Frontiers of Sustainability

The United States is the world's biggest consumer of natural resources and its biggest polluter. With the U.S. economy expected to grow by 25% in the next decade alone, the costs to Americans -- and to everyone else in the world -- will increase substantially if we do not find a way to live and work sustainably.

Building on the recommendations of the President's Council for Sustainable Development, researchers at the World Resources Institute have developed a feasible and concrete plan for achieving sustainable development in the United States. Frontiers of Sustainability presents the first practical vision of a sustainable future for the United States and the steps needed to get there.

Authors examine the environmental performance and trends in four key economic sectors: agriculture, electricity generation, transportation, and pulp and paper manufacturing. They map out and explore the implications of potentially dangerous trends and developments, and detail methods for reducing or managing emergent threats. Each chapter sets forth a technologically feasible vision of the future in which the unwanted trends we see unfolding now are reversed.

Frontiers of Sustainability presents an adaptable formula for moving the United States toward a future that ensures generations to come a healthy stock of environmental and natural resource assets. The authors's realistic and workable plan focuses on what Americans really care about, connects with virtues that Americans already profess, and, unlike most discussions of sustainable development, emphasizes the "how" as much as the "why."