Guru Madhavan & Barbara Oakley 
Practicing Sustainability 

Sustainability applies to everybody. But everybody applies it differently, by defining and shaping it differently—much as water is edged and shaped by its container. It is conceived in absolute terms but underpinned by a great diversity of relatively “green”—and sometimes contradictory—practices that can each make society only more or less sustainable. In
Practicing Sustainability, chefs,  poets, music directors, evangelical pastors, skyscraper architects, artists, filmmakers, as well as scientific leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, business executives, policy makers, and the contrarians, shed light on our understanding of sustainability and the role that each of us can play. Each contributor addresses what sustainability means, what is most appealing about the concept, and what they would like to change to improve the perception and practice of sustainability. What emerges from their essays is a wide spectrum of views that confirm an important insight: Sustainability is pursued in different ways not only due to different interpretations, but also because of varying incentives, trade-offs, and altruistic motives. Practicing and achieving sustainability starts with a willingness to look critically at the concept. It also means enabling rich and vigorous discussion based on pragmatism and common sense to determine a framework for best ideas and practices. With time and the much needed critical thinking, sustainable development will become a more integral part of our culture. By sharing experiences and crisp insights from today’s savants,
Practicing Sustainability serves as a stepping stone to the future.

Table of Content

Biographical Information
Preface, It’s Different: Sustainability and Touchy Trade-Offs, Editors
Acknowledgements
Foreword, Michael Spence
Editorial, Klaus Schwab
Editorial, Sustaining Sustainability: Thoughts on Managing Trade-Offs and Competing Considerations, Robert Rubin
Editorial, Sustainability: Can You Get There, If You Don’t Know Where “There” Is? George Whitesides 

1. What Medical Equipment Taught Me About Sustainability, Robert Malkin

2. Food: The Ultimate Answer, José Andrés

3. A Village of Hope: The Interplay of Sustainability and Community Development, Mark Templer

4. Trade-Offs in Sustainable Development, Homi Kharas

5. Sustainable Skyscrapers and the Well-Being of the City, Richard Cook

6. Dimensional Stability, Heidi Williamson

7. Sustainability: A Tale of Twin Brothers, Ken Wilson

8. Cooperation and Sustainability, Simon Levin

9. The Sincerity of Purpose: Sustainability and World Peace, Arun Gandhi

10. Recycling Reinvented: Music and Sustainability, José-Luis Novo

11. Connectivity and Sustainability: Perspectives from Landscape and Urban Design, Diana Balmori

12. Nutrition and Sustainability, Marc Van Ameringen

13. A Poet in the Car Company: Sustainability of Passion and Profitability, David Berdish

14. The Need for Sustainable Heretics, Freeman Dyson

15. Performance with Purpose, Dave Haft

16. The Business of Sustainability: A Different Design Question, Gregor Barnum

17. Sustaining Population Health, Jacqueline Sherris

18. The Struggle to Make Sustainable Change in Global Health, Laurie Garrett and Zoe Liberman

19. Economic Growth and Sustainability Rooted in Financial Literacy, John Hope Bryant

20. Approaching the Future with Optimism, Robyn Beavers

21. A Decent Place to Live, Jonathan Reckford

22. From Field to Market: Changing our Focus, Gerald Steiner

23. Joules: The Currency of Sustainability, Chandrakant Patel

24. Spoons or Tractors: Sustainable Development as Rapid Productivity Growth in Developing Nations, Robert Atkinson

25. Unlocking the Energy of Business to Effect Change, Meg Crawford

26. Put it on Paper: Lowering Healthcare Costs, Una Ryan

27. Mind the Gap: A Different Take on Sustainability, Matthew Taylor

28. Sustainable Scientific Research, K.R. Sreenivasan

29. Energizing Sustainable Development, V.S. Ramamurthy and Narendar Pani

30. The Importance of Sustainability in Helping the Poor, Mechai Viravaidya

31. Why is Waste a Dirty Word? Melanie Walker

32. How Much Is Enough? Making It Personal, Toinette Lippe

33. Teaching Sustainability in the Anthropocene Era, Kai Lee and Richard Howarth

34. Don’t Sustain; Advance, Kevin Finneran

35. Changemakers for Sustainability, Karabi Acharya

36. What Social Entrepreneurs Taught me about Sustainability, Mirjam Schöning

37. An Emotional Connection with Sustainability through Documentary Films, Heather Mac Andrew and David Springbett

38. Conserving Energy for Tomorrow without Sacrificing Quality of Our Lives, Scott Tew

39. Sustainability of Our Ocean Resources, James Barry

40. Will it Last? Will it Endure? Andrea Coleman and Barry Coleman

41. The Holistic Enchilada: Moving Toward Food System Sustainability, Wayne Roberts

42. Bringing Organizational Sustainability to Public Postsecondary Education, Christopher Hayter and Robert Hayter

43. Ensuring Connections, Harvey Locke

44. Beyond the Status Quo: Catalyzing Sustainability in the Arts, Jane Milosch

45. Historic Preservation: The Real Sustainable Development, Donovan Rypkema

46. Bending Toward Justice: The Search for Sustainable Energy, Michael Brune



Afterword, M.S. Swaminathan

About the author

Guruprasad Madhavan (Editor) is a program officer at the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council—collectively known as the National Academies—in Washington, DC.

Barbara Oakley (Editor) is an associate professor of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and a former vice-president of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

David Green (Editor) is a Mac Arthur Fellow, Ashoka Fellow and is recognized by the Schwab Foundation as a leading social entrepreneur.

David Koon (Editor) represented the 135th district of the New York State Legislative Assembly from 1996 to 2010.

Penny Low (Editor) is a Member of Parliament of Singapore, and was the youngest elected female representative in 2001.

Michael Spence (Foreword) is William R. Berkley Professor in Economics and Business at New York University, and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Klaus Schwab (Editorial) is founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Robert Rubin (Editorial) is Co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as the 70th Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.

George Whitesides (Editorial) is Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University.


M. S. Swaminathan (Afterword) is a Member of the Indian Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and a World Food Prize Laureate.