Define Sustainability

When I talk about sustainability, I'm talking about these mindsets.

• The Triple Bottom Line
  • separate but additive; each space has potential for sustainability, and the goal is for hitting the overlap of all three sustainabilities, but you can focus on one without the others (there in lies the problem).
  • This is "sustainability in practice"
• Nested: Economy within Society within Nature
  • holistic; everything is a decision within nature.
  • If you frame everything this way, you can't accidentally leave out a kind of sustainability.
  • Everything Is Connected

Here are some other Definitions of Sustainability

• Any action that does not degrade the systems supporting it
• Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
• Leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you need, try not to harm life or the environment, make amends if you do. / Paul Hawken
• Do unto others as you would have them do to you. / The Golden Rule (or the ethic of reciprocity), Originally attributed to Confucious
• Equity over time. Think of it as extending the Golden rule through time … Do unto future generations as you would have them do unto you. / Robert Gilman, the Context Institute
• Living and working together for a common good. / The Japanese principle of “Kyosei”
• Don't eat your seed corn. / Farmer Colloquialism
• Improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of life’s supporting systems.
• Understanding the interconnections among the economy, our society, and the environment.
• Living within limits
• Accounting for the present AND the future
• Leaving the world better than we found it
• Affluence without guilt, not sacrifice and restriction / Alex Steffen, founder of WorldChanging.