By Heather Gates

Our last Herald-Independent column described the value of The Natural Step (TNS) framework – a science-based, robust, and time-tested methodology for reversing human impacts on our planet. The column stressed the importance of understanding sustainability so we have a common language to guide all activities and decisions toward a sustainable future.

You learned the qualities, but not the content, of the TNS framework. So, enough already! Let’s start.

“A sustainable society is one that can persist over generations, one that is far-seeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough not to undermine either its physical or its social systems of support.” Donella Meadows

Taking steps toward sustainability requires a systems approach encompassing the environmental, economic, and social aspects of human behavior. The earth is a complex system in which our actions in one area can have far-reaching effects. Long lag times between cause and effect; global effects, instead of local effects; and diffuse sources of pollutants, instead of single, easy-to-trace sources make it difficult to recognize the magnitude of our current impacts, much less predict those of the future.

TNS uses science-based universal principles that apply to everything in our complex system of earth. The four sustainability objectives of TNS can be summarized this way:

1. Reduce our dependence upon fossil fuels, extracted underground metals, and minerals – things from the earth’s crust. Increasing concentrations of these substances, such as carbon dioxide, are dispersed into nature faster than they can be returned. They harm and alter nature’s cycles. In time, increasing concentrations will reach limits beyond which irreversible changes to human health and the environment will occur. At that point, life as we know it may not be possible.

2. Reduce our dependence on chemicals and other man-made substances. Increasing concentrations of persistent, unnatural compounds or large emissions of natural compounds, whether created intentionally, as in products from the chemical industry, or unintentionally, as in by-products of incineration, are not absorbed or broken down by nature. These substances, such as polychlorinated by-phenols (PCBs), dioxins, and flame-retardant chemicals, continue to accumulate in nature and affect natural systems and human health.

3. Reduce our dependence on activities that degrade life-sustaining ecosystems. Nature’s ecosystems make life possible by absorbing, recycling, and restructuring wastes into new resources. By such ways as overfishing our oceans, clear-cutting forests, and depleting soil nutrients through harmful agricultural practices, we are outstripping nature’s regenerative capacity. We are systematically destroying the system that we are part of and completely dependent upon – nature.

4. Meet the hierarchy of present and future human needs fairly and efficiently. Fair and efficient use of resources in meeting human needs is essential for achieving social stability and gaining the support needed for successful implementation of the first three sustainability objectives. If the global disparity is not addressed, impoverished peoples living in survival mode will simply degrade nature’s systems to stay alive. They may, for example, burn forests to plant crops to feed their families. The richest will continue to meet their needs with a scale of consumption that increasingly overwhelms the earth’s capacity to regenerate its natural capital.

Does this mean we crawl in a cave and do nothing? No. It means we seek ways of dematerialization – the reduction of material flows by increasing resource productivity and reducing waste – and substitution – using alternative types and/or qualities of materials and/or activities.

“The economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around.” Herman Daly

Un-sustainability is not just an environmental problem. Maintaining the rich diversity of the natural environment is crucial to our economy and social structure. As our life-support resources are declining, our consumption of life-support resources is increasing. As these two trends converge, it is like the walls of a funnel closing in on us, leaving us with a closing margin for action. (See “The Funnel” graphic.)

We can do something less than follow these objectives when planning development or designing transportation systems, making everyday purchasing choices or deciding family size, creating new products or evaluating where we locate, and all our other activities. But anything less isn’t enough. We need to understand and apply these concepts of sustainability immediately and comprehensively, so that, unlike Wiley Coyote, we don’t find ourselves dangling – with nothing below our feet but air and a long drop – before we realize we rushed headlong over the edge of a cliff.

I believe people want to make a difference. We want to conserve the earth’s capital. We want to reverse the transformative impacts our wastes cause to natural systems. We want to have a world hospitable enough for our children and grandchildren to have happy lives. We just need to know where to begin.

The objectives are the beginning. Applying them is where the genius of the framework shines. I’ll share more about that in a future column.