INTRODUCTION

Ethics of Sustainability

Class 1

Charles J. Kibert, Ph.D., P.E.Powell Center for Construction & Environment

Rinker School of Building ConstructionUniversity of Florida

Overview

• Who we are

• Who you are

• The SyllabusConduct of the course

• Reasons for the course

• The audience

• Brief overview of sustainability and ethics

Reasons for this course

• Objective: to learn that ethics is at the core of sustainability

• An ethical basis for sustainability has not been fully articulated

• The faculty teaching this course are collaborating on the development of this concept

• Associated with a NSF project that will produce a course manual and materials that will be made widely available

The Audience

• This course focuses on the ethics of sustainability as a general theme

• Focused audience: STEM disciplines• STEM disciplines: science, technology, engineers, and

mathematicians• Includes disciplines engaged in deploying and

employing technologies such as architects and construction managers

• BUT, suitable for any audience interested in sustainability

Exercise 1

• Group up!

• What are the major issues we face today as a global society?

• Each group pick their top 10 and rank them in terms of importance.

• Then…..

• Group the issues in some logical fashion

• And… diagram them, how they are related

• What are the common denominators?

Exercise 2

• What if the question were: What are the major issues that American society faces?

• Same? Different? Why?

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The Challenges

• Twin horns of our dilemma: population and consumption growth

• Dwindling energy, materials, and potable water resources

• Pollution

• Global poverty, malnutrition, disease

• Conflicts: resources, religious

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Humanity’s Global Impacts• Deforestation and loss of biodiversity

– Rainforest loss: 1 acre per second– Annual temperate forest loss: 10 million acres/yr– Loss of 50% of all forests in the last 1,000 years

• Impacts on food supply– Grain production: 465 MT (1987) 206 MT (2008)– Loss of 24 billion tons of topsoil annually– Fisheries: 100 MT (1987) 84 MT (2008)

• Humankind moves more material than natural forces(2x)

More….

• Climate Change

• Eutrophication

• Acidification

• Desertification

• Dispersion of synthetic chemicals

Exercise 3

• How would you define sustainability?

• What are the required conditions for sustainability?

Contemporary thinking about sustainability

• Sustainability provides an overarching framework for making decisions in an ever more complex environment.

• General agreements about sustainability:– it has three facets that are in dynamic tension and

need to be balanced: the economy, the environment, and society

– it is concerned with the quality of life for present and future generations

And ….

• The environment and its functions are important for survival and must be protected:– For human survival, especially the future– Because the non-human, living world has rights?

• As a result the behavior of society and operation of the economy affect the application of sustainability

What are some minimum conditions for sustainability?

• Nature: preservation of biodiversity, land area, elimination of toxics and pollution

• Food: preservation of soil, protection of fisheries, effects of GMOs

• Clean air and water

• Resources: mineral and organic

• Social needs: the above plus…..

Exercise 4: Needs vs. Wants

• Handout

• But are you:– Middle class American in central Florida– South African laborer in Soweto– Russian in St Petersburg– Be creative…pick your situation!

Ethics -Briefly

Ethics can be defined as reflection on the nature and definition of “the good.”

Individual conduct or character: How shall I live?

Universal values: What is the Good? What are the rules?

Exercise 5

• How are sustainability and ethics connected?

• Are there some ‘special’ ethical principles that are needed to justify sustainability?

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Progress?

“… the results of human activity are putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet’s ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.”

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board Statement, 2005

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Florida +5meter, very likely unavoidable. Expected sea level increase 21st Century: + 1.2 meterCourtesy: PBS

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Sustainability

• Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs (Our Common Future 1987)

• Non-declining human well-being over time (David Pearce, London School of Economics)

• Balancing people’s needs, economic development, and the health of natural systems

• Changing how we measure success or just changing how we measure

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Ethical Context

• Sustainability: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs

• Immediately calling for needs to be met, present and future, addresses morality

• The foundation of sustainability is ethics, not ecology, not economics, not social science

• The issue is how do we make decisions today• The challenge is to define ethical principles that

underpin sustainability, a complete set that covers all potential decisions.

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Ten Ethical Principles Underpinning Sustainability

1. Intergenerational Justice and the Chain of Obligation2. Distributional Equity3. The Precautionary Principle4. The Reversibility Principle5. The Polluter Pays Principle6. Protecting the Vulnerable7. Rights of the Non-Human World8. Respect for Nature9. The Land Ethic10. Sustainable Decisionmaking versus Once-Off

Decisionmaking

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Intergenerational Justice and the Chain of Obligation

• The choices of today’s generations will directly affect the quantity of resources remaining for future inhabitants of Earth, and will affect environmental quality.

• This concept of obligation that crosses temporal boundaries is referred to as intergenerational justice.

• Furthermore, the concept of intergenerational justice implies a chain of obligation between generations that extends from today into the distant future.

• Parental responsibility for enabling their offspring to meet their moral obligations to their children and beyond.

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Distributional Equity

• There is an obligation to insure the fair distribution of resources among present people so that the life prospects of all people are addressed.

• Based on principles of justice and the reasonable assumption that all individuals in a given generation are equal and a uniform distribution of resources must be a consequence of intragenerational equity

• The principle of distributional equity can be extended to relationships between generations because a given generation has moral responsibility for providing for their offspring

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The Precautionary Principle

• Requires the exercise of caution when making decisions that may adversely affect nature, natural ecosystems, and global, biogeochemical cycles.

• “When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.”

• Examples?

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Precautionary Principle’s Four Tenets

1. People have a duty to take anticipatory action to prevent harm.

2. The burden of the proof of harmlessness of a new technology, process, activity or chemical lies with the proponents, not the general public.

3. Before using a new technology, process, or chemical or staring a new activity, people have an obligation to examine a full range of alternatives including the alternative of not doing it.

4. Decisions applying the Precautionary Principle must be open, informed, and democratic and must include the affected parties.

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The Reversibility Principle

• ” Do not commit the irrevocable.” Arthur C. Clarke

• Making decisions that are able to be undone by future generations.

• Examples: nuclear energy; GMOs

• Related to the Precautionary Principle but less stringent

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The Polluter Pays Principle

• Addresses existing technologies

• The onus for mitigating damage is on those causing the impacts

• Compensation to those harmed

• Morphing into Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

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Protecting the Vulnerable

• There are populations, including the animal world, that are vulnerable to the actions of portions of the human species.– Destruction of ecosystems under the guise of development – Introduction of technology (including toxic substances, endocrine disruptors,

genetically modified organisms, nanotechnology, robotics)

• People who are essentially powerless due to governing and economic structures are vulnerable to the decisions of those who are powerful because of their wealth or influence

• This asymmetrical power arrangement is governed by moral obligation.

• Those in power have a special obligation to protect the vulnerable, those dependent on them.

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Rights of the Non-Human Living World

• Humans are members of the earth’s community of life • All species are interconnected in a web of life • Each species is a teleological center of life pursuing good

in its own way • Human beings are not superior to other species • This last concept is based on the other three and shifts the

focus from anthropocentricism to a biocentric outlook • Earth does not depend on humans for its existence, on the

contrary humans are the only species that have ever threatened the existence of Earth itself

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Rights of the Non-Living World

• Do rocks have the right to exist?

• The non-living world is the foundation of the living world

• If we agree that respect is appropriate for the non-human, living world, then surely we must respect the non-living world.

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Respect for Nature

• Basis of an ethics of respect for nature:1. Humans are member of the community of life2. All species are interconnected in a web of life3. Each species is a teleological center of life4. Humans are not superior to any other species

• Same evolutionary process, governed by the same laws• Humans are utterly dependent on other species for

survival• Other species are to be respected and humans should not

compromise their survival

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Nature rules

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The Land Ethic

• Aldo Leopold (1949) suggests the there should be an ethical relationship to the land and that this relationship should and must be based on love, respect, and admiration for the land.

• The land ethic makes sense because of the close relationship and interdependence of humans with land which provides food and amenity and contributes to air and water quality.

• Humans have tended to become disconnected from the land because of technological developments which give apparent but not actual independence from the land.

• Substitutes for natural material, for example polyester instead of cotton, furthers the notion that land is not essential for survival and that technology can provide suitable substitutes.

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“The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.”-

“That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics.”

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Web of Life

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Sustainable versus Once-Off Decisionmaking

• The issue is examining the temporal impact of decisionmaking

• Example: the built environment– Buildings as waste or resource for future generations

– Energy efficient versus less efficient strucutures

• Life cycle analysis– Life Cycle Costing

– Life Cycle Assessment

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Closure

• Sustainability is a complex issue addressing the sustainment of human quality of life

• The foundation of sustainability is ethics• The ethical principles of sustainability provide a

sound basis for decisionmaking but require courage in their application

• The principles should be comprehensive, covering human and non-human worlds

• Time horizons are crucial and must also be addressed