23-25 January 2013
International Conference Center Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
www.SustainabilityConference.com

Call for Papers

If you intend to present a paper at the conference, your participation begins with submission of a paper proposal. For information on proposals, presentation types, and other options, please see our website. To submit a proposal, please click here. If your proposal is accepted, you will then need to register for the Conference.

Registration

Those who submit paper proposals should register following the acceptance of
the proposal. Conference delegates who do not intend to present may register
at any time. For registration options or to register for the 2012
Sustainability Conference, see:
http://onsustainability.com/conference-2013/register/

Themes

• Theme 1: Environmental Sustainability
• Theme 2: Cultural Sustainability
• Theme 3: Economic Sustainability
• Theme 4: Social Sustainability

Britain in the middle of the nineteenth century was the world’s leading military, industrial, and mercantile power. In 1865, a twenty-nine-year-old Englishman named William Stanley Jevons published a book, “The Coal Question,” in which he argued that the bonanza couldn’t last. Britain’s affluence and global hegemony, he wrote, depended on its endowment of coal, which the country was rapidly depleting. He added that such an outcome could not be delayed through increased “economy” in the use of coal—what we refer to today as energy efficiency. He concluded, in italics,“It is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth.” Jevons might be little discussed today, except by historians of economics, if it weren’t for the scholarship of another English economist, Len Brookes. During the nineteen-seventies oil crisis, Brookes argued that devising ways to produce goods with less oil—an obvious response to higher prices—would merely accommodate the new prices, causing energy consumption to be higher than it would have been if no effort to increase efficiency had been made; only later did he discover that Jevons had anticipated him by more than a century. Nowadays, this effect is usually referred to as “rebound”—or, in cases where increased consumption more than cancels out any energy savings, as “backfire.”

For more (subscription required): http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/20/101220fa_fact_owen#ixzz198hPJeJU

In the last hours before the final session of the Cancún climate changesummit, the world’s poorest countries tried to remind the rich what was at stake. Bruno Sekoli, chair of the 54 nations in the least developed block, spoke for them all:

“The objective of these talks [has been] to mitigate climate change and help developing countries adapt [to climate impacts]. The situation is extremely disappointing. Concentrations of greenhouse gases have risen at alarming rates and it’s worrying to think of the situation in just 10 years’ time. Most of us are already fighting for survival I appeal to developed countries to do what is right. They have shown economic, even military leadership. They must now show climate leadership.”

Well, they didn’t. They kept the wheels on the bus by reaching an agreement on Saturday, but it is still careering towards the precipice.

The promise of vast new flows of aid money is still a chimera; the ambition to keep temperatures to 2C is nowhere near enough to prevent disaster across Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the overriding desire to get a deal – any deal – gaping loopholes and ambiguities were left in, dates were left out and major issues about the final legal form and the emission cuts all countries will need to make were pushed back another year. In effect, the world is in limbo.

For more…

From Daniel Albert, n+1

Thinking about becoming the kind of person who drives an electric car? It won’t be easy. Actually, owning the car will be remarkably easy: no more need for an auto mechanic (how often does your toaster need a repair?), no more emissions inspections, and no more trips to the gas station. You may miss standing at the pump, breathing the fumes next to the sign that warns against breathing the fumes. You may miss spending $20 or $30 or $40 a week on fuel. But oh, to be on the cutting edge!

The first thing to do is check your bank account. Got $110,000 to spare? Then you want a Tesla Roadster. It only seats two and has limited luggage space, but it accelerates faster than a Porsche and you get $7,500 back from the feds. You can use that tax rebate to buy the $2,000 fast home charger that puts 56 miles of range in the batteries every hour.

The Tesla will get you plenty of attention, based as it is on the sporty Lotus Elise—but if you really want attention, spend your hundred grand on a Tango. The Tango is either one of the coolest cars almost available or one of the silliest. It performs just like a Tesla, with lightning acceleration and go-cart handling. But it is narrower than some motorcycles—just one meter wide—and as with a motorcycle the lone passenger sits behind the driver. The result is a hatchback that makes a Honda Fit look like a Ford Excursion. Small just isn’t the word. The Tango has far less range than the Tesla, but this can be overcome by buying the Tango’s range-extending trailer, a small generator you tow behind. Still, unlike Tesla, which has opened dealerships and secured long-term backing from the founders of PayPal and Google, among others, Tango’s future may be limited to selling kit cars (still over $100,000, some assembly required).

To Read More…

Abstract: Many countries in the Caribbean are exploring ecotourism, alongside mass tourism, as a development strategy in the period following the collapse of export crop industries. Ecotourism as a strategy for economic development has produced mixed, if not disappointing, outcomes for the lives of the majority of people where it has been attempted (Honey 1999; Sinclair 1998). This article makes the argument that successful pursuit of ecotourism to promote integrated economic and social development can be enhanced when there is potential for the adverse impacts of tourism to be mitigated by the presence of certain structural domestic conditions. Using evidence from the island state of St. Lucia where a programmatic effort by the state to promote heritage tourism has been in operation for almost two decades the theoretical argument is made that ecotourism that relies on the unique structure of local ownership of productive resources, supported by technical skill supplied by the state, facilitates greater participation in the tourist sector on terms advantageous to economically and socially marginalized participants. Thus far the Programme has encouraged environmental awareness and cultural appreciation in the local population, encouraged entrepreneurial activity, and diversified entry into an enclave sector through avenues other than cheap unskilled seasonal work. The article concludes with an examination of the prospect for this effort to contribute to more widespread development policy focused on social and environmental well-being.

Europe says it is embarking on an unprecedented overhaul of its electricity system. But it must do more to convince the private sector that it is serious.

Europe says it is embarking on an unprecedented overhaul of its electricity system. But it must do more to convince the private sector that it is serious.

Such an offshore grid would be a world first and would bring many benefits. These would include far greater integration, and hence price competition, between the electricity markets in northern Europe, wider access to extensive short-term hydropower storage in Norway, and crucial links to bring to land the energy generated by offshore wind, wave and tidal power. The grid is just one of half-a-dozen energy-infrastructure priorities for Europe that the European Commission announced last month. Together, they will require 200 billion (US$264 billion) of investment over the next decade according to the commission, half of it from public sources. The quoted price for the North Sea grid is about 20 billion.

For more…

• Zhanna Barchuk, Mary Jane Harkins and Bertram Tulk - Weaving the Threads of Sustainability into the Tapestry of Education: A Transformational Approach to Infusing Critical Elements of Environmental Education into Everyday Teaching Practice
• Christine Dellert - Protecting the ‘Other’: Ecological Citizenship Under Ecuador’s Constitution
• Rosine Der-Tavitian, Zarmine Naccashian and Savitri Singh-Carlson - Community Health Fair: Organization and Outcome Analysis
• Aida L. Egues - The Relationship between Mentoring and Level of Practice among Hispanic RNs
• Ina Freeman and Irina Andreeva-Sussin - International Cultural Competence in International Business Education: The Need to Respond
• Brad W Kose and Carolyn Shields - Ecological and Social Justice: A Leadership Framework for Sustainability
• Daniel McCool and Janet Winniford - Campus Sustainability in the US: A Comparison of a Research and a Teaching University
• Silverton Nguyen and Savitri Singh-Carlson - America and its Health Care System: Two Gay Men’s Perspective
• Olusegun Oluwole - The African Philosophy: A Strategic Vehicle for the Delivery of a New Cultural Dimension to Housing
• Prabha Ramseook-Munhurrun and Vedmani Munhurrun - TQM Sustainability for Competitive Advantage
• Richard Sanders and Xingji Xiao - The Sustainability of Organic Agriculture in Developing Countries: Lessons from China

David Cameron has refused to attend the UN climate talks in Cancún, despite a direct appeal by the Mexican chair of the conference.

The talks, which began today, have been accompanied by little of the razzamatazz that followed the host of celebrities and world leaders that attended last year’s event in Copenhagen. The US, UK and EU have all played down the chances of a deal and the Mexican authorities expect about 22,000 people, including 9,000 official delegates and journalists – fewer than half the number that attended the at-times chaotic conference in the Danish capital.

Despite low expectations, at least 20 world leaders are expected to be present, the majority from Latin America. The small island states of Vanuatu, Samoa, Kiribati and Nauru are also planning to send their leaders. And although the US has little to offer, because of the failure of domestic climate legislation in the Senate earlier this year, the US energy secretary, Steven Chu, warned today that the US risks falling far behind advances made by China and other countries in the global race for clean energy, something he he referred to as a “Sputnik moment” – the US response to the Soviet Union’s early lead in the space race. “We face a choice today,” he said. “Are we going to continue America’s innovation leadership or are we going to fall behind?”

For more…

Please join us at the Ta Rapa Racecourse for the conference dinner. With a park like setting, the Ta Rapa Racecourse is the prefect place in Hamilton to enjoy dinner with your fellow delegates.

Tuesday, 6 January 19:00 (7:00PM)

To register for the dinner please visit the 2011 Sustainability Conference web-site.

From Dan Sewell, The Huffington Post

The world’s largest consumer product maker announced Monday that it has set ambitious long-term targets for cutting the waste it produces and improving its energy efficiency.

Procter & Gamble said it eventually will use only renewable energy to power its factories and only recycled or renewable materials to make and package its products.

The manufacturer of Pampers diapers, Gillette shavers and numerous other top-selling products says it will take decades to achieve these goals. But it has set 10-year targets and will provide updates each year.

Bob McDonald, P&G’s chairman, president and CEO, said in an announcement webcast from Geneva that consumers applaud improvements to help the environment, and the new effort should help P&G’s business, as well as the Earth.

“I think when you do the right thing … the business just takes off,” said McDonald.

He said 173-year-old P&G recognizes its long-term impacts.

“It does us no good to grow our business today at the expense of tomorrow,” he said.

Environmental advocates have been pushing corporate giants to do more, especially because moves by P&G, retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and others can build momentum for sustainability by all kinds of businesses.

To Read More…