Title
VIDEO: Session 1: Sustainability: The History of an Idea
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Event Date
2-28-2014
Series
Martz Winter Symposium (1st: 2014: Boulder, Colo.)
Description
This session will trace the history of the idea of sustainability in various fields, including natural resources and environmental law, economics, international development policy, and business. In doing so, it will explore the different meanings and understandings of sustainability through time, its manifestation in the environmental history of particular places such as the American West, and its growing use by the business community.
VIDEO:
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
SESSION 1: Sustainability: The History of an Idea
Moderator: William Boyd, Associate Professor, University of Colorado Law School
Speakers:
Charles Wilkinson, Professor, University of Colorado Law School
Paul Sutter, Associate Professor, University of Colorado Department of History
Moderator
William Boyd
Citation Information
Wilkinson, Charles and Sutter, Paul, "VIDEO: Session 1: Sustainability: The History of an Idea" (2014). Natural Resource Industries and the Sustainability Challenge (Martz Winter Symposium, February 27-28).
https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/natural-resource-industries-and-the-sustainability-challenge/4
Comments
For more than two decades, sustainability has gained currency as a broad organizing principle for efforts to develop and use energy, natural resources, and the environment in ways that allow society to meet its needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. More recently, sustainability has been embraced by businesses across multiple sectors as part of a broader movement of corporate social responsibility. Hardly a day goes by without news of another corporate initiative on sustainability. Much of the enthusiasm for sustainability 2 in the business community has been centered in “new economy” sectors and among retail giants such as Wal-Mart. Much of it has likewise been motivated by the realization that companies can actually save money by embracing more sustainable practices.
In the traditional natural resources industries, there is an increasing recognition of the considerable challenges facing efforts to operationalize this broad concept in the context of resource extraction and development. In the long run, the promise of sustainability will depend on the natural resource industries—those that provide energy, water, fiber, and raw materials for a growing population—translating this concept into action.
This conference will draw together people from different disciplines and backgrounds to discuss the specific challenges confronting efforts to operationalize sustainability in the context of natural resource industries broadly understood. The symposium will discuss the idea of sustainability and how it is taking shape in particular places and sectors; rigorously explore current efforts to re-organize certain business practices under the rubric of sustainability; and endeavor to identify practical, meaningful actions to deepen ongoing efforts to make sustainability a central tenet of our economic, social, and environmental future.