http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/esij/rss Recent eScholarship items from Empowering Sustainability International Journal Fri, 19 Jun 2026 13:28:55 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4vx624mc <p>Music has a critical role to play in the transition towards a culture of sustainability. Music is essential to human survival and human development. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not an ‘add on;’ instead, it is the life-blood of culture and individual and collective identity and strengthens our bio-culture.  Participatory music, in particular, may play a critical role in enabling human survival to climate change. Its ability to draw upon and illicit deep levels of both verbal and non-verbal imagery, symbols, emotions and social-knowledge-structures make it a vitalizing element for our current journey towards sustainability. Renewing our bio-culture is essential to connecting and living well together. To empower sustainability, we – researchers, program managers, activists, engineers, and others engaged with practical sustain-abilities – need to actively create music as an integral component of those practices from which a sustainable culture can emerge.</p><p>This paper... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4vx624mc Fri, 5 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000 Wolcott, Sara J. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9nt4r29n <p>Mechanisms for protecting land in the United States transitioned from fee-simple government purchase to non-profit management through private ownership and conservation easements. Instead of creating large national parks as untouchable museums of ecology, the modern land protection paradigm channels public funding, creative partnerships, and an emerging understanding of the working landscape and complex ecological processes. On a macro scale, the paradigm shift seems to be successful: funds are raised and more land is being protected. However, management decisions are being dictated by complex and often tenuous interdisciplinary relationships.</p> This paper examines the objectives and challenges faced by three integral players in the modern land protection paradigm: the academic, the executive director, and the land steward. Optimal land management is achieved through land stewards executing best management practices on protected land. These practices must be informed by research... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9nt4r29n Thu, 1 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000 Moscovici, Daniel Coll, Mike Jones, Keith https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9dq0n2pz Coastal cities are particularly exposed to natural hazard and climate change impacts. Due to its geography, its likeliness to be impacted by natural hazards and its low level of preparedness, Bangkok, Thailand, is one of the most vulnerable coastal cities in the world. A growing number of organizations and individuals are working together to bridge the divides among government, international, national and local organizations and members of civil society in order to reduce Bangkok’s vulnerability.  An increase in local knowledge, paired with stronger local collaboration, enhances a society’s preparedness against natural hazards. This study examines the role of boundary organizations and environmental champions in boundary-spanning activities aimed at increasing environmental cooperation and preparedness in Bangkok.  Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and archival analysis. The findings of this case study highlight the importance of boundary-spanning organizations... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9dq0n2pz Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 Bateman, Alexis H. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/15j151tr <p>Managing long-term peace and environmental education programs toward positive encounters and peace building in a region of intractable conflict requires constant evaluation and monitoring of students and school staff. This paper analyzes a program running for the second year in ten Israeli high schools. It is the only Israeli environmental and peace educational network for both adolescent Israeli Jews and Arabs. The program acknowledges that there is not one fixed formula for excellence in education; thus, it aims to match its curriculum to each school, attend to current events, and generate harmony between people and between people and nature. Constant evaluation and monitoring of students and school staff is done through multiple research tools; some include a pre-post research construction while others rely on ongoing data collection, observation, and reflection. The tools implemented in this program and the lessons learned are described and analyzed in this paper.</p><p>The... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/15j151tr Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 Sagy, Gonen Saulino, Vera https://escholarship.org/uc/item/02x3p5kb Individual- and household-level behaviors contribute to 40% of U.S. energy use and carbon emissions. Pro-environmental behavior change research has repeatedly found feedback, social norms, and commitments to be influential factors in motivating change. Sustainability programs and environmental policies that incorporate the underappreciated findings of this research stand to gain significant ground in meeting their goals. In this paper, I describe in detail the design, implementation, and preliminary results of a sustainability behavior change program implemented through the collaboration of a nonprofit organization and a municipality in Southern California. The program focused on simple low- or no-cost behavior changes and results indicate some significant reductions in GHG emissions. Results indicate significant potential for influencing sustainability behavior in groups through a suite of behavior change mechanisms. At the same time, questions are raised about the implementation... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/02x3p5kb Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000 Geislar, Sally E.