IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

ABSTRACT

This book examines how governments in industrialized countries have engaged with the challenge of sustained development over the past decade. Analysis of initiatives undertaken by nine national governments and the European Union reveal important differences in the ways the international commitment to sustainable devolopment has been received.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

District six, the sixth municipal district of Cape Town was known as a community that accommodated diverse ethnicity, freed slaves, merchants, artisans and mostly immigrants; a notable area with road networks to urban areas and port at the inception of the twentieth century. However, the good story changed to an era of marginalization. The black South Africans were forcefully asked to leave the district in 1901, the flourishing class found their way to the suburbs and the previously flourishing area became a neglected city. In 1966 it was declared a white area under Act of 1950 (the group areas), it became a desert land as houses were flattened by bulldozers. [1] This ugly incidence led to this statement from one of the notable proponents of sustainable development. “Sustainability…suggests all humanity has a similar interest in ‘sustainable housing’ or ‘sustainable urban development’; that if we simply recognized our common interests everything would be fine, there would be an end to, ill treatment, segregation, housing problems, congestion, penury and incessant slum. Yet social sustainability and urban development are conflict-laden areas, and this is very evident in the case of District Six. (Lucien Le Grange, director of the School of Architecture at the University of Cape Town). Having said this, this essay explains the concept of sustainable development, analyse its implementation in buildings and practice. Dwelling solely on the impact of social dimension which is believed to have been disregarded overtime, the essay demonstrates way by which stakeholders have reacted to social sustainability while implementing sustainable development, an example in Nigeria and United Kingdom was used for this analysis to show the impact of social sustainability of sustainable development. Furthermore, [4] noted that sustainable development means total regard for the integrity of nature as well as the needs and privileges of present and future generations,