This completely revised fourth edition of Fundamentals of Sustainable Development provides an accessible and interdisciplinary introduction to sustainable development for undergraduate and postgraduate students across the natural and social sciences, and beyond. It is designed to easily align with structured modules to enable students to work through topics one by one.
Building on the previous edition’s user-friendly and comprehensive overview, this edition offers a macro and micro perspective on the challenges of sustainable, holistic development, looking at the impacts on global society in addition to people, planet, and profit. It discusses in detail the benefits and limitations of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, linking these to new case studies throughout to provide a broad, international lens and highlighting regionally-specific environmental issues, ecological approaches, indigenous perspectives, and successful development strategies. The increasing risks of zoonoses and pandemics and their impact on sustainable development are discussed, as human activities within nature rise as a result of climate change. Timely topics on sustainable business are introduced across the book, including carbon footprints, ecolabels, greenwashing, measuring and reporting, degrowth, and personal and professional action points. It also taps into timely philosophical discussions relating to the Anthropocene, such as climate anxiety, emotional connection to nature, and more-than-human debates.
For instructors and students, new and revised supplemental resources can be accessed via the book's website, including PowerPoints, lab-based exercises such as spreadsheet modelling, debate assignments and research tasks. This is the must-have resource for students and lecturers in all disciplines who have an interest in the sustainability of our planet, our human society and global economy.
Introduction
Part 1: Sustainable development, the voyage of discovery of the twenty-first century
1. The Adventure: New paradigms
2. The Complexity: People, Planet and Profit
3. The Urgency: Climate change has started
Part 2: Zooming out to global society
4. Now, soon and later: Thinking from visions of the future
5. Here, there and far away: Global entanglement
6. Agenda 2030: Global Goals
7. Agenda 2100: Global transition
Part 3: Zooming in on Planet, Profit, People
8. Planet: Living with nature
9. Profit: Sustainable business
10. People: A dignified life
Part 4: Professional and personal action perspectives
11. Thinking differently: Who owns the Earth?
12. You, human
Appendix: RESFIA+D
Biography
Niko Roorda has worked from 1991 as an education developer, author and senior consultant on sustainable development, ESG and change management for companies and universities in several countries. Based on the first 20 years of his experience in these topics, he received his PhD from Maastricht University in 2010. For his achievements, Roorda received the Dutch National Award for Innovation and Sustainable Development. In 2018 he was selected as the Sustainable Teacher of the Year in the Higher Education category in the Netherlands.
“Based on case studies and presented with different examples and colour images, this is a fascinating and well-written book. After reading, I felt that I learned a lot from it.”
Kundan Sagar, District Disaster Management Authority, Madhubani, India
Praise from previous editions
"There is an ever increasingly large number of books on the market dealing with sustainable development, so any new book has to offer something new. Fundamentals of Sustainable Development by Niko Roorda, offers just that in a very innovative way.The book really is interdisciplinary, and while challenging in places is truly accessible to readers of all backgrounds. The presentation of the book is excellent and the format makes this a very attractive paperback, and at 350 pages, it is not too big for students (and lecturers) to carry around. This is a colourful and intriguing textbook which I highly recommend. It is the sort of book you wish you had written yourself, but Niko Roorda has done just that and in the process added a remarkable edition to the sustainability library."
Professor Nick Gray, Trinity College
"The particular strength of Fundamentals of Sustainable Development lies in bringing together issues of equity (among people) arising from insufficient recognition of ecology (around the planet) in the economy of growth (as irresponsible profits). We strongly recommend careful reading – not just by federal and provincial bureaucrats and legislatures but also by organisations of employers and labour."
Dr A. Ercelan and Muhammad Ali Shah, The News on Sunday
