The 21st century has emerged with Canadians experiencing great concern about how we do things in the world. The degrading environment preys greatly on the minds of Canadians while our actions may not match our thoughts. How do we educate our students as future leaders about sustainability and help them understand that our individual actions make a difference? The intent of this study was to make a difference in students’ and teachers’ lives. It needed to be determined if teachers felt that there was a gap in the current way that we are teaching about sustainability. The results of a Manitoba teacher survey and a literature review identified several different risk and protective factors: those that either constrain or support the teaching of sustainability in a science classroom. The three risks that were discovered to be the strongest were preparation time, availability of resources and that sustainability issues are often highly complex. These concerns became the foundation for informing the implementation phase of this study. From this information a resource that met all of the specific learning outcomes (SLOs) as mandated by Manitoba Education, Citizenship, and Youth (MECY) for the grade 8 Water Systems cluster was designed and piloted. Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological theory (1979) and The Natural Step’s Four Systems Conditions were used as a foundation. There was a significant difference between the pilot groups and the control groups in three of the four areas tested. Teachers reported enjoying using the resource, and finding it helpful. They also reported that their students were engaged by the use of the resource. The thesis summation suggests how the resource might be shared and improved upon with and by teachers around the province and beyond, and hope that it provides a framework for future lessons or units related to sustainability.

The perceptions of young farmers about what is necessary for them to achieve farm business sustainability are explored using a phenomenological research design with an interview approach. Six young farmers suggest eight key themes as necessary for sustainability into the next generation: characteristics such as adaptability, passion, work-life balance and human resource skills and literacy strategies which include adult education, economic viability, environmental and socio-political literacy, and change management. Participants linked their farm business sustainability to the personal characteristics of lifespan learning, adaptability, and passion for farming. They seem to understand agricultural sustainability in the context of the economic, socio-political, and environmental aspects of their farm business. Their change management strategies account for their personal and their family needs as well as those required by regulatory bodies. Recommendations are offered in support of family farm business sustainability.

Corporations are a significant contributor to global unsustainability. Use of ISO 14001 environmental management systems (EMS) are considered logical, needed tools for use in meeting corporate sustainability goals. By paying attention to where users identify benefit and challenges and to what sustainability ‘looks like’ an existing system can be adapted effectively. EMS Enablers were considered in the development of a Sustainability Enablers Model, for use with an existing, effective EMS. Planning Enablers include ensuring alignment of leader values, an appropriately scoped policy, base principles upon which to set objectives and comprehensive aspects. Implementation & Operation Enablers include effective engagement and reporting and operating within a learning organization. The primary Checking Enabler is operating with a learning organization in support of an effective corrective action process. Management Review Enablers include effective use of data by the leadership team to improve performance and alignment of leader or organizational values in motivating changes.

This is a speculative examination of the feasibility of a productive local food system in rural Manitoba. It strives to provide tools and skills needed for producing food locally for the community of Ste. Agathe. The town was chosen due to its fertile flood plain, abundance of open green space, and lack of a local food source. The condition of America’s industrial food system is examined through research on apparent positive and negative effects it has on society. Ste. Agathe’s land use, cover and ownership are analyzed through mapping, followed by the examination of relevant existing and proposed alternative food production systems. The focus then shifts to existing local food initiatives in Manitoba and the characteristics of valuable crops and livestock suitable to the climate. This knowledge is applied to Ste. Agathe specifically through a series of suitability plans for each crop and livestock group, which when combined, result in a proposed framework plan, layout plans, sections, and perspectives.

South Africa is experiencing a serious electricity supply problem. This problem is expected to persist until at least 2012. During the winter of 2006 load shedding and electricity supply-cuts started occurring in the Western Cape. These spread to the rest of the country during the summer of 2007. By January 2008 daily load shedding was a common occurrence across South Africa. In the 1990s the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and Eskom started a national demand side management (DSM) programme with the help of energy services companies (ESCOs). The aim is to reduce demand peaks and to promote the efficient use of electricity. These projects can be implemented much faster than building new power stations and are also more cost-effective. In 2008 an accelerated DSM program was launched to address the electricity shortage in South Africa. Unfortunately, South African DSM projects experience the same sustainability problems as their counterparts overseas. These projects have been shown to be unsustainable over the five year projected life-span. There are various reasons for this, including client mismanagement and maintenance problems. An automated and rapid feedback system was identified as the best solution to address this problem. If plant personnel could be informed as soon as a DSM project's performance starts to decline, they would be able to respond much faster to rectify the problem. Reporting on DSM performance is difficult to achieve as these reports and the processing of measured data are time-consuming and presently no system exists to automate the process. A new feedback solution was developed to fully automate the process of data gathering, processing and reporting. The implemented solution reduced the number of man-hours spent by ESCOs' project engineers dramatically. In addition, project performance increased by 13% and showed an increase in over-performance of 12.8%, while financial savings for clients improved by an average of 12%. The feedback solution also provides the client with an accurate maintenance reporting system. This system can be implemented on all DSM projects, maximising Eskom's DSM investment. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Mechanical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The ability of Indigenous peoples of Canada to manage their environment according to their own laws and values has been usurped by the imposition of colonial frameworks. Indigenous people in Canada, like many other Indigenous groups, are seeking to reassert their ability to carry out their ancestral relationships with their territories, and are recovering and improving their systems of governance in order to do so. This research explores the relationships between frameworks for Indigenous governance developed by the National Centre for First Nations Governance and Indigenous and non-Indigenous theories of sustainability in both theory and practice. The author concludes that Indigenous governance and sustainability are interlinked: Indigenous visions of a sustainable future underpin the development of governance, and effective governance is required in order to give effect to community aspirations of sustainability. / Graduate

<p> This thesis explores Wilber's Integral Theory and DeKay's adaptation of the theory to sustainable design to discover a design process with the potential to advance the design professions toward a more holistic, restorative approach to sustainable design. The contribution and influence of architects, interior designers, and engineers on the personal and social welfare goes beyond aesthetics, visual interest, or function. The environments being designed today shape how people will live and function in the future. Integral Sustainable Design is concerned with holistically addressing the quality, equity, beauty and efficiency of the built environment. It argues that if sustainable design is to be a transformational force touching personal experience, cultural perspective, energy efficiency, and the ecosystem, it will need to become restorative. </p><p> This thesis provides an overview of the validity, feasibility and methodology of applying Integral Theory to Sustainable Design, to create a theoretical, ideological basis informing the sustainable design process. This thesis will increase awareness of integral theory by summarizing its principles and demonstrating the applicability to sustainable design and the validity to the profession as a whole. A design exercise will illustrate the difference between having a single, inherently biased view verses a comprehensive, holistic view of sustainable design. Four individual houses will be designed, each exploring one quadrant of DeKay's Integral Sustainable grid exclusively. A fifth house will synthesize all of the integral design principles. A comparison is then made to discern any difference in outcomes. All designs are based on the same client design directives, and use the same site. The comparative analysis seems to show that the integral approach can lead to an enhanced experience of nature, history, beauty with efficiency that exceeds Net Zero consumption </p>

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<p> One of the major challenges faced by civil engineering industry is to execute projects in harmony with nature. This is achieved to some extent by judicious use of natural resources in construction practices. In recent years, the demand for construction materials has grown tremendously, so has the amount of construction and demolition waste, putting huge pressure on the environment. This has encouraged the use of recycled aggregate in concrete, which not only allows for a more efficient life cycle of natural resources but also contributes to environmental protection leading to sustainable development. In this study recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) are used in the production of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in varying percentage replacements of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) The use of sustainable technologies such as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), and/or recycled material is expected to positively affect the performance of concrete mixtures. However, it is important to study and qualify such mixtures and check if the required specifications of their intended application are met before they can be implemented in practice. This study presents the results of a laboratory investigation of Self Consolidating concrete (SCC) containing sustainable technologies. A total of 20 concrete mixtures were prepared and tested. Mixtures were divided into five different groups, with constant water to cementitious material ratio of 0.38, based on the Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) content: 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% of coarse aggregate (CA) replaced by RCA. All mixtures were designed to achieve a target slump flow higher than 500 mm (19.7 in). The control mixture for each group was prepared with 100% Portland cement while all other mixtures were designed with 50% of Portland cement substituted by a combination of Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) such as class C fly ash, and granulated blast furnace slag. Several properties of fresh concrete were investigated in this study such as: flow ability, deformability; filling capacity, and resistance to segregation. Moreover, the compressive strength at 3, 14, and 28 days, the tensile strength, the unrestrained shrinkage up to 90 days and permeability were investigated. Partial replacement of the cement using Supplementary Cementitious Materials resulted in smaller 28-days-compressive strength compared to those of the control mixes. Based on the results of this study, it is not recommended to replace the natural coarse aggregate in self-consolidating concrete by more than 75% of RCA.Although, the partial replacement of cement by Supplementary Cementitious Materials had an adverse effect on the 28-days-compressive strength, most of the mixes have exceeded the SCC minimum requirements, including those with up to 100% RCA. Finally, several mix designs from the study have met the minimum Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) compressive strength requirements for several engineering applications such as pavements and bridges. This suggests that a practical application of results from the research is feasible in the near future.</p>

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