Understanding Sustainability
Below are several different approaches to understanding sustainability:
The Natural Step: A Framework for Sustainability
Developed in 1989 by Swedish oncologist Karl-Henrik Robert, the Natural Step is a framework that can help guide our actions toward sustainability. Robert understood the need for a common model of sustainability, through which we can all strive for the same goal. Through a peer-reviewed process, he determined four guiding principles that define sustainability in scientific terms:
In a sustainable global society, the ecosphere is not subject to systematically increasing…
1. Concentrations of substances extracted from the earth’s crust
Examples: Fossil fuels, metals, and minerals
2. Concentrations of substances produced by society (synthetics)
Examples: Persistent substances (DDT, PCB’s…), plastics, Freon
3. Degradation by physical means
Examples: Over-harvesting (forests, oceans...), eliminating biodiversity
and in that society,
4. People are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their basic needs
Examples: Overpopulation, unlivable wages, environmental and social inequity
Additional Information:
- Oregon Natural Step Network: We are fortunate in Oregon to have an organization that focuses on providing training, networking and collaboration around the Natural Step.
- The Natural Step, International
- Brief Summary of the Natural Step (49K PDF)
Triple Bottom Line
Sustainability is a journey. To achieve sustainability, a school, government, or any other entity must appreciate the interdependence of environment, economy and society. The Triple Bottom Line provides a more complete means for accounting than only looking at traditional economic factors.
Learn more about the Triple Bottom Line.
Interviews with John Elkington, originator of the concept:
- http://www.johnelkington.com/profile-green-at-work.htm
- http://media.wiley.com/assets/251/55/jrnls_LIA_JB_Quinn2401.pdf
Natural Capitalism
Natural capital refers to the earth’s natural resources and the ecological systems that provide vital life-support services to society and all living things. These services are of immense economic value; some are literally priceless, since they have no known substitutes. Yet current business practices typically fail to take into account the value of these assets - - which is rising with their scarcity. As a result, natural capital is being degraded and liquidated by the very wasteful use of resources such as energy, materials, water, fiber and topsoil.
These concepts should be recognized in any effort to assess an organization’s global impacts. In the book “Natural Capitalism, Creating the next Industrial Revolution”, Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins outline a new business model and 4 intertwined changes to business practices. While these don’t all apply directly to a school system, the concept of natural capital and an accounting method that considers it, are important.
For more information, visit Natural Capitalism.
Zero Waste: Following Nature's Model
Sustainability requires that human activities use nature's resources at no greater rate than they can be replenished naturally. To do this it is necessary to “Close the Loop”, which means all waste must be cycled back into the active material stream. Nature is a closed-loop system with zero waste, allowing the cycle to continue indefinitely (as long as the sun shines). Without a closed-loop, waste seeps out of the system, eventually resulting in a system shutdown.
A Zero Waste strategy is a bold vision that includes a sustainable endpoint. It will lead to faster innovation and movement far beyond incremental approaches that don’t include an objective goal. Only with the goal of zero waste can the methods we use hope to meet the challenges we face.
Learn more at:
Ecological Footprint
The Ecological Footprint is a resource management tool that measures how much land and water area a human population requires to produce the resources it consumes and to absorb its wastes under prevailing technology.
In a sustainable world, society's demand on nature must be in balance with nature's capacity to meet that demand. Since the late 1980s, we have been in overshoot – the Ecological Footprint has exceeded the Earth’s biocapacity.
(graphic: Our Ecological Footprint)
The global Ecological Footprint is now over 23% larger than what the planet can regenerate. The U.S. Ecological Footprint is so large that if the rest of the world had the same lifestyle, we would need over 5 planets to support us.
Effectively, the Earth’s regenerative capacity can no longer keep up with demand – people are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources. Humanity is no longer living off nature’s interest, but drawing down its capital.
Determine your own ecological footprint, here.
To learn more, visit:
- Wikipedia
- Global Footprint Network
- World Wildlife Fund, Living Planet Report