What is the role of government in environmental politics and policy? The answer to this question used to be relatively clear. Government was to regulate the environmental performance of state and non-state actors, to set standards, impose charges, and establish more or less stringent criteria of acceptable behavior. With the increasing appearance of the issues of globalization and global governance in the political science literature, however, the focus has turned to the role of non-state actors. Academic research and the popular debate have identified business, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and civil society as such as increasingly important and potentially powerful actors in the political arena. At the same time, some observers have proclaimed the influence of government to be declining. Others have argued that the role of government primarily is changing rather than declining. Those who adopt the latter perspective postulate that the new role for government in this changing political and socio-economic context is to set the framework for action. In this perspective, government is still of fundamental importance for the functioning of the society, the economy, and political decision-making, but its role is different in that government 'merely' provides the institutional framework facilitating desired outcomes.

Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making. This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management. The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.

A practical guide to how the university can serve as a model of environmental stewardship. Universities can teach and demonstrate environmental principles and stewardship by taking action to understand and reduce the environmental impacts of their own activities. Greening the Ivory Tower, a motivational and how-to guide for staff, faculty, and students, offers detailed "greening" strategies for those who may have little experience with institutional change or with the latest environmentally friendly technologies. The author was project manager of Tufts CLEAN!, a program whose mission was to reduce Tufts University's environmental impact. After analyzing the campus's overall environmental impact (each year the main campus serves 5 million meals; makes 14 million photocopies; uses 65 tons of paper towels, 110 million gallons of water, and 23 million kWh of electricity; and generates over 2,000 tons of solid waste), the team decided to focus on food waste, transportation, energy efficiency, and procurement practices. An essential discovery was that to change practices requires the personal commitment and direct involvement of those who have the responsibility for operating the institution on a daily basis. Although the Tufts experience forms the basis for many of the proposals in the book, the story goes well beyond Tufts; the author includes examples of successful practices from many other institutions.

The world is undergoing unprecedented changes in many of the factors that determine its fundamental properties and their in- ence on society. These changes include climate; the chemical c- position of the atmosphere; the demands of a growing human population for food and ?ber; and the mobility of organisms, ind- trial products, cultural perspectives, and information ?ows. The magnitude and widespread nature of these changes pose serious challenges in managing the ecosystem services on which society depends. Moreover, many of these changes are strongly in?uenced by human activities, so future patterns of change will continue to be in?uenced by society’s choices and governance. The purpose of this book is to provide a new framework for n- ural resource management—a framework based on stewardship of ecosystems for human well-being in a world dominated by unc- tainty and change. The goal of ecosystem stewardship is to respond to and shape change in social-ecological systems in order to s- tain the supply and opportunities for use of ecosystem services by society. The book links recent advances in the theory of resilience, sustainability, and vulnerability with practical issues of ecosystem management and governance. The book is aimed at advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students of natural resource management as well as professional managers, community leaders, and policy makers with backgrounds in a wide array of d- ciplines, including ecology, policy studies, economics, sociology, and anthropology.

This book presents fresh analyses of a number of well-known cases, but does so from one comprehensive view, the so-called policy arrangement approach. Cases discussed range over organic farming, integrated water management, nature policy, cultural heritage policy, integrated region-oriented policy, corporate environmental management and target group policy, always in search of the commonality of experience and conclusions to be drawn in understanding the past and in formulating future perspectives.

Support in higher education is an emerging area of great interest to professors, researchers and students in academic institutions. Sustainability in Higher Education provides discussions on the exchange of information between different aspects of sustainability in higher education. This book includes chapter contributions from authors who have provided case studies on various areas of education for sustainability. - Focus on sustainability - Present studies in aspects related with higher education - Explores a variety of educational aspects from an sustainable perspective

Buildings have a long lifetime, and so they are a major target for any structural changes in consumption patterns. Conversely, long lifetimes come with associated strong inertia. This book examines the opportunities to influence energy consumption in housing and buildings, and provides options for implementation at a macro, meso and micro level.

This book advances Earth Stewardship toward a planetary scale, presenting a range of ecological worldviews, practices, and institutions in different parts of the world and to use them as the basis for considering what we could learn from one another, and what we could do together. Today, inter-hemispheric, intercultural, and transdisciplinary collaborations for Earth Stewardship are an imperative. Chapters document pathways that are being forged by socio-ecological research networks, religious alliances, policy actions, environmental citizenship and participation, and new forms of conservation, based on both traditional and contemporary ecological knowledge and values. “The Earth Stewardship Initiative of the Ecological Society of America fosters practices to provide a stable basis for civilization in the future. Biocultural ethic emphasizes that we are co-inhabitants in the natural world; no matter how complex our inventions may become” (Peter Raven).

This book examines water management integration in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland, based on the European research project EUWARENESS. Coverage includes 12 country-specific case studies, examining theory on water governance, institutional regimes, and property rights, resulting in a tool for monitoring the progress of integrated water management at the basin level in EU member states or other countries.