The end of April is a tragic time for many people who were affected by the Chernobyl nuclear tragedy in 1986. Unfortunately, this ongoing crisis is often lost among today’s challenges. Therefore, 27 years later, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has reminded the world: “The countless women, men and children affected by radioactive contamination must never be forgotten”.

The UN remembers Chernobyl.

What about the ordinary people on the streets? I had the unique opportunity to learn more on April 26 in downtown Toronto, Canada. As a member of the Advisory Board of the international non-profit organization, Chernobyl Foundation, I joined an annual fundraising event at Dundas Square.

The purpose of the event was to raise awareness about Chernobyl issues and to fund-raise for a blood donation network in Ukraine that serves sick children. The organizers increased attendance by bringing a “replica” of the nuclear reactor’s shelter, Sarcophagus, to the square and by giving a chance to win a trip to Chernobyl for those whom donated online through the Foundation’s web-site.

With average daily traffic of 62,100 pedestrians and 55,500 vehicles, Dundas Square offers interesting opportunities to learn more about public opinion and fundraising support of Torontonians. Toronto is the financial heart of Canada with many banks and other wealthy organizations. Nevertheless, a major interest in the Foundation’s event came from ordinary people.

The most touching experience for me was with the donations from a Japanese street-musician, youth and the homeless donors. People in need were offering help, but the affluent and wealthy preferred to ignore the fundraising efforts.

Is the Chernobyl crisis really forgotten? Was the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster’s reminder not enough to learn more from the Chernobyl consequences?

Going back to the UN Secretary-General’s commitment of the UN system to stand by those affected by the Chernobyl disaster, and to work for greater nuclear safety and sustainable energy worldwide, I consider everyone’s involvement in this process.

In the framework of sustainability thinking we also pay attention to inclusiveness. The global nuclear disasters should not leave us indifferent to challenges of history. After all, there is no future without a past.

Dear ELP alumni and friends,

Greetings from a warm spring day in Berkeley.  This email concerns my continuing and increasing work on a topic important to many of you, namely, how will the major demographic trends over the next fifty years impact our quality of life, and what are the policy issues we can address to reduce negative impacts, especially for low income and vulnerable communities, and women and girls.

Prof. David Zilberman, Beahrs ELP Co-Director

Dr. Alexander Belyakov (ELP 2001)

How many of you have surprised a person you are talking to by describing yourself as an expert in sustainability? Great, if you’re talking to a professional environmentalist or project manager who knows this stuff. What if this conversation is taking place ata party? Not everybody understands the term “sustainability”.  A few are even too confused to ask for the further explanation. Many even have misconceptions about this term “sustainability”.

Some of my friends have visited my website, read everything about my activities, checked the links and then asked “why should I care about sustainability” or “Why should my company care about sustainability?”     What can I tell someone who is in doubt?

Sustainable development philosophy is a part of my life. I believe that creating harmony, consensus and helping society to sustain is the root of all true meaning in life, but it is not easy to achieve. I hope that I can be a part of the process that improves the quality of life everywhere. I believe in making a living by making a difference. I enjoy working with people and helping them learn something new that makes not only transitional, but mostly transformational change in their life. My passion is about future generations and positive changes in this world. Share your passion with your friends and colleagues, write a blog, become the ”go to” sustainability consultant in your local area, take it to communities as much as you can.

How to convince not only your friends, but their bosses to do more for sustainable business? Does your boss understand not only about environmental, but also about the social and economic dimensions of sustainability and what exactly he or she does for employees? What can employees do? What can we say about employees themselves, their needs and views? Why are they motivated to act, if motivated at all? Why do businesses care about sustainability after all?

Let me share with you some experts’ opinions and survey results. It was a pleasure for me to attend a few events with Bob Willard, sustainability guru. He is also occasionally teaching at Ryerson University, in Toronto, where I am an instructor. Bob confirmed after his meetings with the business world that interest in this topic is growing. At the same time, top management recognizes that sustainability is more often about branding than about anything else.

Brand, trust, and reputation are the top driver of CEO’s action on sustainability issues according to a survey of 766 CEO’s (Willard, 2012, p. 5). The expert’s testimony: “Owing to changes in the macro and micro environments, corporate sustainability branding has become more important in recent years” (Belz & Peattie, 2012, p. 186).

Brand differentiation is recognized as one of the greatest challenges among marketing experts. At the same time, benefits of a strong brand differentiator related to sustainability are increasing. Even a prospective job applicant is looking for brand and reputation because he or she identifies with companies as an employer.

There are tendencies that a sustainability-driven brand may influence the student’s college choice. Furthermore, nearly 7 out of 10 (68 percent) among 7,445 college applicants in the US already claim to prefer colleges or universities with a commitment to sustainability (according to a survey done by Princeton Review). “College-bound students are increasingly interested in sustainability issues,” added Robert Franek, Senior VP/Publisher, The Princeton Review. Another survey discovered that 92% of students and entry-level job-seekers are looking for an environmentally friendly company (Willard, 2012, p.121).

However, you should care not only about environmentally friendly operations. I recommend we more often emphasize the “Triple-Bottom-Line” and  explain that sustainability is not “just” a green business. Some common myths about sustainability, including what green means in our context, are revealed by Demonic (2009). Sustainability should be presented differently. Read more on my site.

Feel comfortable to review some sources I already mentioned. Please read:

Belz F-M., Peattie K. (2012). Sustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective. John Wiley & Sons, 2nd edition.

Demonic, Michael D.  (2009). “Top 10 Myths about Sustainability.” Scientific American, Earth 3.0: Solutions for Sustainable Progress. New York, NY, USA: Scientific American, Inc.

Iovin J. The Princeton Review Releases Free “Guide To 322 Green Colleges”. Retrieved from http://www.princetonreview.com/green-guide-press-release.aspx

Willard B. (2012). The New Sustainability Advantage. New Society Publishers.
With warm regards,

Alex.

Re-posted from The Berkeley Blog

Our new program, the Master of Development Practice, emphasizes ‘sustainability’ — but what exactly is it?

Last week, we hosted a panel of 5 faculty experts to address this question. It was agreed that sustainability means that all humans are able to maintain a decent standard of living, akin to say, Costa Rica (neither Switzerland nor Bangladesh), without destroying the environment

However, physical science tells us that at the current state of affairs, this is highly unlikely. We rely too much on fossil fuels, climate change is a real threat and there are simply too many people. The challenge of sustainability is to introduce policies that will dramatically avert climate change and slow (or even reverse) population growth.

The social scientists agreed that climate change is a big threat, and suggested that current political reality and distribution of powers were the main obstacles for change. There are policies that can address climate change, e.g. the carbon tax, investment in alternative technologies, various regulations designed to reduce pollution without hurting the poor, but the political system would not sustain these. Any climate-change policies have gainers and losers, different groups may lose from adjustment while in the meantime, we remain stuck in the status quo. Developing countries want to grow and are investing in coal plants; in the developed world, we have some notable successes such as the AB32 but they are exception, not the rule.

For a business, sustainability is not a global concept, rather a day-to-day challenge of how to stay afloat. For them, the key to sustainability is profitability. However, the business world is starting to recognize that it would not do them a lot of good to be profitable in a world that is falling apart. Furthermore, they recognize that some consumers may pay extra for products produced in a more sustainable manner, thus being ‘sustainable’ makes good business sense. With the right policy environment, the business world can be used as a tool to introduce more sustainable policies but of course many businesses may oppose such policies as they may negatively affect their bottom line.

From a life-science perspective, the notion of sustainability is complex because evolution is a driving force and there is also inter-dependency among species; humans eat fish, and fish depends on kelp, etc. So pollution that affects water quality may harm humans indirectly through the food web. It is clear that uncontrolled applications of technology can be devastating to ecosystems and eventually to humans as well.

Thus enlightened regulations on harvesting of resources are essential. But figuring such policies and enforcing them, are major challenge, both because we operate under uncertainty and again, due to the political environment. Yet there have been some examples where things have improved for the better. While many fisheries have been depleted, there are many success stories; so it can be done.

The overall perspectives of all sciences were quite pessimistic. But when I look at it, things are not that bad. Average quality of life is better than ever, life expectancy has increased throughout the world and there has been no world war for a long time and for many people, sustainability simply means making sure that their pension funds last as they reach their 80th birthday. Even in many parts of the developing world, obesity is an issue more than hunger.

Thus I think the pessimism of scientists can be a base for optimism. Awareness of risk can convince society to take steps to create change. If there is one thing we know, humans have the capacity to adapt. We may not be able to mitigate or reverse climate change, but once we realize that something needs to be done, we come to the table with innovations that will allow adjusting easier. Of course, the sooner we adjust, the more we can prevent – but the role of the University is to raise awareness and I believe that we are doing our job and in this sense, pessimism is essential. Of course, too much pessimism may be counter-productive.

We have to rely on science and expand knowledge and this may require taking some risk. We may need to make changes to how we produce our food, the way we live, get our energy, etc. and this may be inconvenient to many and may entail risk. For example, living in denser cities and giving up urban sprawl, may not be convenient but it may reduce GHG emissions and environmental footprint… the price we need to pay for a more sustainable future. But I am afraid that drastic changes will require the risks be more apparent so people will be ready to make the necessary sacrifices. If there is one lesson of political economic research, crisis leads to change. I hope in the case of climate change, awareness of crisis will be enough to escape from the major threats.

While we are aware of climate change and start thinking about solutions, I’m more afraid of the population problem. While in some parts of the world, the population picture gets brighter, in other parts (i.e. sub-Saharan Africa), we are observing population explosion. More importantly, there are conflicts of values and beliefs that has prevented meaningful dialogue that could lead to effective policy. We should continue and enhance our research and efforts to address climate change, but we must also develop the intellectual foundation and a basic consensus to address the population problem. A key element of sustainability is sustaining the number of people and as long as we don’t know how to think about it, we have a long way to go.

(See mdp.berkeley.edu)

Prof. David Zilberman

Several years ago, my son suggested I start a blog on the website he designed for me (www.professorzilberman.com). I was suspicious of blogging and tweeting, and it took me a long time to accept and enjoy Facebook (now I don’t need to buy People magazine and I know what is going on with my family and friends). I decided to start my own personal blog, and later on I joined the Berkeley blog community. I’ve come to realize what an incredibly powerful tool blogging can be. As a professor, I am producing ideas constantly, and I update myself by reading and interacting with people. My challenge is to be current and to contribute to knowledge. Of course, I enjoy writing journal articles, especially when they are accepted, and if I am lucky and have a piece printed in the newspaper or popular media it is great, but it is constricting in terms of style, content, and most importantly, there is a delay between what is said and when people see it. Blogs, on the other hand, allow the freedom of expression. Of course, you are unsure about how many (or if any) followers you may have, but even the act of expressing oneself is satisfying, and after a while the comments reflect that some people are actually reading the blog and some of them strongly disagree.

Writing for the Berkeley blog is a great experience as it allows me to express ideas about sustainability, sell the Masters of Development Practice, argue in favor of GMOs, and write about people that I appreciate, and it has been rewarding. I found a way to reach people and exchange ideas. But viewing the Berkeley blog once in a while, I learn about some of the most exciting ideas my colleagues have, what they are thinking about, and the directions of their research. Actually some ideas that started with a blog entry end up in presentations and papers, and even in business relationships. Blogging doesn’t mean you have to write long essays. You can present graphics, music, pictures, etc. My wife has a great blog on knitting and other crafts (http://leorahle.wordpress.com/) which I love.

The ELP has an alumni network of friends and people that share common interests. The blog provides a place where one can let his or her ideas fly. The challenge is to make it appealing in order to attract responses, and I believe that over time, once in a while we will have the pieces to start a dialogue that may lead to collaborations and partnerships. Now we have several vehicles of communication among ELP members: a Facebook page, a blog, and the “old” email connection. Lets use them, and that will allow us to grow together.

Check out my latest post, “Is ‘sustainable’ attainable?” on the Berkeley blog here.

The Go Green Strategy or “Nde’ho Maitso,” as termed in Madagascar’s local language, is currently being implemented by the food security program, Strengthening and Accessing Livelihood Opportunities for Household Impact (SALOHI), and Rural Access to New Opportunities for Health and Water Resource Management (RANONALA). Both of these projects are led by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and are financed by USAID in Madagascar. Additionally, CRS is involved to ensure environmental compliance of these projects as required by USG regulation 216 (US donor) and the Malagasy Government Environmental Chart.

The Go Green/Nde’ho Maitso Strategy is an approach that focuses on environmental reflexes. It consists of anchoring one or several environmental actions to an entity after repetitive implementation. A reflex is not obtained at once. This is valid for both simple and rather complex actions. The exercise is meant to be repeated at least four times through four evaluations. Each evaluation will take place every semester, and after each evaluation, improvements will be given to ensure the mastering of the action, its consolidation and an end result in behavioral change.

The Nde’ho Maitso-Go green strategy has four steps:

1. The functioning period
2. The trial period
3. The consolidation period
4. The anchorage period

At the end of these periods, it is hypothesized that the environmental reflex and behavioral changes will be attained.

I am the consultant who designed this strategy and has trained the SALOHI and RANONALA teams to implement it at the field level. In addition, I’m currently writing my doctoral thesis on “Environmental Reflex” at the University of Antananrivo in Madagascar where this strategy is the basis of my research. My thesis is expected to be finished in June 2013.

Right after the approval of the 68^th decree for the elimination of overlaps, contradictions and gaps in the law, the first priority of the Mongolian government was to do an analysis of the 18 environmental laws. These laws were systematically compacted into eight laws. Two new laws were then added and all were subsequently ratified through the Mongolian Parliament in May 2012. The following principles were adhered to in these legal innovations: to enable sustainable national development, exalt economic efficiency, responsibility, environmentally friendly development, implementation of compliance to international standards of auditing, “polluter recoup damage”, “local involvement in environmental protection”, “rising value of natural resources”, “generation of sustainable financial resources for funding environmental protection”, and “embedding sustainable management of natural resources.”

The newly revised Environmental Impact Assessment law reflects environmental strategic assessment and will impact environmental decision-making by facilitating public involvement in environmental assessment, control, and verification. Additionally, measures include appropriated protection and clear mining closure procedures along with actions to facilitate the implementation of the law. This law is significant as it reflects implementation procedures to offset biodiversity conservation and helps Mongolia to be on par with the global stage.

The soil protection law includes measures of desertification prevention as a consequence of the intensification of agriculture, mining, road construction, and urban land use as well as climate change. All of these activities increase negative and destructive impacts on soil, lower soil fertility, result in overgrazing and desertification, and decrease systems for prevention of soil erosion. An important consideration is also the facilitation of a safe and healthy environment for the human population. Additional measures include the establishment of accountability in environmental protection along with more elaboration on soil degradation, desertification gradation criteria and soil assessment methodology.

The water regulation law merges water resources with basin protection and introduces proper utilization and restoration practices. What is especially novel in this law is that it implements the integration of water resource management in 29 basins. To update adaptive measures based on the protection of ecosystems and the restoration of river basins susceptible to climate change, a project funded by the “Adaptation Fund” of UNDP is currently being implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Green Development. Through this project, actions and strategies are being determined for biodiversity conservation of Mongolian dahurica, Uvs Lake Basin area, and to instill values that will assist people in adapting to new conditions resulting from climate change. According to the water pollution reimbursement law, individuals, economic entities, and organizations should be charged for water pollution.  Procedures are being carried out to further develop and improve payment and related regulatory systems.

With the expansion of the Ministry of Environment and Green Development into the Strategic Ministry, this will play a main role in determining the main steps of country development. Besides this, the Ministry is also working on the introduction and adherence to principles of raising the public’s ecological awareness, the establishment of a new system for economic incentives, and a merge between the financial structures of bank policies with green policies.

Community representatives, decision makers and policy officials are currently in need of a reliable and comprehensive monitoring and impact assessment framework that allows them not only to monitor the outcomes of integrated landscape interventions, but also to determine the ecosystem, biodiversity and economic impacts of such projects. The objective of this article is to briefly discuss some difficulties in the design and implementation of an innovative framework that can play the role of an auxiliary tool for landscape management interventions.

One of the first things to consider is that the complexity of a monitoring and impact assessment framework will depend on the nature of the intervention. For example, if the goal of the project is to reforest and capture carbon, the measurement system should only take into account the temporal and spatial scales and can consist of a simple follow up of time series trends.  However, if the goal of the intervention follows an integrated approach, the type of system needed should include measurements of changes in biodiversity conservation, ecosystem maintenance, poverty reduction and their interactions. In fact, all of the technical components of the typical monitoring system will become more complex (i.e. objectives, variables, sampling strategy, data collection, data handling and organization). Even more, in the context of an integrated approach, the collected data might be associated to the spatial, temporal and individual scales. Having panel data with three dimensions makes the task more difficult to implement a follow up of the outputs and to infer causal relationships between management actions and outputs. So, some simplifying assumptions would have to be imposed to grasp the statistical patterns and causal effects of interest.

Another important aspect in developing a monitoring and impact assessment system in the context of an integrated approach implies the development of a comprehensive framework for describing and analyzing multi-objective and multi-stakeholder projects. To do so, one needs to rely on a team of experts from different knowledge areas capable of understanding the project outcomes from different perspectives and collaboration to disentangle the interactions between the social, biodiversity and ecosystems aspects. This team should also have as a goal not only to monitor, but also to determine the impacts attributable to the project, which might be a useful basis to improve the interventions. For example, the statistical tools typically used to isolate the economic impacts, counterfactuals, might be used in conjunction with monitoring tools, such as remote sensing, that are already in use to follow up reforestation patterns. Therefore, the challenge is to adapt the existing methodologies in a consistent framework that might be used to assess the benefits of an integrated project.

In general, a successful approach for the design and implementation of systems to monitor and assess the impacts of effective integrated approaches requires an alliance of experts with different areas of expertise and disciplines. All project stakeholders must be involved in the innovative design and the objective given the type of interventions needed nowadays to adapt to the challenges imposed by climate change.

The Africa 2000 Network has identified an area with a lot of underground fresh water that is between 5 – 15 meters in Wards 23 and 25 of Chipinge District in Manicaland Province (Zimbabwe) through its Participatory Development Management Programme. This was through drilling four of the six boreholes funded by the Japanese Embassy. The four borehole yields are extremely good (data seen below). There are a total of ten villages in this zone (four in Ward 23 and six in Ward 25 with a total population of about 5000 households.

Africa 2000 Network can develop a Holistic development recovery that covers ten community irrigation schemes (one in each village), individual deep well schemes for 1000 households (100 in each village); a sanitation programme for family and group toilets at community schemes and individual family toilets as well as income generating programmes through well diggers and other related irrigation projects with a Holistic Land and Livestock Restoration of Land and Natural Water Sources Programme. The time frame can be three years. Funding is needed for this.

For further information on this project, email Osmond at os.mugweni@gmail.com.

Sites of New Boreholes Drilled in 2011 in support by the Embassy of Japan:

1. 1. Takunda A Ward 23 (BH A) Borehole Depth 50mtrs; Water Level 15mtrs; & Estimated Yield (Gallons Per Hour=GPH) 1050GPH or 1.3125 l/s
2. Takunda Ward 23 (BH B adjacent to irrigation Block) Borehole Depth 50mtrs; Water Level 7mtrs; & Estimated Yield (Gallons Per Hour=GPH) 1700GPH or 2.125 l/s
3. Chimurenga Ward 23 Borehole Depth 50mtrs; Water Level 5mtrs; & Estimated Yield (Gallons Per Hour=GPH) 600GPH or 0.75 l/s
4. Mupawaneta Ward 25 Borehole Depth 50mtrs; Water Level 6mtrs; & Estimated Yield (Gallons Per Hour=GPH) 1200GPH or 1.50 l/s