1. Sustainability – why is it way beyond the Triple Bottom Line ?
Richard Donnelly
Dr Carol Boyle
International Centre for Sustainability Engineering and Research
University of Auckland

2. Masters Research Sustainability of urban water resources management
Incorporating sustainability thinking into engineering
How engineers can address sustainability

3. The Triple Bottom Line Concept
Three Pillars of Sustainable Development
Society
Environment
Sustainable Development
Economy

4. The Triple Bottom Line Concept
Environment
Society
Economy

5. The Triple Bottom Line Concept
The Wuppertal Prism
Source:
The Wuppertal Institute,

6. Progress toward Sustainable Development
The TBL Approach
Guiding
Vision
Stakeholder participation
Sustainability principles
Sustainability
Criteria
Sustainability
Assessment
Impacts & benefits
Achievement of goals
Progress toward Sustainable Development

7. TBL In Society Accepted concept Incorporated in law
TBL assessments widely used
Business reporting tool
Expands decision-making scope
Significant advancement over previous assessment tools

8. Does Triple Bottom Line Thinking Address Sustainability ?
No – TBL does not
address sustainability

9. Sustainability of Processes
Sustainability – “the ability to be sustained”
A property only of processes
Objects… beget systems… beget processes
Processes meet needs
Systems generate processes but always changing

10. The Urban Water Cycle A Process… From the Sky to the Sea Source:
From the Sky to the Sea: The Auckland Water Management Plan

11. Processes can only be sustainable if the generating systems keep functioning and the necessary resources are available

12. Problems with TBL Does not address sustainability
Will not deliver sustainable development
Does not consider long-term futures
Does not consider cumulative impacts
Does not challenge existing paradigms
Does not provide “real world” justification for change
Expensive & time consuming

13. Sustainability & Risk TBL impacts do affect sustainability
Impact assessment alone is insufficient to ensure sustainability
Companies, cities & societies need to consider risks to sustainability
E.g. Auckland City

14. Auckland Transportation
Congestion costs $ 1 Billion / year
$ 3.5 Billion roading plan

15. Auckland Wastewater Infrastructure capacity issues
Mangere WWTP at capacity by 2014
Western Interceptor at capacity by 2005

16. Auckland Electricity National grid won’t meet Auckland demand by 2010
$ 1.5 billion upgrade by 2010
$ 1 billion further 2010 – 2020

17. Auckland – Other Issues
Metropolitan aggregate sources exhausted
Concerns over global oil production

18. Sources of Risk
Inefficiencies in technology, production processes & infrastructure systems
Environmental, social, economic & physical resource limits
Increasing costs to meet increasing demand

19. Risk-based Planning
TBL approaches cannot identify & address long-term risks to sustainability
We need to ensure the sustainability of:
Business activities
Critical services e.g. transportation
Provision of important resources
Now & for future generations

20. Risk-based Planning Identify system limits
Determine supply / demand conflicts
Identify threats & risks to sustainability
Identify actions to address them
Co-ordinated, high level, integrated, multi-disciplinary planning

21. Summary
TBL represents relationships between environment, society & economy
TBL is important for informing decision- making processes
TBL is not synonymous with achieving sustainable development
Long-term risk-based planning is required to ensure future generations can meet their needs

22. Thank you