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Sustainabilities Portfolio as System to envisage and manage Universal Sustainability
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1  Department of Finance Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Published: 04 November 2011 by MDPI in The 1st World Sustainability Forum session General and Related Topics
Abstract: Speaking about the problems of evaluation and management of sustainability usually set of sustainabilities or a structure of universal (from the Lat. universalis) sustainability is chosen, revealing the possibilities to formulate and solve the specific sustainability problems. Mostly the social, economic and ecological sustainability\'s subsystems are highlighted. And for each of subsystems fostering the universal sustainability the most important objectives are marked out: - For human sustainability is long term maintenance of well being; - For economical sustainability is long-term sufficiently high growth; - For ecology sustainability describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive overtime. The main objective of each and universal sustainability subsystems in a more simplified way could be understood as a subsystem\'s ability to maintain with the high level of guarantee the certain foundation parameter\'s level above the critical threshold, while dropping below the threshold the subsystem starts to lose its ability to rebuild itself as a system. However, undoubtedly the main question is rising - what kind of ability the universal sustainability should foster, i.e. the resultant of all sustainability subsystems. Searching for an answer to this question deterministically the idea is coming that this feature conceptually should be understood as preservation of the subsystems\' ability to interact. Actually the necessity of such feature is looking by analyzing the environmental sustainability also as other sustainability subsystems. However, for individual subsystems the interaction of their elements or their subsystems is conceptually better known and unfolding for management. In a case of universal sustainability there is a need for perfect formation of the concept of interaction indeed as also preparation of interaction of engineering foundations. The key tasks here are - to understand the content, methods and consequences of the universal sustainability and be able to simulate adequately those processes in order to create the assumptions for the various specialists of subsystems to discuss on the basis of quantitative information. Considerations about the universal sustainability apprehension and fostering are not abundant and one-directional, and even more - practically constructive. Actually in 1999-2005 was published ESI (Environmental Sustainability Index). However, it was rather measurements of environmental state\'s parameters or estimates, which are more suitable to compare environmental state of different countries. Later, it was substituted with the EPI (Environmental Performance Index), and as the name asserting it pretends to the instrument of sustainability anatomy.
Keywords: Universal sustainability, sustainabilities\' interaction, sustainability\'s resources, sustainability modeling
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