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Engineering and Sustainability

Engineering and Sustainability. Office of Campus Sustainability. Why is Sustainability Important?. Or Why Isn’t Engineering Sufficient?. Mother Earth -- Our Home It is has water, oxygen and a hospitable climate.

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Engineering and Sustainability

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  1. Engineering and Sustainability Office of Campus Sustainability Campus Sustainability

  2. Why is Sustainability Important? Or Why Isn’t Engineering Sufficient? Campus Sustainability

  3. Mother Earth -- Our Home It is has water, oxygen and a hospitable climate Campus Sustainability

  4. Human activities have changed the composition of the atmosphere since the pre- industrial era Campus Sustainability

  5. Global mean surface temperature is projected to increase during the 21st century Campus Sustainability

  6. Campus Sustainability

  7. Ecological Footprint Campus Sustainability

  8. Campus Sustainability

  9. Campus Sustainability

  10. Campus Sustainability

  11. Campus Sustainability

  12. Hard Numbers • 400 wealthiest Americans with only 4% of their wealth could spend $50 billion to bring ALL people potable water. • Average income of top 400 individuals in U.S. is $174 million or more than 1,600 times the income of a minimum wage worker Campus Sustainability

  13. Earth Day to 21st Century • 1970 • 3.7 Billion people • 203 million U.S. • 25 million U.S. live in poverty • 1,100 sq. ft. ave. house • 2007 • 6.6 billion people • 303 million U.S. • 36 million U.S. live in poverty • 2,350 sq. ft ave. house Campus Sustainability

  14. Campus Sustainability

  15. Do we understand how wasteful we are? 10,000 kg Raw Resource 1000 kg Finished Product (consumed) 100 kg long-term durables left in home 6 months Manufacture CONVERT EXTRACT USE DISCARD From Biffa, 2000 Campus Sustainability

  16. Economics of Happiness Campus Sustainability

  17. 1992 Scientists’ Warning to Humanity Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about. . Union of Concerned Scientists, Statement of 1,700 scientists, November, 1992 Campus Sustainability

  18. 100 Nobel Laureates Statement, Dec. 7, 2001 • The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem not from the  irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate demands of the world's  dispossessed. Of these poor and disenfranchised, the majority live a marginal existence in  equatorial climates. Global warming, not of their making but originating with the wealthy  few, will affect their fragile ecologies most. Their situation will be desperate and manifestly  unjust. Campus Sustainability

  19. What IS Sustainability? Campus Sustainability

  20. Our Common Future • "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."Page 8, World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common Future. (Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1987). (Frequently referred to as the Brundtland report after Gro Harlem Brundtland, Chairman of the Commission) Definitions of Sustainability Campus Sustainability

  21. Definition of Sustainability MSU Campus Sustainability We envision a sustainable community as one that provides for the social and economic needs of all its members for many generations to come, without compromising the health of our Biosphere. Campus Sustainability

  22. A view of community as three separate, unrelated parts: an economic part, a social part and an environmental part. Campus Sustainability

  23. Campus Sustainability

  24. A view of community as three concentric circles: the economy exists within society, and both the economy and society are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the environment. Campus Sustainability

  25. Prism of Sustainability Campus Sustainability

  26. Design Question to Answer How Do We Love All the Children? William McDonough Campus Sustainability

  27. Campus Sustainability

  28. Campus Sustainability

  29. Earth Charter • Respect and Care for the Community of Life • Ecological Integrity • Social and Economic Justice • Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace www.earthcharter.org Campus Sustainability

  30. Time for a New Label Campus Sustainability

  31. Criteria for Fair Trade • Guaranteed minimum prices to producers, plus social development premium • Advance credit or pre-payment • Democratically run producer organizations or workplaces • Long-term contracts, trading relationships • Environmentally sustainable prod’n practices • Safe, non-exploitative working conditions (Sources: Equal Exchange; Fair Trade Federation; FLO; Global Exchange; TransFair USA) Campus Sustainability

  32. So What Does It Have to Do With Me? We’re All In This Together Campus Sustainability

  33. Spheres of Influence • Self • Family • Workplace • Faith Community • Neighborhood • Marketplace • Governance Campus Sustainability

  34. Turn things off Use CFL’s in place of incandescents Use duplex printing Buy recycled content Get a department bike Shop as Surplus, send unwanted items there Buy Energy Star equipment Set equipment to go to sleep Smile more Share your gifts What to do on Campus? Campus Sustainability

  35. Share your gifts Drive less or drive a more fuel efficient vehicle Eat more local/seasonal food Turn things off Invest in your values Raise thermostat in summer, and drop in winter Buy Energy Star appliances Use CFL’s Smile more Listen better Things we can do anywhere Campus Sustainability

  36. Buy locally raised food Buy Fair Trade Coffee, tea, chocolate Eat less meat Support locally owned businesses Eat seasonally Reduce disposables Have more potlucks Compost your waste Grow your own Share the bounty Food Choices Campus Sustainability

  37. Green Purchasing • Buy 100% post-consumer recycled copy paper at • University Stores. It saves, energy, water, and reduces pollution. • Ask for Fair-Trade coffee, it ensures a fair price to the farmer and • Is usually grown organically in shady conditions which are environmentally more sustainable. • When all else is equal support local merchants, not global giants. Campus Sustainability

  38. The Look and Sound of Sustainability Video clip www.ecofoot.msu.edu Campus Sustainability

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