Institutional Sustainability Model

Sustainable World -- Sustainability at Harvard University

Supporting and Empowering the Community
Having Strong Leadership and Goals
Innovating Through Collaboration
Fostering Change With Tools and Resources
Taking Time to Reward and Recognize

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The Value of Vultures - What’s a vulture worth? A lot more than you might think.

Illustration by Kelsey King June 4, 2014 — Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from What Has Nature Ever Done For Us? How Money Really Does Grow on Trees (2013) by Tony Juniper. In the book the author explores the economic value of nature, pointing to examples of natural services that are (or were) provided for free by nature, and which are being removed at our cost. Juniper argues that in light of this realization we should stop treating natural systems in a destructive manner. Published here with permission from Synergetic Press. One bright clear morning in April 1993 I was aboard a British Airways 747 that was preparing to land at New Delhi Airport in India. As the aircraft started its final descent from about 1,000 meters, I noticed vultures. Their broad wings, with flight feathers spread out like a span of long fingers, had taken them to the height of the plane. From this vantage point their incredibly sharp vision would enable them to scan t...

New research points to risk peak oil presents to business

The sun sets behind an oil well sited in the middle of a soybean field in 2008 near New Haven, Illinois, USA. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images For many years, the most compelling issue driving sustainability efforts among businesses, consumers, governments and activists has been climate change. We are all becoming increasingly concerned with the impacts of rising temperatures and extreme weather events on our supply chains, cities, transportation networks, agricultural industries, and lives. We have become increasingly alarmed about the results of burning too much coal, oil and gas; the consequences of excessive emissions resulting from some of the most useful substances humanity has ever harnessed. We have identified our most important struggle – to maintain economic growth while reducing carbon emissions. Because our concern has been first and foremost the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, we have designed and sporadically implemented economic i...

Climate Change Policy Response – A Case of China

Climate Change Policy Response – A Case of China Introduction Global climate change and its adverse effects are a common concern of mankind. Ever since the industrial revolution, human activities, especially the massive consumption of energy and resource by developed countries in the process of industrialisation, have increased the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, produced conspicuous impacts on the natural ecosystems of the earth, and posed severe challenges to the survival and development of human society (National Development and Reform Commission, 2008) . The ultimate goal of the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change is “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” Such a level should be achieved within a “time frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened, a...

Sustainability A way of life!

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