Sustainability - The Geography Perspective
Author: Simon Gosling
“Sustainability” is a word
that is being used more and more in the news, by politicians, scientists, and
businesses, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Yet, surprisingly, few
people have a basic understanding of what it means “to be sustainable”. In some
ways, the word has been adopted by some groups to be indicative of being
“environmentally friendly” or “socially responsible”. With the word being used
ever more, there is a risk that its true meaning becomes lost, to the point
where it becomes simply a “buzz word” with little context or meaning. To this
end, this module examines the core pillars of sustainability, with aid of
everyday examples, in order to develop a holistic understanding of what
sustainability means. The module has been written by a Geographer but it is
aimed at all people interested in learning about sustainability from the local
to the global scale.

The above collage was
compiled at the University of Nottingham using a selection of images from
various resources including Open Source resources. Please see below for image
attributions.
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Hoover Dam: Image
developed at The University of Nottingham
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Plant For The Planet: Image appears here with permission from Plant For The Planet. No
reproduction of this image is allowed without obtaining prior permission from
Plant For The Planet
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FSC: Image
appears here with permission from the FSC. No reproduction of this image is
allowed without obtaining prior permission from the FSC
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Fairtrade: Image
developed at The University Of Nottingham. No reproduction of this image is
allowed without obtaining prior permission from Fairtrade Foundation
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Wind farm: Image
developed at The University of Nottingham
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Bicycle station: sourced from Wikipedia
(Author: Colin) under a Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barclays_Cycle_Hire,_St._Mary_Axe,_Aldgate.jpg
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Female: Image
developed at The University of Nottingham
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Building: developed
at the University of Nottingham
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Energy chart: sourced from Wikipedia (Author
Chris826) under a Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Energy_label_en.svg
- Tree: Image developed at The University of Nottingham