Building the Ecological City puts forward solutions to the question - how can we build cities that provide an acceptable standard of living for their inhabitants without depleting the ecosystems and bio-geochemical cycles on which they depend? The book suggests and examines the concept of urban metabolism which characterizes the city as a set of interlinked systems of physical flows linking air, land, and water. A series of chapters looks at the production and management of waste, energy use and air emissions, water supply and management, urban land use, and air quality issues. Within the broader context of climate change, the book then considers a range of practical strategies for restoring the health of urban ecosystems from the remediation of 'brownfield' land to improving air quality and making better use of water resources. (view table of contents)

In the International Year of Chemistry, prominent scientists highlight the major advances in the fight against the largest problems faced by humanity from the point of view of chemistry, showing how their science is essential to ensuring our long-term survival. Following the UN Millennium Development Goals, the authors examine the ten most critical areas, including energy, climate, food, water and health. All of them are opinion leaders in their fields, or high-ranking decision makers in national and international institutions. Intended to provide an intellectual basis for the future development of chemistry, this book is aimed at a wide readership including students, professionals, engineers, scientists, environmentalists and anyone interested in a more sustainable future.

Product Description: Chemicals from Biomass: Integrating Bioprocesses into Chemical Production Complexes for Sustainable Development helps engineers optimize the development of new chemical and polymer plants that use renewable resources to replace the output of goods and services from existing plants...read more

Product Description: The importance of reconciling the continuing needs of humankind with the protection of the environment and the earth's ability to provide for those needs is now better recognised. Chemistry and chemical technology play an important role in this, though not on their own...read more

Product Description: Coke s insatiable thirst for resources shapes the company and reshapes the globe in this absorbing history.Coca-Cola s success in building a global empire out of sugary water drew on more than a secret formula and brilliant advertising...read more

Product Description: Outlining a robust strategy for sustainable city-regions that has emerged from over two-and-a-half decades of theoretical and practical work, ‘The City as Fulcrum of Global Sustainability’ cuts through the received wisdom and popular misunderstanding surrounding sustainability to demonstrate how global problems can best be addressed at the local-regional scale...read more

Product Description: The evidence for human-induced climate change is now overwhelming, the brunt of its impacts is already being felt by poor people, and the case for urgent action is compelling. This book addresses the two greatest challenges of our time – averting catastrophic climate change and eradicating poverty – and the close interconnections between them...read more

Product Description: Climate Change and the Private Sector explores the challenges of transforming our energy infrastructure to become carbon neutral and adapting to climate change in the twenty-first century. It examines the critical role that the private sector must play in these challenges...read more

Product Description: How you can solve our world's biggest problems, kick-start inclusive growth, and create competitive advantage for your organizationNo longer can we consume the equivalent of 1.3 Earths resources and expect to remain prosperous in perpetuity...read more

Product Description: Competitive economics produces an enormous abundance of goods and services but at an intolerable environmental and social cost. Competition has become an end in itself, which leads to detrimental effects on nature, society and future generations...read more

Product Description: In far too many organizational meetings, equal speaking opportunity seldom results in equal say. Factors such as race, class, and personal history too often inhibit open dialogue within and among groups, which can lead to a sense of disenfranchisement within the organization, and subsequently, disillusionment with the movement...read more

Product Description: A major challenge of our times is to understand and manage the increasing complexity of socio-economic reality. This has immediate relevance for sustainable development. The impact of recent contributions from systems and complexity sciences in addressing this issue has not filtered down into effective practice -- notably, there remain problems caused by the legacy of competing paradigms and the application of their associated methodologies...read more