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The aim of this study is to define the concept of sustainability as it applies to one of the most competitive and accelerated subsystem of human activity, elite sport (or professional sport) to construct a robust understanding of it. Based on qualitative research with Hungarian Olympic athletes, we created an elite-sport-based Sustainable Sport questionnaire with 23 statements to test and map emerging topics related to elite sport. Revealed elements of Sustainable Sport include (1) future orientation, (2) community, (3) decommodification, and (4) a redefined concept of performance. This definition reflects the problems of sport particularly, and (hypothetically) of society and the economy in general. It points toward both environmental sustainability (strong sustainability) and enhanced wellbeing and may serve as a broader guide to human activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product labels are designed to diminish producer-consumer information asymmetry, which represents a typical information gap. However, sustainability science, in its broadest sense, is another 'agent' for achieving sustainable development, while producer-science and consumer-science information gaps can also be identified. As a step towards closing these gaps, we propose a multidimensional form of eco-labelling in the food sector: a well-chosen system of labels that refer to the possible trade-offs known to sustainability science. The dimensions proposed in our model reflect types of negative environmental effects: the entities harmfully affected by production may be (1) other, non-human species (OTHER; 0th party), (2) other people thousands of miles away in space (FARTHER; 1st party), (3) consumers themselves in the present (HERE; 2nd party), or (4) other people later in time (LATER; 3rd party). We apply this framework to ethical labelling in the food sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is the Netherlands sustainable or not? The answer inherently involves addressing the issues of system boundaries, statistical units and a vision of sustainability. As an analytical answer we offer the Intenscope (IS), a two-dimensional graphical tool based on dimensionless percentages of triple rate ratios which overcomes several limitations of sustainability analyses. First, it is not sensitive to the size of statistical units so an area with twice the amount of resources of another, with double the population (and double the total consumption) would have the same triple ratio of population:biocapacity:consumption. Second, the IS is sensitive to anomalies which may originate either from the use of arbitrary statistical units (e.g. the boundaries of a city) or those which may indicate truly unsustainable practices. To judge spatial sustainability we use ecological footprint data from which we construct a plausible country plot based on the IS. Despite the relative nature of IS-analyses, the employed consumption:biocapacity ratio inherently refers to the absolute limit of sustainability: we cannot continually use more resources on a global scale than nature provides us with. The analysis introduces some associations of human preferences and attributions of settlement types which may help to elaborate sustainability policies based on voluntary action. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper introduces the concept of plotting four-dimensional data in two dimensions without loss of information; namely, the dataquadrate concept. Here objects are represented as quadrates instead of points in a practical 4-axis Cartesian coordinate system. This procedure helps us imagine and analyze complex relations where four different, non-negative variables influence processes. This tool is of high utility for analyzing specific human–environment issues. Here we analyze a monetary measure (gross domestic product; GDP), a hedonic measure (subjective wellbeing), a limiting measure (ecological footprint) and a demographic measure (human population). Our system adds new insights to the de-growth debate discussed in a Journal of Cleaner Production special issue (vol. 18, 2010) and systematically illuminates lots of confusing paradoxes such as the downward sloping part of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, the Jevons'' paradox, and the Easterlin paradox. In this paper all these phenomena are analyzed for the USA and for China in 1990 and in 2007. By utilizing such methodology, when mitigating environmental problems we are not limited to negative, restrictive messages but are enabled to create new strategic ways of problem solving about how to optimize the human ‘celestial footprint’ (the ratio of human wellbeing to human environmental load). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Environmental education is assumed to have a significant influence on the environmental awareness, everyday lifestyles and consumer behavior of students. Several higher education institutions have recently recognized the importance of integrating sustainability issues into education to make this impact focused and explicit. This paper explores the relationship strength between environmental education and environmental knowledge, attitudes and reported actual behavior of university and high school students, providing a comparative questionnaire survey analysis which is unique in the literature. The results show a strong correlation between the intensity of environmental education and the environmental knowledge of students. This is partly due to the environmental education itself and partly due to the higher intrinsic motivation of committed students who voluntarily participate in environmental education, primarily at university level. The focus of the environmental education appears to be important in shaping attitudes about sustainable consumption. Addressing the issue of consumerism in environmental education clearly increases awareness of the need for consumption-related lifestyle changes. Based on Multidimensional Scaling methodology, the interdependence of several influencing variables is explored and illustrated graphically. Respondents are classified into five clusters – hedonist, techno-optimist, active environmentalist, familiar and careless – according to their environmental knowledge, attitudes, consumer behavior and everyday environmental awareness. Consistencies and inconsistencies in behavior are then identified in order to promote the creation of more effective educational instruments for supporting sustainable consumption and lifestyles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]