Posted 1:27 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011
UW-L is embarking on a sustainability-themed year. Four UW-L instructors help explain what this word means.
UW-L is embarking on a sustainability-themed year. The topic will be highlighted in classroom discussions, presentations, films and campus-wide programs. To set the course for the year, it’s important to understand what the word means. Sustainability is not a simple concept. Its implications are broader than the environment. Leaders say we can live more sustainably by acknowledging other aspects of the word, such as sustainability in terms of social justice, economic security and ecological integrity. Four UW-L instructors are helping define sustainability in terms of these three values through a series of articles in the Campus News. Read Part II below. If you missed Part I, read it here.
Sustainability in terms of economic security
Sustainability is causing a radical rethinking of the relationship between the human economy and nature, says Donna Anderson, UW-L professor of economics.
In traditional economic theory, nature is a subset of the human economy — a storehouse of sorts — where we extract resources and dispose of waste. According to this model, the human economy can grow forever as consumption and production have no consequences. However, overwhelming evidence on the effects of human activity on the ecosystem reveals that this model is incorrect — that human activity does impact nature and the model needs to be changed to reflect reality, notes Anderson.
Some businesses and leaders are realizing that model needs to shift to one that recognizes natural resources are not limitless. In this new, sustainable model, the economy is a subset of the ecosystem.
“It’s radical because the implications are so different — particularly for consumption and production,” explains Anderson.
In the traditional model, consumption and production are good because they cause the economy to grow. In the new model, consuming and producing would eventually overcrowd and damage the ecosystem. It would damage what economists call “natural capital,” goods from the natural environment such as trees and rivers that provide essential goods and services for the future such as wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen generation. More and more businesses are climbing aboard and recognizing the second model as a more realistic model of the human economy-ecosystem relationship, explains Anderson. An example is Patagonia, a clothing company that makes some products using some recycled materials.
Switching models generates new questions about how to define economic progress. In the traditional model countries define economic growth by measuring Gross Domestic Product — the market value of goods and services produced in a country in a given year. Progress comes with producing more and more stuff, explains Anderson.
In the new model, progress would not be measured by producing more. The country would have to think in terms of quality instead of quantity, says Anderson.
“Can we improve the quality of our lives without the quantity and change the way we measure progress?” she asks.
That would entail measuring other things we value such as community, cultural diversity, leisure time — and the environment.
Anderson teaches two sustainability related courses: Economics of Sustainability and Principles of Business Sustainability. Find more information on the Economics Department.
In the traditional model, consumption and production are good because they cause the economy to grow. In the new model, consuming and producing would eventually overcrowd and damage the ecosystem. It would damage what economists call “natural capital,” goods from the natural environment such as trees and rivers that provide essential goods and services for the future such as wildlife habitat, recreation and oxygen generation. More and more businesses are climbing aboard and recognizing the second model as a more realistic model of the human economy-ecosystem relationship, explains Anderson. An example is Patagonia, a clothing company that makes some products using some recycled materials.
Switching models generates new questions about how to define economic progress. In the traditional model countries define economic growth by measuring Gross Domestic Product — the market value of goods and services produced in a country in a given year. Progress comes with producing more and more stuff, explains Anderson.
In the new model, progress would not be measured by producing more. The country would have to think in terms of quality instead of quantity, says Anderson.
“Can we improve the quality of our lives without the quantity and change the way we measure progress?” she asks.
That would entail measuring other things we value such as community, cultural diversity, leisure time — and the environment.
Anderson teaches two sustainability related courses: Economics of Sustainability and Principles of Business Sustainability. Find more information on the Economics Department.