Check "Sustainability by Design, says John Ehrenfeld, may be and certainly should be one of the most important books of the 21st century. Janice Pryor, host of WUMB's, Ehrenfeld The Journal of Commonwealth presents a unique perspective on the theme of sustainability that must be taken seriously by someone who claims to speak on the subject. "H. Thomas Johnson, Portland State University "Verify" Ehrenfeld presents a unique perspective on the theme of Sustainability…
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Tags: environmentally friendly
This review is from: Sustainability by Design: a subversive strategy for transforming our Consumer Culture (Hardcover) Dr. Ehrenfeld has a wide appeal and immediately accessible definition of sustainability: Sustainability is the possibility that human beings and life others will flourish on Earth forever. "
Is not that what we really want? And to address this point of view of higher things, does not necessarily need to reflect more deeply on the question of simply neutralizing a negative situation – which is virtually all other books in these attempts to do?
That's what I like about this book, Ehrenfeld takes a systems look at a systemic problem. It looks state of mind – the subtitle is "a subversive strategy for transforming our culture of consumption" – and that's what is so attractive.
Ehrenfeld, formerly of MIT (a noted breeding ground for thinkers systems), is executive director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology and a senior research scholar at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and you can tell he has thought about this for a long Tim. It shows how it tackles the challenge of sustainability. For example, he uses words and phrases that resonate resonate with anyone who is interested in a more careful approach to a complex issue. "Reflection" is the first threshold to cross, "he said. And he speaks of "structures" that appeals to my sense of importance in the development of many problems. And he speaks of "feeder option."
You see, we too often incorrectly ask the question "What are the alternatives" before asking: "What is possible?
If you are a fan of Peter Senge (who wrote the preface) and The Fifth Discipline, like me, you enjoy the author's foray into the unique thinking and double loop. From there, he looks for root causes, that being addicted to resources (a phrase I use often!) Connected to the consumer culture in the modern industrialized world. And then he offers his definition of sustainability, and overall construction is taking place very well.
Woven throughout the book is a subtext of respect, caring just on the other and the world we live in enough to wrap our designs around that thought very aggressively. If only we could maintain this base value quite tight to hold the tension between where we are and where we should be, our conceptions – our innovation processes and innovative outcomes – would go very far in moving of the planet towards a sustainable vision for the future.
And that future, says the author, not "a revolution waiting in the wings, because he does not believe" that the revolution would necessarily be the best mechanism for change. "
1.0 out of 5 stars
Riding on a Buzzword
This obscurantist tome isn’t about sustainability at all, but rather the author’s desire for a more holistic, more caring and more authentic world.
This review is from: Sustainability by Design: a subversive strategy for transforming our Consumer Culture (Hardcover) bought this book for my energy and class society. It is the last of four books that we read this semester, and was an excellent conclusion to the course. The author addresses the root causes of the shortage of energy and provides a basic framework for sustainability in which the human race may eventually develop.
5 / 5 Stars