Sustainability is a complex concept comprised of multiple facets such as social, environmental, economic and more that challenges traditional norms of organisational practices. But there is a lack of generally accepted sustainability principles that is supported by most of the organisational stakeholders, and a pattern oriented methodology that is entirely backed by the organisational resources...

Consider the problem of protecting endangered species by selecting patches of land to be used for conservation purposes. Typically, the availability of patches changes over time, and recommendations must be made dynamically. This is a challenging prototypical example of a sequential optimization problem under uncertainty in computational sustainability. Existing techniques do not scale to probl...

In this issue of PLoS Biology, Burger and colleagues make several important contributions to the discourse of sustainability science, recalling limits of human economic and population growth derived from macroecology and physical principles [1]. We agree with many of the points offered in their paper in this issue and with those in the paper by Brown and colleagues [2]. However, we also believe...

Sustainability is a grand challenge of our time. While there is a universal recognition that sustainability includes social, economic, and environmental components, the relationship and interchangeability between these components has been debated, resulting in three distinct sustainability perspectives: weak, strong, and absurdly strong sustainability. However, despite this active debate, few h...

Sustainability of innovations reflects not only the economic aspect, but also the social and environmental concerns embedded on innovation, whilst dynamic capability indicates the sources of knowledge to achieve that sustainability. Hence, this paper places an emphasis on innovation as the means to add not only economic value, but also to the environment and society and also in capabilities tha...

SUMMER 2014 31 Ecological processes that occur at global scales are among the most impressive natural phenomena on Earth; they link environments across the globe and capture the imagination of observers. For example, billions of North American birds, representing more than 400 species, migrate annually, often thousands of miles, frequently under the cover of darkness, between breeding and nonbr...

The study investigates whether the present pattern of urban development in India in the creation of mega cities is sustainable and what it can learn from the global megacities. This has been done by comparing the two Indian cities Mumbai and Bangalore with selected mega cities of the worlds representing different stages of development (Shanghai, London, and Singapore) using an indicator-based a...

Article history: Received 12 May 2006 Received in revised form 6 October 2006 Accepted 9 October 2006 Available online 30 November 2006 Most definitions of sustainability imply that a system is to be maintained at a certain level, held within certain limits, into the indefinite future. Sustainability denies run-away growth, but it also avoids any decline or destruction. This sustainability path...

Integrated analysis on socio-economic metabolism could provide a basis for understanding and optimizing regional sustainability. The paper conducted socio-economic metabolism analysis by means of the emergy accounting method coupled with data envelopment analysis and decomposition analysis techniques to assess the sustainability of Qingyang city and its eight sub-region system, as well as to id...