• Executive Summary
• Whole systems
• Spirituality & doubt
• Think locally, act locally?
• Linear or cyclical?
• You & the 3E's
• Resources

Executive Summary

By only addressing concerns for ecology, or economy, or equity, and not the three of them together, we will likely continue to only come up with partial solutions, and solutions which are often in conflict with each other. Integrated planning in this sense does not necessarily mean more planning, but more effective planning. Sustainability implies an approach to problem solving and design that is not only comprehensive, but even more importantly, integrated.

Whole systems

Imagine integrating ecology, economy, and equity into the form of a layer cake. On the bottom are the ecological systems. Resting on this foundation of nature is human nature, which encompasses our culture and our concerns for equity. Economics are the icing on top of the layers of culture and nature. Sustainability encourages us to see all things as being connected, and to look for the systems and relationships.

Spirituality & doubt

Nature, including human-nature, begins and ends with principles of change and uncertainty. We can never know everything. The concepts of time and infinity, of life and death, mysterious as they are, will always leave us with doubt. Such mysteries gives rise to the thousands of forms of human spirituality, which perhaps in the end inform and guide behavior more than our rational knowledge and awareness of ecology, economy, and equity.

It may be that in order to adopt something like a true whole systems perspective we will need to acknowledge the spiritual and sacred nature of life, and learn to be comfortable with doubt and uncertainty. Knowing about and integrating ecology, economy, and equity is a great start, but we can also be sure that there is even more than that to a sustainable community.

Think locally, act locally?

Environmentalism brought us the slogan 'Think globally, act locally.' Others such as Wendell Berry are now challenging this by saying we can no more think globally than we can act globally, and that we should bring our attention back closer to home by both thinking and acting locally. The idea is still to think comprehensively, but to apply our energies in places and with people that are familiar to us.

While everything is connected to everything on this planet, the local community connections end up being the significant ones, and the ones we can know and do something about. A comprehensive and integrated approach will almost surely overwhelm us unless we begin by applying it in our local communities.

Linear or cyclical?

Virtually all cities in the world are currently based on linear and isolated supply and waste removal systems. This may be efficient for short-term profits, but is inefficient in the long-run and appears to literally be a dead-end. A transition to sustainability thus involves moving from linear to cyclical technologies, as all linear systems must eventually come to an end. For our communities this will mean substituting local energies and products where possible for those that are now imported. It means mobilizing local resources, and learning how to sensitively reuse and recycle, while we reduce the total amounts we consume.

We can no longer afford to see our economies as separate from the ecosystems we live in any more than we can afford to see equity as something of an afterthought.

You & the 3E's

Sustainable communities will be created and maintained by the hundreds and thousands of people who live and work in them, and almost certainly not by teams of experts working on their own in secluded studios. There do not seem to be any magic answers except that we need to integrate ourselves with our communities, and together see what we can do.

As individuals we inevitably have unique and personal perspectives, and individual strengths and weaknesses, and will each continue to have different priorities. A sustainable perspective will serve to remind us that there are in fact many sides to each issue, and that we would do well to see what common ground there might be, and search for ways to bring these together.

Resources

Bateson, Gregory. 1979. Mind and nature: a necessary unity. New York: Penguin.

Lyle, John T. 1994. Regenerative design for sustainable development. New York: Wiley.

Roseland, Mark. 1992. Toward sustainable communities: a resource book for municipal and local governments. Ottawa: Canadian National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy.