Sustainability

The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series

By: Kent E. Portnoy

Narrated by: Don Hagen

The word sustainability has been connected to everything from a certain kind of economic development to corporate promises about improved supply sourcing. But despite the apparent ubiquity of the term, the concept of sustainability has come to mean a number of specific things. In this accessible guide to the meanings of sustainability, Kent Portney describes the evolution of the idea and examines its application in a variety of contemporary contexts - from economic growth and consumption to government policy and urban planning.

Portney takes as his starting point the 1987 definition by the World Commission on Environment and Development of sustainability as economic development activity that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". At its heart, Portney explains, sustainability focuses on the use and depletion of natural resources. It is not the same as environmental protection or natural resource conservation; it is more about finding some sort of steady state, so that the Earth can support both human population and economic growth.

Portney looks at political opposition to the promotion of sustainability, which usually questions the need for sustainability or calls its costs unacceptable; collective and individual consumption of material goods and resources and to what extent they must be curtailed to achieve sustainability; the role of the private sector, and the co-opting of sustainability by corporations; government policy on sustainability at the international, national, and subnational levels; and how cities could become models for sustainability action.

©2015 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2015 Gildan Media LLC

Informative and well-organized

informative and well-organized. The "performance" was a struggle to listen to. The reader's voice just droned with complete emotional detachment. Had to turn off periodically just to relieve the stress of listening to the drone. But again, informative and well organized.

Pretty good overview of sustainability

Clear reading, a good way to get a feel for the topic being fairly new to it. Also gives an understanding for the challenges and some of the reasons behind these. Also good to get knowledge on the various sustainability tracks.