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Showing posts with the label sustainable development

Using Solar Panels in San Diego Schools to Save Costs and Protect the Environment

The cost of education is going up in San Diego and it has nothing to do with curriculum. According to an article in UT San Diego the cost of electricity for public schools in San Diego County bounced to $30 million ( 1 ). Over half of these school districts saw their electricity bills explode to over 43% in the past six months. Officials are upset as the costs are crushing their budgets and soaking up resources. An evaluation of the long-term nature of this problem and the possibilities of implementing solar panels is beneficial.  Installing solar panels on the roof and facilities of San Diego schools is not an impossibility as the idea as it has already been completed in Orange County Schools. The project costs $17 million dollars and is a 20 year commitment that generates 6.6 million kilowatt hours of solar energy per year that removes the equivalent of the pollution of 12,000 cars per year from the environment ( Yarbrough, 2010).  The benefits of solar program will ne

Technological and Labor Skill Advancement Increases Economic Output

Economic systems have both inputs and outputs. When outputs exceed the total inputs, the system is seen as unsustainable. A paper by Brestschger and Valente (2011) delves into a method of measuring the sustainability of resource rich countries. Even though their focus is on oil producing countries, they do have some broader implications.  Most studies seem to rule out the concept of technological progress and trade gains to determine economic viability. Technology has the ability to lower the cost of transactions and increase overall outputs. Thus, technological advancement can lead directly to an export market and more sustainable system.  Net investment is a concept that focuses on the net increases in all the productive assets of the local economy. Such net investment are measured by adding all of the technology and labor productivity increases and subtracting things like depletion of natural resources. The more information available the more accurate such evaluations

Economic Development through a Cultural and Financial Lens

In the Hispanic villages of northern New Mexico a quest for the development of culturally appropriate and economically sustainable hubs has created new methodologies.   It was a push to move the villages from a colonial area design to something new and more progressive. The author Kristina Fisher (2008) discusses how business development and agricultural improvement can be fostered through non-profits.  The War on Poverty and The New Deal created much activity in the region but communities soon when back to their traditional ways of life.   Some questioned the logic of these programs and the ability to raise local Hispanic communities out of poverty. In 25 years since the non-profit Ganado del Velle was created it used the hub and spoke model to create interrelated economic development projects that led to higher levels of local development.  The model used incubation with hub and spoke model to develop the natural and cultural resources of the valley. Some of their works