Academic literature on the topic 'Environmentally Sustainable Construction not elsewhere classified'

Land degradation is a permanent global threat that requires an interdisciplinary approach to addressing solutions in a given territory. This study, therefore, analyses environmentally sensitive areas to land degradation using the Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use (MEDALUS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) method through a multi-criteria approach in the district of Florida (Peru). For the method, we considered the main quality indicators such as: Climate Quality Index (CQI), Soil Quality Index (SQI), Vegetation Quality Index (VQI), and Management Quality Index (MQI). There were also identified groups of parameters for each of the quality indicators analyzed. The results showed that 2.96% of the study area is classified as critical; 48.85% of the surface is classified as fragile; 15.48% of the areas are potentially endangered, and 30.46% are not threatened by degradation processes. Furthermore, SQI, VQI, and MQI induced degradation processes in the area. Based on the results, five restoration proposals were made in the study area: (i) organic manure production, (ii) cultivated and improved pastures and livestock improvement, (iii) native forest restoration, (iv) construction of reservoirs in the top hills and (v) uses of new technologies. The findings and proposals can be a basic support and further improved by decision-makers when implemented in situ to mitigate degradation for a sustainable use of the territory.

Sustainable management of water resources is imperative in the Western Balkan (WB) region, due to the seasonal, spatial and quality distribution of these resources. This paper analyzed water consumption and associated relationships between the economic sectors in Macedonia in 2005, based on input–output (IO) analysis. Using an environmentally extended IO framework, water consumption was investigated by developing several indicators. Disaggregation of the agriculture sector into 11 sub-sectors, combined with backward and forward linkage analysis, allowed us to identify rice, fruits, grapes and wine, other crop and cattle production as key water-consuming sub-sectors. The developed indicators revealed a high proportion of direct water consumption in agriculture and some other non-agricultural sectors such as mining and quarrying, other mining and quarrying products, food products and beverages as well as electrical machinery, which imposed significant pressure on natural water resources in Macedonia. Therefore, changes in production technology and specializations in Macedonia toward less water-intensive options are needed to ease the pressure on natural water resources. Extending the existing water pricing policy to capture economic, social and environmental aspects should also be considered. Moreover, the development and construction of water accounts and the disaggregation procedure have valuable implications for the WB countries. Applications elsewhere following this Macedonian example can provide a meaningful understanding of the role of water and interdependencies at regional level and increase awareness of the water resource availability at trans-boundary scale.

It is common to increase road capacity by constructing ring roads to reduce traffic congestion in city areas, although this is often found to be ineffective in the long run. Accordingly, this study investigates various traffic congestion management approaches and their effectiveness in major cities, and explores an identical transport problem in Almaty, Kazakhstan: The Big Almaty Ring Road (BAKAD). Several case examples from the existing literature are examined in which various approaches were taken for managing traffic congestion problems, and these approaches are classified into three concepts. The first concept comprises heavy engineering measures such as ring road development, new road construction, expansion of existing roads, etc. Such measures can initially reduce traffic congestion, but often become ineffective with time due to the generation of induced traffic. Many cities have taken Push and Pull measures that ensure more efficient use of existing capacity and have initiated environmentally friendly alternative transportation modes such as decreased car usage; promotion of public transport, biking and walking; minimization of the necessity of people’s movement by changing urban land use patterns; and so on. These approaches have been found to be effective in providing sustainable transportation solutions and are classified as concept 2. Nevertheless, Push and Pull measures might not be enough for managing traffic congestion, and it might be necessary to increase the road capacity through heavy engineering measures, especially if the city experiences heavy transit traffic. This combined approach is categorized as concept 3. Consequently, the BAKAD project is examined under the umbrella of three concepts, and recommendations are provided based on the findings from the experience of different cities and interviews with experts from Almaty city. Both the results and recommendations developed are relevant for this specific case only, and are not necessarily transferable.

The possibility of using recycled waste medical-glass aggregate (RGA) as a fine aggregate in the production of normal-strength concrete was investigated in this study. The influence of RGA as crushed sand (CS) replacement at different levels (by volume) of 0 – 100% (an interval of 20%) on the engineering properties and durability of concrete was also studied. Results show that the replacement of CS by RGA insignificantly affected the workability and unit weight of fresh concrete mixtures. Besides, using RGA to replace 20 – 60% CS was beneficial in terms of compressive strength, drying shrinkage, and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV). At these replacement levels, the dry density values were found to increase and the water absorption values were reduced as well. However, replacing CS with RGA up to 80% and 100% caused a reduction in compressive strength, dry density, and UPV and an increase in water absorption and drying shrinkage of concretes. Closed correlations among the above-mentioned concrete properties were also found in this study. All of the concrete samples obtained compressive strength values higher than the target strength (≥ 25 MPa) and they were classified as very good quality concretes with UPV values of above 4100 m/s. The experimental results demonstrate a high possibility of producing normal-strength concrete with a fine aggregate of RGA as either partially or fully replacement of CS. This also provides an environmentally-friendly solution for recycling waste medical glass in construction materials for sustainable development.

Traditional knowledge and local wisdom related to the utilization of natural resources of the forest developed as a multi-disciplinary in the study of ethnobiology, ethnoecology, ethnoforestry, to ethno-conservation. Unfortunately, in ethnobotany studies, there are publicity gaps in documenting ecological (biological) and cultural (social) aspects in Papua related to community-based conservation management. Therefore, it is important to conduct a study related to the documentation of community-based conservation knowledge in West Papua. The purpose of this research study is to construct ethno-noconstruction of palm plants as material for making traditional bubu by the Maybrat tribe in West Papua. The results of scoping of local knowledge of bubu making and sero making techniques of the Maybrat are part of cognitive symbols that are classified as individual life skills where the conditions are highly dependent on the state of the environment in which they live and the potential of forest resources. The use of palm trees as natural resources and the local knowledge construction process of making traditional bubu as a manifestation of the Maybrat etnotecnoconservation are closely related to people's livelihoods as active and passive fishermen. Local knowledge in the use of palm trees in the process of its formation is not merely a cognitive dimension, but also the dimension of local conservation values ​​in maintaining an environmentally friendly and sustainable fish capture system that should need to be maintained.

1. INTRODUCTION In New York City a decline in manufacturing has propelled social and economic changes that have transformed certain districts [1,2]. Unused building stock there has been the basis for adaptive reuse yielding new housing for families of varying compositions. The constant pressure of the need for affordable housing has resulted in the conversion of existing abandoned industrial structures, providing a green, environmentally friendly alternative to new construction [3,4,5]. Adaptive reuse provides an opportunity to bring a building up to current codes, to make the layout and building systems more appropriate and efficient, and to help revitalize neighborhoods. The nineteenth through the middle of the twentieth centuries were characterized by urban environments which provided manufacturing jobs and the municipal services and education that supported them [6]. American cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh became boom-towns as people followed employment opportunities and moved to these locations throughout this period [7,8,9]. In the decades after World War II, the creation of highways and freeways–including the interstate highway system that stretched east to west and north to south–led to suburbanization, exemplified by Long Island's mushrooming Levit-town and many more like it [5,10]. These were the Baby Boom years. The suburban sprawl ultimately resulted in the creation of mega cities like New York City. Families typically consisted of a father, mother, and at least two children [16]. This trend was supported by strong manufacturing industries and plentiful space that allowed much of the population to fulfill the American dream of home ownership [2,11]. As labor cost increased due to stricter labor laws, unions, increasing land cost, and higher taxes, many manufacturers began a search for less costly environments, moving first to locations in the less expensive suburbs and then to the South [4,8]. Eventually, American factories moved overseas to places such as China, other Asian countries, and South America. This became known as out sourcing manufacturing [6,7,12]. With the subsequent boom town collapse that began in the 1980s and continued through the new millennium, old U.S. industrial cities faced declining populations, and Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and their like were soon deserted by those who could no longer find employment there [14,40]. City populations decreased by as much as 50% and in some places even more steeply [13]. According to the U.S. Census (figure 1) [13,14], among American cities only New York City's and Los Angeles's populations have grown since the 1980s. Migration for employment opportunities became common and members per household, and households of one or two became not uncommon [15,16]. Typical housing no longer required a big space for shelter and a lawn or garden, and many people looked for smaller units [11,16]. Smaller working spaces made micro-scale businesses possible. New York City is an example of this change. Left with abandoned super block manufacturing buildings such as the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Brooklyn Army Terminal and retired infrastructure, New York City has looked for ways to repurpose these structures [10,17]. Super block, old manufacturing buildings and factories still stand, but in New York and elsewhere some have become mixed-use spaces. The goal of this paper is to examine how New York City served the public by providing working and living space through the conversion of existing super block buildings and creating new public spaces out of under-used or abandoned infrastructure. Comparative case studies are conducted focusing on the micro-scale movement and renewed use of old infrastructure. It considers a future model for sub-divided building spaces and repurposed structures providing shared, public venues as it analyzes this movement structurally and the changes it has wrought on local communities.

El deterioro y agotamiento progresivo de las fuentes de suministro de materiales adecuados para la construcción de infraestructura vial ha llevado al desarrollo de técnicas alternativas de mejoramiento de suelos, dentro de éstas la estabilización química de suelos se presenta como una alternativa técnica, económica y ambientalmente sostenible enfocada al mejoramiento de caminos sin pavimentar de bajo volumen de tránsito. Esta técnica de mejoramiento de suelos consiste en el empleo de productos químicos para mejorar las propiedades ingenieriles de los suelos, reduciendo su plasticidad y haciéndolos más resistentes, ante la acción del tráfico y condiciones ambientales a las que están expuestos. Los estabilizantes químicos que han sido empleados para el mejoramiento de suelos pueden clasificarse, según su naturaleza química, en: polímeros, aceites sulfonados, organosilanos, puzolanas y enzimas. Estas alternativas de mejoramiento de suelos han sido usualmente orientadas a caminos sin pavimentar de mediano y bajo volumen de tránsito, donde el desgaste y la durabilidad de los materiales es debido principalmente a factores climáticos y de intemperismo natural. El intemperismo deteriora los materiales expuestos al exterior produciendo cambios de color, superficies más rugosas, fisuramiento, agrietamiento, pérdida de cohesión y fragmentación, lo que finalmente se traduce en una pérdida de resistencia y efectividad de estos. El intemperismo acelerado es una alternativa que permite evaluar en periodos cortos de tiempo la evolución de las propiedades fisicoquímicas de los materiales y predecir su comportamiento a largo plazo, para ello se cuenta con cámaras de envejecimiento acelerado donde se exponen los materiales a ciclos alternados de luz ultravioleta (UV) y humedad, todo ello a temperaturas elevadas y controladas. The progressive deterioration and depletion of the sources of materials supply suitable for the construction of road infrastructure, the wide variety of soil types and low sustainability and durability of constructive solutions has stimulated the emergence and alternative construction systems evaluation for road sections stabilization, treatment or rehabilitation. Among them, chemical soil stabilization is presented as a technically, economically and environmentally sustainable alternative focused on improving medium and low-volume unpaved roads. This technique involves the use of chemicals to improve the soils engineering properties in order to reduce its plasticity and increase their strength to the action of traffic and environmental conditions to which they are exposed. Chemical stabilizers that have been used for soil improvement can be classified according to their chemical nature, in: polymers, sulfonated oils, silanes, pozzolans and enzymes. These alternatives for soil improvement have been usually aimed over medium and low-volume unpaved roads, where materials wear and durability is mainly due to climatic and natural weathering factors. Natural weathering deteriorates the exposed external materials and it produces color changes, rougher surfaces, fissuring, cracking, fragmentation and loss of cohesion which results in a strength loss, effectiveness and functionality of these materials. The accelerated weathering is a methodology to evaluate the material physicochemical properties evolution in short periods of time and predict long-term behavior by combining the most unfavorable environmental conditions to which the material would be exposed during a relatively long period. For this purpose, tests are performed using a QUV accelerated weathering tester, in which the materials are exposed to alternating cycles ultraviolet light (UV) and moisture. All at high and controlled temperatures. In this research work it intends to evaluate accelerated weathering's effect on the performance and durability of a soil additive with chemical stabilizers of different nature, using a QUV accelerated weathering tester to recreate real environmental conditions, simulating and controlling parameters such as: temperature, humidity (condensation and water spray) and ultraviolet light exposure. This makes it possible to know the behavior and performance of this type of materials over time under weather conditions.

Discourse on green construction and sustainable development is currently a major topic in everywhere, including Indonesia. In every production activities, the manufacturing process always produces waste or residual production. In connection with the issue of sustainable development, certainly, the problem of waste utilization that frequently occur in the industrial sector should be minimized and handled so that no adverse impact to the environment. The interior design enterprise is one of the creative industries which is mostly using wood as a raw materials, waste generated from this manufacturing is not in small amount. The community service was collaborated with two interior design enterprises, namely CV Abstrak 3D and CV Garis Pratama, both located in Kendari and classified as a small enterprises. The main activity was to given assistance on the production process-based eco-design, which is a production process that applies the principles of environmentally friendly in every process. Environmentally friendly starting from the identification phase, production, waste processing, until the marketing phase. Through this community service, an increase in productivity as well as knowledge were achieved by both of partners. One of examples of productivity improvement is the ability of the enterprises to process production waste into some valuable goods Keywords: creative industry, interior design, furniture, eco-design, wood waste utilization

Purpose Green construction has begun implementing sustainable and environmentally friendly practices, but there has not yet been an assessment for green construction supply chain risks in the literature. Identification and assessment of potential risks will result in more appropriate risk mitigation strategies to overcome disruptions affecting higher performance. Thus, this study aims to identify green construction supply chain risks of residential mega-projects. Design/methodology/approach Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) provided a hierarchical model composed of seven layers that elucidated the driving influences between the elements. Matrice d’impacts croises-multiplication appliqúe an classement (MICMAC) analysis classified the elements into the driver, linkage and dependent variables based on their dependence and driving powers, providing a clearer understanding of risk factors and their influential characteristics. Using experts' knowledge and experience is compatible with the subjective nature of ‘supply chain risks’ and is more suitable while collecting pertinent quantitative data which is far more challenging. Findings Tenable output, using an international expert group, addressed key risk factors. Technical expertise and skilled labor, key customers, and corporate culture are found as elements with most driving power, and the final product and logistics coordination and supply chain configuration found as the most dependent risk factors. Managerial implications addressed the most fundamental risk sources and suggested practical proactive risk management approaches to maximize green supply chain performance. Originality/value Identified supply chain oriented key risk factors of the residential green mega projects add novelty to the context of green construction projects' supply chain management. And eliciting the influential relations of the key risk factors provide a bigger picture of key risks in green residential mega projects that can be extended by sub-risks related to process activities. Assessing supply chain risks' interactions in the context of green residential mega projects is a novel contribution to mega construction-project management's body of knowledge. Also, the key risk factors were categorized based on the characteristics known as driving power and dependence.

About half way through Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s film Home (2009) the narrator describes the fall of the Rapa Nui, the indigenous people of the Easter Islands. The narrator posits that the Rapa Nui culture collapsed due to extensive environmental degradation brought about by large-scale deforestation. The Rapa Nui cut down their massive native forests to clear spaces for agriculture, to heat their dwellings, to build canoes and, most importantly, to move their enormous rock sculptures—the Moai. The disappearance of their forests led to island-wide soil erosion and the gradual disappearance of arable land. Caught in the vice of overpopulation but with rapidly dwindling basic resources and no trees to build canoes, they were trapped on the island and watched helplessly as their society fell into disarray. The sequence ends with the narrator’s biting remark: “The real mystery of the Easter Islands is not how its strange statues got there, we know now; it's why the Rapa Nui didn't react in time.” In their unrelenting desire for development, the Rapa Nui appear to have overlooked the role the environment plays in maintaining a society. The island’s Moai accompanying the sequence appear as memento mori, a lesson in the mortality of human cultures brought about by their own misguided and short-sighted practices. Arthus-Bertrand’s Home, a film composed almost entirely of aerial photographs, bears witness to present-day environmental degradation and climate change, constructing society as a fragile structure built upon and sustained by the environment. Home is a call to recognise how contemporary practices of post-industrial societies have come to shape the environment and how they may impact the habitability of Earth in the near future. Through reflexivity and a ritualised structure the text invites spectators to look at themselves in a new light and remake their self-image in the wake of global environmental risk by embracing new, alternative core practices based on balance and interconnectedness. Arthus-Bertrand frames climate change not as a burden, but as a moment of profound realisation of the potential for change and humans ability to create a desirable future through hope and our innate capacity for renewal. This article examines how Arthus-Bertrand’s ritualised construction of climate change aims to remake viewers’ perception of present-day environmental degradation and investigates Home’s place in contemporary climate change communication discourse. Climate change, in its capacity to affect us globally, is considered a world risk. The most recent peer-reviewed Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases has increased markedly since human industrialisation in the 18th century. Moreover, human activities, such as fossil fuel burning and agricultural practices, are “very likely” responsible for the resulting increase in temperature rise (IPPC 37). The increased global temperatures and the subsequent changing weather patterns have a direct and profound impact on the physical and biological systems of our planet, including shrinking glaciers, melting permafrost, coastal erosion, and changes in species distribution and reproduction patterns (Rosenzweig et al. 353). Studies of global security assert that these physiological changes are expected to increase the likelihood of humanitarian disasters, food and water supply shortages, and competition for resources thus resulting in a destabilisation of global safety (Boston et al. 1–2). Human behaviour and dominant practices of modernity are now on a path to materially impact the future habitability of our home, Earth. In contemporary post-industrial societies, however, climate change remains an elusive, intangible threat. Here, the Arctic-bound species forced to adapt to milder climates or the inhabitants of low-lying Pacific islands seeking refuge in mainland cities are removed from the everyday experience of the controlled and regulated environments of homes, offices, and shopping malls. Diverse research into the mediated and mediatised nature of the environment suggests that rather than from first-hand experiences and observations, the majority of our knowledge concerning the environment now comes from its representation in the mass media (Hamilton 4; Stamm et al. 220; Cox 2). Consequently the threat of climate change is communicated and constructed through the news media, entertainment and lifestyle programming, and various documentaries and fiction films. It is therefore the construction (the representation of the risk in various discourses) that shapes people’s perception and experience of the phenomenon, and ultimately influences behaviour and instigates social response (Beck 213). By drawing on and negotiating society’s dominant discourses, environmental mediation defines spectators’ perceptions of the human-nature relationship and subsequently their roles and responsibilities in the face of environmental risks. Maxwell Boykoff asserts that contemporary modern society’s mediatised representations of environmental degradation and climate change depict the phenomena as external to society’s primary social and economic concerns (449). Julia Corbett argues that this is partly because environmental protection and sustainable behaviour are often at odds with the dominant social paradigms of consumerism, economic growth, and materialism (175). Similarly, Rowan Howard-Williams suggests that most media texts, especially news, do not emphasise the link between social practices, such as consumerist behaviour, and their environmental consequences because they contradict dominant social paradigms (41). The demands contemporary post-industrial societies make on the environment to sustain economic growth, consumer culture, and citizens’ comfortable lives in air-conditioned homes and offices are often left unarticulated. While the media coverage of environmental risks may indeed have contributed to “critical misperceptions, misleading debates, and divergent understandings” (Boykoff 450) climate change possesses innate characteristics that amplify its perception in present-day post-industrial societies as a distant and impersonal threat. Climate change is characterised by temporal and spatial de-localisation. The gradual increase in global temperature and its physical and biological consequences are much less prominent than seasonal changes and hence difficult to observe on human time-scales. Moreover, while research points to the increased probability of extreme climatic events such as droughts, wild fires, and changes in weather patterns (IPCC 48), they take place over a wide range of geographical locations and no single event can be ultimately said to be the result of climate change (Maibach and Roser-Renouf 145). In addition to these observational obstacles, political partisanship, vested interests in the current status quo, and general resistance to profound change all play a part in keeping us one step removed from the phenomenon of climate change. The distant and impersonal nature of climate change coupled with the “uncertainty over consequences, diverse and multiple engaged interests, conflicting knowledge claims, and high stakes” (Lorenzoni et al. 65) often result in repression, rejection, and denial, removing the individual’s responsibility to act. Research suggests that, due to its unique observational obstacles in contemporary post-industrial societies, climate change is considered a psychologically distant event (Pawlik 559), one that is not personally salient due to the “perceived distance and remoteness [...] from one’s everyday experience” (O’Neill and Nicholson-Cole 370). In an examination of the barriers to behaviour change in the face of psychologically distant events, Robert Gifford argues that changing individuals’ perceptions of the issue-domain is one of the challenges of countering environmental inertia—the lack of initiative for environmentally sustainable social action (5). To challenge the status quo a radically different construction of the environment and the human-nature relationship is required to transform our perception of global environmental risks and ultimately result in environmentally consequential social action. Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Home is a ritualised construction of contemporary environmental degradation and climate change which takes spectators on a rite of passage to a newfound understanding of the human-nature relationship. Transformation through re-imagining individuals’ roles, responsibilities, and practices is an intrinsic quality of rituals. A ritual charts a subjects path from one state of consciousness to the next, resulting in a meaningful change of attitudes (Deflem 8). Through a lifelong study of African rituals British cultural ethnographer Victor Turner refined his concept of rituals in a modern social context. Turner observed that rituals conform to a three-phased processural form (The Ritual Process 13–14). First, in the separation stage, the subjects are selected and removed from their fixed position in the social structure. Second, they enter an in-between and ambiguous liminal stage, characterised by a “partial or complete separation of the subject from everyday existence” (Deflem 8). Finally, imbued with a new perspective of the outside world borne out of the experience of reflexivity, liminality, and a cathartic cleansing, subjects are reintegrated into the social reality in a new, stable state. The three distinct stages make the ritual an emotionally charged, highly personal experience that “demarcates the passage from one phase to another in the individual’s life-cycle” (Turner, “Symbols” 488) and actively shapes human attitudes and behaviour. Adhering to the three-staged processural form of the ritual, Arthus-Bertrand guides spectators towards a newfound understanding of their roles and responsibilities in creating a desirable future. In the first stage—the separation—aerial photography of Home alienates viewers from their anthropocentric perspectives of the outside world. This establishes Earth as a body, and unearths spectators’ guilt and shame in relation to contemporary world risks. Aerial photography strips landscapes of their conventional qualities of horizon, scale, and human reference. As fine art photographer Emmet Gowin observes, “when one really sees an awesome, vast place, our sense of wholeness is reorganised [...] and the body seems always to diminish” (qtd. in Reynolds 4). Confronted with a seemingly infinite sublime landscape from above, the spectator’s “body diminishes” as they witness Earth’s body gradually taking shape. Home’s rushing rivers of Indonesia are akin to blood flowing through the veins and the Siberian permafrost seems like the texture of skin in extreme close-up. Arthus-Bertrand establishes a geocentric embodiment to force spectators to perceive and experience the environmental degradation brought about by the dominant social practices of contemporary post-industrial modernity. The film-maker visualises the maltreatment of the environment through suggested abuse of the Earth’s body. Images of industrial agricultural practices in the United States appear to leave scratches and scars on the landscape, and as a ship crosses the Arctic ice sheets of the Northwest Passage the boat glides like the surgeon’s knife cutting through the uppermost layer of the skin. But the deep blue water that’s revealed in the wake of the craft suggests a flesh and body now devoid of life, a suffering Earth in the wake of global climatic change. Arthus-Bertrand’s images become the sublime evidence of human intervention in the environment and the reflection of present-day industrialisation materially altering the face of Earth. The film-maker exploits spectators’ geocentric perspective and sensibility to prompt reflexivity, provide revelations about the self, and unearth the forgotten shame and guilt in having inadvertently caused excessive environmental degradation. Following the sequences establishing Earth as the body of the text Arthus-Bertrand returns spectators to their everyday “natural” environment—the city. Having witnessed and endured the pain and suffering of Earth, spectators now gaze at the skyscrapers standing bold and tall in the cityscape with disillusionment. The pinnacles of modern urban development become symbols of arrogance and exploitation: structures forced upon the landscape. Moreover, the images of contemporary cityscapes in Home serve as triggers for ritual reflexivity, allowing the spectator to “perceive the self [...] as a distanced ‘other’ and hence achieve a partial ‘self-transcendence’” (Beck, Comments 491). Arthus-Bertrand’s aerial photographs of Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo fold these distinct urban environments into one uniform fusion of glass, metal, and concrete devoid of life. The uniformity of these cultural landscapes prompts spectators to add the missing element: the human. Suddenly, the homes and offices of desolate cityscapes are populated by none other than us, looking at ourselves from a unique vantage point. The geocentric sensibility the film-maker invoked with the images of the suffering Earth now prompt a revelation about the self as spectators see their everyday urban environments in a new light. Their homes and offices become blemishes on the face of the Earth: its inhabitants, including the spectators themselves, complicit in the excessive mistreatment of the planet. The second stage of the ritual allows Arthus-Bertrand to challenge dominant social paradigms of present day post-industrial societies and introduce new, alternative moral directives to govern our habits and attitudes. Following the separation, ritual subjects enter an in-between, threshold stage, one unencumbered by the spatial, temporal, and social boundaries of everyday existence. Turner posits that a subjects passage through this liminal stage is necessary to attain psychic maturation and successful transition to a new, stable state at the end of the ritual (The Ritual Process 97). While this “betwixt and between” (Turner, The Ritual Process 95) state may be a fleeting moment of transition, it makes for a “lived experience [that] transforms human beings cognitively, emotionally, and morally.” (Horvath et al. 3) Through a change of perceptions liminality paves the way toward meaningful social action. Home places spectators in a state of liminality to contrast geocentric and anthropocentric views. Arthus-Bertrand contrasts natural and human-made environments in terms of diversity. The narrator’s description of the “miracle of life” is followed by images of trees seemingly defying gravity, snow-covered summits among mountain ranges, and a whale in the ocean. Grandeur and variety appear to be inherent qualities of biodiversity on Earth, qualities contrasted with images of the endless, uniform rectangular greenhouses of Almeria, Spain. This contrast emphasises the loss of variety in human achievements and the monotony mass-production brings to the landscape. With the image of a fire burning atop a factory chimney, Arthus-Bertrand critiques the change of pace and distortion of time inherent in anthropocentric views, and specifically in contemporary modernity. Here, the flames appear to instantly eat away at resources that have taken millions of years to form, bringing anthropocentric and geocentric temporality into sharp contrast. A sequence showing a night time metropolis underscores this distinction. The glittering cityscape is lit by hundreds of lights in skyscrapers in an effort, it appears, to mimic and surpass daylight and thus upturn the natural rhythm of life. As the narrator remarks, in our present-day environments, “days are now the pale reflections of nights.” Arthus-Bertrand also uses ritual liminality to mark the present as a transitory, threshold moment in human civilisation. The film-maker contrasts the spectre of our past with possible visions of the future to mark the moment of now as a time when humanity is on the threshold of two distinct states of mind. The narrator’s descriptions of contemporary post-industrial society’s reliance on non-renewable resources and lack of environmentally sustainable agricultural practices condemn the past and warn viewers of the consequences of continuing such practices into the future. Exploring the liminal present Arthus-Bertrand proposes distinctive futurescapes for humankind. On the one hand, the narrator’s description of California’s “concentration camp style cattle farming” suggests that humankind will live in a future that feeds from the past, falling back on frames of horrors and past mistakes. On the other hand, the example of Costa Rica, a nation that abolished its military and dedicated the budget to environmental conservation, is recognition of our ability to re-imagine our future in the face of global risk. Home introduces myths to imbue liminality with the alternative dominant social paradigm of ecology. By calling upon deep-seated structures myths “touch the heart of society’s emotional, spiritual and intellectual consciousness” (Killingsworth and Palmer 176) and help us understand and come to terms with complex social, economic, and scientific phenomena. With the capacity to “pattern thought, beliefs and practices,” (Maier 166) myths are ideal tools in communicating ritual liminality and challenging contemporary post-industrial society’s dominant social paradigms. The opening sequence of Home, where the crescent Earth is slowly revealed in the darkness of space, is an allusion to creation: the genesis myth. Accompanied only by a gentle hum our home emerges in brilliant blue, white, and green-brown encompassing most of the screen. It is as if darkness and chaos disintegrated and order, life, and the elements were created right before our eyes. Akin to the Earthrise image taken by the astronauts of Apollo 8, Home’s opening sequence underscores the notion that our home is a unique spot in the blackness of space and is defined and circumscribed by the elements. With the opening sequence Arthus-Bertrand wishes to impart the message of interdependence and reliance on elements—core concepts of ecology. Balance, another key theme in ecology, is introduced with an allusion to the Icarus myth in a sequence depicting Dubai. The story of Icarus’s fall from the sky after flying too close to the sun is a symbolic retelling of hubris—a violent pride and arrogance punishable by nemesis—destruction, which ultimately restores balance by forcing the individual back within the limits transgressed (Littleton 712). In Arthus-Bertrand’s portrayal of Dubai, the camera slowly tilts upwards on the Burj Khalifa tower, the tallest human-made structure ever built. The construction works on the tower explicitly frame humans against the bright blue sky in their attempt to reach ever further, transgressing their limitations much like the ill-fated Icarus. Arthus-Bertrand warns that contemporary modernity does not strive for balance or moderation, and with climate change we may have brought our nemesis upon ourselves. By suggesting new dominant paradigms and providing a critique of current maxims, Home’s retelling of myths ultimately sees spectators through to the final stage of the ritual. The last phase in the rite of passage “celebrates and commemorates transcendent powers,” (Deflem 8) marking subjects’ rebirth to a new status and distinctive perception of the outside world. It is at this stage that Arthus-Bertrand resolves the emotional distress uncovered in the separation phase. The film-maker uses humanity’s innate capacity for creation and renewal as a cathartic cleansing aimed at reconciling spectators’ guilt and shame in having inadvertently exacerbated global environmental degradation. Arthus-Bertrand identifies renewable resources as the key to redeeming technology, human intervention in the landscape, and finally humanity itself. Until now, the film-maker pictured modernity and technology, evidenced in his portrayal of Dubai, as synonymous with excess and disrespect for the interconnectedness and balance of elements on Earth. The final sequence shows a very different face of technology. Here, we see a mechanical sea-snake generating electricity by riding the waves off the coast of Scotland and solar panels turning towards the sun in the Sahara desert. Technology’s redemption is evidenced in its ability to imitate nature—a move towards geocentric consciousness (a lesson learned from the ritual’s liminal stage). Moreover, these human-made structures, unlike the skyscrapers earlier in the film, appear a lot less invasive in the landscape and speak of moderation and union with nature. With the above examples Arthus-Bertrand suggests that humanity can shed the greed that drove it to dig deeper and deeper into the Earth to acquire non-renewable resources such as oil and coal, what the narrator describes as “treasures buried deep.” The incorporation of principles of ecology, such as balance and interconnectedness, into humanity’s behaviour ushers in reconciliation and ritual cleansing in Home. Following the description of the move toward renewable resources, the narrator reveals that “worldwide four children out of five attend school, never has learning been given to so many human beings” marking education, innovation, and creativity as the true inexhaustible resources on Earth. Lastly, the description of Antarctica in Home is the essence of Arthus-Bertrand’s argument for our innate capacity to create, not simply exploit and destroy. Here, the narrator describes the continent as possessing “immense natural resources that no country can claim for itself, a natural reserve devoted to peace and science, a treaty signed by 49 nations has made it a treasure shared by all humanity.” Innovation appears to fuel humankind’s transcendence to a state where it is capable of compassion, unification, sharing, and finally creating treasures. With these examples Arthus-Bertrand suggests that humanity has an innate capacity for creative energy that awaits authentic expression and can turn humankind from destroyer to creator. In recent years various risk communication texts have explicitly addressed climate change, endeavouring to instigate environmentally consequential social action. Home breaks discursive ground among them through its ritualistic construction which seeks to transform spectators’ perception, and in turn roles and responsibilities, in the face of global environmental risks. Unlike recent climate change media texts such as An Inconvenient Truth (2006), The 11th Hour (2007), The Age of Stupid (2009), Carbon Nation (2010) and Earth: The Operator’s Manual (2011), Home eludes simple genre classification. On the threshold of photography and film, documentary and fiction, Arthus-Bertrand’s work is best classified as an advocacy film promoting public debate and engagement with a universal concern—the state of the environment. The film’s website, available in multiple languages, contains educational material, resources to organise public screenings, and a link to GoodPlanet.info: a website dedicated to environmentalism, including legal tools and initiatives to take action. The film-maker’s approach to using Home as a basis for education and raising awareness corresponds to Antonio Lopez’s critique of contemporary mass-media communications of global risks. Lopez rebukes traditional forms of mediatised communication that place emphasis on the imparting of knowledge and instead calls for a participatory, discussion-driven, organic media approach, akin to a communion or a ritual (106). Moreover, while texts often place a great emphasis on the messenger, for instance Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth, Leonardo DiCaprio in The 11th Hour, or geologist Dr. Richard Alley in Earth: The Operator’s Manual, Home’s messenger remains unseen—the narrator is only identified at the very end of the film among the credits. The film-maker’s decision to forego a central human character helps dissociate the message from the personality of the messenger which aids in establishing and maintaining the geocentric sensibility of the text. Finally, the ritual’s invocation and cathartic cleansing of emotional distress enables Home to at once acknowledge our environmentally destructive past habits and point to a hopeful, environmentally sustainable future. While The Age of Stupid mostly focuses on humanity’s present and past failures to respond to an imminent environmental catastrophe, Carbon Nation, with the tagline “A climate change solutions movie that doesn’t even care if you believe in climate change,” only explores the potential future business opportunities in turning towards renewable resources and environmentally sustainable practices. The three-phased processural form of the ritual allows for a balance of backward and forward-looking, establishing the possibility of change and renewal in the face of world risk. The ritual is a transformative experience. As Turner states, rituals “interrupt the flow of social life and force a group to take cognizance of its behaviour in relation to its own values, and even question at times the value of those values” (“Dramatic Ritual” 82). Home, a ritualised media text, is an invitation to look at our world, its dominant social paradigms, and the key element within that world—ourselves—with new eyes. It makes explicit contemporary post-industrial society’s dependence on the environment, highlights our impact on Earth, and reveals our complicity in bringing about a contemporary world risk. The ritual structure and the self-reflexivity allow Arthus-Bertrand to transform climate change into a personally salient issue. This bestows upon the spectator the responsibility to act and to reconcile the spectre of the past with the vision of the future.Acknowledgments The author would like to thank Dr. Angi Buettner whose support, guidance, and supervision has been invaluable in preparing this article. 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An environmentally-based systems approach to sustainability analyses of organic fruit production systems in New Zealand. This research introduces an approach for the assessment of the sustainability of farming systems. It is based on the premises that sustainability has an environmental bottom line and that there is very limited substitutability between natural capital and other forms of capital. Sustainability assessment is undertaken through analyses of energy and material flows of the system and their impacts on the environment. The proposed sustainability assessment approach is based on two high level criteria for sustainability: efficient use of energy and non-degradation of the environment from energy and material use. Sustainability assessment of organic orchard systems in New Zealand was undertaken to demonstrate this approach. Five indicators which address the two criteria for the sustainability of the orchard systems are the energy ratio, the CO2 ratio, changes in the soil carbon level, nutrient balances, and the leaching of nitrogen. Organic kiwifruit and organic apple systems are modelled based on their key energy and material flows and their interactions with the natural environment. The energy and material flows are converted into appropriate energy and matter equivalents based on coefficients taken from the published literature. Sustainability indicators are estimated over one growing season using two computer modelling tools, Overseer® and Stella®, in a life cycle approach. Sustainability assessment of the organic orchard systems suggests that the approach is useful for evaluating energy use and key environmental impacts that occur in soil, water and atmosphere. The results indicate that the model organic orchard systems are sustainable in terms of energy use and are a net sink of CO2-equivalent emissions. The implication of this result is that organic orchard systems potentially could trade carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol. The findings also suggest that the sustainability assessment approach is capable of identifying the trade-offs within the sustainability indicators associated with particular management practices. Further research to improve and validate the proposed approach is essential, before it can be practically used for decision making at the orchard level and for policy making at the national level.

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