Achieving Sustainability---Reform or

Transformation?William E. Rees

Journal of Planning Literature, 1995

The Changing Global Context

• “Humankind, thoroughly alienated from nature, is set on an unsustainable course that certainly degrades the natural “environment” and that could plausible end with the ecological razing of the earth”

• Do you agree/disagree?

The Changing Global Context

• “With the onset of human-induced global change, we have reached a unique juncture in history and planning for ecologically sustainable economic development requires revisiting many of the assumptions on which prevailing planning and development models are based”

Comparing Competing Paradigms

• Expansionist Paradigm • Steady State (Ecological Alternative)• Author’s Argument: “Many of our so-

called environmental problems stem from flaws in the prevailing expansionist paradigm that can be remedied only by a global shift toward the ecological steady state”

Comparing Competing Paradigms

• Expansionist Paradigm• Nature is knowable through reductionist

analysis, observation, and experimentation; the observer is separate from the observed; nature is thus objectified.

• Economic rationality relies heavily on free and open markets

Comparing Competing Paradigms

• Steady-State (Ecological Worldview)• The behavior of natural systems is

unknowable (unpredictable) at the whole systems level, uncertainty is large and irreducible

• Holistic approaches provide the best understanding of global change

• Humankind is an integral part of the ecosphere

• There is no truly objective knowledge• Economy is seen as a highly-ordered, dynamic

system maintained by available energy and matter

The Ecological Footprint of the Human Economy

• Optimal Sustainable Scale- Does the economy have an optimal size?

The Ecological Footprint of the Human Economy

• Optimal Sustainable Scale

• Curves intersect when falling marginal benefits just equal rising marginal costs

Planning for Sustainability

• Author’s Conclusions: The prevailing expansionist worldview could neither anticipate nor can it explain the pace of global ecological change.

• What can be done?

Planning for Sustainability

• Environmental Assessments• Pollution control and environmental

standards legislation• Growth management strategies

A Special Role for Planners

• Planners are “uniquely positioned” to play a leadership role

• For planners, sustainability means developing and promoting plans that contribute to more efficient urban form and to stronger social fabric devel

Planning for Sustainability

• The Do-Nothing Alternative—How plausible is the ecodisaster?

The Do-Nothing Alternative

• Supported by expansionist beliefs, “to continue as at present with planners acting as little more than developmental traffic cops”

• Present ecological trends, prevailing sociopolitical values, and the dominant economic paradigm all enhance the plausibility of an ecological disaster scenario.

What can Planners do?

• Planners have a professional duty to consider the evidence supporting various alternatives before committing to a particular sustainable-development path.

Consequences Matrix