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The purpose of this study is to gain better understanding of the role of leadership in achieving sustainable business. I inquire how sustainability might be more embedded in the day-to-day operations of business beyond the rhetoric of strategic plans, vacuous mission statements and technological fixes. I am exploring how leadership might be embodied in behaviour to promote sustainable business practice. What approaches to leadership might we adopt that are more commensurate with the cyclical and relational nature of natural systems? How can we root discussions about leadership and sustainability in an understanding that both are socially constructed phenomena? This is the field to which my research aims to contribute an empirical study. What constitutes sustainable business practice remains unclear, and due to its very situated nature this is likely to remain the case. My research is prompted by reports in the literature suggesting that approaches taken to date to promote more sustainable ways of doing business have been limited and slow. Furthermore the mainly techno-centric approaches that have been applied in some cases are reputed to exacerbate the continued dualism between human activity and the environment. The leadership literature is swamped with books, conferences and workshops on the subject of sustainability. Despite this, a ‘how’ gap exists between the rhetorical ideals of sustainable business practice and their working application, which this situated inquiry addresses. This inquiry centres on a small to medium size service sector company comprising two hotels located in a small sea-side resort in the South West region of the UK. The philosophy of the company – known here for the purpose of anonymity as The Hotels – is to maintain a successful luxury hotel business whilst at the same time minimising its negative ecological impact. Undertaking a longitudinal ethnographic study, I witnessed first-hand the leadership challenges posed by working to uphold this philosophy. In conclusion, my findings do not highlight any one action, way of being or simple stepped approach. Instead they combine ways of thinking and behaviours, some of which run contrary to the dominant positivist paradigm; daring to do things differently enables a successful business to minimise its negative ecological impact.

acase@tulane.edu / This thesis addresses the relationship between self and other within Rastafari culture in Guyana. Heirs of a tradition of resistance against the dichotomous, hierarchical approach to nature and humanity embodied by European colonialism, Rastas in Guyana have conceptualized the individual self as an integral aspect of a divine, universal whole comprising the natural world and its diverse, interdependent constituents. This has involved the transcendence of conceptual dichotomies between self and other, humanity and divinity, physical and spiritual worlds, and people of different gender and ethnic identities. The transcendence of these conceptual divisions has supported the development of socially nonviolent and ecologically sustainable communities tied to soil, charting a course for global communities seeking to mitigate social and environmental crises. The transcendence of conceptual dichotomy is symbolized in this thesis by the “desert trod”—the journey of the Israelites of the Old Testament from captivity to the promised land. I argue that by closing the conceptual distance between self and other, Rastas have moved toward a promised land defined by social nonviolence and ecological sustainability. / 1 / Erin Lierl

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In this thesis, I explore the implications of integral theory for sustainable development and climate change response. Integral theory seeks to integrate objective and subjective perspectives using a developmental orientation. It addresses issues of subjectivity that have received inadequate attention in mainstream approaches to sustainable development, while also providing theoretical grounding for the developmental aspect of sustainable development. According to integral theory, there are four main epistemological approaches to any problem: behavioural, systemic, psychological and cultural. The first is objective and individual, the second objective and collective, the third subjective and individual and the fourth subjective and collective. Development occurs within each of these realms. To test the value and implications of integral theory for sustainable development, I adopt a case study on climate change response in Australia. I begin the case study by using the four perspectives of integral theory to guide a review of the energy and climate change literature. I follow the literature review with a critical review of Australian energy and greenhouse policy, providing the starting point for development of an integral climate change response. While there is attention to subjectivity in the literature, it is not reflected in Australian policy practices. An objective perspective and an instrumental form of rationality dominate policy. In the literature review, I identify two gaps in the literature that deserve attention. The first is the role of public subsidies in creating the observed cost differential between renewable energy sources and fossil fuel energy. I examine the relative magnitude of subsidies to fossil fuels and renewable energy in the Australian energy and transport sectors and conclude that the distribution of these subsidies distorts the market in favour of fossil fuels, particularly in the transport sector. The second is the application of a developmental perspective to cultural theories of climate policy discourse. I introduce a method called meta-discourse analysis to identify consistencies and relationships across discourse descriptions by different authors and demonstrate that aspects of each discourse can be related developmentally. Drawing on the literature review, policy review and other work, I propose an integral policy response to climate change that could be applied in Australia. The policy response combines participatory integrated assessment, normative futures work, a modified version of the cooperative discourse model for public participation, an evolutionary policy orientation and several methods to promote subjective development. The proposed policy approach should be equally applicable to other sustainable development issues.

University of Technology, Sydney. Institute of Sustainable Futures. / This thesis investigates the implications that urban motorway development has for the sustainability of cities. It does this by focusing on the sudden increase in road traffic that follows after the opening of additional motorway capacity, known as induced traffic growth, and asking whether induced traffic growth affects the ability of an urban system to sustain its essential economic functions. The investigation also addresses how urban systems impact on the biosphere. Induced traffic growth, and the urban motorway development responsible for it, are often cited as a threat to sustainability because they are seen to increase fuel consumption and air pollution without necessarily improving accessibility within a city. Opponents to urban motorway construction claim that it merely represents a reshuffling of system elements, such that the spatial relationships between transport and land-use are changed, but the amount of time spent travelling, and the number of economic exchanges made by people, remain much the same. Motorway development advocates refute these claims, arguing that motorway construction reduces travel times, cuts emissions and fuel consumption and increases economic activity, thereby enhancing sustainability. While it should be possible to resolve these issues through a program of empirical analysis, the phenomenon remains contested, raising questions about why and how its contested status affects transport decision-making and transport science. These questions are answered in this thesis by first investigating the social and political context in which debate over induced traffic growth has taken place. To do this, Soft Systems Methodology is used to investigate the way in which conflicts over urban motorway development have been resolved in London, Sydney and Zürich. The comparative analysis highlights differences between the rules of the political decision-making systems in each of the cities, and how these distribute power to different groups within society. While the history of conflicts is similar in each of the cities, more power is given to special interest groups from industry in London and Sydney. By contrast, the system in Zürich gives more power to resident populations through its system of direct democracy. Consequently, urban motorway development, the induced traffic growth it gives rise to and the impacts they have on city operations are acted upon in Zürich to the extent that transport policy has focused more on the development of comprehensive public transport systems. This leads to the conclusion that the contested status of induced traffic growth is more a product of the socio-economic goals of particular interest groups within society than it is of shortcomings in the empirical record or essentially unresolved theoretical issues. With the political context as background, the thesis then reviews the empirical analyses and theoretical explanations for the phenomenon. First, a review of past empirical analyses is undertaken to identify the grounds that have been cited to refute the induced traffic growth hypothesis. Two key areas are identified. The first involves difficulties with distinguishing the sources of induced traffic growth from traffic reassignment. The second concerns the absence of traffic data for routes that are potential alternatives to a new motorway from which traffic reassignment may have taken place. A case study of the M4 Motorway in Sydney is presented with data for all arterial through-routes that cross relevant screenlines, thereby overcoming several of the shortcomings identified in the review. This case study adds to the general literature of case studies that corroborate the induced traffic growth hypothesis, but provides the first substantial documented case for an Australian city. A review of the theoretical explanations for the phenomenon finds that while both microeconomic evaluation and standard modelling procedures provide accounts for the phenomenon that meet institutional expectations of technical veracity, neither constitutes a substantial description of the causal mechanism for the phenomenon, leaving unanswered questions about some findings in the empirical record. This conclusion prompts the development of a systems-based explanation for induced traffic growth that defines it as a form of multiple system feedback processes controlled by a travel budget time constant. By accounting for the phenomenon and its effects in this way, an explanation is provided for changes to travel behaviour and patterns of land-use development that reveals how urban motorway development affects urban systems in an holistic way. The final section of the thesis combines the insights gained by examination of the politics of the transport decision-making system with empirical analyses and theoretical explanations for induced traffic growth, to produce a general systems view of cities and their place within the earth’s biosphere. This treatment considers the problems of oil depletion and global climate change, and the effects that urban motorway development has on the ability of urban systems to adapt to changes in the system environment brought about by these problems. The thesis concludes that urban motorway development and the processes that it triggers, which are embodied in the phenomenon of induced traffic growth, can undermine a city’s comparative ability to sustain the accessibility needs of its residents.

The current population in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is more than 7 million. Due to pressures of increasing population, the developing economy and climate change, the future security of water supply is far from satisfactory. There is also pressure to connect a large number of customers currently not connected to the HCMC water supply reticulation grid. Current water resources management tends to be fragmented and focused purely on supply side management. It is not economically and environmentally sustainable to focus purely on augmenting supply to meet increasing demand. Sustainable water resources management requires a broader more holistic approach. Government's plans to improve current and future water management issues are examined in the context of two case studies, one from Australia (a developed country) and one from the Philippines (a developing country). The sustainable water management approaches adopted by these two case studies sit at either end of the s pectrum of options. One is closer to a centralized government planning model and the other is a more radical privatisation flavoured model. The thesis investigates the current water demand and supply balance for residential, commercial and industry; and propose a balanced strategy to meet the HCMC's demand until year 2020. The amount of water savings are calculated by implementing a suite of water conservation initiatives. The proposed initatives will substantially narrow the gap between the planned supply and forecasted demand, thus providing a acceptable reasonable supply security for the community.

This thesis explored the limitations and challenges to a grassroots engineering non¬government organisation for the use of the sustainable livelihoods approach in a community development scenario. The sustainable livelihoods approach is a relatively new approach developed to address the failure of previous approaches to community development. Its key focuses are holistic, people-centred, dynamic and sustainable development, working with people's strengths and establishing macro-micro links. The role of engineering activities in community development is vital in the provision of technology and is visible across water, sanitation, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors. Again, however, community development activities in technology have not proven successful, thus the move towards the increasingly promoted approach of sustainable livelihoods. The major proponents of the sustainable livelihoods approach have developed many case studies and guidelines to address the contrasts in practice between sustainable livelihoods and current practice, common across many sectors including health, education and agriculture, to name a few. Such research into the contrasts and likeness of engineering practice in particular in community development through the sustainable livelihoods approach has not been explored. This research aims to address this gap. A case study of a Nepali engineering non-government organisation was used to explore these limitations and challenges to practice. Participatory methodologies were used to ensure that results and opportunities were identified from within the organisation itself. Data was collected through workshops, focus groups, interviews, surveys and overt observation. Cycles of systemic analyses were used to explore the problem situations for sustainable livelihoods practice as identified by the case study, and to develop systemically feasible and culturally desirable changes. Two approaches to these analyses, one based on logic, and the other based on culture, addressed the complexities characteristic of the community development and engineering sectors. Data was also collected from external stakeholders directly associated with the engineering activities of the case-study organisation to define the context for the research and verify that collected from the primary case-study organisation. The key findings of the data collection phase were seven problem areas for the organisation in the case study: providing community infrastructure and improving livelihoods; adopting a sustainable livelihoods approach; meeting the need for community participation; monitoring and evaluation; developing partnerships; learning about sustainable livelihoods; and addressing the role of community technology. Conceptual models were developed for analysis of the key problem situations. Systemic analyses of the key stakeholders, limitations, and the political and social contexts and the conceptual models identified the disparities between the ideal practice and the reality of practice for each problem situation. Whilst the research aimed to explore practice specifically for engineering, the majority of the results from the case study focused on changes for the early establishment of an organisation in the field of sustainable livelihoods. Key challenges for the grassroots organisation in the case study included limitations to the learning capacity of the organisation, imbalances of power with higher level partners, and, importantly, issues of risk and survival. Real and practical changes to the practice of community development organisations based on the case study included using more participatory methodologies, addressing scheduling issues, developing bottom-up activities and more effective partnerships with donors. These were limitations general to non-sector-specific organisations. The research subsequently explored the challenges specific to engineering organisations in adopting the sustainable livelihoods approach. These focused on ensuring that engineering in community development incorporates not only the natural and non¬natural elements of intended community users but also the human elements. Five areas of practice were identified as being affected by the sustainable livelihoods approach, including the nature of technology, the processes for its development, the supporting role of national and international policies and standards, and the culture of engineering, specifically the role of engineering expertise and education. The opportunities in these areas of practice for sustainable livelihoods focused on ensuring a people-centred approach to engineering for community development. The research had implications for the practices of a variety of engineering organisations in the community development sector, including NGOs, standards organisations, legislative and regulatory bodies and educators. Again, these implications focused on ensuring that engineering in community development directly reflected the priorities, skills and dynamics of the intended community users.

This thesis explores the problem of wasteful fashion consumption in light of the current need for individuals to develop a sustainable way of living. The Agenda 21 report from the Rio Earth Summit (1992) determined that sustainable consumption is an issue to be addressed in terms of resource conservation, waste reduction and a reduction of production pollutants. To date, in Australia, there are no policies or strategies in place to reduce wasteful consumption from the consumer's perspective and it is this research and policy deficit that this thesis research addresses. According to a recent national study of wasteful consumption, Australians spent approximately 1.7 billion dollars in 2004 on fashion garments and accessories that they did not wear (Hamilton et al. 2005). However, landfill statistics revealed that only a small proportion of textile waste (of which clothing is a subsidiary category) contributes to landfill (ABS, 1998). This discrepancy between the annual expenditure and the contribution of clothing to landfill informed the research hypothesis; that the greater majority of these inactive fashion garments are hoarded in wardrobes rather than disposed of. This hypothesis was tested through an action research case study in the form of a clothing exchange event and related data collection and analysis (part 2 of the thesis). The additional objectives of the clothing exchange event were to activate

<p>In response to the myriad of problems confronting society including climatic changes on our planet numerous individuals, organizations, and governments are reinventing themselves forging a new pathway towards a more sustainable future. Facilitated by a variety of different conferences, initiatives, and strategies an increasing global trend has focused on the urban context addressing environmental, economic, and economic issues by developing sustainable communities. Sustainable communities are commonly guided in this process by a pre-existing framework formed on an underlying set of principles, ideas, and stages.</p><p>Worldwide, a variety of frameworks exist. At first glance, the frameworks may appear to have certain advantages over others in respect to their area of focus. For instance, some of the frameworks appear to place a focus on the physical built environment of communities as opposed to other which may accentuate ongoing community participation and collaboration. Although, numerous organizations and networks claim to be committed to the shared learning experiences of sustainable communities little published literature has emerged considering the opportunity of using multiple frameworks or considered integrating portions of the frameworks together. The purpose of this study is to compare three commonly implemented frameworks against eleven elements viewed, as integral to the development of sustainable communities to determine what opportunities may exist for collaboration/ integration of frameworks when developing sustainable communities. Based on previous research and literature these elements include community change process, stakeholder identification and evaluation, strategic planning, education; environmental, economic, and social responsibility, built environment and green design, sustainability indicators and evaluation tools, local government, and knowledge transfer. From these elements a conceptual framework has been developed on which a comparison of the Natural Step Framework, New Urbanism, and the Melbourne Principles has been conducted.</p><p>Through a deductive research approach five interviews have been conducted with experts in the field of sustainable community development on which a number of advantages and disadvantages have been identified with these frameworks. These have included advantages acknowledging frameworks provide a common platform to begin speaking about issues related to sustainability. However, a noted disadvantage is that frameworks fail to account for and incorporate the majority of stakeholders who comprise communities. While the frameworks due appear quite diverse in the way they approach developing sustainable communities as well as what they view sustainable communities as being by seeking to limit the gaps of these views through continuous learning, education and the transfer of knowledge opportunities do exist for the collaboration and integration of frameworks.</p>