You hear more and more about of sustainable development, but, in most cases, this expression is associated with solutions for nothing innovative (like "safe nuclear") or the use of renewable energy. In queso blog I have repeatedly made reference to sustainable development and in this post I would like to clarify the concept.
The concept of sustainable development was established in 1987 following the publication of the report "The future of us all", prepared by the Brundtland Commission , sponsored by the United Nations. In this document the sustainable development is defined as development that "supports human progress not only in some places for some years, but for the entire planet in the distant future ... The sustainable development is a development that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The pursuit of sustainable development requires ... a production system that respects the obligation to preserve the ecological base for development same. "This definition simply says that is" sustainable "development that does not impoverish the future, but does not provide a clear definition of development. Often feel used indiscriminately the words "growth" and "development", but in reality are not equivalent. To "growth" means an increase in quantity the physical scale of production, the term "development", however, indicates the qualitative improvement in the use of that time scale production that can result from an improvement technical knowledge or a better understanding objective to be achieved. John Stuart Mill in 1857, introduces the idea of \u200b\u200b"zero growth" of the economy: there is zero growth when the economy is not growing, but grows. Introduces the concept of "steady state economy, an economy that is with zero growth in both population, both the stock of physical capital, but with improvements in technology and ethics. Steady state, therefore, should not be understood as the end of the second progress Mill : the vanished concern related to the "race for wealth," comes the need to " refine the art of life ".
The economic system today can no longer be regarded as a circular flow between households and businesses, closed, not tied to its surroundings and without any account for resources used for the waste of materials and their eventual recycling. In a world where natural resources are increasingly scarce and where the waste products increases we can no longer consider the economic system as a closed system. It would be a more appropriate conception of the economy that considers the linear relationship with the natural ecosystem. The nature is the superior system, not unlimited and must be regarded as the life support of the economic system itself.
Today we find an economic system that has grown faster than the natural ecosystem which, by its nature, can not grow or can do only in many years. To develop
further the definition of "sustainability is useful to distinguish the artificial from the natural capital. The former can be distinguished in renewable natural capital, consisting of the natural resources that are being regenerated at a rate equal to or greater than that with which they are used (eg wind, solar, wood energy) and non-renewable natural capital, which includes the resources that are not replaced at the same speed with which they use and, once consumed, disappears forever (eg: petroleum, mineral resources). The second is the capital created by humans and covers both the technical capital, as plants and machinery required to produce any goods or to deliver any service, both goods and services that represent gl output of production. They are part of the artificial capital infrastructure, buildings and other man-made works with your work.
Both types of capital should be kept intact: to maintain the integrated wealth preservation is the both that of the artificial capital, and of those relating to natural capital.
Following the conceptual line just described, we can say that the sustainability the production of goods and / or services is the cost that should be supported to preserve what exists, or capital. Sustainability means, in essence, to have the ability to consume wealth without depleting the initial fortune. If a future generation does not have the same choices of the present generation, then the next generation does not have the same welfare of the previous generation. When we talk about sustainability we must consider both the capital as artificial as natural and proper it is the engine of sustainability . The economic system
should therefore have a size limit and this limit should be the so-called load-bearing capacity, the ability of regeneration and resorption ecosystem. What is the optimal size? We must consider that, with increasing scale dimensional of the economic system, increase both the benefits and costs. Benefits and costs increase at different rates and, as it increases the size of the economy, you have to bear higher costs for benefits more and more content. Then we arrive at a point where the marginal costs and benefits are equal, so a further increase in scale dimensional would uneconomical because the cost outweigh the benefits. Just correspondence of this point (ie size of this "optimal"), you should adjust production to the maintenance and not to growth.
Recognize that natural capital and man-made capital are complementary , it means that support both of these factors are restraining the economy and the more scarce, the natural one, is a limiting factor for the other. Maintaining the natural capital means
invest in conservation of all resources found in nature distinguishing between investment capital sources (eg trees) and investment in capital sources (eg: petroleum, uranium) .
In light of this we can conclude highlighting the need to invest in an artificial capital that allows a rate of exploitation slower than non-renewable natural capital and this could be done investing in research and development of new products and new modes of delivery services that do not consume natural capital (eg design products for recycling already in place; focus on the beauty of nature and its resources in tourism).
would eventually be desirable to allocate part of consumption of all non-renewable natural capital ' investment in renewable resources, so that one day it will be possible to compensate for the limited availability non-renewable resources using rolling capital (assuming substitutability between the two capitals).
This reasoning may well be contextualized in "micro-reality" local.
I think it is necessary to take into account the sustainability of any project or any development proposal territorial . A project conceived without any assessment of its sustainability could easily provide some economic growth but there would be no development. A growth pace, "unsustainable " damage to the ecosystem future generations and undermine the existence of those communities on the ground " hopelessly damaged" if the economic system no longer has an engine (ecosystem) working, relentlessly we will see a decline that will lead to the abandonment of the territory.
What would be a sustainable development project for our area?
The basic idea is: if the environment, which is the fundamental resource the economic system, was the main source of income of the area, anyone would have interest to keep it intact and retain the best possible each resource natural. To activate a process for sustainable development for the territory sarnanese enough simply ORGANIZE. Sarnano only need to organize their economic activity more about the resources that the characterize : nature and history. Investing in these two resources and means to keep enhance them, not exploit. To do this you could be a body responsible for managing the sector more economically developed Sarnano : tourism. For example, through a consortium of tourism ( clik here to see the project) made by economic operators sarnanesi , you may manage more effectively and efficiently the local tourism and development is based on innovation a purely organizational , low cost and even with a positive environmental impact. The environment would be more protected because it would be the main source of value creation for tourists: the consortium should focus on enhancing and conservation of nature and landscape sarnanese , proposing a "sustainable tourism".
should therefore have a size limit and this limit should be the so-called load-bearing capacity, the ability of regeneration and resorption ecosystem. What is the optimal size? We must consider that, with increasing scale dimensional of the economic system, increase both the benefits and costs. Benefits and costs increase at different rates and, as it increases the size of the economy, you have to bear higher costs for benefits more and more content. Then we arrive at a point where the marginal costs and benefits are equal, so a further increase in scale dimensional would uneconomical because the cost outweigh the benefits. Just correspondence of this point (ie size of this "optimal"), you should adjust production to the maintenance and not to growth.
Recognize that natural capital and man-made capital are complementary , it means that support both of these factors are restraining the economy and the more scarce, the natural one, is a limiting factor for the other. Maintaining the natural capital means
invest in conservation of all resources found in nature distinguishing between investment capital sources (eg trees) and investment in capital sources (eg: petroleum, uranium) .
In light of this we can conclude highlighting the need to invest in an artificial capital that allows a rate of exploitation slower than non-renewable natural capital and this could be done investing in research and development of new products and new modes of delivery services that do not consume natural capital (eg design products for recycling already in place; focus on the beauty of nature and its resources in tourism).
would eventually be desirable to allocate part of consumption of all non-renewable natural capital ' investment in renewable resources, so that one day it will be possible to compensate for the limited availability non-renewable resources using rolling capital (assuming substitutability between the two capitals).
This reasoning may well be contextualized in "micro-reality" local.
I think it is necessary to take into account the sustainability of any project or any development proposal territorial . A project conceived without any assessment of its sustainability could easily provide some economic growth but there would be no development. A growth pace, "unsustainable " damage to the ecosystem future generations and undermine the existence of those communities on the ground " hopelessly damaged" if the economic system no longer has an engine (ecosystem) working, relentlessly we will see a decline that will lead to the abandonment of the territory.
What would be a sustainable development project for our area?
The basic idea is: if the environment, which is the fundamental resource the economic system, was the main source of income of the area, anyone would have interest to keep it intact and retain the best possible each resource natural. To activate a process for sustainable development for the territory sarnanese enough simply ORGANIZE. Sarnano only need to organize their economic activity more about the resources that the characterize : nature and history. Investing in these two resources and means to keep enhance them, not exploit. To do this you could be a body responsible for managing the sector more economically developed Sarnano : tourism. For example, through a consortium of tourism ( clik here to see the project) made by economic operators sarnanesi , you may manage more effectively and efficiently the local tourism and development is based on innovation a purely organizational , low cost and even with a positive environmental impact. The environment would be more protected because it would be the main source of value creation for tourists: the consortium should focus on enhancing and conservation of nature and landscape sarnanese , proposing a "sustainable tourism".
