Environmental Sustainability
The principle of environmental sustainability holds that it is incumbent upon the current generation to protect the quality of life, environmental health, and economic prosperity of future generations, without regard to gender, class, race, or ethnicity. However, current consumption patterns in the developed world and increasing pollution levels in the developing world threaten global sustainability. Inefficient manufacturing processes and antiquated business principles contribute to increased levels of waste, both in the creation of the products we use and in their disposal. More and more agricultural land is being consumed by development, which threatens the national and global food supply, and once-vast forested tracts are rapidly being cleared, which leads to erosion, landscape fragmentation, decline in biodiversity, and increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. There are also concerns about the future availability of energy and water resources and long-term solutions to the disposal of nuclear wastes.
View a presentation (a PowerPoint file) by Bruce Tonn, Program Leader, on the Environmental Sustainability Program.
