Sustainability:

What is it?

What does it mean for my future

programming?

11-19-2008 Eastern District

All Faculty & Staff Meeting

Jay Moynihan UW-Extension CRDShawano County

Most common definition of sustainability:

"meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet

their own needs.”

From “Our Common Future”, by the Brundtland Commission, aka UN World Commission on the Environment and Development (1987)

Chair Gro Harlem Brundtland

But at its essence, “sustainability” is the process of going from simply assuming that our children’s, children’s, children; our species will be here a long time, to:

Planning & working on it

Yesterday’s solutions are often today’s problems.

We are now facing the

challenges of our species’ success

The Perfect Storm

• Rapid Climate Change

• “Peak Oil”/Energy Costs

•Fresh Water Scarcity

Economy

Natural Capital & Services

Culture

Adapted from a diagram by Jerry Hembd, UW-Extension Northern Center for Community Economic Development.

“Pleistocene of South America” by D. Bogdanov

In nature there are no winners or losers.

There are only survivors.

How do you play, when you know that nature bats last?

An Overview of the Framework

1. The origin of The Natural Step.

2. What The Natural Step is.

3. The Science.

4. The Conditions.

5. Examples

6. References

Beginnings…

Karl-Henrik Robèrt, M.D., Ph.D was one of Sweden’s leading cancer researchers.

Robèrt came to realize that there were basic realities of the environmental problems of the planet that were true for everyone, no matter their political views.

Certain facts could be established, based on current knowledge. He realized that if people could agree upon something, it might result in action.

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Robert.htm

He wrote a paper and sent it to Sweden’s top scientists, seeking such a consensus.

He asked them to correct the errors in his paper. Twenty-two drafts later he had consensus.

Robèrt consulted municipalities, businesses, government departments, environmental organizations, and the arts community.

He got the support of the King of Sweden.

The Natural Step was launched with attendant television coverage and distribution of educational material to every school and household in Sweden.

In 1993, American entrepreneur Paul Hawken (founder of Smith & Hawken, among other businesses), introduced the United States audience to The Natural Step in his book,The Ecology of Commerce.

• A scientific conference at the Wingspread Conference Center in Wisconsin approved it in 1997.

• Hawken and other worked with a group large corporations (Monsanto, Interface, GE, Toyota, and others).

Övertorneå

• The development planner from that small Swedish region, Torbjorn Lahti headed up the Eco-Municipality process, which is based on TNS.

• He and Sarah James published a book about it in 2004.

The Swedish municipalitiesarrange tours to

learn about their process.

Folks in the Chequamegon Bay and Dane County areas of Wisconsin come back from a tour and get to work.

• Manitowoc

• Menasha

• Neenah

• Sheboygan

In northeast Wisconsin, “Eco-Municipalities” currently include:

What is The Natural Step?

It is not:

•A thing that tells you exactly what to do

• A new running shoe, laxative, or diet

It is:

• Based on established science

• An incremental, do what you can handle approach

• Scalable

TNS =

• 5 scientific points {4 laws, 1 principle}

• That when considered together,

• Results in 4 “System Conditions”.

TNS Scientific Principles

1

Matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed.

1st law of thermodynamicsand the principle of conservation of matter.

Sooner or later, all matter that is introduced into society will be released into natural systems.

TNS Scientific Principles

2

Matter and energy tend to disperse.

(2nd law of thermodynamics)

Entropy

TNS Scientific Principles

3

Material quality is characterized

by the concentration and structure of matter.

We never consume energy or matter--only its quality , (the degree of order within energy and matter), purity and structure.

TNS Scientific Principles

4

Net increase in material quality on earth can only be produced by sun-driven processes.

TNS Scientific Principles

Add together the 4 principles, and you get:

The cyclic principle

Waste must not systematically accumulate in nature, and

reconstruction of material quality must be at least as large as its dissipation.

What is The Natural Step?

From the science and the Cyclic Principle you can derive

Four Systems Conditions

• The conditions are what describes the key characteristics of a sustainable society.

• They provide general goals to work towards for a business or other organization.

• Progress towards them is determined by you. You implement them to cut cost, open new revenue streams, improve your quality of life or services, or for other reasons you have.

Four Systems Conditions

1

Substances from the Earth's crust must not systematically increase in the biosphere.

Fossil fuels, metals and other minerals should not be extracted at a faster pace than their redeposit and

reintegration into the Earth's crust, or otherwise confined to the production cycle.

Four Systems Conditions

2

Substances produced by society must not systematically increase in the biosphere.

Substances must not be produced at a faster pace than they can be broken down and

integrated into the cycles of nature or deposited into the Earth's crust, or otherwise confined to the

production cycle.

Four Systems Conditions

3

The physical basis for the productivity of nature must not be systematically deteriorated.

We cannot harvest or manipulate ecosystems in such a way that productive capacity and diversity systematically diminish.

Four Systems Conditions

4

There must be fair and efficient use of resources to meet human needs world wide.

Human needs must be met fairly

with the most resource efficient methods possible.

Interface, Inc.

World’s largest manufacturerof modular and tile carpeting

http://www.interfaceinc.com/

Implemented TNS in the mid-1990’s

http://www.interfacesustainability.com/

The Natural Step

http://www.interfacesustainability.com/step.html

Chemicals found in Mother’s Breast Milk

Copyright 2004 The Natural Step

Cycles and smart shoppers

If you can use inner-tubes, how about a

methane digester for the County Fair?

Can youth teach about system condition 1?

Methane digesters & electricity generators, Green Valley Dairy

FOMA(TM) N701iECO phone made of PLA bioplastics reinforced with kenaf fibres developed by NEC, UNITIKA and NTTDoCoMo© Paul Fowler

Ikea adopted The Natural Step in 1990

TNS Method Overview

Coming after me…..today

Resources on TNS

Extension Sustainability Team Capacity Center Website

http://www2.uwsuper.edu/sustainability/Eco-Municipality.htm

Books

The Natural Step: A Framework by Karl-Henrik Robert

The Natural Step Story: Seeding a Quiet Revolution by Karl-Henrik Robert

The Natural Step for Business: Wealth, Ecology and the Evolutionary Corporation by Brian Nattrass & Mary Altomare

The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns Can Change to Sustainable Practices by Sarah James & Torbjorn Lahti

The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins & L. Hunter Lovins

Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model by Ray Anderson