Society is facing a crisis of un-sustainability. The sector of higher education is well poised to support transition to a sustainable society. This thesis assesses the efforts of the Campus Sustainability Movement (CSM) in the US and Canada relative to a Strategic Sustainable Development Framework. Key findings indicate that the CSM is utilizing tools and engaging in a variety of actions towards sustainability. However, it is largely failing to use systems thinking to understand the complex interrelationships of its actions. Most efforts lack a strategy, and when strategy is present, it follows more from barriers than from a long-term goal. Current efforts mostly focus on environmental sustainability. The authors present a backcasting from principles of sustainability approach as one means to improve the strategy of the CSM. They also propose a vision for higher education that incorporates sustainability principles and fundamental human needs in an attempt to bring some concreteness to both the environmental and social aspects of sustainability in higher education.

In spite of our substantive knowledge about global un-sustainability, insufficient progress is being made to halt systematic socio-ecological decline. Much information is readily available on downstream impacts, with limited focus on upstream activities driving such effects. This thesis uses backcasting from socioecological principles for sustainability to identify major upstream human activities violating these principles, the underlying drivers reinforcing such activities, alternative practices already in use with potential for significant expansion, and emerging opportunities for action across different sectors of society. Results show emerging patterns of high magnitude violations across all four socio-ecological principles indicating nexus points in energy, transportation and agriculture. These activities are reinforced by our societal structure which is designed to meet human needs through a growth paradigm which in turn does not adequately consider the ongoing health of ecosystems or the sustainable functioning of society itself. Shifting to potential solutions, examples focus on themes such as renewable energy, green chemicals, organic agriculture, and self-organising network structures. Recognising that these actions may not be enough, the thesis explores elements of a global vision which could guide progress. Emerging nexus points for societal change include education, information flows (particularly the media), design (as a leverage point), self-organization, and governance. / <p>Josephine Brennan +27 83 778 9158</p>

An examination of the stationary power sector is performed using The Natural Step framework and Sustainability Principles (SP), in order to aid decision makers in developing policy to balance energy needs while reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in order to address climate change. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is evaluated for its sustainability aspects, and is found to be a potentially sustainable approach which can be a bridging technology to a more sustainable energy mix, as well as a remediation technology which can remove CO2 from the atmosphere when utilized in combination with biomass fuel. Initial actions for restructuring the stationary power sector should emphasise demand reduction and efficiency efforts, followed by switching to renewable energy sources. If the first two strategies can not provide sufficient CO2 reductions, then investments in CCS technology may be an appropriate choice. CCS with coal-fired power can be a means to decouple CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use, but other SP violations associated with coal use must also be fully addressed before this strategy can be considered a truly sustainable option.

The role of forests in nature-based tourism and recreation is becoming increasingly important. Forests, in South Africa and abroad are no longer seen simply as a source of timber, but provide spiritual and recreational services to millions of people through forest-related tourism. Consequently many countries have had to try and balance the multifunctional roles that forests play in the forestry and tourism sectors. There has been very limited research conducted to date on the role that forests and woodlands play in the tourism sector in South Africa. The study assesses the current and potential role of forests and woodlands in the tourism sector in selected regions of Finland and South Africa by means of a comparative study. The Mpumalanga and Oulu Provinces were chosen as the two case study regions. The dissertation presents a general picture of the similarities and differences between the regions and countries. The comparison of similarities and differences in the management of forest areas serves to identify different solutions to the challenges faced by the tourism sector in forest and woodland areas of Finland and South Africa. The study further measures and compares tourism providers‟ perceptions towards how they value and use forests and woodlands for tourism and recreation. How and why forests and woodlands are valued should play an important part in how they are created and managed. Management methods are then likely to be more effective and socially acceptable. In addition to examining the role of forests in the tourism sector, it is helpful to understand why people choose to visit forests and woodlands and their attitude towards forests and the environment. The study assesses why tourists visit forest and woodland areas and their attitudes towards forests and the environment. Attitudes of individuals are seen as a major factor that explains motivations for different forms of behaviour and such analysis provides useful information for organisations involved in managing forestrelated tourism. The study uses the Forest Importance Scale (FIS) and the General Awareness and Consequence Scale (GAC) as simple measures of attitudes towards forest importance and usage. Lastly the study assesses and compares the perceptions of tourists and tourism providers and the importance they place in sustainable tourism principles. Both forests and tourism are relevant issues from an environmental perspective and it is relevant for planners and managers both inside and outside the tourism industry to evaluate the level of support amongst tourists and tourism providers towards more sustainable practices. The purpose of this thesis is thus to present the findings of research conducted using a comparative approach including a comparison of two case-study regions, multiple-use Likert scales, in-depth interviews and participant observation as means for investigating the role of forests in tourism. This study reveals that forests are seen to have a significant role for tourism and play an important role in attracting tourism in many communities located near them through nature-based tourism and recreation. Forests and woodlands are especially perceived as important by tourism providers in maintaining and creating the tourism activities in the area. The results reveal that there is a need to increase and monitor local community participation in the regions as there was a high degree of uncertainty regarding involvement of the community in decision-making and tourism development in the regions. Community involvement is one of the vital components of ensuring sustainable tourism. Therefore it is important to monitor the level of community involvement in an area to ensure sustainable tourism development. The study adds a supplier and consumer perspective regarding the importance of sustainable tourism principles. The study reveals that both tourists and tourism providers in Finland and South Africa are very supportive of sustainable tourism principles in the destination. The high interest and fairly similar ranking of issues suggest that tourists and tourism providers largely share the definition of sustainability. Positive perceptions towards sustainable tourism principles will encourage tourists and tourism providers to act sustainably regarding tourism development and management. Finally the results suggest that well-managed and organized tourism in forested rural areas can play a significant role in enhancing the economic, environmental and social development in the regions. The challenge of managing sustainable forest tourism is discussed further and the results from the study aim to provide the foundation on which to formulate principles or guidelines and recommend approaches to be applied in the development and management of sustainable forest tourism in South Africa. Copyright / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Tourism Management / unrestricted

The social phenomenon of children without parental care and those at risk of separation from their parents has gained considerable global attention in recent years. A key concern is the over-reliance on institutional care mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America as the default form of alternative care for such children. Extensive research points to mostly negative impact of separation of children from families and institutionalization of children which affects their health outcomes and development. In response to this global crisis, the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children were developed in 2010. Kenya domesticated the guidelines in 2014 and is in the process of implementation. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development and more specifically the Social Sustainability Principles are used in this study to assess the extent to which the UN Guidelines, Kenya Guidelines and implementation of alternative care of children in Kenya align to Social Sustainability. This research finds that the guidelines are highly aligned to social sustainability although their implementation points to major structural obstacles that if minimized will promote social sustainability of alternative care in Kenya. A coherent well-coordinated approach that takes a systems perspective and links to the mainstream social development agenda is recommended.

Sustainable development (SD) in conflict analysis is rarely considered, given that older theories mainly inform conflict analysis. This research set out to establish the potential influence of combining Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) and conflict analysis. The current situation and possible influence were assessed through the primary data source, which constituted practitioners and researchers in international political conflict analysis. That was then compared to existing data on both conflict analysis and SSD. It was evident that some aspects of sustainability are already present in current conflict analysis tools but highlighted either social or ecological components. The complexity of conflict was clearly identified due to its cyclical nature and the different stakeholders involved. A need for an analysis tool combining complexity and a sustainability perspective was seen. It was argued that power dynamics in conflict analysis and the applicability of conflict analysis frameworks must be considered. Our findings indicate a place for SSD in conflict analysis, which translates into multiple application modes (e.g., root cause identification). There is a need for further research on how these two fields can complement each other and how to represent the interconnection into a practical conflict analysis tool.

Society is dependent processes that emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The accumulation of these gases in the atmosphere prevents sunlight reflected from earth’s surface to get to space thereby warming the earth and causing climate change. To prevent the effects of adverse climate change, the voluntary carbon market was designed to help buyers, individuals or organizations that cannot avoid emission in their process, purchase carbon credits from sellers, entities whose process prevent or avoid carbon emissions. The voluntary carbon market faces challenges like market fragmentation, opacity of records, and delayed processes due to layers of intermediation and double counting. In an attempt to solve these challenges, blockchain, a ledger technology, has been applied by innovative organizations. This thesis researches the possible roles of trading carbon credits using blockchain based platforms in the voluntary carbon market. Furthermore, this thesis focuses secondarily on how the application could increase supply of carbon credits, influence commitment to net-zero, contribute to production of high-quality carbon credits, and promote fairness in carbon trading. A conceptual framework based upon the Oxford Principles for Carbon Offsetting, Taskforce for Scaling the Voluntary Carbon Market (TSVCM), and the Sustainability Principles was used in this study. Seven organizations were investigated in this study through a first phase of interview and a second phase of survey.The findings suggest that blockchain-enabled carbon trading has the potential to enable market growth, foster systems interactions and transition via information technology, and support opportunities for sustainability in the socio-ecological system. Blockchain also inherits the unsustainability of the overall tech and energy sectors wherein it operates. Weak governance systems off-chain from non-disclosures by market players also risk the market system on-chain to vulnerabilities. The authors conclude that trading carbon credit on blockchain-enabled platforms is a step in the right direction in terms of amplifying the contributions the voluntary carbon markets hold for cutting down carbon emissions. They also acknowledge that the blockchain-carbon credit application does not directly address upstream issues of carbon emission but serves as a mechanism to accelerate decarbonization.

Social Innovation Laboratories, or short, social labs, represent an emerging field of lab-based inquiry to sustainability transitions, which emphasize learning through experimentation to find new ways of addressing highly complex challenges. Yet, a key challenge for these initiatives is on one hand to know whether they are “on track”, on the other hand, to evaluate their contribution to addressing a complex challenge. Our hypothesis was that adaptive capacity could serve as a lens for the evaluation of a social labs impact to building social resilience and hence in building capacities necessary for a transition towards sustainability. The aim of this research was firstly to gain a better understanding of the evaluation practices of social labs and secondly to find out how the adaptive capacity of a social lab could be evaluated and might, more generally, point towards a novel approach of evaluating in complexity for strategic sustainable development. Our results suggest that adaptive capacity could support evaluations by providing a mirror for the essential features of a social lab to be resilient. We propose three key aspects to evaluate: systems thinking, trust and prototyping capacity. Yet, this is only a first stepping stone toward an evaluation framework, which will require field testing and further research.

Abstract: Given the global sustainability challenge; effective organizational Social Responsibility (SR) guidelines must set best-practices that acknowledge environmental constraints and strive for a sustainable society. SR has historically underrepresented environmental issues and needs to shift from a reactive focus on societal stakeholder demands, to a proactive whole-systems planning framework. There is a risk that unless SR guidelines consider both social and environmental issues together, they may generate negative outcomes to organizational viability. This research finds key Sustainable Development concepts that should be integrated within SR guidelines and uncovers an overall goal of SR as assisting organizations in moving towards a sustainable society. A Sustainable Society is defined in the research according to a set of scientific principles, based on environmental constraints and fundamental social needs. This clear goal enables the organization to ‘backcast’ from this success point in order to take effective strategic steps. The authors recommend the incorporation of critical concepts from Strategic Sustainable Development, a proven organizational sustainability planning framework, into SR guidelines to increase their effectiveness in strategic SR decision-making. The ISO 26000 SR Guideline is used as a case study.

The purpose of this paper is to give suggestions for how to preserve intangible cultural heritage (ICH) towards sustainability. We will use Tibet as a case study. Understanding the importance of ICH for tourism, we scrutinize ICH through the lens of strategic sustainable development (SSD) and use tourism as a leverage point to enter into a real life situation. ICH is the root of all cultural expression. Without guarding ICH there is little meaning to the physical culture that remains and, ultimately, tourism declines. ICH is a new topic and there is little research and few ideas as to how to guide its preservation. We offer recommendations which include identifying the stakeholders, educating them, adequate marketing research especially in tourism, investing on technology of dematerialization and searching substitutions under the guidelines of the Golden Rule within the social sustainability context. Our contributions is to build a vision of success for preserving Tibetan ICH via tourism within the constraints of the four sustainability principles, and then demonstrate some prioritized actions in order to develop towards sustainability.