Sustainability: Introduction

A DigitalNZ Story by National Library Services to Schools

Today more than ever, governments and communities need to develop sustainable strategies, but what is sustainability and how can we provide the next generations with a successful, sustainable future?

Image: Sustainability with Style

Sustainability with Style

Christchurch City Libraries

BACKGROUND 

Today more than ever, governments and communities need to develop sustainable strategies, but what is sustainability and how can we provide the next generations with a successful, sustainable future?

This topic gives examples of what sustainability looks like from an Aotearoa New Zealand perspective based on the three pillars of sustainability:

Environmental sustainability 

Environmental sustainability involves thinking about how we view the environment and its resources in ways that ensure they will still be available for future generations. 

Economic sustainability

Economic sustainability is about long-term economic growth that does not adversely impact on the environmental and cultural components of our society.

Social and cultural sustainability

Social and cultural sustainability is the way we ensure the wellbeing of our community by recognising, developing and sustaining basic needs like human rights, equality, health, culture, now and into the future.

Image: Large silos and windmill

Large silos and windmill

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

Image: Sustainable housing developments

Sustainable housing developments

Manatū Taonga, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Image: Palmy Beyond Petrol, Sue Pugmire

Palmy Beyond Petrol, Sue Pugmire

Palmerston North City Library

Image: Save our beech forests

Save our beech forests

Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Use our lending service to order these books and other related topics associated with sustainability.

PICTURE BOOKS

Bella's chocolate surprise by Adam Guillain & Elke Steiner, 2007 (junior).

The good garden: how one family went from hunger to having enough by Katie Smith Milway, 2010 (primary, intermediate).

Iqbal and his ingenious idea: how a science project helps one family and the planet by Elizabeth Suneby, 2018 (primary, intermediate).

Louie and Snippy save the sea by Collette Dinnigan, 2019 (junior).

Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel, 2019 (junior).

The windy farm by Doug MacLeod & Craig Smith, 2013 (junior).

FICTION

Frank Einstein and the bio-action gizmo by Jon Scieszk, 2017 (primary).

Never say die by Will Hobbs, 2013 (intermediate, secondary).

Rāhui rangers by Marlene J. Bennetts, 2008 (primary).

Solar powered, by Phil Rink, 2011 (primary, intermediate).

Song of the dolphin boy by Elizabeth Laird, 2018 (primary).

Under the weather: stories about climate change edited by Tony Bradman, 2009 (primary, intermediate, secondary).

NON-FICTION

Be the change: poems to help you save the world by Liz Brownlee, Roger Stevens, Matt Goodfellow, 2019 (primary, intermediate).

Dream jobs in green and sustainable living by Cynthia O'Brien, 2018 (primary, intermediate).

Kāpiti, kids and kākā: a story from New Zealand by Jill MacGregor, 2019 (primary).

Making a city sustainable by Courtney Farrell, 2019 (primary, intermediate, secondary).

The runaway dandelion: adventures in sustainability by Jill Regensburg, 2017 (primary).

30-minute sustainable science projects by Loren Bailey, 2019 (primary, intermediate).

This story was curated and compiled by Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa | National Library of New Zealand, Services to Schools staff, March 2020.