Sustainability: Principles and Practice gives an accessible and comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary field of sustainability. The focus is on furnishing solutions and equipping the student with both conceptual understanding and technical skills for the workplace. Each chapter explores one aspect of the field, first introducing relevant theory and presenting issues, then supplying tools for working toward solutions. Elements of sustainability are examined piece by piece, and wide 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.
Chapters include further reading, discussion questions, and problems to foster quantitative thinking. Sustainability: Principles and Practice is supported by a companion website with key website links, detailed reading lists, glossary, and additional case studies, together with numerous projects, research problems, and group activities, all of which focus on real-world problem solving of sustainability issues. Sustainability: Principles and Practice is designed to be used by undergraduate college and university students in sustainability degree programs and other programs in which sustainability is taught.
Part 1: Context
1. What Is Sustainability?
2. A Brief History of Sustainability
3. The Biosphere
4. The Human Sphere
5. Putting Sustainability into Practice
Part 2: Issues and Solutions
6. Climate
7. Water
8. Ecosystems and Habitat
9. Pollution
10. Energy
11. Food
12. Green Buildings and Sites
13. Livable Cities
14. Products
15. Waste, and Recycling
Part 3: Becoming an Agent for Change
16. Working in an Organization
17. Education: Preparing a New Generation to Live Well in a Changing World
18. Working as Agents for Change
Margaret Robertson, a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), is coordinator of the Sustainability Coordinator degree program at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, USA, and a Sustainability Fellow in the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium.