Caption: "Sadly, the only proven way to achieve global GHG reductions so far has been economic recession." Comment: Fortunately, shifting to 100% renewables would catalyze the global transition to durable prosperity and community well-being in a way that would eliminate GHG production AND grow the economy <<continued>>. (See also: strategic sustainability, natural capitalism, its four strategies, and RMI's Reinventing Fire [energy] Program.)
Quick access to key sustainability resources from an emerging whole systems and critical-path perspective: pioneers, leaders, powerful ideas, path-breaking initiatives, beyond best practices, important events. Comment. Search. Go to the Sust-Clips Index of categories. See also: the State of Sustainability (SOS)TM Journal for commentary.
September 14, 2011 at 10:50PM see the posting in the Sustainability Perspectives Journal. TNS Candada's new The Sustainability Transition Lab hold the promise for the innovation required for making big, bold, replicatable steps towards community sustainability.
September 14, 2011 at 10:12PM The Natural Step Canada's new innovation initiative, The Sustainability Transition Lab, to invent innovative models for multi-stakeholder engagement in strategic sectors of Canadian society, promises to take the sustainability transition to a new level thanks to generous seed funding from The Catherine Donnelly Foundation.
September 12, 2011 at 09:21AM Read the McKinsey overview and four supporting papers from their research program on changing face of the global urban economy.
Asia’s growing economic power manifests itself in many ways. Back in 2007, for example, only 8 of the top 50 urban areas (by GDP) were located there. Half of global GDP came from the developed world’s top 380 cities, with 20-plus percent from just 190 North American ones. But over the next 15 years, the urban center of gravity will move south and—still more decisively—east. By 2025, Asia will boast upward of 20 of the top 50 cities, and Shanghai and Beijing will have GDPs higher than those of Los Angeles and London.
September 9, 2011 at 03:34PM for SolarCity, a San Mateo-based firm. This federal contract will be the "largest ever residential solar project. The project has the potential to create . . . 371 megawatts of new solar generation capacity. The San Mateo-based company is expected to work with military housing-privatization developers to install over the next five years, own and operate as many as 160,000 rooftop solar installations on 124 military housing developments in 33 U.S. states. Read the article.
September 3, 2011 at 10:34AM Public discourse seems to increasingly suffer from a confusion between fact and opinion, argument and belief, the rational and irrational. Accordingly, society now possesses a declining capacity to make these critical distinctions and comprehend their import for public policy, decision making, and governance. As a result, society is losing or is about to lose its guiding rudder at a time when it is most needed. This capacity is needed to respond
September 1, 2011 at 03:26PM 
August 27, 2011 at 04:17PM That is the sustainability challenge we face. It is our choice; one we can and need to make in the affirmative.
This is the thesis underlying the work of Lester Brown, his Earth Policy Institute, and his most recent book, World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse (see links below), as he describes it in a letter to readers (see link). His key points are as follows:
August 27, 2011 at 01:33PM Go to www. EnvironmentCalifornia.org to access available resources on plug-in hybrids, solar power. The organization conducts research and leads education campaigns that played a role in securing renewal of federal clean energy incentives and the establishment of the Better Buildings Initiative to help finance energy improvements.
August 22, 2011 at 08:41PM The Planetizen Story of Sprawl DVD, produced with a cast of distinguished scholars and practitioners, is probably the quickest and easiest way to a comprehensive understanding of the sprawl story.
August 22, 2011 at 01:38PM The "lists" of greenest, etc., compiled from other organizations' surveys reveals the methodological flaws in most surveys. However, the special issue covers a variety of intriguing topics. It's worth at least a skim.
August 20, 2011 at 06:48AM The Global Reporting Initiative released it's annual sustainability report on its own operations or the year 2009-10.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a network-based organization that produces a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework that is widely used around the world. GRI is committed to the Framework’s continuous improvement and application worldwide. GRI’s core goals include the mainstreaming of disclosure on environmental, social and governance performance.
August 19, 2011 at 10:45PM This is a good summary based on the republican attacks on the EPA.
August 19, 2011 at 09:56AM Rick Perry -- All Hat and No Reality.
Comic. Ann Telnaes. Washington Post, Opinions, Aug. 19, 2011.
August 18, 2011 at 08:45PM Sustainability: The Journal of Record is working on an article focused on the growing trend of colleges and universities offering courses, certificates or degree programs in organic and sustainable agriculture.
According to a recent Associated Press report, experts said those graduates shouldn't have trouble finding jobs as the agriculture industry replaces aging farmers—the average age of a U.S. farmer is 57—and farmers increasingly look to diversify their operations.
August 17, 2011 at 09:26AM See the short summary in Planetizen on IBM's first customer, the City of Portland, Oregon, for its Systems Dynamics for Smarter Cities app.
Also, see also the full story in Fast Company's IBM Partners With Portland To Play SimCity For Real.
Although the
August 17, 2011 at 08:56AM Check out Patagonia's commitment and action campaign here.
August 15, 2011 at 10:45PM A Q&A exchange in the 2011 Stanford Magazine's Sage column (read both the tabs--(1) Essential Answer; (2) Nitty-gritty) present key explanatory points and strategy in communicating climate change and citing X recent surveys and publications on the topic.
Why does it matter whether you, and others, care about creating a sustainable civilization and curbing global warming?
August 12, 2011 at 08:58PM . . . the Buckminster Fuller Challenge winner, 2008. This is a short description of a sophisticated ecological design proposal for restoration of the devastated ecological-economic-social remains of the extractive coal industry and creation of a new, biologically-based ecologically-economic regenerative regional economy and society.
This is one promising approach to--and example of--the restorative/regenerative, integrative, socio-economic-ecological dimension of sustainability planning.
See also, The Buckminster Fuller Challenge for other winner and runner-up ideas, the resources page for access to the intellectual foundation for comprehensive anticipatory design science, and the Idea Index 1.0 (v 2.0 soon),
. . . serves as a tool to educate, network, and help solve problems. As an educational tool, the Index is full of hopeful, exciting ideas and solutions to pressing global problems. As a networking tool, the Index allows site visitors to contact the project leaders, leave a constructive and/or encouraging comment and connect with one another. It presents a fully searchable database of socially-responsible initiatives, in all stages of development, in need of further funding and support. To read a summary of an entry click on its title or featured image below.
The Buckminster Institute has been remarkably successful in keeping alive, through continual and expanding application, development, and extension of the intellectual legacy--the permanent, ever evolving human capital--that Buckminster Fuller bequeathed humanity. Explore it's resources.Save & Close
Buckminster fuller was the grandfather of strategic sustainability and ecological-economic-societal design engineering and a true champion of humanities regenerative success.
August 11, 2011 at 09:56AM Sustainability practioners and the world lost one of the first business sustainability pioneers, leaders, and champions.
Both contain links to related works of Ray's.
