Social Sustainability Study

After environmental sustainability, more weight is put on social sustainability followed last by economic sustainability. The amount of promised actions to reduce carbon emissions, increase dependency on green energy, and other environmental initiatives could have negative effects on achieving economic sustainability if only temporarily. Annapolis needs to change large parts of their infrastructure in order to meet their desired environmental goals which costs large amounts of money, could cause a decrease in jobs that are dependent on the usage of traditional sources of energy, and cause other unforeseen problems and issues. Annapolis’s sustainability plan does not even mention increasing tourism, a major source of income, in regards to economic …show more content…
Pierce in 2011, Pierce defines resiliency as the “ability of a system to absorb . . . disturbances (Pierce 2011).” Pierce states that to measure the resiliency of a system one must understand the “three central attributes of resilient systems: motivation, knowledge and capacity” proposed by Eric Lambin (Pierce 2011). Based on this definition, Annapolis’s sustainability plan is resilient. The plan outlines the motivation of the city government and community clearly in regards to economic, environmental, and social sustainability. The plan clearly states that the city government expects to reduce emissions by 75% and the community by 50% by the year 2025 as well as obtain carbon neutrality by the year 2050 (Savidge 2010). Other issues regarding health, community, safety, transportation, and local development are clearly outlined and the reasoning behind the desired changes are given. Annapolis’s sustainability plan contains various charts and tables of data, see Table 1 and Table 2, showcasing their knowledge of their current position in regards to sustainability. There are multiple strategies outlined for each major goal of the plan described previously. Nowhere in the Annapolis sustainability plan does it only list one potential solution for any issue presented. This is done so that if one idea fails the others can still succeed, thus the plan is resilient to a variety of different …show more content…
In terms of economic sustainability, I would suggest recruiting more businesses and shops in the downtown historic Annapolis area to become part of the push to create a more sustainable Annapolis. Creating more programs such as the Environmental Stewardship that allow businesses and shops help and display their support towards a more sustainable future would have huge effects. Tourism is a major part of Annapolis’s economy, and the historic downtown area is always full of people visiting. In a paper published by Colin Hunter, Hunter describes the concept behind “sustainable tourism” and its importance (Hunter 1997). Hunter says that “the term . . . has come to represent and encompass a set of principles, policy prescriptions, and management methods which chart a path for tourism development such that a destination area’s environmental resource base is protected in future development (Hunter 1997).” Downtown historic Annapolis draws many tourists who enjoy the old architecture as well as the proximity to the water. It is important to maintain and preserve these attractions in a sustainable manor due to “the likelihood that tourism will become the largest single sector of world trade early in the next century (Hunter 1997).” Promoting and advertising sustainable actions through the businesses and