How Can We Build a Sustainable Future? | U of T Women’s History Month 2022

TL;DR

Building a sustainable future requires sustainable agriculture, lower greenhouse gas emissions, climate adaptation, equity-centred public policy and circular production systems. The speakers highlight a concrete opportunity in fashion, which is expected to consume about 25 per cent of the world’s carbon budget by 2050. Read on to see how food systems, infrastructure, health, economic models and waste reuse fit together.

Transcript

Happy International Women's History Month. Our theme for this talk is building a sustainable future. From your perspective or your area of research, what steps can we take to get there? My research group really works on enhancing sustainability in agriculture - in particular, in the face of the climate crisis. So, arguably, to build a sustainable f... Read More

Key Insights

• Food security needs transition: Sustainable food security is linked directly to changing agricultural practices in response to the climate crisis. The proposed transition must be environmentally friendly while also supporting socially just agriculture and sustainable food systems. This makes food security one outcome within a broader transformation, not an isolated production target.
• Research must map pathways: Calling for sustainable agriculture is not presented as sufficient by itself. Innovative research must critically address the pathways through which environmentally friendly practices can actually be achieved. Those pathways must account for several goals at once, including food security, social justice in agriculture and the long-term sustainability of food systems.
• Emissions require two responses: The process-focused approach distinguishes between reducing new greenhouse gas emissions and dealing with gases that have already been emitted. Prevention limits additional emissions, while capture addresses part of the existing problem. Converting captured gases into useful products adds a productive purpose to the capture process.
• Adaptation starts with anticipation: Climate adaptation is described as predicting or anticipating the negative implications of climate change. That forward-looking work matters because it allows preventive processes to be considered before impacts unfold. In this framing, adaptation is not merely reacting to damage but identifying risks and preparing interventions intended to prevent harmful changes.
• Buildings can support adaptation: Large infrastructural changes are one route for responding to anticipated climate effects. Building design intended to prevent problems associated with rising sea levels is offered as a specific example. The point is that sustainability planning reaches into the design of physical structures, not only emissions policy or individual behaviour.
• Forests strengthen climate resilience: Reforestation and afforestation are presented as ways to increase the strength of forests. They sit alongside changes to built infrastructure within the discussion of adaptation. This pairing shows that anticipated climate implications can be addressed through processes involving both human-made environments and forest systems.
• Health extends beyond individuals: The health perspective connects climate-related conditions to both human well-being and the health of the planet. Social and environmental determinants are therefore central to sustainability. Gender, income and employment are specifically identified as drivers whose resourcing affects whether the current path can be changed.
• Equity requires policy support: Shifting the current trajectory requires supportive public policies at both domestic and foreign levels. These policies must centre equity rather than treating it as a secondary concern. The argument connects climate action with the distribution of resources and with the social conditions shaped by gender, income and employment.
• Consumption models face challenge: Prevailing neoliberal, market-based paradigms built around growth and increased consumption are identified as barriers to meaningful change. The proposed response is to challenge those paradigms and pursue new models of economic and social development. Sustainability is consequently framed as requiring structural economic and social reconsideration.
• Waste can become input: A circular economy takes the output of one industry, including its waste, and uses it as an input for another industry. This relationship creates a closed-loop system. Its sustainability value comes from reducing the strain placed on Earth’s resources and avoiding continued pressure beyond biocapacity.
• Fashion carries measurable pressure: Fashion is expected to account for about 25 per cent of the world’s carbon budget by 2050. The industry is also associated with 7 million tonnes of annual landfill waste. These figures explain why fashion is used as a major case for applying circular economy concepts rather than continuing a waste-producing model.
• ALT TEX connects industries: ALT TEX combines two problems by using food waste, described as one of the world’s largest landfill contributors, to engineer what it presents as one of the world’s most sustainable fabrics. The approach links waste from one area with production in another, putting the closed-loop circular economy concept into practice.

Questions & Answers

Q: How can we build a sustainable future?

A sustainable future requires coordinated changes in agriculture, emissions, adaptation, public policy and industrial production. Agricultural practices must support food security, social justice and sustainable food systems. Processes should reduce greenhouse gas emissions while capturing already emitted gases and converting them into useful products. Climate adaptation should anticipate harmful implications through measures such as building design, reforestation and afforestation. Economic and social development models, domestic and foreign policies, and circular systems must also centre equity and reduce pressure on Earth’s resources.

Q: What steps can make agriculture more sustainable?

The central step is transitioning toward environmentally friendly agricultural practices in response to the climate crisis. Innovative research must critically identify the pathways that can make this transition achievable. Those pathways should promote food security, socially just agriculture and sustainable food systems simultaneously. This combined focus matters because the agricultural challenge includes environmental performance, reliable food provision and social conditions rather than only one of those concerns.

Q: How should greenhouse gas emissions be addressed?

The proposed approach has two connected parts. First, existing processes should be examined to find ways to reduce the greenhouse gases they emit. Second, processes should be created to capture gases that have already been emitted and convert them into useful products. This matters because reducing future emissions and addressing previously emitted gases are distinct tasks, while conversion gives captured material a practical use.

Q: How can communities adapt to climate change?

Adaptation begins by predicting or anticipating the negative implications of climate change. Communities can then identify processes intended to prevent those changes rather than waiting only to react. The examples include major infrastructural changes, particularly building design that addresses rising sea levels. Adaptation can also strengthen forests through reforestation or afforestation, combining constructed and environmental responses.

Q: How do health and equity relate to sustainability?

Social and environmental determinants of health connect climate conditions with both human health and planetary health. Gender, income and employment are named as drivers that need attention and resources. If they are not addressed, the discussion argues that society will continue along a similar path. Equity-centred domestic and foreign policies matter because they support new economic and social development models while responding to unequal social conditions.

Q: Why must growth and consumption models change?

Prevailing neoliberal, market-based paradigms are described as emphasizing growth and greater consumption. The health perspective argues that shifting the current trajectory requires challenging those assumptions. New models of economic and social development are needed, together with supportive public policies at domestic and foreign levels. These changes matter because sustainability must address the social and economic structures influencing human health and the health of the planet.

Q: What is a circular economy in this discussion?

A circular economy uses the output of one industry, including waste, as an input for another industry. Connecting those outputs and inputs forms a closed-loop system. The system reduces the strain placed on Earth for resources and responds to pressure on its biocapacity. It is presented as a practical sustainability model because a material treated as waste in one sector can support production in another.

Q: How does ALT TEX apply circular economy principles to fashion?

ALT TEX connects food waste with fabric production. It uses food waste, identified as one of the world’s largest landfill contributors, to engineer what it describes as one of the world’s most sustainable fabrics. The approach matters because fashion is expected to consume about 25 per cent of the world’s carbon budget by 2050 and generates 7 million tonnes of annual landfill waste. By linking two industries, ALT TEX turns one waste problem into an input for addressing another.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Sustainable agriculture comes first: The discussion begins with agriculture and the climate crisis. Building a sustainable future for food security requires a transition toward environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Innovative research must critically examine the pathways for making that transition while simultaneously promoting food security, socially just agriculture and sustainable food systems. This framing treats agricultural sustainability as a combined environmental and social challenge rather than as a single change to farming processes.

• Reducing and capturing emissions: The next perspective focuses on examining processes that generate greenhouse gases. One priority is reducing those emissions before they enter the atmosphere. Another is developing processes that capture greenhouse gases that have already been emitted and convert them into useful products. Together, these approaches address both ongoing emissions and gases already released, connecting sustainability research with practical process changes and productive uses for captured material.

• Preparing for climate impacts: The discussion then turns from emissions to adaptation, defined as predicting or anticipating the negative implications of climate change and implementing processes that can prevent those changes. Possible responses include large infrastructural changes, such as building design intended to address rising sea levels. Nature-based measures also appear in this approach, particularly increasing the strength of forests through reforestation or afforestation. Adaptation therefore spans both constructed environments and forest systems.

• Health, equity and development: From the health perspective, social and environmental determinants shape both human health and planetary health. Gender, income and employment are identified as relevant drivers that must be addressed and resourced. Moving away from the current path requires challenging prevailing neoliberal, market-based paradigms centred on growth and greater consumption. The proposed alternative involves new models of economic and social development, supported by domestic and foreign public policies that place equity at their centre.

• Connecting waste through circularity: The final perspective presents the circular economy as a foundation for sustainability. The output or waste of one industry becomes an input for another, creating a closed-loop system that reduces strain on Earth’s resources and biocapacity. Fashion provides the concrete case: it is expected to use about 25 per cent of the world’s carbon budget by 2050 and produces 7 million tonnes of annual landfill waste. ALT TEX connects fashion with food waste to engineer sustainable fabric.