Abstract:
Our current methods for addressing sustainability challenges are shaped by institutional and intellectual frameworks that reflect negative, defensive attitudes towards the environment. Negative impacts are seen as inevitable, so we only aim to slow the pace of environmental destruction. The belief that we have no option but to ‘trade off’ nature for social and economic gain is deeply engrained. We assume the best that sustainable development can do is provide (short-term) social benefits that compensate for long-term ecological losses. Traditionally, policymakers and environmental managers have thought they were dealing with sustainable development issues by merely monitoring, measuring, managing and mitigating the predicted negative impacts of future plans, policies and designs. However, creating environments that are socially and ecologically productive requires breaking out of our mental cubicles and undoing what has already been done. Towards that end, this book provides: • New paradigms and design concepts that enable us to expand future options, increase resource security, increase human and ecological health, and improve life quality for all. • New design criteria, review processes, assessment tools and design methods that shift from narrow ‘input–output thinking’ to design that supports natural systems and communities. • New approaches to analysis, assessment and management systems that move from mitigating negative impacts to multiplying positive ecological and social synergies. • New approaches to futures planning methods, strategies and incentives that do not just prepare for a grim future, but increase the means of survival and meaningful life choices.
