Sustainability Unpacked ─ Food, Energy and Water for Resilient Environments and Societies

'What is 'sustainability'? Taking a comprehensive yet straightforward approach, this book discusses the inter-linking and complex elements of sustainability and how they influence and are influenced by our society when it comes to making decisions about resource use. A must-read book for everyone interested in conservation, the environment and development.'-Dicky P. Simorangkir, Forest Program Director, The Nature Comservancy, Indonesia

Food, water and energy form some of the basic elements of sustainability considerations. This ground-breaking book examines and decodes these elements, exploring how a range of countries make decisions regarding their energy and bio-resource consumption and procurement. The authors consider how these choices impact not only the societies and environments of those countries, but the world in general.

To achieve this, the authors review the merits of various sustainability and environmental metrics, and then apply these to 34 countries that are ranked low, medium or high on the human development index. The book assesses their resource capacities and the environmental impacts, both within and outside their country boundaries, from consuming food, water, and energy. The final section uses the lessons derived from the earlier analyses of resource consumption to explore the importance of geography, climates and sustainable management of forests and other natural resources for building resilient societies in the future.

Kristiina A. Vogt is a professor of ecosystem management and founder (and co-coordinator) of the Forest Systems and Bioenergy program at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Toral Patel-Weynand is an Affiliate Associate Faculty at the University of Washington (UW) and an Associate of the Forest Systems and Bioenergy, UW.
Maura Shelton is a Research Associate with the Forest Systems and Bioenergy in the College of Forest Resources at the University of Washington.
Daniel J. Vogt, Associate Professor in Soils and Ecosystem Ecology of the College of Forest Resources, came to the University of Washington in July 2000 from Yale University.
John C. Gordon is Chairman of Interforest, LLC, a sustainable forestry consulting firm, and a founder of the Candlewood Timber Group, Inc., a sustainable forestry company with forestland and operations in Argentina.
Calvin T. Mukumoto is the President of Renewol LLC, a start-up company producing a mobile methanol generator to use low quality wood and cellulosic wastes, and the Chief financial Officer for TSS Consultants.
Asep S. Suntana is a Research Associate in the Forest Systems and Bioenergy program at the University of Washington.
Patricia A. Roads is the Communications Director for the Center for Adaptive Policies in Ecosystems International, a non-profit organization originally based in Washington and now in Iceland.