GEC 8

MODULE 9

Governor Mariano E. Villafuerte Community College- Siruma

Poblacion, Siruma Camarines Sur
gmvcc.siruma@gmail.com
MODULE OBJECTIVE

At the end of this module, students should be able to:

• Understand the meaning of sustainable development

• Understand the history of sustainability

MODULE CONTENT

Sustainable Development

History of Sustainability

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Sustainable development is the organizing principle for meeting human development goals while
simultaneously sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural
resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The desired result
is a state of society where living conditions and resources are used to continue to meet human
needs without undermining the integrity and stability of the natural system. Sustainable
development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability goals
address the global challenges, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental
degradation, peace and justice.

While the modern concept of sustainable development is yet derived mostly from the
1987 Brundtland Report, it is also rooted in earlier ideas about sustainable forest
management and twentieth-century environmental concerns. As the concept of sustainable
development developed, it has shifted its focus more towards the economic development, social
development and environmental protection for future generations. It has been suggested that
the term 'sustainability' should be viewed as humanity's target goal of human-ecosystem
equilibrium, while 'sustainable development' refers to the holistic approach and temporal
processes that lead us to the endpoint of sustainability". Modern economies are endeavoring to
reconcile ambitious economic development and obligations of preserving natural
resources and ecosystems, as the two are usually seen as of conflicting nature. Instead of
holding climate change commitments and other sustainability measures as a remedy to economic
development, turning and leveraging them into market opportunities will do greater good. The
economic development brought by such organized principles and practices in an economy is called
Managed Sustainable Development (MSD).

HISTORY OF SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability can be defined as the practice of maintaining world processes of productivity

indefinitely—natural or human-made—by replacing resources used with resources of equal or
greater value without degrading or endangering natural biotic systems. Sustainable development
ties together concern for the carrying capacity of natural systems with the social, political, and
economic challenges faced by humanity. Sustainability Science is the study of the concepts of
sustainable development and environmental science. There is an additional focus on the present
generations' responsibility to regenerate, maintain and improve planetary resources for use by
future generations.

Sustainable development has its roots in ideas about sustainable forest management which were
developed in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. In response to a growing awareness of
the depletion of timber resources in England, John Evelyn argued that "sowing and planting of
trees had to be regarded as a national duty of every landowner, in order to stop the
destructive over- exploitation of natural resources" in his 1662 essay Sylva. In 1713 Hans Carl
von Carlowitz, a senior mining administrator in the service of Elector Frederick Augustus I of
Saxony published Sylvicultura economics, a 400-page work on forestry. Building upon the ideas
of Evelyn and French minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, von Carlowitz developed the concept of
managing forests for sustained yield. His work influenced others, including Alexander von
Humboldt and Georg Ludwig Hartig, eventually leading to the development of a science of
forestry. This, in turn, influenced people like Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the US Forest

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Service, whose approach to forest management was driven by the idea of wise use of resources,
and Aldo Leopold whose land ethic was influential in the development of the environmental
movement in the 1960s.

Following the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962, the developing environmental
movement drew attention to the relationship between economic growth and development
and environmental degradation. Kenneth E. Boulding in his influential 1966 essay The Economics
of the Coming Spaceship Earth identified the need for the economic system to fit itself to the
ecological system with its limited pools of resources. Another milestone was the 1968 article
by Garrett Hardin that popularized the term "tragedy of the commons". One of the first uses of
the term sustainable in the contemporary sense was by the Club of Rome in 1972 in its classic
report on the Limits to Growth, written by a group of scientists led by Dennis and Donella
Meadows of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Describing the desirable "state of global
equilibrium", the authors wrote: "We are searching for a model output that represents a world
system that is sustainable without sudden and uncontrolled collapse and capable of satisfying the
basic material requirements of all of its people." That year also saw the publication of the
influential A Blueprint for Survival book.

Following the Club of Rome report, an MIT research group prepared ten days of hearings on
"Growth and Its Implication for the Future" (Roundtable Press, 1973) for the US Congress, the
first hearings ever held on sustainable development. William Flynn Martin, David Dodson Gray,
and Elizabeth Gray prepared the hearings under the Chairmanship of Congressman John Dingell.

In 1980 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature published a world
conservation strategy that included one of the first references to sustainable development as a
global priority and introduced the term "sustainable development". Two years later, the
United Nations World Charter for Nature raised five principles of conservation by which human
conduct affecting nature is to be guided and judged. In 1987 the United Nations World
Commission on Environment and Development released the report Our Common Future,
commonly called the Brundtland Report. The report included what is now one of the most widely
recognized definitions of sustainable development.

What is Sustainable Development?

Environmental, economic and social well-being for today and tomorrow Sustainable development
has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common
Future, also known as the Brundtland Report:"Sustainable development is development that
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.

It contains within it two key concepts:

• the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which
overriding priority should be given; and

• the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the
environment's ability to meet present and future needs."

All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system—a
system that connects space; and a system that connects time. When you think of the world as a
system over space, you grow to understand that air pollution from North America affects air

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quality in Asia, and that pesticides sprayed in Argentina could harm fish stocks off the coast of
Australia. And when you think of the world as a system over time, you start to realize that the
decisions our grandparents made about how to farm the land continue to affect agricultural
practice today; and the economic policies we endorse today will have an impact on urban poverty
when our children are adults. We also understand that quality of life is a system, too. It's good
to be physically healthy, but what if you are poor and don't have access to education? It's good
to have a secure income, but what if the air in your part of the world is unclean? And it's good to
have freedom of religious expression, but what if you can't feed your family? The concept of
sustainable development is rooted in this sort of systems thinking. It helps us understand
ourselves and our world.

The problems we face are complex and serious—and we can't address them in the same way we
created them. But we can address them. It's that basic optimism that motivates IISD's staff,
associates and board to innovate for a healthy and meaningful future for this planet and its
inhabitants.

Sustainable development means building our communities so that we can all live comfortably
without consuming all of our resources. We make an impact on our environment through how we
live our lives. Another way to say this is that we all leave an ecological footprint. Imagine yourself
in a garden. If you were to run around the garden wearing heavy boots, you would probably do
a lot of damage to the fruits and vegetables growing there. If you were to walk carefully through
the garden in bare feet, you would be able to eat just as many fruits and vegetables as the person
wearing heavy boots, but you would also be leaving a lot more for yourself and others to eat the
next day. It is the same thing with our resources. Living in a sustainable way means leaving more
of things we all need to share, like water, energy, clean air and forests, for future generations.
Sustainable development is not just about conserving our resources: it is about changing our
culture to make conservation a way of life.

The earth has a natural balance, and over consumption of its resources, whether it is polluting or
diverting water, or over-using land for building or agriculture or mining, or clear cutting of forests,
or over- fishing the ocean, or burning too many fossil fuels throws that balance off and makes it
difficult for the earth to renew itself. Living sustainably means only consuming as much as we
need, while making sure to never consume so much that it cannot be replaced. Changing habits
in daily or community life, in government or in business is often referred to as “greening
practices”.

The term “green” is used to refer to anything that is built for or working towards a sustainable,
environmentally-friendly future. Most people would like to live in a sustainable community, but
they cannot afford to do so because current business models encourage activities that do not
take into account future problems. Sustainable development creates longterm economic stability,
but does not create short-term profits.

Governments, businesses, and consumers all need to change their habits for sustainable
development to be the norm, not the exception. By co-operating in sustainable development, we
can all look forward to a green future. Sustainable development refers to a mode of human
development in which resource use aims to meet human needs while ensuring the sustainability
of natural systems and the environment, so that these needs can be met not only in the present,
but also for generations to come.

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 The term 'sustainable development' was used by the Brundtland Commission, which
coined what has become the most oftenquoted definition of sustainable development:
"development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs." Sustainable development ties together concern for the
carrying capacity of natural systems with the social challenges faced by humanity.

As early as the 1970s, "sustainability" was employed to describe an economy "in

equilibrium with basic ecological support systems." Ecologists have pointed to The Limits to
Growth, and presented the alternative of a "steady state economy" in order to address
environmental concerns. The concept of sustainable development has in the past most often been
broken out into three constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and
sociopolitical sustainability.

More recently, it has been suggested that a more consistent analytical breakdown is to
distinguish four domains of economic, ecological, political and cultural sustainability. This is
consistent with the UCLG move to make 'culture' the fourth domain of sustainability.

Other important sources refer to the fourth domain as 'institutional' or as 'good

governance.' Cultural sustainability Cultural sustainability is a new interdisciplinary approach,
aimed to raise the significance of culture and its factors in local, regional and global sustainable
development. Culture is an important aspect of sustainable development, as it refers to how we
understand and appreciate natural resources and each other. However, the role and meaning of
culture within the framework of sustainable development is relatively vague both in science and
policy.

Sometimes culture has been treated as a component of social sustainability, sometimes as a

fourth pillar,[ or even as a key dimension of sustainable development.However, the call for culture
is becoming more powerful along with the increasing ecological, economic and social challenges
to meet the aims of sustainability. Social-Political Sustainability:

The Human Element It is commonly accepted that the project of sustainable development is
conceptually composed of three constituent parts.

These parts are (1) environmental sustainability, (2) economic sustainability, and (3)
social-political sustainability. The United Nations 2005 World Summit refers to the
“interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars” of sustainable development as environmental
protection, economic development and social development. The interdependency of the first two
is evident; it is perhaps the greatest challenge of our time to satisfy the needs and wants of
burgeoning populations within the binding constraints imposed by our physical environment. But
what is this great hoopla about social development and sustainability of politics, and what exactly
is its place?

If environmental protection is concerned with the preservation of our natural environment and
resources, and economic sustainability is concerned with seeking durable growth solutions
therein, then the social-political sphere can be thought of as representative of the more purely
human element in the equation. Social development and social-political sustainability are
intimately related concepts but they are not in fact entirely interchangeable. It is important that
we understand their symbiotic relationship and its implications for the broader sustainability
project. Social development is a concept that is familiar to most of us in its many and varying
forms. Within any given society there are opportunities to improve and enrich each of its

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composite parts in many ways. Of sometimes greater importance is the need to harmonize
relations amongst these various and sometimes opposing elements.

Those actively engaged in the process of social development include agents acting within its
institutions to effect change via established channels. Of more notice, however, are often those
who act from the outside, those who reject the society’s institutions as inadequate, and who
advocate wholesale social and political change as the only true path to social enrichment and
development. It is in this transformational role that we begin to touch on the realm of social-
political sustainability. Within any given social context, social development can be pursued with
the simple granting of budgets. Financial and human resources are utilized to strengthen and
enrich societies by improving educational opportunities, by embracing the marginalized and the
forgotten, by making improvements to healthcare and hygienic conditions and by endearing
knowledge of financial and entrepreneurial activities to name just a few. Here, the distinguishing
feature of social development is that it is executed within the institutional mechanisms and
constraints prevailing in that given entity. Social-political sustainability too is very much concerned
with physical and material standing of peoples, but further than this it is concerned with the state
of their civil society.

Social-political sustainability is differentiated from pure social development in that its sphere
is expanded beyond the employment of simply monetary means. Social-political development
entails not only the engagement of institutional mechanisms, but also their modification and
advancement. Social-political sustainability thus seeks pathways to durable social enrichment and
development via the vibrancy and health of a society’s political processes. At its core, there
ultimately is little more than an absolute faith in the functioning of liberal democracy. Despite the
frequent changing of the guard and the potential for policy discontinuity this entails, it is believed
that representative republican government buttressed by mass public awareness and participation
provides the best model for a sustainable body politic. In addition to social policy, environmental
and economic policies are clearly dictated in the political realm as well. It is in the creed of the
sustainability project to hold that healthy political bodies which are truly representative of the
collective will can show us the path forward. Recognition of the strain to our natural environment
that unrestrained industrialization and consumption have brought depends upon it.

These essential characteristics of ESD can be implemented in myriad ways, so that ESD
programmes reflect the unique environmental, social, cultural and economic conditions of each
locality. Furthermore, ESD increases civil capacity by enhancing and improving society, through
a combination of formal, non-formal and informal education. Education for Sustainable
Development Biodiversity : Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is manifested at all levels of
organization (genes, species, ecosystems and landscapes) and is seen in all forms of life, habitats
and ecosystems (tropical forests, oceans and seas, savannah ecosystems, wetlands, drylands,
mountains, etc.). The effect of human activities - magnified in recent years by population growth
and global climate change - has greatly reduced biodiversity in ecosystems around the world. It
is therefore important to refocus education programmes so that they enable educators and
learners to protect biodiversity.

The issue of biodiversity should be introduced or developed within both teaching and learning
perspectives, with curricula and materials developed to create desired learning outcomes.
Learning outcomes should include academic understanding, acquisition of values, increased
capacity, skills development and the adoption of attitudes and behaviour conducive to biodiversity
preservation.

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Climate Change Education : Education is an essential element of the global response to climate
change. It helps young people understand and address the impact of global warming, encourages
changes in their attitudes and behaviour and helps them adapt to climate change related trends
Disaster Risk Reduction : Recent disasters in Haiti and Pakistan in 2010 showed the need to
“use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilence at all levels”
as articulated in the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015.

The role of education for disaster risk reduction strategies can thus be presented according to
three types of activities:

1) Save lives and prevent injuries should a hazardous event occur,

2) Prevent interruptions to the provision of education, or ensure its swift resumption in

the event of an interruption, and

3) Develop a resilient population that is able to reduce the economic, social and cultural
impacts should a hazardous event occur.

Cultural Diversity : Our rich diversity . . . is our collective strength.” (Johannesburg Declaration,
2002) Humanity has inhabited every corner of the world, except Antarctica, for centuries. As
groups of people worked and lived together, they developed distinctive cultures. Together the
cultures of the world create a rich and varied tapestry.

The resulting cultural diversity expands choices, nurtures a variety of skills, human values and
worldviews and provides wisdom from the past to inform the future. Cultural diversity is a
mainspring for sustainable development for individuals, communities and countries.

Thus, building an effective global approach to sustainable development and ESD needs to address
respecting, protecting and maintaining the cultural diversity of the world now and in the future.
Cultural diversity exerts strong influence on ESD in that:

• All ESD must be locally relevant and culturally appropriate;

• Culture influences what this generation chooses to teach the next generation including
what knowledge is valued, skills, ethics, languages and worldviews;

• ESD requires intercultural understanding if people are to live together peacefully,

tolerating and accepting differences amongst cultural and ethnic groups

Poverty Reduction: The Millennium Development Goals, adopted in 2000, are the world‟s
quantitative targets for addressing extreme human deprivation in its many dimensions. The
targets range from halving extreme poverty to reducing child and maternal death rates, and
countering environmental degradation, all of which should be accomplished by 2015. Education
is part of the MDG framework; however, the MDG targets for education are far less ambitious
and more restrictive than for example the Education for All agenda or the objectives of the DESD.
There are clear linkages between education, poverty reduction and sustainability. The poor and
marginalized are disproportionately more affected by poor environmental and socioeconomic
conditions.

ESD can contribute to sustainable environmental management to improve livelihoods, increase

economic security and income opportunities for the poor. Educational responses to poverty need
to address the fact that many of the world‟s poor do not participate in the formal market economy

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but in non-formal economies, and many are self-employed entrepreneurs. Education that is
relevant and purposeful has the power to transform people‟s lives. ESD has the potential to equip
people with skills needed to improve their livelihoods ESD and Poverty Reduction at UNESCO
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and “second chance” education can
create employment opportunities for marginalized groups and at the same time integrate relevant
learning skills. TVET can help youth find employment in “green jobs” in alternative energy supply,
recycling, agriculture, construction and transportation. The UNESCO-UNEVOC International
Centre responds to the need to develop and strengthen TVET worldwide. It manages the UNEVOC
Network, an active worldwide network for TVET. Through the network, knowledge and expertise
about innovative practices are transferred from one country to another. The network also
facilitates the information flow within countries.

Gender Equality : Gender-based discrimination in education is both a cause and a consequence

of deep-rooted disparities in society. Poverty, geographical isolation, ethnic background,
disability, traditional attitudes about their status and role all undermine the ability of women and
girls to exercise their rights. Harmful practices such as early marriage and pregnancy, gender-
based violence, and discriminatory education laws, policies, contents and practices still prevent
millions of girls form enrolling, completing and benefitting from education. Gender must therefore
be integrated at all levels of education, from early childhood to higher education, in formal and
non-formal settings and from planning infrastructure to training teachers. UNESCO works to
promote equal opportunities to quality learning, free from gender-based or other forms of
discrimination.

In particular, UNESCO:

• promotes gender equality in national education laws, policies and plans

• seeks to expand access to learning opportunities, in particular for girls and women, in
both formal and non-formal education

• develops the capacity of education policy-makers, planners, teachers and other

education personnel regarding gender-sensitive approaches

• supports countries to make education content gender-sensitive and free from

discrimination

• seeks to address obstacles to learning such as gender-based violence and HIV & AIDS
Health Promotion : Health is defined in relation to the environmental and human characteristics
of people‟s daily lives and the links between them. Health includes the impact of human activities
on the health of individuals and groups, their economy and their environment. Hunger,
malnutrition, malaria, water-borne diseases, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and injury,
unplanned pregnancy, HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections are just some of
the problems that have enormous implications for health. Awareness and education are powerful
ways to drive behavioural change related to health:

• Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve
their health;

• The goal of universal education cannot be achieved while the health needs of all remain
unmet;

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 • Education should also enable people to learn to live healthily in a world with HIV and
AIDS and other major widespread health risks;

• Policy, management and systems should provide guidance, oversight, coordination,

monitoring and evaluation to ensure an effective, sustainable, and institutionalized educational
response to health challenges;

• Education should enable learners to adopt caring and supportive attitudes to others as
well as protective and health-seeking behaviours for themselves.

Sustainable Lifestyles : Globalization has made consumers powerful actors in our world
economy. Our daily choices as consumers affect the lives of workers in distant places and the
way people live. Sustainable consumption means buying goods and services that do not harm the
environment, society, and the economy. Although it is predominantly an issue for highincome
and emerging economies, consumption is an excellent entry point for teaching about sustainable
development.

Consumer education is practical, touching the daily lives of people near and far away. Local
consumer action can have a global, social, economic, and environmental impact, both today and
tomorrow.

Education therefore has an important role to play for consumers, in terms of:

• learning to know about the products we buy; encourage curiosity about how and where
goods are produced as well as what the working conditions are in the country of origin? How far
are goods shipped to reach the supermarket shelves? What is the environmental footprint of the
production and transport of certain products?

• using knowledge about the impact of our economic choices in order to change our
behaviour and consumption habits. However, knowledge is not enough.

ESD is a transformative learning process and aims to change the way people interact with the
world.

Peace and Human Security : Living in an environment of peace and security is fundamental
to human dignity and development. Given that sustainable development is pertinent to every
aspect of human life, teaching and learning for sustainable development must have social,
economic, environmental and cultural perspectives. Peace and human security are among the 27
principles of sustainable development, Principle 25 reads: “Peace, development and
environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible.” Education is vital to the task of
acquiring the capacity to live together peacefully.

It can help to prevent insecurity and conflicts from thwarting progress towards sustainable
development. Education can also be called upon to rebuild a more sustainable society after violent
conflict. By „learning to live together‟, learners acquire knowledge, values, skills and attitudes for
dialogue, cooperation and peace. ESD helps develop the capacity to respect differences and
diversities as well as to build social tolerance.

Water : Although water covers more than two-thirds of the earth‟s surface, less than 0.5% is
readily available for human use. It thus represents a scarce resource for people around the world.
Shortages of water, particularly for drinking and sanitation, are often primarily driven by an
inefficient supply of services rather than by water shortages, hence the important role of

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education in promoting sound water governance. ESD provides an opportunity for learners,
especially the excluded or marginalized, to receive a water-related education, including science,
water-fetching, sanitation and hygiene as well as to develop the relevant knowledge, skills, values
and behaviours in a water sustainability-friendly context.

This implies that:

• Learning encourages behavioural changes and provides the skills required for
participation in water governance;

• Schools and other educational environments promote water sustainability, with access
to safe water and sanitation facilities;

• Educational structures, policy and management provide guidance, oversight,

coordination, monitoring and evaluation to ensure an effective, sustainable and institutionalized
educational response to water governance challenges.

Sustainable Urbanisation : Cities are at the forefront of global socio-economic change.

Globalization and democratization are an important part of sustainable development. Half of the
world‟s population now lives in urban areas and the other half increasingly depend upon cities
for economic, social, cultural and political progress. In cities, education policies must typically
serve highly diverse populations. Providing education for all – in particular girls, persons with
disabilities, migrants, the poor and the marginalized – is a complex exercise requiring effective
public services and the collaboration of numerous partners. Learning to live together sustainably
in cities is one of the most important educational challenges of our time.

This requires a focus on:

• Creating a quality learning and educational environment that promotes sustainability;

• Providing lifelong learning opportunities in cities;
• Teaching tolerance and mutual understanding in urban societies;
• Enabling children and youth to learn to live and participate in urban life;
• Enhancing learning to create inclusive societies in inclusive cities;
• Developing learning in all its diverse forms.

The school is a unique institution where connections are made between world problems and local
life. It has the potential of serving as an enabler of change and of facilitating the acquisition of
the knowledge and skills necessary to function as an active and responsible citizen. Local
authorities have a strategic role to play in making these centres of learning, training and personal
development available to all citizens. At the same time, the capacity to live together is generated
through a wide range of non-formal and informal modalities of learning.

The challenge of sustainability requires learning how to change and nowhere is this more urgent
or important than in urban settings.

SEE YOU VIRTUALLY ON FINAL EXAMINATION.. GOODLUCK!!!!

Never stop dreaming, you must believe and keep on trying until you reach your own success.-
Mary Joy Borja

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