What are the UN Global Compact Categories?
#NAME?
EX of UN Global Compact Regulations/Events
-Environment: Montreal Protocol (1978)
-Labor: Civil Rights Act of 1964
-Human Rights: Geneva Convention (1948)
-Anti-Corruption: 2008 Great Recession
What are the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Categories?
#NAME?
What does the GRI category of Society imply?
Impact on communities and indigenous people
Which typically wins out? The GRI or Global Compact?
GRI
What was the unprecedented environmental crisis in NYC in 1894?
Horse manure
Solution: CARS
Sustainable Development
Meet needs of the present without depleting resources for future generations
Proactive vs. Reactive Sustainablility
-Sustainability has "proactive" essence
-"Resilience" / "reactive": Bounce back, fix harm
Natural Capital
The world's stock of natural assets
What is an Ecosystem?
Single, unified, natural system
-Systems Theory: All interrelated
EX of Ecosystems
Ocean, rainforest, tundra
What is the BIG POINT of Ecosystems?
Cause-effect relationship
-What you do in one system impacts another
Anatomy of Systems
Suprasystem
System
Subsystem
Open System
Why must sustainable development address poverty?
People cannot be sustainable if they're fighting for their lives
Forces of change that accelerate the ecological crisis facing the world
#NAME?
Ecological Footprint
The amount of land and water a human population needs to produce the resources it consumers and to absorb its wastes
Ecological Footprint per person
4.5 acres per person
What is the Replacement Fertility rate?
Children needed to replace mother/father
-Lowest rate in Japan/Singapore
Where is the most extreme poverty?
Outside of mega-cities
The richest 20% consume how much of world resources?
76.60%
What did Shanghai experience?
10% growth YOY, which led to horrible pollution
Environmental Kuznet Curve
Maps per capita income (industrialization) vs. environmental degradation
-Hard on the environment to get into 2nd tier
-Once richer, can spend on environment
Where in the world is climate change most prevalent?
In the United States
Where in the world is climate change least prevalent?
In Chian (most visible effects)
What is Weather?
What it is today
What is Climate?
Average over time
Major human causes of Climate Change
#NAME?
EPA Six Criterion Pollutants
#NAME?
Greenhouse Gases
#NAME?
China Trade War: News Review
US and China agreed to co-operate on trade and cut deficit by $200B
According to a Sustainability Scientists....
If organic matter thaws/decays and gets into the atmosphere, this will accelerate climate change
Rising water level maps show...
Even +1M meter will impact our world strongly
Who die more often in natural disasters?
WOMEN, because they don't have decision-making power
Montreal Protocol
#NAME?
What are major sources of water crisis?
#NAME?
How much of the water on Earth is fresh?
2.5% (most of it underground)
Only 0.1% of that from lakes/rivers
Mt. Kailash
Source of water for 1 billion (Tibet will never be freed)
Great Lakes
Supply 21% of Earth's freshwater by volume (2nd biggest lake system by volume, biggest by area)
Visual Depiction of Future Drought
#NAME?
What are the threats to Arable Land?
#NAME?
What is desertification?
Expansion of the desert
-Combated by planting trees
-UN Goal: 1 trillion trees
Attempts to address land issues?
-Rotary support for greenhouses in Mexico that support entire families with 8 crops per year (only cost $500)
What is Biodiversity?
The number and variety of species of plants and animals
What are the threats to Biodiversity?
-Logging (clear-cutting)
-Cattle-ranching
-Conversion to cash crops
-Land developed for human population
What can companies do to support Biodiversity?
#NAME?
Marine Ecosystems
Broadly refers to oceans, salt marshes, lagoons, tidal zones as well as diverse communities of life they support
What are the threats to Marine Ecosystems?
#NAME?
What are responses from businesses to the environment?
#NAME?
Industrial Ecology
Design factories as closed ecosystems
-Must create or re-use resources within
Life-Cycle Analysis
Collecting information on the lifelong environmental impact of a product (Cradle to grave / cradle to cradle)
What are Global Codes of Conduct?
-UN Global Compact
-ISO 14001 (within 14000)
Cradle to Grave
Sustainable from product development to 0 impact of waste
Cradle to Cradle
Goods of old product can be made into a new product
ISO =
International Standards Organization
-Everything has the same measures around the globe
Carbon Tax Swap
Tax things that hurt the environment , but as a swap (decreases in taxes to small businesses, etc)
Absolute Targets
I will reduce X percent
-For the US
Intensity Targets
Only going to do X amount of pollution per # of something
-For China
Greenwashing
Deceptive green marketing done by corporates to promote that their products are environment friendly
Bluewashing
Corporations wrapping themselves in the United Nations' blue flag without doing anything new