NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Triple bottom line

The triple bottom line, measuring organizational (and societal) success; economic, environmental and social. With the ratification of the UN ICLEI TBL standard for urban and community accounting in early 2007, this became the dominant approach to public sector full cost accounting. Similar UN standards apply to natural capital and human capital measurement to assist in measurements required by TBL, e.g. the ecoBudget standard for reporting ecological footprint. This article is about the United Nations, for other uses of UN see UN (disambiguation) Official languages English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic Secretary-General Kofi Annan (since 1997) Established October 24, 1945 Member states 191 Headquarters New York City, NY, USA Official site http://www. ... ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments and national and regional local government organizations that have made a commitment to sustainable development. ... < [[[[math>Insert formula here</math>The public sector is that part of economic and administrative life that deals with the delivery of goods and services by and for the [[government </math></math></math></math> Direct administration funded through taxation; the delivering organisation generally has no specific requirement to meet commercial... Full cost accounting (FCA) generally refers to the process of collecting and presenting information (costs as well as advantages) for each proposed alternative when a decision is necessary. ... Natural capital, as described in the book Natural Capitalism, is a metaphor for the mineral, plant, and animal formations of the Earths biosphere when viewed as a means of production of oxygen, water filter, erosion preventer, or provider of other ecosystem services. ... Human capital is a way of defining and categorizing the skills and abilities as used in employment and as they otherwise contribute to the economy. ...

In the private sector, a commitment to corporate social responsibility implies a commitment to some form of TBL reporting. This is distinct from the more limited changes required to deal only with ecological issues. The private sector of a nations economy consists of all that is outside the state. ... Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept which encourages organizations to consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of the organizations activities on customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment in all aspects of its operations. ...

Definition

The phrase was coined by John Elkington in 1994.^[1] It was later expanded and articulated in his 1997 book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business.^[2]^[3] Sustainability, itself, was first defined by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations in 1987. The Earth Day flag includes a NASA photo. ... The Brundtland Commission - formally the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), known by the name of its Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland, was convened by the United Nations in response to the 1983 General Assembly Resolution A/38/161 - Process of preparation of the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000...

The concept of TBL demands that a company's responsibility be to 'stakeholders' rather than shareholders. In this case, 'stakeholders' refers to anyone who is influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the actions of the firm. According to the stakeholder theory, the business entity should be used as a vehicle for coordinating stakeholder interests, instead of maximising shareholder(owner) profit.

The Bottom Lines

"People, Planet and Profit" are used to succinctly describe the triple bottom lines and the goal of sustainability. The Earth Day flag includes a NASA photo. ...

"People" (Human Capital) pertains to fair and beneficial business practices toward labor and the community and region in which a corporation conducts its business. A TBL company conceives a reciprocal social structure in which the well being of corporate, labor and other stakeholder interests are interdependent. A triple bottom line enterprise seeks to benefit many constituencies, not exploit or endanger any group of them. The "upstreaming" of a portion of profit from the marketing of finished goods back to the original producer of raw materials, i.e., a farmer in fair trade agricultural practice, is a not unusual feature. In concrete terms, a TBL business would not knowingly use child labor, would pay fair salaries to its workers, would maintain a safe work environment and tolerable working hours, and would not otherwise exploit a community or its labor force. A TBL business also typically seeks to "give back" by contributing to the strength and growth of its community with such things as health care and education. Quantifying this bottom line is relatively new, problematic and often subjective. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has developed guidelines to enable corporations and NGO's alike to comparably report on the social impact of a business. Human capital is a way of defining and categorizing the skills and abilities as used in employment and as they otherwise contribute to the economy. ... See Social structure of the United States for an explanation of concepts exsistance within US society. ... For other uses, see Fair trade (disambiguation). ... Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a multi-stakeholder process and independent institution whose mission is to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. ... NGO is an abbreviation or code for: Non-governmental organization Nagoya Airport (IATA code) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

"Planet" (Natural Capital) refers to sustainable environmental practices. A TBL company endeavors to benefit the natural order as much as possible or at the least do no harm and curtail environmental impact. A TBL endeavor reduces its ecological footprint by, among other things, carefully managing its consumption of energy and non-renewables and reducing manufacturing waste as well as rendering waste less toxic before disposing of it in a safe and legal manner. "Cradle to grave" is uppermost in the thoughts of TBL manufacturing businesses which typically conduct a life cycle assessment of products to determine what the true environmental cost is from the growth and harvesting of raw materials to manufacture to distribution to eventual disposal by the end user. A triple bottom line company does not produce harmful or destructive products such as weapons, toxic chemicals or batteries containing dangerous heavy metals for example. Currently, the cost of disposing of non-degradable or toxic products is borne financially by governments and environmentally by the residents near the disposal site and elsewhere. In TBL thinking, an enterprise which produces and markets a product which will create a waste problem should not be given a free ride by society. It would be more equitable for the business which manufactures and sells a problematic product to bear part of the cost of its ultimate disposal. Ecologically destructive practices, such as overfishing or other endangering depletions of resources are avoided by TBL companies. Often environmental sustainablity is the more profitable course for a business in the long run. Arguments that it costs more to be environmentally sound are often specious when the course of the business is analyzed over a period of time. Generally, sustainability reporting metrics are better quantified and standardized for environmental issues than for social ones. A number of respected reporting institutes and registries exist including the Global Reporting Initiave, CERES, Institute 4 Sustainability and others. A life cycle assessment (also known as life cycle analysis, life cycle inventory, ecobalance, cradle-to-grave-analysis, well-to-wheel analysis, and dust-to-dust energy cost) is the assessment of the environmental impact of a given product or service throughout its lifespan. ...

"Profit" is the bottom line shared by all commerce, conscientious or not. In the original concept, within a sustainability framework, the "profit" aspect needs to be seen as the economic benefit enjoyed by the host society. It is the lasting economic impact the organisation has on its economic environment. This is often confused to be limited to the internal profit made by a company or organisation. Therefore, a TBL approach cannot be interpreted as traditional corporate accounting plus social and environmental impact.

Several books are available on the topic. Among them, Harvard Business Review on Corporate Responsibility by Harvard Business School Press; The Soul of a Business: Managing for Profit and the Common Good by Tom Chappell; Capitalism at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World's Most Difficult Problems by Professor Stuart L. Hart; The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success -- and How You Can Too by Andrew W. Savitz and Karl Weber; The Sustainability Advantage: Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line (Conscientious Commerce) by Bob Willard.

Arguments in favor of the concept

Fiscal policy of governments usually claims to be concerned with identifying social and natural deficits on a less formal basis. However, in a democracy at least, such choices are usually guided more by ideology than by economics. The primary benefit of embedding one approach to measurement of these deficits would be first to direct monetary policy to reduce them, and eventually achieve a global monetary reform by which they could be systematically and globally reduced in some uniform way. Fiscal policy is the economic term that defines the set of principles and decisions of a government in setting the level of public expenditure and how that expenditure is funded. ... Political Ideologies Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box: An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... It has been suggested that monetary theory be merged into this article or section. ... Monetary Reform is accounting reform that reaches more deeply into banking central bank, money supply and monetary policy. ...

The argument is that the Earth's carrying capacity is itself at risk, and that in order to avoid catastrophic breakdown of climate or nature's services, there is a need for a comprehensive reform in global financial institutions similar in scale to that undertaken at Bretton Woods in 1944, and not since^{[citation needed]}. A major proponent of this has been Marilyn Waring. The equilibrium maximum of the population of an organism is known as the ecosystems carrying capacity for that organism. ... Natures services is an umbrella term for the ways in which nature benefits humans, particularly those benefits that can be measured in economic terms. ... Bretton Woods is an area within the town of Carroll, New Hampshire whose principal points of interest are three leisure and recreation facilities. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Marilyn Waring (born 1952) is a renowned New Zealand feminist, an activist for female human rights, an author and an academic. ...

With the emergence of an externally-consistent green economics and agreement on definitions of potentially contentious terms such as full-cost accounting, natural capital and social capital, the prospect of formal metrics for ecological and social loss or risk has grown less remote through the 1990s. Green economics is an unconventional approach to economics by non-economists. ... Full cost accounting (FCA) generally refers to the process of collecting and presenting information (costs as well as advantages) for each proposed alternative when a decision is necessary. ... Natural capital, as described in the book Natural Capitalism, is a metaphor for the mineral, plant, and animal formations of the Earths biosphere when viewed as a means of production of oxygen, water filter, erosion preventer, or provider of other ecosystem services. ... Social capital is a core concept in business, economics, organizational behaviour, political science, and sociology, defined as the advantage created by a persons location in a structure of relationships. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ...

In the United Kingdom in particular, the London Health Observatory has undertaken a formal program to address social deficits via a fuller understanding of what "social capital" is, how it functions in a real community (that being the City of London), and how losses of it tend to require both financial capital and significant political and social attention from volunteers and professionals to help resolve. The data they rely on is extensive, building on decades of statistics of the Greater London Council since World War II. There are some similar studies in North America. A community is a social group of organisms sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. ... Motto: Domine dirige nos Latin: Lord, guide us Shown within Greater London Sovereign state Constituent country Region Greater London Status City and Ceremonial County Admin HQ Guildhall Government - Leadership see text - Mayor John Stuttard - MP Mark Field - London Assembly John Biggs Area - City 1. ... In brief, financial capital is money used by entreprenuers and businesses to buy what they need to make their products (or provide their services). ... For other uses, see Volunteer (disambiguation). ... Arms of the Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... North America North America is a continent[1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ...

Studies of nature's services and assessments of the value of Earth have tried to determine what might constitute an ecological or natural life deficit. The Kyoto Protocol relies on some measures of this sort, and actually relies on some value of life calculations that, among other things, are explicit about the ratio of the price of a human life between developed and developing nations (about 15 to 1). While the motive of this number was to simply assign responsibility for a cleanup, such stark honesty opens not just an economic but political door to some kind of negotiation - presumably to reduce that ratio in time to something seen as more equitable. As it is, people in developed nations can be said to benefit 15 times more from ecological devastation than in developing nations, in pure financial terms. According to the IPCC, they are thus obliged to pay 15 times more per life to avoid a loss of each such life to climate change—Kyoto seeks to implement exactly this formula, and is therefore sometimes cited as a first step towards getting nations to accept formal liability for damage inflicted on ecosystems shared globally. Natures services is an umbrella term for the ways in which nature benefits humans, particularly those benefits that can be measured in economic terms. ... In economics, value of Earth is the ultimate in ecosystem valuation, and important to value of life calculations. ... Kyoto Protocol Opened for signature December 11, 1997 in Kyoto, Japan Entered into force February 16, 2005. ... FUCKING BULLSHIT!! The value of life is an economic or moral value assigned to life in general, or to specific living organisms. ... Ecological health or ecological integrity or ecological damage is used to refer to symptoms of an ecosystems pending loss of carrying capacity, ability to perform natures services, or pending ecocide due to cumulative causes such as pollution. ... IPCC is science authority for the UNFCCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess the risk of human-induced climate change. The Panel is open to all... Variations in CO2, temperature and dust from the Vostok ice core over the last 450,000 years For current global climate change, see Global warming. ... In the most general sense, a liability is anything that is a hindrance, or puts individuals at a disadvantage. ...

Advocacy for triple bottom line reforms is common in Green Parties. Some of the measures undertaken in the European Union towards the Euro currency integration standardize the reporting of ecological and social losses in such a way as to seem to endorse in principle the notion of unified accounts, or unit of account, for these deficits. This article is about the green parties around the world. ... For other uses, see Euro (disambiguation). ... A unit of account is a standard numerical unit of measurement for the market value of goods, services, and other transactions. ...

Arguments against the concept

While many people agree with the importance of good social conditions and preservation of the environment, there are also many who disagree with the 'Triple Bottom Line' as the way to enhance these conditions. The main arguments against it may be summarised as;

Division of labour is the specialisation of cooperative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase efficiency of output. ... Shield of The Salvation Army The Salvation Army is a non-military evangelical Christian organisation. ... Greenpeace protest against Esso / Exxon Mobil. ... Effectiveness means the capability of producing an effect. ... For other persons named Adam Smith, see Adam Smith (disambiguation). ... For other use of Invisible Hand, please see Invisible hand (disambiguation) The invisible hand is a metaphor coined by the economist Adam Smith to illustrate how those who seek wealth by following their individual self-interest, stimulate the economy as a secondary effect and thus assist society as a whole. ... EugÃ¨ne Delacroixs Liberty Leading the People, symbolising French nationalism during the July Revolution 1830. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ... Simultaneous policy requires governments in all jurisdictions at once, worldwide, to implement a policy shift at once, so that none is disadvantaged. ... On the Threshold of Eternity. ... In macroeconomics, the definition of recession is a decline in any countrys Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year. ...

Legislation

Legislation permitting corporations to adopt a 'Triple Bottom Line' is under consideration in some jurisdictions including Minnesota and Oregon.

Some businesses have voluntarily adopted a 'Triple Bottom Line' as part of their articles of incorporation or bylaws, and some have advocated for state laws creating a "Sustainable Corporation" that would grant triple bottom line businesses benefits such as tax breaks [1].

The triple bottom line has been adopted as a part of the State Sustainability Strategy[2], accepted by the Government of Western Australia. This article describes the national government of Australia. ...

See also

Double bottom line is a business term used in socially responsible enterprise and investment. ... This is an alphabetical list of notable economists. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Earth Day flag includes a NASA photo. ... Value networks (value webs), are the human and technical resources in a business that work together to form relationships and add value to a product or service. ... Value network analysis is a business modeling methodology for understanding internal and external value networks. ...

Notes

External links

Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since July 2007 | Welfare economics | Sustainability | Business ethics Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Area Ranked 12th - Total 87,014 sq mi (225,365 kmÂ²) - Width 250 miles (400 km) - Length 400 miles (645 km) - % water 8. ... The Earth Day flag includes a NASA photo. ... Energy development is the ongoing effort to provide sustainable energy resources through knowledge, skills, and constructions. ... Future energy development, providing for the worlds future energy needs, currently faces great challenges. ... The 2000 Watt society is a vision, originated by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at the end of the 1998, in which each person in the developed world would cut their energy use to an average of no more than 2,000 Watts by the year 2050, without lowering... It has been suggested that this article be split into articles entitled Peak oil and Hubbert peak theory, accessible from a disambiguation page. ... For other uses, see Peak oil (disambiguation). ... Kardashev scale projections ranging from 1900 to 2100. ... For other uses, see Air car (disambiguation). ... The definition of alternative fuel varies according to the context of its usage. ... Alternative propulsion is a term used frequently for power train concepts differing to the standard internal combustion engine concept used in gasoline- or diesel-fueled vehicles. ... For electric vehicles other than battery powered passenger automobiles, see electric vehicle. ... For other uses, see Bicycle (disambiguation). ... Bioalcohol is alcohol obtained from biological sources, not from petroleum. ... This article is about transesterified plant and animal oils. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Biogas-bus in Bern, Switzerland Biogas typically refers to a (biofuel) gas produced by the anaerobic digestion or fermentation of organic matter including manure, sewage sludge, municipal solid waste, biodegradable waste or any other biodegradable feedstock, under anaerobic conditions. ... Biomass to liquid (BTL) is a (multi step) process to produce liquid fuels out of biomass: It mainly aims at using the whole plant to improve the CO2 balance and the costs. ... Busways redirects here. ... White bicycles for free use, in Hoge Veluwe national park, the Netherlands Community bicycle programs (also known as Yellow bicycle programs or White bicycle programs) are one variation on an international movement to provide environmentally friendly transportation options to citizens. ... Ecodriving is a term used in Europe to name initiative which support energy efficient use of vehicles. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Power-assisted cycle. ... For battery powered passenger automobiles, see battery electric vehicle. ... A Toyota Prius, one example of a hybrid electric vehicle. ... A hydrogen station is a storage or filling station for hydrogen, usually located along a road or highway, or at home as part of the distributed generation resources concept. ... Sequel, a fuel cell-powered vehicle from General Motors A hydrogen vehicle is a personal transportation vehicle, such as an automobile, that uses hydrogen as its on-board fuel for motive power, or another vehicle, such as an aircraft, that use hydrogen in a similar fashion. ... A low-energy vehicle is any type of vehicle that uses less energy than a regular vehicle. ... Hybrids Plus PHEV Toyota Prius conversion with PHEV-30 (30 mile all-electric range) battery packs A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid vehicle with batteries that can be recharged by connecting a plug to an electrical power source. ... // Production battery electric vehicles (BEVs) like the GM EV1 and Chevrolet S10 EV, Chrysler TEVan, Honda EV Plus, Ford Ranger EV, Nissan Altra, Toyota RAV4 EV, and Solectria Force have been made available to the consumer market in very limited quantities and locations. ... Bangkok Skytrain. ... Further information: electric bus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tram or simply trolley) is an electric bus powered by two overhead wires, from which it draws electricity using two trolley poles. ... The Twike (TWin bIKE) is a Light Electric Vehicle (LEV) with hybrid human power as an option. ... Ugandan bicycle taxi or bodaboda Cargo-bicycle and Trike for rent Bremen. ... Waste Vegetable Oil which has been filtered. ... In physics and engineering, energy conversion is any process of converting energy from one form to another. ... Electricity generation is the first process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. ... Distributed generation generates electricity from many small energy sources. ... It has been suggested that Wind turbines (UK domestic) be merged into this article or section. ... A sustainable community energy system is an integrated approach to supplying a local community with its energy requirements from renewable energy or high-efficiency co-generation energy sources. ... Modern technology uses large amounts of electrical power. ... In thermodynamics, biological thermodynamics (Greek: bios = life and logikos = reason + Greek: thermos = heat and dynamics = power) or bioenergetics[1] is the study of energy transformation in the biological sciences. ... Two-stage, low-solids, UASB anaerobic digesters as part of a mechanical biological treatment system, with sequencing batch reactor Anaerobic digestion (AD) is where the naturally occurring processes of anaerobic degradation is harnessed and contained. ... See biomass (ecology) for the use of the term in ecology, where it refers to the cumulation of living matter Switchgrass, a tough plant used in the biofuel industry in the United States Rice chaff. ... Mechanical biological treatment (MBT), or mechanical biological pre-treatment is a category of waste treatment technologies that enables recovery of the resources contained in waste. ... In chemistry, a chemical bond is the force which holds together atoms in molecules or crystals. ... Blue energy is the energy retrieved from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river water with the use of osmosis or reverse electro dialysis (RED) with ion specific membranes. ... A fuel cell is an electrochemical device similar to a battery, but differing from the latter in that it is designed for continuous replenishment of the reactants consumed; i. ... Hydrogen production is done in bulk today from hydrocarbon fossil fuels via a chemical path. ... Krafla Geothermal Station in northeast Iceland Geothermal power is energy generated by heat stored beneath the Earths surface. ... Deep lake water cooling uses cold water pumped from the bottom of a lake as a heat sink for climate control systems. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Hydroelectricity is electricity produced by hydropower. ... Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation whereby the natural flow and elevation drop of a river are used to generate electricity. ... Tidal power, sometimes called tidal energy, is a form of hydropower that exploits the rise and fall in sea levels due to the tides, or the movement of water caused by tidal currents. ... Kaplan turbine and electrical generator cut-away view. ... Wave power refers to the energy of ocean surface waves and the capture of that energy to do useful work - including electricity generation, desalination, and the pumping of water (into reservoirs). ... This article is about applications of nuclear fission reactors as power sources. ... An Inertial fusion power plant is intended to industrially produce electric power by use of inertial confinement fusion techniques. ... The deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reaction is considered the most promising for producing fusion power. ... Core of a small nuclear reactor used for research. ... // A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) is a simple electrical generator which obtains its power from radioactive decay. ... Solar power describes a number of methods of harnessing energy from the light of the sun. ... Active solar is a term which refers to the use of solar energy to actively convert the energy in sunlight into other forms. ... The Barra system, developed by Horazio Barra in Italy, is a passive solar building technology. ... Central solar heating is the provision of central heating and hot water from solar energy by a system in which the water is heated centrally by arrays of solar thermal collectors (central solar heating plants - CSHPs) and distributed through district heating pipe networks (or block heating systems in the case... This article is about electricity power generation by downdraft created by evaporation of water sprayed at the top of a tall hollow cylinder. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Solar panels are used in passive and active solar hot water systems Passive solar technologies convert sunlight into usable heat, cause air-movement for ventilation or cooling, or store heat for future use, without the assistance of other energy sources. ... Passive solar building design involves the modeling, selection and use of appropriate passive solar technologies to maintain the building environment at a desired temperature range (usually based around human thermal comfort) throughout the suns daily and annual cycles. ... Photovoltaic tree in Styria, Austria Photovoltaics, or PV for short, is a solar power technology that uses solar cells or solar photovoltaic arrays to convert light from the sun directly into electricity. ... A photovoltaic module is composed of individual PV cells. ... A solar cell, made from a monocrystalline silicon wafer A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts light energy into electrical energy. ... A solar combisystem is a solar heating system that provides both space heating and hot water from a common array of solar thermal collectors, normally linked to an auxiliary non-solar heat source. ... A solar heater A laundromat in California with solar hot water panels on the roof. ... A Solar pond is large-scale solar energy collector with integral heat storage for supplying thermal energy. ... An artists depiction of a solar satellite, which could send energy wirelessly to a space vessel or planetary surface. ... The solar power tower at Solar Two in California The solar power tower (also known as Central Tower power plants or Heliostat power plants or power towers) is a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive the focused sunlight. ... Photovoltaic solar panels on a house roof. ... Solar Shingles (or Photovoltaic Shingles) are a new type of solar energy system that, at first glance, look like regular asphalt shingles but are actually photovoltaic cells (PV). ... Solar Thermal Collector Dish A solar thermal collector is a solar collector specifically intended to collect heat: that is, to absorb sunlight to provide heat. ... Solar thermal energy is a technology for harnessing solar power for practical applications from solar heating to electrical power generation. ... A backyard installation of passive singleâ€“axis trackers, DC rated at 2340 watts. ... Schematic of a Solar updraft tower This article is about a type of power plant. ... Passive solar design using an unvented trombe wall and summer shading A Trombe wall is a sun-facing wall built from material that can act as a thermal mass (such as stone, concrete, adobe or water tanks), combined with an air space, insulated glazing and vents to form a large... Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) in its strictest sense refers to any waste treatment that creates energy in the form of electricity or heat from a waste source that would have been disposed of in landfill, also called energy recovery. ... Two-stage, low-solids, UASB anaerobic digesters as part of a mechanical biological treatment system, with sequencing batch reactor Anaerobic digestion (AD) is where the naturally occurring processes of anaerobic degradation is harnessed and contained. ... For the water carbonator, see Gasogene. ... For other forms of waste plant that produce energy see waste-to-energy. ... Mechanical biological treatment (MBT), or mechanical biological pre-treatment is a category of waste treatment technologies that enables recovery of the resources contained in waste. ... Simple sketch of pyrolysis chemistry Pyrolysis usually means the chemical decomposition of organic materials by heating in the absence of oxygen or any other reagents, except possibly steam. ... An example of a wind turbine. ... A wind farm is a collection of wind turbines in the same location. ... This article is about the machine for converting the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical energy. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Energy storage is the storing of some form of energy that can be drawn upon at a later time to perform some useful operation. ... Symbols representing a single Cell (top) and Battery (bottom), used in circuit diagrams. ... NASA G2 flywheel Flywheel Energy Storage (FES) works by accelerating a rotor (flywheel) to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy. ... Ffestiniog pumped storage power station upper reservoir Grid energy storage lets energy producers send excess electricity over the electricity transmission grid to temporary electricity storage sites that become energy producers when electricity demand is greater. ... Hydrogen storage is the main technological problem of a viable hydrogen economy. ... A seasonal thermal store (also known as a seasonal heat store or inter-seasonal thermal store) is a store designed to retain heat deposited during the hot summer months for use during colder winter weather. ... Thermal energy storage can refer to a number of technologies that store energy in a thermal reservoir for later reuse. ... The Earth Day flag includes a NASA photo. ... Humankind benefits from a multitude of resources and processes that are supplied by natural ecosystems. ... Ecovillages are intended to be socially, economically and ecologically sustainable intentional communities. ... For the physical concepts, see conservation of energy and energy efficiency. ... Energy demand management is also known as demand side management (DSM). ... Green Map of Cambridge, Massachusetts Green Maps are environmentally themed maps which are usually created as a grassroots effort with a symbol set licensed from the non-profit Green Map System. ... Infrastructural capital refers to any physical means of production or means of protection beyond that which can be gathered or found directly in nature, i. ... Permaculture Mandala summarising the ethics and principles of permaculture design. ... Renewable energy utilizes natural resources such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. ... Autonomy is the condition of something that does not depend on anything else. ... Simple living (or voluntary simplicity) is a lifestyle individuals may pursue for a variety of motivations, such as spirituality, health, or ecology. ... Sustainable development is a socio-ecological process characterized by the fulfilment of human needs while maintaining the quality of the natural environment indefinitely. ... Sustainable living might best be defined as a lifestyle that could, hypothetically, be sustained unmodified for many generations without exhausting any natural resources. ... The Natural Step is a nonprofit organization founded in Sweden in 1989 by Swedish scientist, Karl-Henrik RobÃ¨rt. ... The ton of oil equivalent (TOE) is a unit for measuring energy. ... In economics, value of Earth is the ultimate in ecosystem valuation, and important to value of life calculations. ... World power usage in terawatts (TW), 1965-2005. ... Zoning in Permaculture design refers to a method of ensuring that elements are correctly placed. ... Appropriate technology is technology that is appropriate to the environmental, cultural and economic situation it is intended for. ... The air engine is an emission-free piston engine using compressed air. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Off-the-grid. ... Cob building dated 1539 in Devon, England. ... Composting toilets use biological processes to deal with the disposal and processing of human excrement into organic compost material. ... The albedo of several types of roofs Cool roofs are an effective alternative to bulk attic insulation under roofs in humid tropical and subtropical climates. ... Earth covered farm houses in Keldur, Iceland. ... Energy-efficient landscaping is a type of landscaping designed for the purpose of conserving energy. ... Re-creation of Viking houses in Labrador Several grass roofs can be seen in the village of BÃ¸ur in the Faroe Islands. ... Hypermodernity is a type, mode, or stage of society that reflects a deepening or intensification of modernity. ... A low-energy-house is any type of house that uses less energy than a regular house. ... One of the original Passive Houses at Darmstadt, Germany One of the original Passive Houses at Darmstadt The term passive house (Passivhaus in German) refers to the rigorous, voluntary, Passivhaus standard for energy use in buildings. ... Rammed earth walls form part of the entrance building for the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. ... Sheet composting is the process of composting organic matter directly onto the soil as a mulch and letting it decay there, rather than in a heap. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Solar Tower. ... Further detailed information formerly in this article was moved to Wikibooks in May 2006 Straw-bale construction is a building method that uses straw bales as structural elements, insulation, or both. ... Superinsulation is an approach to building design, construction and retrofitting. ... When plotted on a logarithmic graph, 15 separate lists of paradigm shifts for key events in human history show an exponential trend. ... A windcatcher (Badgir; Ø¨Ø§Ø¯Ú¯ÛŒØ±) is a traditional Persian architectural device used for many centuries to create natural ventilation in buildings. ... It has been suggested that Small-scale agriculture be merged into this article or section. ... Subsistence farmers with a Treadle Pump. ... Forest gardening (also known as 3-Dimensional Gardening) is a food production and land management system based on replicating woodland ecosystems, substituting trees (such as fruit or nut trees), bushes, shrubs, herbs and vegetables which have yields directly useful to mankind. ... Humanure is a neologism designating human waste (feces and urine) that is recycled via composting for agricultural or other purposes. ... This is a list of companion plant relationships. ... This is a list of repellent plants. ... Ancient technique re-introduced by Masanobu Fukuoka. ... Vermicompost (also called worm compost, vermicast, worm castings, worm humus or worm manure) is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by some species of earthworm. ... Similar or related terms: Near zero energy building, Zero energy house, Near zero energy house A zero energy building (ZEB) can be described as structure with a net energy consumption of zero over a typical year. ... It has been suggested that Green design be merged into this article or section. ... Environmental design is the process of addressing environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. ... Sustainable architecture applies techniques of sustainable design to architecture. ... Sustainable landscape architecture is a category of sustainable design concerned with the planning and design of outdoor space. ... Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary field of academic research that addresses the dynamic and spatial interdependence between human economies and natural ecosystems. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Green economics is an unconventional approach to economics by non-economists. ... Green Gross Domestic Product (Green GDP) is an index of economic growth with the environmental consequences of that growth factored in. ... A hydrogen economy is a hypothetical economy in which energy is stored and transported as hydrogen (H2), particularly as an energy carrier for vehicle applications (e. ... A liquid nitrogen (LN2) economy is a hypothetical proposal for a future economy in which the primary form of energy storage and transport is liquid nitrogen. ... A low-carbon economy is an economy in which carbon dioxide emissions from the use of carbon based fuels (coal, oil and gas) are significantly reduced. ... The earliest mention of the phrase sustainable industries appeared in 1990 in a story about a Japanese group reforesting a tropical forest to help create sustainable industries for the local populace. ... Parkland in Burkina Faso: Sorghum grown under Faidherbia albida and Borassus akeassii near Banfora, Burkina Faso Agroforestry combines agriculture and forestry technologies to create more integrated, diverse, productive, profitable, healthy and sustainable land-use systems. ... Ecoforestry is forestry that emphasizes holistic practices which strive to protect and restore ecosystems1 instead of traditional forestry that maximizes economic productivity. ... Timber Exploitation of natural resources is an essential condition of the human existence. ... This article is about green building construction. ... Green chemistry is a chemical philosophy encouraging the design of products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. ... Green computing is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. ... Industrial ecology is the shifting of industrial process from open loop systems, in which resource and capital investments move through the system to become waste, to a closed loop system where wastes become inputs for new processes. ... Natural building involves a range of building systems and materials that place major emphasis on sustainability. ... This article is about a concept related to renewable energy, of which sustainable energy is a superset. ... It has been suggested that American Tree Farm System be merged into this article or section. ... Sustainable procurement is a spending and investment process typically associated with public policy, although it is equally applicable to the private sector. ... Girl on a bicycle in a car free area in Frankfurt Sustainable transport is a phrase which was coined in the late 20th century to describe all forms of transport which minimise emissions of carbon dioxide and pollutants. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Waste For the company, see Waste Management, Inc. ... The living machine at Oberlin College with a settlement tank in the foreground and filtering tanks in the background Living Machines are a form of biological wastewater treatment designed to mimic the cleansing functions of wetlands. ... Mycoremediation is a form of bioremediation, the process of using microbes to return an environment (usually soil) contaminated by pollutants to a less contaminated state. ... Sustainable development is a socio-ecological process characterized by the fulfilment of human needs while maintaining the quality of the natural environment indefinitely. ... Contents // Categories: Stub | United Nations specialized agencies | Sustainability | Development ... Human development theory is an economic theory that merges older ideas from ecological economics, sustainable development, welfare economics, and feminist economics. ... Practical Action - the working name of Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) – is a charity registered in the United Kingdom which works directly in four regions of the developing world – Latin America, East Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia, with particular concentration on Peru, Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka... Maldevelopment is the state of an organism or an organisation that did not develop in the normal way (used in medicine, e. ... The precautionary principle is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the... The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, often shortened to Rio Declaration, was a short document produced at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit. ... According to its web site, Rocky Mountain Institute is an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of natural, human and other capital to make the world more secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining. ... Sim Van der Ryn is acknowledged as a leader in sustainable architecture. ... Underdevelopment is the state of an organism or of an organisation (e. ... The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) bis a CEO-led, global association of some 190 companies dealing exclusively with business and sustainable development. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Earth Summit 2002. ...

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