KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Content • Sustainability • Consumption and observed impacts • The built environment • Moderating impacts from the built environment • Renewable resources Sustainability and its major concepts www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Human action and sustainability Observed impacts of human activity • Humans are part of the worlds ecosystems • Our actions change those ecosystems: ! – In different ways - both beneficially and detrimentally – At different scales – locally, regionally and globally Can human society develop without compromising the quality and richness of the worlds ecosystems? Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au • Green house effect: by gases and ! Caused particulates, mainly from fossil fuels These block infra! red radiation, potentially invoking changes in the climate • Ozone layer depletion : The ozone layer that absorbs harmful ultra-violet radiation has been damaged, mainly by industrial CFCs • Acidification: Sulphur, nitrogen oxides and ammonia cause a build-up of acidity in the soil This is particularly problematic in sandy (coastal) soils • Eutrophication: Phosphates and nitrates can cause an excessive accumulation of nutrients This promotes monocultural weed growth algal blooms • Salination: Poor farming and land clearing practices plus the leaching of natural aquifers has resulted in the salination of many soils • Toxins: Pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals,human hormones in air, water soil etc Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Sustainability Aspects of sustainable development Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au • Conceptually, sustainable development has three constituent parts: – environmental sustainability; – economic sustainability; and – socio-political sustainability Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au 1! KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Ecologically sustainable development Action for ESD • Ecologically sustainable development (ESD) is the environmental component of sustainable development • Australia's National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development (1992) defines ESD as: 'using, conserving and enhancing the community's resources so that ecological processes, on which life depends, are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in the future, can be increased' • use of principle of intergenerational equity: – the present generation can ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment is maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations; • conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity; • improved valuation, pricing and incentive mechanisms – environmental factors can be included in the valuation of assets and services • use of the precautionary principle: – if there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent it Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics ESD: Is it too complex to be credible? Sustainability and consumption • The term and concepts of ‘sustainable development’ can be vague, over-complicated, or oversimplified till they become meaningless jargon • Sustainable development can become obscured by conflicting world views: – the ecological: We are destroying the planet and must stop – the expansionist: We can continue to consume and technology will fix it "I know that this term is obligatory, but I find it also absurd, or rather so vague that it says nothing! Who would like to be a proponent of an “untenable development! Of course no one! The term is more charming than meaningful!’ Philosopher, Luc Ferry Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au • ESD also risks being co-opted by individuals and institutions that perpetuate many aspects of the expansionist model www.csaw.utas.edu.au KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Building and sustainable development Sustainability and the built environment • Like humans, the built environment is an important component of the natural environment • Energy, materials, water and land are consumed or used in the construction and operation of buildings and infrastructure • The built environment forms: – part of our living environment, affecting our • social well-being and health • economic well-being and wealth – an ecosystem for the species that benefit from human activity www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au 2! KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics The impacts from building We regulate for sustainability Global pollution Global resource use Pollution Resource Building related Building use Air quality (cities) 24% Energy 50% Global warming gases 50% Water 42% Drinking water pollution 40% Materials (by bulk) 50% Landfill waste 20% Agriculture land loss 48% CFCs/HCFCs 50% Coral reef destruction 50% (indirect) • Regulations are enacted to establish minimum acceptable standards of sustainable performance – This minimizes harm by reducing excessive impacts • Forestry, building and allied sectors have sustainability regulations – A carbon tax is now in force Contribution by percentage of building use and building related practices to environmental problems (Edwards, 2001) Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics We are developing sustainability regulation We seek to understand sustainability • Additional measures are planned for areas of known adverse impact • Currently, the most important of these is additional measures to address carbon pollution For many indicators, the environmental impacts of human activity can be broadly quantified Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics We seek to understand sustainability We can encourage sustainability • While single acts can be easily controlled, the interrelationship of actions may be more important • Processes such as life cycle assessment (LCA) have been developed – LCA measures and evaluates the environmental impacts associated with a product system or activity by assessing the energy and materials used and released to the environment over the whole life cycle www.csaw.utas.edu.au • Voluntary standards or guidelines can be established to provide guidance and benchmarks of exemplary performance – The Australian Green Building Council’s GreenStar system is an example of this Management for sustainability Performance Recycling Reuse Impacts Operation Production Certification Design options Forestry and Harvesting Carbon impacts Potential & EPR www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au 3! KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Types of resources Resource renewability and sustainability It is a key tenet that sustainable development increasingly depends on using renewable resources www.csaw.utas.edu.au • Non-renewable resources cannot be regenerated after exploitation (e.g mineral ores) • Renewable resources can return to their previous stock levels after exploitation by natural processes of growth or replenishment • Conditionally renewable resources are natural resources whose exploitation can reach levels beyond which regeneration will become impossible Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Characteristics of renewable materials Renewability and sustainable forestry • Trees are living organisms, often part of a broad forest ecosystem • Trees take time and space to grow • Renewable resources are drawn from natural forces or things that can be harvested and regrown • Renewable building materials are generally drawn from living organisms - animals or plants • The available genetic diversity in the organisms provides exploitable variety • These resources require both time and space to renew themselves • They can be used sustainably if the rate of use is less than or equal to the rate of renewal Management for sustainability – Native forests take ~60-100 years to produce millable logs – Plantation forests take ~25-50 years to the same • Sustainable wood production is limited by the forest’s capacity to regrow and the actions of past generations • Sustainable forestry practice is by necessity, based on these limits www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Renewables impact land use and biodiversity Renewables impact on biodiversity potential The land is not used up Actively deforested land Actively deforested land Harvested & regenerated ecosystem Actively deforested land It remains but with changed attributes Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au 4! KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics Summary • Humans are part of the worlds ecosystems and our actions change those ecosystems • Sustainable development has three constituent parts: environmental, economic and socio-political • Sustainable development can become obscured by conflicting world views It is often simplified to meaningless jargon • The built environment generates significant environmental impacts while generating significant social and economic benefits • Sustainable development must increasingly depends on using renewable resources • Renewable building materials need both time and space to renew themselves (grow) or their use cannot be sustainable Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au Thanks to Patrick Cook Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au 5! ... for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics We seek to understand sustainability. .. Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au 2! KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics The impacts from building We regulate for sustainability. .. (Edwards, 2001) Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au Management for sustainability www.csaw.utas.edu.au KDA503/335 Timber, its origin and characteristics KDA503/335 Timber, its origin