Methodologies for planning and implementing a more sustainable way of doing business abound. However, some methodologies are the topic of more water cooler conversations than others. A good example of one methodology that has received raving endorsements is The Natural Step.
The Natural Step provides a framework for businesses, organizations and agencies to brainstorm, plan and implement more sustainable practices. It works like this.
Take, for example, Municipality ABC. It's the 1990s, and ABC faces severe economic downtown, job loss, brain drain and low morale. Its policymakers decide that the solution lies in creating a sustainable environment for businesses and residents. ABC policymakers meet at a retreat to brainstorm their options for economic development using The Natural Step's four guiding objectives:
1) Reduce our community's contribution to fossil fuel dependence and to wasteful use of scarce metals and minerals.
2) Reduce our community's contribution to dependence on persistent chemicals and wasteful use of synthetic substances.
3) Reduce our community's contribution to encroachment upon nature (e.g., land, water, wildlife, forests, soil, ecosystems).
4) Meet human needs fairly and efficiently.
Using these guidelines to help spark their brainstorming, ABC policymakers develop plans for sustainable practices in the following areas. Examples of their plans, marked according to the guideline that inspired them, include the following:
- selectively develop public transportation (including public transportation, pedestrian walkways, bike trails and schemes for vehicle sharing) (1,3,4)
- improve commercial and residential building function and design to use passive solar energy, to incorporate renewable energy for heating and cooling, and to eliminate toxic building materials (1,2,3,4)
- improve agricultural methods to eliminate the use of pesticides and herbicides (1,2,3,4)
- update municipal purchasing guidelines to reflect new sustainable practices and policies (1,2,3,4)
- revise urban planning regulations to support preservation of open space, forests, natural waterways, and habitat (1,2,3,4)
- update sewage treatment techniques to reuse greywater and treat blackwater (3)
- affordable housing (4)
ABC policymakers develop and implement new practices and policies in ABC municipality that boost morale while creating new jobs and cultivating a more desirable living environment. The municipality becomes a model for a new way of life and doing business.
This is the story of some Swedish businesses, municipalities and organizations in the 1990s. New methodologies abound, of course, but the old methodologies, including The Natural Step, deserve thoughtful reflection. My own reflection on this particular approach to sustainability is that more than a few businesses and municipalities that have benefited from The Natural Step continue to thrive.
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Most of the information in this entry of Sustainable C derives from the book, The Natural Step for Communities: How CIties and Towns can Change to Sustainable Practices (ISBN 978-0-86571-491-5).
More information on The Natural Step today can be found by running a web search of "The Natural Step" or "Det Naturliga Steget."
An entertaining two-minute video on The Natural Step can be found here, courtesy of Youtube:
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