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Sustainability and the U.S. EPA (2011)

Chapter: Appendix C: Glossary

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Glossary." National Research Council. 2011. Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13152.
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Appendix C


Glossary

Biocentrism: The belief that all living things have intrinsic value.

Breakthrough objective: Commonly referred to in the business community, breakthrough objectives are goals that extend far beyond the current capabilities and experiences of an organization and require new strategies and approaches to ensure successful attainment of these goals. These objectives are generally designed to improve performance throughout an organization.

Change management: A process to prioritize allocation of resources and to provide a mechanism for prioritizing any change so that critical changes are made first, followed by low priority changes. The process also ensures changes are implemented on a set schedule and is a collaborative process that requires representative involvement from as many stakeholder groups as is feasible.

Culture: the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends upon the human capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations (Merriam-Webster 2001).

Goal: What is specifically sought to be achieved and is determined through the use of measured indicators.

Indicator: A summary measure that provides information on the state of, or change in, a system (OECD 2011b), i.e., what is being measured.

Integrated assessment tools: Tools that link in a consistent fashion formal models of the environment and society (NRC 1999).

Interdisciplinary: Approach that expands the multidisciplinary approach so that communication is more frequent and members are involved in problem-solving beyond the confines of their discipline (Dyer 2003).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Glossary." National Research Council. 2011. Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13152.
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Intergenerational equity: The fair distribution of costs and benefits among different generations.

Intragenerational equity: The fair distribution of costs and benefits among different groups of the same generation.

Knowledge management: Strategies that an organization uses to enable the creation of knowledge and to distribute this knowledge (OECD 2000).

Metrics: Defines the unit of measurement or how the indicator is being measured (OECD 2011a).

Multidisciplinary: Approach in which independent, discipline-specific members conduct separate assessment, planning, and provision of services within their own disciplines with little coordination of information (Dyer 2003).

Optimize: To select the best option from a set of possible alternatives.

Place-based: The use of a geographically defined area to integrate or coordinate programs. Projects that are based in a specific locale with measurable outcomes (Barca 2009).

Process: A systematic series of actions designed with a goal as the endpoint.

Resilience: The ability of a system or a community to absorb shocks and still retain the same basic structure and functions (USGS 2011).

Screening: The use of a model or analytic method designed to select which problems or decisions should be subject to further analysis (EPA 2011).

Sustainability: To create and maintain conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony and that permit fulfilling social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations (NEPA 1969; Executive Order 13514, 2009).

Sustainability analysis: The identification and analysis of key factors that are likely to have an impact, either positively or negatively, on delivering sustainable benefits (AusAID 2000).

Sustainability impact assessment: Impact assessment where all three dimensions of sustainable development are integrated into one assessment procedure and where the interdependence of dimensions is analyzed before decisions are made (Berger 2008).

Sustainability principles: Idea that sustainability must balance the needs of three components or pillars—social, environmental, and economic.

Sustainability science: An emerging field of research dealing with the interactions between natural and social systems that seeks to facilitate a transition toward sustainability (Clark 2007).

Sustainability technology: Technologies that prevent, remove, and control environmental risks to human health and ecology (EPA 2010).

Sustainable development: Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED 1987).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Glossary." National Research Council. 2011. Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13152.
×

Sustainable innovation: Designing and implementing sustainable organizational processes and practices that generate social, environmental, and economic worth for all stakeholders involved (van Osch and Avital 2010).

Tool: Something regarded as necessary to the carrying out one’s occupation or profession (Merriam-Webster 2001).

Transdisciplinary: Approach that, through all steps of the implementation of a product, involves the widest span of disciplines to bring different perspectives to the table (Anastas 2010).

REFERENCES

Anastas, P. 2010. ORD: The Path Forward. Memorandum to U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, from Paul T. Anastas, Assistant Administrator. March 5, 2010 [online]. Available: http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/796BB04146A5F14C852576F9004E5E69/$File/Anastas+Path+Forward+3-5-10.pdf [accessed May 3, 2011].

AusAID (Australian Agency for International Development). 2000. Promoting Practical Sustainability. Agenda Item 10. 33rd Meeting of DAC (Development Assistance Committee) Working Party on Aid Evaluation, November 22-23, 2000. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [online]. Available: http://www.oecd.org/secure/pdfDocument/0,2834,en_21571361_34047972_31950220_1_1_1_1,00.pdf [accessed May 3, 2011].

Barca. F. 2009. Pursuing Equity through Place-Based Development Policies. Presentation at OECD/ TDPC Symposium on Regional Policy, December 2, 2009, Paris [Online]. Available: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/41/37/44305783.pdf [accessed May 3, 2011].

Berger, G. 2008. Sustainability Impact Assessment: Definition, Approaches and Objectives. Presentation at OECD Workshop on Sustainability Assessment Methodologies, January 14-15, 2008, Amsterdam [online]. Available: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/16/52/39924538.pdf [accessed May 3, 2011].

Clark, W.C. 2007. Sustainability science: A room of its own. Proc.Natl Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104(6):1737-1738.

Dyer, J.A. 2003. Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary educational models and nursing education. Nurs. Educ. Perspect. 24(4):186-188.

EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). 2010. Sustainable Technologies. Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [online]. Available: http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/ [accessed May 3, 2011].

EPA. 2011. Modeling Glossary. Council for Regulatory Environmental Modeling, Office of Science Advisor, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [online]. Available: http://www.epa.gov/crem/glossary.html [accessed May 3, 2011].

Merriam-Webster. 2001. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.

NRC (National Research Council). 1999. Our Common Journey: A Transition toward Sustainability. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 2000. Knowledge Management: The New Challenge for Firms and Organizations, September 21 and 22, 2000, Ottawa, Canada [online]. Available: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/10/13/2667415.pdf [accessed May 3, 2011].

OECD. 2011a. OECD Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators: Communities. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [online]. Available: http://www.oecdsafetyindicators.org/node/565 [accessed May 31, 2011].

OECD. 2011b. Sustainable Development Glossary. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [online]. Available: http://www.oecd.org/glossary/0,3414,en_2649_37425_1970394_1_1_1_37425,00.html [accessed Apr. 19, 2011].

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Glossary." National Research Council. 2011. Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13152.
×

USGS (U.S. Geological Survey). 2011. USGS Science and Decisions Center. Information Sheet. Ver. 1, Feb. 28, 2011.

van Osch, W., and M. Avital. 2010. From Green IT to Sustainable Innovation. Paper 490 in AMCIS 2010 Proceedings. AIS Electronic Library [online]. Available: http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2010/490 [accessed May 3, 2011].

WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development). 1987. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future. United Nations Documents [online]. Available: http://www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm [accessed May 3, 2011].

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Glossary." National Research Council. 2011. Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13152.
×
Page 135
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Glossary." National Research Council. 2011. Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13152.
×
Page 136
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Glossary." National Research Council. 2011. Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13152.
×
Page 137
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Glossary." National Research Council. 2011. Sustainability and the U.S. EPA. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13152.
×
Page 138
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Sustainability is based on a simple and long-recognized factual premise: Everything that humans require for their survival and well-being depends, directly or indirectly, on the natural environment. The environment provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.

Recognizing the importance of sustainability to its work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to create programs and applications in a variety of areas to better incorporate sustainability into decision-making at the agency. To further strengthen the scientific basis for sustainability as it applies to human health and environmental protection, the EPA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to provide a framework for incorporating sustainability into the EPA's principles and decision-making.

This framework, Sustainability and the U.S. EPA, provides recommendations for a sustainability approach that both incorporates and goes beyond an approach based on assessing and managing the risks posed by pollutants that has largely shaped environmental policy since the 1980s. Although risk-based methods have led to many successes and remain important tools, the report concludes that they are not adequate to address many of the complex problems that put current and future generations at risk, such as depletion of natural resources, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. Moreover, sophisticated tools are increasingly available to address cross-cutting, complex, and challenging issues that go beyond risk management.

The report recommends that EPA formally adopt as its sustainability paradigm the widely used "three pillars" approach, which means considering the environmental, social, and economic impacts of an action or decision. Health should be expressly included in the "social" pillar. EPA should also articulate its vision for sustainability and develop a set of sustainability principles that would underlie all agency policies and programs.

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