CHAPTER FIVE ABSTRACT

Chapter Five Implementing Sustainability in the Current Paradigm Abstract Chapter five discusses implementation initiatives and assesses the overall achievements and learning, harvested from both top-down as well as bottom-up global undertakings in implementing sustainability since 1987. A great deal of research has been focused on the development of a variety of application methodologies in the form of principles, models, methods, indicators, monitors and assessment tools. As the world was waking up and starting to understand the seriousness of the emerging problems and challenges, the sustainability discourse became a topic on many corporate, business and political agendas. Scientific as well as other academic research into sustainability and new technologies started to flourish. Many organisations, research institutions, NGOs and pioneering individuals worldwide worked with the concept, and developed frameworks and tools that could be used for sustainable development activities. The chapter examines these endeavours, covering some of the key implementation tools that grew from academic research as well as from business sectors.

Numerous models have seen the light of day since the Rio Summit in 1992 and new models are continually being added to the list. The chapter will document some of the most critical models as well as examples of assessments and standards to give an idea of the wide spectrum of implementation attempts, as well as the complexity that they contain.