A Roadmap Towards Sustainability: Excellent Book on How to Reach a Sustainable Future

The Road to Sustainability: GDP and Future Generations

After pursuing countless generations of continuous growth, the human species is finally confronted with one of its greatest challenges: how to live sustainably upon the earth. The fact that we have not done so up until now is readily evident – natural resources are running out and being degraded, local environments are experiencing radical climatic changes, and people around the world are dying from starvation and disease. As a result, new models are being sought out in terms of how human should live and be on this planet. Sustainability is the key word, and knowing what it means and how to work towards it is essential. One of the best books to date that I have seen actually explain what sustainability is and how to go about achieving it is The Road to Sustainability.

Written by Federico M. Pulselli, Simone Bastianoni, Nadia Marchettini, and Enzo Tiezzi as part of the Sustainability World Series published by WIT Press, The Road to Sustainabilitypresents a view of sustainability that starts from the acknowledgment of nature's physical conditions and limits that we can no longer neglect. That is, that there are a finite number of resources (termed natural capital) in the world and that this finite number must be accounted for in models of growth, development, and sustainability.

Most models of human and cultural sustainability are based on economic factors and indicators, such as the Gross Domestic Product in the U.S. and many Western countries. The GDP (also sometimes called the gross domestic income) is one of the measures of national income and output for a given country's economy. GDP is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within the country in a given period of time (usually a calendar year). It is also considered the sum of value added at every stage of production (the intermediate stages) of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time, and it is given a money value. The GDP does not distinguish, however, between activities that produce welfare and those that damage welfare, nor does it consider the depreciation and devaluation of natural capital caused by human activities. Natural capital is an economic way of saying “what the earth gave us:” clean water and air, animals and plants, mountains, oil, top soil, natural resources, etc. To correct this lack of natural capital in current economic models of sustainability, the authors of The Road to Sustainabilityemploy the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW). ISEW was developed by Herman Daly and John Cobb in 1989 as a more holistic model then the GDP, and it includes aspects of economic life ignored by GDP. For example, it combines positive factors (like services of domestic labor, services of durables, area of natural reserves) with negative factors (defensive expenditures, loss of natural capital, use of non-renewable resources…), integrating different economic, social, and environmental components. ISEW therefore enables specific regions, communities, or areas to be represented in a more realistic way since it includes human impacts on natural capital.

How important is sustainability in these terms? As the authors clearly stress, it is very important. Using the example of Overshoot Day, one begins to understand the importance of this book and its overall model. Overshoot day is the day in the solar year when humans have used up the year’s supply and begin to consume their capital. Greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere, wastes and contaminants accumulate, resources become depleted and minerals are increasingly expensive to extract. The capacity of the environment to provide the same quantity of goods and services as it did the previous year is called sustainability. When we utilize more then the environment can produce, we have overshoot natures sustainable capacity.

Research indicates that Overshoot Day was December 19 in 1987, November 21 in 1995, and it was October 9. The latest data indicates that Overshoot Day for 2007 was in September, and so far 2008 is shaping up to be the same.

The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare corrects aspects of the calculation of GDP. It subtracts social costs due to air and water pollution, long-term environmental damage, defensive private expenditures on health and education, and deterioration of renewable and depletion of non-renewable natural resources. It adds, as a component of welfare, the value of unpaid domestic work in families, the distribution of wealth, considers services of durable goods and public infrastructure as benefits.

Comprehensively written - and accompanied with numerous charts, graphs, and case examples - The Road to Sustainabilityprovides a solid introduction and argument for beginning to build a sustainable future. We need to understand sustainability not only in terms of product development or natural resource use, but also in terms of the human impact and footprint on the planet. This book does just that, and much more. Anyone concerned about the future of the planet and the human species place on this planet should read the book. It is not only geared towards economists and other academics, but towards the wider audience of activists, concerned individuals, and people in the process of working towards the future. The two case examples in the back of the book are an excellent addition, clearly discussing how the ISEW model works and can be applied to any municipality, state, country, or other entity. Reading books like this give us hope - hope that is based in science and that is economically sound.

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