being used sustainably.
iNaturalist is a global network of citizen scientists documenting the world’s biodiversity.
eBird is the world’s largest citizen-scientist project about birds. It is managed by Cornell University in the USA.
1.3.17 There are a range of frameworks and models that support our understanding of sustainability, each with uses and limitations.
1.3.18 The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of social and environmental goals and targets to guide action on sustainability and environmental justice.
Learn about each of the UN Sustainable Development Goals here. You’ll find that many of the issues we study in ESS are intertwined and overlap.
1.3.19 The planetary boundaries model describes the nine processes and systems that have regulated the stability and resilience of the Earth system in the Holocene epoch. The model also identifies the limits of human disturbance to those systems, and proposes that crossing those limits increases the risk of abrupt and irreversible changes to Earth systems.
1.3.20 The doughnut economics model is a framework for creating a regenerative and distributive economy in order to meet the needs of all people within the means of the planet.
1.3.21 The circular economy is a model that promotes decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. It has three principles: eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials, and regenerating nature.
Practical activities
- Use footprint calculators to establish your own ecological/carbon/water footprint. Present comparative data on footprints graphically, using a spreadsheet and graph-plotting software.
Possible engagement opportunities
- Present research on examples of environmental injustice and inequalities leading to problems of access to resources.
- Promote the doughnut economics model and/or circular economy strategies for the school community.
- Investigate the whole-school carbon footprint and produce a plan to reduce the school’s carbon emissions.
- Design and plan a sustainability walk to highlight sustainable options locally.
- Use an SDG to advocate for a particular issue.
Happy learning!
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