Practicing Sustainability

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 RapidProductivity Growth

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 MacArthur 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.

Praise for Practicing Sustainability:

"Delightful...the chapters are gems of precision and insight."-Michael Spence, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics

"This book so aptly demonstrates [that] the concept of sustainability can be applied to many different areas, which could be woven together into a sustainability agenda."-Robert Rubin, Co-Chairman, Council on Foreign Relations, and Former U.S. Secretary of Treasury

"Seminal...a thoughtful and refreshingly different book."-Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum

"Mahatma Gandhi once said 'unsustainable lifestyles and unacceptable poverty should become problems of the past, to achieve harmony with nature and with each other.' Practicing Sustainability not only brings out the relevance of this vision clearly, but also the need to develop better concepts and pathways to achieve that vision."-M.S. Swaminathan, World Food Prize Laureate and Member of Parliament, India

"An enlightening book that demystifies what sustainability really means with a fresh, unusual range of voices and practical insights. Practicing Sustainability should be read by anyone who cares about the future of our planet."-Neal Lane, Former Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. 

"In this unique collection, each reader will find three or four sparks-things that will connect with their head or heart or both, and perhaps spur them to real action. It's a necessary book!"-Bill McKibben, Founder, 350.org, and author of The End of Nature, Deep Economy, and Eaarth.

"Practicing Sustainability is an engaging and ultimately uplifting kaleidoscope of ideas from the people on the front lines of building a better planet."-Greg Ip, author of The Little Book of Economics

"The popularity of "sustainability" has taken a toll on its meaning-it is too often used as a lofty aspiration or as a vague objective.