Sustainability+by+Design

**Terms and Definitions**

**Book Summary:**  //Sustainability by Design// looks beneath the surface of what most would consider ‘sustainable’ to get to the roots of what is truly causing unsustainability. Ehrenfeld discusses modernity and its effects on how we operate on a physical and ethical level, and how it contributes to us losing sight of what it means to function as humans with ethical responsibility to the world around us. He suggests addressing the problem of unsustainability at the root level rather than at the symptom level by rewiring our minds to break free of the social norms that we subconsciously operate under. It can be concluded that //Sustainability by Design// addresses our fundamental lack of awareness and how it has trickled down to affect all areas of life, namely sustainable living.

**Chapter by chapter summary: ** ** Chapter 1: Is the Sky Falling, and If So, Does Anyone Care? ** Interesting thesis because I've some counter-arguments that trying to develop alternate patterns of lifestyle simply gets us unsustainability in different ways - people will inevitably use more resources. Thus the only way to get closer to sustainability is to get use to consume less resources. Interesting to have differing viewpoints. - Max Rieper Consuming less resources means less things are produced and less things thrown into landfills. While the larger corporate waste cycle needs to be addressed, from the consumer/individual stand point, reduction will be the best way to live a sustainable lifestyle. - Trisha Van Wig
 * Unsustainability is an unintended consequence of the addictive patterns of modern life and while important to reduce, will not create sustainability. Reduction is merely a Band-Aid that will likely move our attention from the true issue, creating a sustainable world where an individual may thrive in harmony with nature.
 * 3 Steps to addressing patterns of modern, consumerist life (similar to Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12 Step program for recovery):
 * 1) Identify unconscious, destructive patterns and bring them to the front of the conscious mind
 * 2) Replace the consumerist/modernist vision that has kept humankind in a vicious cycle with an new vision of the world that can draw all into a connection with the natural world forever
 * 3) Replacement of concepts and ideals of happiness (having) with strategies for that connection (being) which is in harmony with the natural

 I think his theory would work to a point - people could definitely reduce the amount of "stuff" they need, and choose more meaningful activities and pursuits over the pursuit of the material. Hypothetically, if you do reduce yourself to a place where you are as reduced as you can get, and you'll still be making some sort of footprint. - Sandy

Leaving some sort of a footprint is not necessarily a bad thing. It's only that our current footprint is so large resources cannot be replaced fast enough and waste can't be absorbed fast enough. Even a bird leaves some sort of footprint on the environment, but it's part of a cycle that generally absorbs itself back into the environment. The reason humans leave such a large footprint is because we deal with resources and waste in a linear fashion, there is no loop. - Krysta <span style="color: #77d510; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">l

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Chapter 2: Solving the Wrong Problem: How Good Habits Turn Bad**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 102.03%;">Increasing fuel economy (quick, technological fix), historically, has been the main strategy for solving the environmental problems related to carbon emissions (Problem). This strategy is shortsighted (Unsustainable) and (shifts the burden) away from the development of alternate means of transport (Fundamental Solution.)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 102.03%;">Reducing unsustainability will not create sustainability or as Einstein said, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 63.77%;">"

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 72.9%;"> **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt;">Chapter 3: Uncovering the Roots of Unsustainability **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ehrenfeld’s three causes of unsustainable state: reality, rationality & technology.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Reality - Our view of reality (created by everyday experiences) is the basis for human action.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 11pt;">Rationality - course of action based on our reality
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology - Technology artifacts act as filters for how things work in the world; essence of humanity is being lost because technology has become primary source of happiness (loss of human interaction) and technology places too much distance between ethical actions (consequence of action can have too much time and distance for it to be personal) [DDT use; enters avian food source; weak egg shell; endangerment to species]

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Continued use of technology as a solution leads to loss of awareness that one is part of the problem.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Chapter 4** **Consumption a Symptom of Addiction** - Did they give an example of what types of consumption are considered hazardous? ~ Krystle Krystle in response to your question Ehrenfeld insinuates that all consumption is hazardous if it controls a person's happiness and they way that they feel about who they are. - nika And what needs are they talking about? Self-fulfillment? - Max Rieper Ehrenfeld discusses the need to be loved and accepted as well as the need to have a sense of being as needs that we attempt to fulfill through consumption.- nika He's also talking about returning to the way we used to be when our kids didn't need the biggest, latest, most expensive toy to have a good time. He's suggesting that the meaning of life is not to be found in "things," but in relationships, in doing, etc. - Sandy I think this concept is slowly catching on as more and more people are reaching out to their communities. Shortly into this recent economic depression there were all sorts of articles about people staying in with close friends and playing board games and having potlucks. They were realizing that they didn't need to go out and spend lots of money out on the town and instead were having more fulfilling experiences at home. It was definitely a surprisingly positive consequence to be reported instead of the rising unemployment rate. - Trisha Van Wig
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The manner in which we consume has created a cycle of addiction which depletes our natural resources as well as our sense of “being” or what it means to be human.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We attempt to satisfy our needs through consumption without realizing that consumption is not the answer to our needs and we find ourselves less happy by attempting to meet our needs this way.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Instead of trying to find the true solution to our needs we continue to consume more in order to try and fill this void and end up creating a cycle of addiction called "shifting the burden" (Pg37)What we truly desire is finding a sense of wholeness authenticity, and value which is only found in community not in consumption.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">**<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 72.9%;">Chapter 5 A Radical Notion of Sustainability **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Achieving true sustainability makes it necessary for us rethink our notion of sustainability. It is not just the opposite of unsustainability but is something completely different.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sustainability is not simply another commodity to be had but an idea that should transform the way we view the world and our place in it. It connotes images of possibility and flourishing life, it is in many ways a call to action.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 121.5%;"> **Chapter 6 The Tao of Sustainability**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sustainability is intertwined with ethics, nature, and humanity. It is an existential problem not an environmental one which demands creativity and thinking about the world in a different way.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A sustainable world is about maintaining the balance between the natural, ethical, and human domains. Once we are able to grasp the significance of our place in the world, a sense of what it means to human, and an understanding of right from wrong, we will be able to flourish on the path toward sustainability.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 109.35%;">**Chapter 7 Change, Transformation and Design** <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- I dont know if I agree with this. Modern living does not have to be unsustainable, if fact everywhere that I look, modern living **__is being__** sustainable and efficient. ~ Krystle <span style="color: #77d510; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I wonder if this is a semantic disagreement. What do you mean by "sustainable," Krystle? Because surely much of our modern mode of lifestyle is adding to the unsustainability of the planet. Unfortunately, sustainable has two meanings - its original meaning, which means it's stable and perpetuating, and the "green" meaning, which means that it does not detract from the planet's stability and perpetuation. - Sandy -If you have owned more than one cell phone, MP3 player or other type of technology, then you are living unsustainably. Modern living is about excess and consumption. Where do the natural resources come from to make the product, how long will the product be used (usually less than 6 months) and where will it end up. Very little about modern living is sustainable - Heather Aaron <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- Not necessarily true because you can own more than one cell phone but return the cell phone you dont want to the carrier to be recycled, which is a modern idea. Now it is considered cool to be "environmentally conscious"...another modern thought. ~ Krystle - Recycling (in the way it's known and used in our culture) addresses the symptom and not the root of the problem. (I'm all for recycling as PART of living sustainably). -Kathryn -I agree. If you recycle used cell phones, most often, the technology is outdated as it is. The "less fortunate" in society can't use them as they can't afford the contracts, payments, etc. I personally have three old phones now that I can't do anything with. At some point, Sprint, will not accept older model phones in exchange. - Michelle <span style="color: #ff4d00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Really what is being said is the **addictive mode** <span style="color: #ff6d00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">of modern living is unsustainable, not modern living itself. Its like the old adage " Money is the root of all evil" it's not per se the **money** that's the problem....it is the love or obsession of money that causes the problem. Living unsustainably has happened through out history....its not about cell phones....is about consuming more than our ecosystem (planet earth) will support. Really basic and simple.......if we use it all up, then we won't be here to have the debate.....that's what is unsustainable about the way we are living in our modern society. Thousands of years ago the Aztec Indians used up all the natural resources available to them to sustain their civilization, the ancient Anasazi in the southwest...the same thing happened.....the ancient Mayans.....again the same story.....yet we as modern society have failed to learn from those human made disasters. We can't have our cake and eat it too....we just can't have it all, or else we will become extinct just like many ancient civilizations before us. It has been estimated that the average per capita footprint is 2.4 hectares or 6 acres per person. Let's say we leave only twelve percent of the biosphere for other species, then there is only 2 hectares or 5 acres left. The math just doesn't add up and its just a matter of time with the course we are on before we reach the tipping point. I am hopeful that we humans will each, individually and collectively, reduce our print so that we can live sustainably in our modern world. Submitted by Kaye Johnston a l'orange. - I think the problem is that people do not know their limits. Before I started this class, this type of world did not exist to me but that did not make me a bad person. So everyday that I read about it, I am learning. However, there are still some things that I do not know, let alone someone who is not aware. Like, in order to cut down your consumption, what is it that I reduce my consumption in? I have one car, one house and I just broke down and bought a tv maybe two weeks ago, (maybe alot of shoes LOL), my utilities stay low so Im guessing I do not consume that much water, gas, electricity, etc. I put my trash out today and I only had one small bag. My biggest thing is that I have to drive far to work and I do not recycle. As far as consumption and what I think about it, the population that has the most disposable income might be a large factor in the equation. As a person coming from a low income family, we have always been limited on how much water we consume, turn off the light if your not in the room, etc because we did not have the income to "splurge". So how do we know when we have gone above our marginal amount of consumption as an individual? ~Krystle <span style="color: #ff7700; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Krystle, it is a very personal to each individual on what they can do. I have always believed that it is important to do what we can. There is no absolute right way or wrong way. I also come from a meager background and don't have much to trim. However, I have made conscious decisions to live near where I work, shop to support local business, try to purchase energy efficient when I need to replace electronics, recycle 90% of my waste in a responsible manner, purchase local food when in season and available and have a car that has high gas mileage. Put my thermostat on 65 in the winter and at 85 in summer, unless I can open windows and get a breeze. Make homemade holiday gifts or give books from a reseller and donate to local non-profits and charities. I also try to read as much as possible on the subject of sustainability. Even with all I do I could do more, like walk to work or ride the bus, just a couple of examples. I evaluate what I do by visiting several websites that help me understand what my carbon print is on the planet and give me options on steps that would make a difference. Here are a couple of my favorites: Do Five Green Things and New American Dream Turn the Tide <span style="background-color: #fbf0e9; color: #ff4d00; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Please remember that we should all accept folks were they are, help educate them by showing them how they too can make a difference. This is not about the ultimate, most perfect person that does the best of all actions that will help the planet, it is about us collectively doing what we can and bringing others along the path with us....and utlimately we have a healthier place to live because collectively all our actions add up to a cleaner, healthier planet. Submitted by Kaye Johnston I guess I agree with accepting people where they are, and I have always harped in this class about education being the biggest problem for the environment, but people, especially in the American culture will not do something sustainable unless it is convenient to them. People don't like change even if it's simple. -->Emily
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The addictive mode of modern living is the most significant cause of unsustainability. In order to move forward and towards sustainability, society must stop and create a new set of culture. The process by which this occurs is by design.


 * The tranformation process is the key to sustainability; it imples an abrupt, discontinuous change. It differs from progress in so much that progress is thought to evolve smoothly.
 * Sustainability can best be achieved by design -- that is to redesign parts of the structure as suggested in 3 steps by Russell Ackoff:
 * 1: resolve the problem.
 * 2: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">solve the problem.
 * 3: (The one recommended by Ehrenfeld) dissolved the problem. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">This process will produce new action-producing structures that are created and substituted for old ones. Design is the activity that precedes learning. By design, society can move towards achieving sustainability.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> ** Chapter 8: Culture Change: Locating the Levers of Transformation ** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">1. Structure of significance: the rules by which society interprets the world in which they live. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 2. Structure of legitimation: the rules that give normative authority to the actions taken by society. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 3. Structure of domination: the resources that empowers society. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> (As a result, it is difficult for an individual to change one's ways and in turn, produce cultural changes that impact the whole of society. )
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Two models by which culture change can occur - by collective action or by changes from the individual. Ironically, both models are nested within each other. - <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;"> This also goes back to what he says about complex systems and humans. - Greg McDanel
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The author further advocates that the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens is his choice for the collective model. Giddens argued that cultural activities are based upon a structure of rules and resources that are shared by all in that society. Giddens' further divides this structure into three categories:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">There are four distinctive opportunities for redesign and each align themselves with four categories of structure: beliefs, norms, authority/power and tools.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In order for change to occur by design, we must shift the focus from sustainability being first an environmental problem. Change will have the greatest impact if we understand that sustainability is first a human problem and an environmental problem second.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Chapter 9: A New Story for Nature**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** Flourishing is one of several emergent properties of natural living systems, along with resilience, health, and others. Living systems are complex and as such, their outcomes cannot be predicted. **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** Complex systems become more complex when human beings are introduced into the equation. Complex doesn't imply complicated; it is reserved as a description of systems whose behavior cannot be reduced to lawlike structures. To better understand these systems, we must begin to use terms such as organic, holistic, interconnected and interdependent. **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** This model of development is fundamentally different from the equilibrium model advocated by neoclassical economics. **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** Ehrenfeld stated that ecosystems are highly interconnected, holistic communities with multiple kinds of interactions among the members. By describing such, Ehrenfeld asserts that sustainability is now open to everyone and not just the environmental "experts". **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Chapter 10: The Importance of Being**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Erich Fromm’s quote shows that he observed humans as having moved from a mode of 'being' to a mode of 'having'. In essence, Ehrenfeld asserts this is just one more sign that the world is not right. If the human heart is to change, the biggest question is, will this transformation bring with it sustainability?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This chapter delves into the concepts of 'having' and 'need'; that have misplaced caring in our modern mainstream culture.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">'Being' is the act of being human. It brings us down to earth.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In a world of over obsessive consumption, humans need to peel off all the external layers and get down to the basics; what the meaning of life is and how it applies to their individual and collective lives. - Bravo, I like this, not even for consumption but as a focus in life. ~ Krystle I totally agree Krystle. I love this ideal.-->Emily
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">By removing the having of “things” and instead focusing on the human elements of 'caring' and 'being', Ehrenfeld believes the door is open for a more sustainable world. Humans need to learn to care for themselves, those around them and then the larger global world. <span style="color: #1ea5fa; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I like this statement as well. If people (especially in first world countries) could reduce their ideals of materialism, I think we would become a more sustainable society. If we cared more about each other, rather than about what other people think, it would help. -->Emily

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Chapter 11: Consumption and Need**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology has been a crutch by which humans have come to rely on products; made by others to enhance their lives. That said, it is important to consider design as a mechanism by which humans can design their world with 'being' as the central focus.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Consumption for the sake of consuming goes hand in hand with unsustainability.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Modern economics puts emphasis on goods and services;an output of manufacturing, mining, and agricultural sectors. This emphasis has lead to environmental damage and brought us to our current state of unsustainability.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Buzz words such as 'ecoefficiency' and 'closing the loop' have only hoped to reverse unsustainability and the author contends that this is neither sustainability nor the type of strategies that will move humans in the right direction. <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">- True, just because it is "eco-friendly" does not control the need to consume. ~Krystle
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Consumption needs to be re-evaluated in terms of real need. When examining real need and separating it from endless wants, we can change the unrelenting pattern of addictive consumption and bring much more satisfaction into the realm of human life.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">True sustainability becomes distinct because its by-products are satisfaction and lasting happiness.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> **Chapter 12: To Care Is Human** <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In each of these areas we can redesign our connections and learn to create a world that is conducive to being by designing sustainability into our environment. Sustainability is the possibility of flourishing can only happen when we balance between needs-to-do and need-for. This takes the focus off the economic “utility” which is modern avatar for wealth.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Wendell Berry so eloquently states: “But the care of the Earth is our most ancient and, most worthy and after all, our most pleasing responsibility”. The concept of 'caring' is most central to the concept of 'being' because it connects us with other humans, the world of nature and ourselves. Rather than being in isolation, humans see the interconnectness to themselves and to the outer world. We see that it is important to “care for” and we also can see the “need to do” rather than the other way around. There are three primary domains in caring:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Caring for oneself
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Caring for others
 * Caring for the world

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> **Chapter 13: Creating Possibility with Products** <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">I think we see this a lot now in our food consumption. Our food comes from far away places, extracted from faceless animals, packaged and processed to look pretty for us in the supermarket - or so we think. We are so far removed from the process, that when we see an actual slaughterhouse, a processing plant, a grotesquely-packed chicken coop, it disgusts us. But this is how food is made. Being more aware of the process - by getting to know the local farmer who sells our eggs, by growing your own vegetables, by even picking out the animal you will eat (hey, I'm no vegetarian!) we will better understand the consequences of our consumption. - Max Rieper
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">As our activities become routine (we can function in auto-pilot), we lose sight of what it is to be human.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">‘presencing’ is the state of awareness of the present and of the implications of each action. Modern society functions without understanding ‘presence’ and Ehrnfeld associates this with moral and ethical decay
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">Example of a toilet with 2 buttons: each button correlates to what is eliminated from the body. The simple act of having to choose which button to use shows awareness of the consequences of action, something modernity has taken from us.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">“As the actor begins to recognize that care is involved… he or she may experience a sense of Being that is normally absent.”

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">That is a very true statement. I think it may actually be seen in many of the items we consume in the market place as well. Take "sweat shops" in China, or large factories in foreign countries with loose labor laws. Yes there are activists and some of the working conditions are horrible, but others are a true asset to the people who work there. They need the jobs and those jobs are better than anything else out there for them. Some are a true benefit for the company (cheap labor) and for the employees (constant employement). It is all about the process and the perceptions. -Greg McDanel

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> **Chapter 14: Presencing By Design**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technological commodities are a way of causing us to stop and evaluate our situation. When everything functions properly we rush through each activity mechanically. Only when there is a breakdown do we have to stop and think about the implications of what we are doing.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ehrenfeld advocates for products to be designed in such a way that they cause the consumer to stop, think, and consciously make a decision about what they are doing, with the hopes of a sense of ethical responsibility being restored.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> **Chapter 15: Designing New Institutions**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">A focus on “awareness-raising and learning” in society as a whole with emphasis on the social norms and standards that we currently live under (mostly subconsciously) and how they contribute greatly to our lifestyle of unsustainability.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We need to be willing to be less sure of what we know so that we can be open to the possibility of change.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Important to know the difference between probability (something is very likely/predictable) and possibility (something __could__ happen but we don’t have an idea of how probable it is).

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> **Chapter 16: Implementing Adaptive Governance**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The difference between adaptive governance and traditional systems is that adaptive governance does not focus on quantitative outcome <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">An idea I love in theory, but I've always gotten stuck with the implications of properly evaluating qualitatively. How do you measure quality of life? Most quality of life measures are based on...quantitative outcomes. -Max Rieper
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">C. S. Holling argues adaptive cycles are fundamental property of living systems and these systems can adapt to disruptive changes in a manner such that each succession maintains healthy properties (equivalent to sustainable development) (184)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">General principles of adaptive governance: (185)
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Match governance to appropriate temporal and spatial scale
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Flexible design
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Involve networks of designers
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Use computer simulation to build shared understanding- <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">An example of that is GIS systems that Moore discussed. They can easily show relationships and future challenges. - Greg McDanel
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Experiment with design on small scale - <span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Yes! Not enough of this is going on. - Max Rieper
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Plan for adequate monitoring
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Replace technological prediction with wisdom and prudence
 * 8) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Have patience, process takes time
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Understanding a system calls for constant search for and recognition of areas of uncertainty and ignorance with planned interventions to produce learning and healthy functioning of the system.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Traditional knowledge (understanding of natural systems possessed by people living close to nature) rather than scientific knowledge is more practical in adaptive governance.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Human ecosystems evolve very differently than others because we can reflect on the world, develop abstractions through scientific inquiry, anticipate and visualize futures, and design technology and institutional structures.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The wait-and-see attitude dominating modern decision stems from not having “all the facts”. For example the exact outcomes of greenhouse gas emissions are unknown, so taking action to stop them is argued unmerited. We do know however that the effect is negative whatever scale it may take therefore the facts are moot.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Precautionary principle: “When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measure should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically”
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Participatory design: task falls on larger group of players with diverse stakes in the outcome—sharing the process raises challenge of placing and sharing responsibility for all outcomes - <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">This can be seen in many committees and task forces created by adaptive governments. - Greg McDanel

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> **Chapter 17: The Special Role of Business**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Business creates the largest set of unsustainable systems but is more focused on innovation and change than any other institution—this is why it should be the key target for sustainable change
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Problem lies in Milton Friedman’s statement “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.”
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Business’s primary role in culture is to provide the equipment and physical structures that everyone uses every day
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Secondary role – provide employment and wages that give workers authoritative resources
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Reversal in the huge discrepancy between executive pay and worker pay would mitigate the unsustainable trend (200)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Employees export beliefs of a firm into other institutions
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Emergence of Fair Trade mirrors growing attention to corporate social responsibility (201)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Misleading advertisements like “earth-friendly” only add to the irresponsibility of societal behavior—virtually no human activities are “earth-friendly”.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Conservative cultural system: firms, like individuals, will continue to do the same things until something creates a breakdown where powerful actors become aware of context
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Kaizen (Change for the better), a Japanese management method, has worked wonders for companies like Toyota. - In an article about simplexity (complexity and simplicity), Toyota was recognized as a learning bureaucracy. Complex organization with complex practitioners, meaning they utilize every person in their company because everyone has an unique skill to offer and can solve complex issues. Intelligence is mobilized in the company. ~Krystle


 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teamwork
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Personal discipline
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Improved morale
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Quality circles
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Improvement suggestion


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">“Industrial ecology is founded on the simple but elegant idea that human economic systems can become radically more efficient by mimicking the closed-loop material flow systems of living ecosystems” (207)

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> **Chapter 18: Epilogue**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ehrenfeld offers most basic choice: objective reality or pragmatic understanding of truth
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sustainability as flourishing can only come forth with cultural upheaval
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technological framing of current world causes addictive patterns that ignore the state of humanity and the world
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We must balance the way we act with the material world between the functional and meaningful—make material world less transparent through design (212)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Technology should work to focus us on what it is to be human rather than hide that aspect of our existence from us
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Not just recognition but intervention is necessary to restore balance and overcome bad habits
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sustainability is an “essentially contested concept” because it never leaves the abstract

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%;">**Real Life Application:** <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 140%;"> This is a useful book in terms of getting back to the core of what it means to be human. It shakes mindsets of the way things are and what's considered 'normal.' It addresses sustainability in a round about way that explains how we got to the state we are in. It addresses environmental degradation AND social degradation and explains the relationship between the two. As humans coexisting on the earth we are destroying, Ehrenfeld calls us to reevaluate our current practices and to begin living by a higher standard of ethical responsibility. This book is not a guide for fixing a problem overnight, it looks at the problems from the inside out and discusses how to go about addressing them in a sustainable, long-term manner.

====<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**On another note:** If you are looking for a fiction novel that seems to follow Ehrenfeld's ideas in Sustainability by Design, I highly recommend //Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson//. I'm not saying the book is a great novel, but you do get a good idea of "shifting the burden", unsustainable "social habits" and general issues faced by those trying to work towards sustainability. It's a great book for explaining unsustainable practices and sustainability in general (great for a friend or parent). Submitted by Heather Aaron==== ====**Additionally**, John Ehrenfeld has a lecture and PowerPoint for the book that goes along well with our summary. Take a moment to listen and share with others. I know sometimes folks would rather see a video than read a book. Ehrenfeld Video Lecture====

Submitted by Kaye Johnston
I fully enjoyed this book and how Ehrenfeld advocated that sustainability can be achieved by individual's changing his/her actions. I would like to suggest another book to read, in particular, the last chapter: Payback (Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth) by Margaret Atwood. The last chapter is entitled "Payback" and discusses the historical context of Earth Day. She further discusses the debt that we, as consumers, owe to Mother Eart h. Submitted by Michelle Freeman.

I think there are a lot of interesting ideas. However I do question the pragmatic application of them. Ehrenfeld talks about how we need our culture to be changed - we need to totally re-engineer our way of thinking. He says we need to create new institutions, but then talks about old institutions - business and government - and their role in creating a more sustainable culture. Are institutions even the best way to change culture, particularly in this environment when the public more skeptical of institutions (business, government, church) than ever before? Was there a discussion of bottom-up movements to change culture? I think it's conceivable that viral change will be the way change occurs. Institutions are monoliths. They are powerful, self-protective, and difficult to turn on a dime (think Titanic!). But they often tend to respond to major shifts in the culture around them, if in fact, the shifts are big enough that they cannot be ignored. I think that's what is happening to some extent - a tipping point, if you will - and why the broader institutional community is now accepting that climate issues can no longer be ignored. - Sandy

That being said, I do think he provides an interesting perspective on re-thinking our approach to sustainability that has to be given considerable merit. Reducing our consumption by 5% may make us feel better, but is it doing much? It is the band-aid when complete surgery needs to be performed. I do think some of the culture change is happening. Some people are considering their consumption patters much more than before. But its a slow process that could take generations and who knows if we have that long. - Max Rieper