‘What Australians do over the next few years will have a significant influence on humanity’s prospects for handing on the benefits of modern civilisation to future generations. This book will help Australians to understand their part in the global effort for sustainability.’
Ross Garnaut, Foreword to 2020
2020 – Vision for a Sustainable Society Bringing together leaders from across academia, business and government, this book focuses on practical steps that can steer Australia towards sustainability. In suggesting twenty actions by 2020, it provides a map to a more sustainable future – in a society that is healthier and happier but not radically different to what we enjoy today. In the lead up to the Rio+20 Conference, this book aims to provide Australians with answers to the burning question of the 21st century: ‘Where to from here?’
The full book can also be found at www.sustainable.unimelb.edu.au
Twenty Actions by 2020 Each author in the book, after exploring the challenges and opportunities in their areas of expertise, recommended one key action that could steer our society towards sustainability for 2020. This Twenty Actions table is the key to the book.
Individuals Individual Actions
Effect
Sustainable Outcome
1. ENGAGE PERSONALLY Engage in community activism and monitor resource use and impact of lobbying.
Build local capacity to effect change and reduce carbon footprints.
Decision-making through coalitions of governments and grassroots movements.
2. OWN LESS Choose to reduce ownership of ‘things’ and the size of homes.
Housing will become more affordable and energy consumption will decrease.
Denser cities, requiring shorter commutes and easier access to greenspace; more sharing and fewer ‘things’.
3. REDUCE WASTE Reduce waste in supply chains, by choosing aesthetically imperfect food and low-impact packaging; reduce personal waste; and support food rescue for disadvantaged communities.
Greater food security to feed an increasing population.
Less on-farm wastage; reduce income gap between rural and urban and address ‘nutritional ghettoes’ in cities.
Business Business Actions
Effect
Sustainable Outcome
4. CORE VALUES Integrate sustainability into core business culture to reduce risk and enhance brand and reputation.
Greater business stability and profitability for the long-term.
Corporate leadership; greater employer satisfaction; slower product model redundancy.
5. LABELS Provide product labelling that is digestible, unbiased and trustworthy.
More informed consumer choices, more effective purchasing.
Preventative health reducing healthcare costs; address health and obesity; accelerated the shift to sustainable products.
6. INNOVATIVE DESIGN Lead globallyinnovative design of technologies to reduce GHG emissions and buildings modelled on ecological principles, integrating vegetation and built environment.
More efficient use of sun, water and other natural resources. Incorporation of plants and green spaces for food, cooling, carbon capture and recreation.
Improved physical and mental health; reduced health costs and increased productivity; contribute to climate stabilization.
7. CREATE ZERO CARBON LANDSCAPES Strategically revegetate targeted areas, creating mixed forests and farmland.
Significantly increase carbon storage capacity, improve ecosystem functions and services, diversify rural economies.
Some mitigation of climate change; enhanced wellbeing of rural communities.
8. DESIGN FOR CLIMATE CHANGE Design infrastructure to account for impacts of climate change.
More robust assets that will serve the community over the long term.
Make cities more efficient and less vulnerable to disaster; market and sell solutions internationally.
9. REDUCE DISASTER RISKS Minimise disaster impacts and inequities eg, by studying likely impacts of climate change on Indigenous-owned land and developing plans and kits for every household, workplace and community.
Anticipate and minimise impacts of disasters; make disaster-risk assessment part of planning.
Reduce direct costs and indirect impacts eg, personal trauma and increasing inequity, from increasingly frequent disasters associated with growing population density and climate change.
* We recognise that some of the initiatives listed under ‘Business’ and others may require legislation or subsidies for an interim period, but the primary point of innovation and action resides with business.
Government Government Action
Effect
Sustainable Outcome
10. TEACH ETHICS Introduce courses in sustainability ethics in schools.
Create a more ethical basis (rather than financial) for intergenerational decisions.
Promote a moral community based on non-GDP measures of wellness.
11. TAX NON-RENEWABLES Resource tax on all non-renewable resources.
Accelerate substitution of non-renewable resources with green technologies.
Create globally competitive technologies, likely to cause new stimulation of economy.
12. MARKET WATER Introduce watertrading based on markets and property rights for environmental, rural and urban needs.
Allow inter-sector trading and more transparent water prices, without political interference.
Provide greater imperative for better technological and economic decisions for the provision of infrastructure and water for the environment.
13. GO SOLAR Make a commitment to large solar, wind and energy storage installations with emphasis on largescale solar.
Shift to renewable energy at acceptable cost.
Reduce carbon pollution; create new industries; vitalise rural areas while addressing negative economic impacts on others eg, communities in coal basins.
14. PROVIDE CHILDCARE Provide universal and affordable childcare.
Enable low-income families to fully participate in the workforce.
Reduce inequity; increase productivity; increase educational aspirations.
15. VALUE CULTURE Develop frameworks for, and measure impacts of, cultural programs on sustainability.
Improved assessment of value of cultural programs.
Stimulate cultural support for societal change, leading to increased govt commitment to cultural programs.
16. PROMOTE TRANSPORT PYRAMID Provide a public awareness campaign on healthy transport based upon the transport pyramid.
Changes in attitudes and behaviour to different modes of transport.
Greater demand for public transport, separated bikeways, community car ownership, improved health; significant reduction in carbon pollution.
17. RESTORE ECOSYSTEMS Establish an international Ecosystem Restoration Service.
Restore natural ecosystem function to 20 per cent of deforested areas.
Help society adapt to climate change by working with the natural environment and reducing our exposure to future risks.
18. PLAN FOR POPULATION Increase investment in new public infrastructure like water, transport, energy and communications.
Greater efficiency in publicresource usage.
Improved management of demands made by population growth.
Media Media Actions
Effect
Sustainable Outcome
19. ACT RESPONSIBLY Factor sustainability into media coverage, explore the issues, lead debates and find ways to engage the community – for eg, raise awareness of city growth, its inevitability and consequences.
An informed public can make informed decisions and exert pressure on governments, corporates and indeed the media itself to think sustainably.
Will help get each of the key participants of society working in tandem towards a better outcome for all.
20. INVOLVE PUBLIC Establish a not-for-profit national virtual forum capable of synthesising public wisdom.
Bring deliberative democracy to major sustainability issues.
Enable governments to make wiser, faster decisions on path to sustainability and be less swayed by weekly opinion polls.
Illustrations by Michael Weldon www.michaelweldon.com
2020 – Vision for a Sustainable Society Divided into the four key areas governing society – People, Drivers, Cities and Natural Resources – 2020 provides a map to a more sustainable future. Leading thinkers from across academia, business and government confront the issues we face and suggest practical steps towards creating a more sustainable society for future generations.
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People
Ethics Culture Awareness and Behaviour Local Matters Matter Public Wisdom Mental Health Disease Corporate Sustainability Government
he Ind ec lik op s d 1 s p ibu le 1’ tra e r t ic ig o th e p righ eno nom ange ly to ag rep lian eople e to e or s : ict t il us ic T .A t b d in of ur lu e in str you dic he e d 12– is heir a 2 a n rem tes g p ator lth, isad 4 y that v s t e e a c h ot e a eir ople com om ntag ars nd dis ’. T pa mu ed red nit ve ad v he ry w y rem anta table ith ot ge. ea A to rea nd so f
Natural Resources
Drivers
Population Equity Consumption Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Climate Change Energy
Cities
Changing Cities Affordable Living Built Environment Infrastructure Transport Adaptive Design Handling Disasters
Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Water Food Zero Carbon Land-Use
What do we need to reach a sustainable society? • Narratives: a sustainable future will be attractive. •A ctions: specifics to achieve sustainability. Largely, behaviour and policy changes, not technology. •E vidence: research to identify what is needed and its impact when it occurs. Publicise success. • Commitment: join the movement. • Partners: civil society, government, business and media working in concert.
www.sustainable.unimelb.edu.au