Description of Challenge
To clearly understand un/sustainability at a level of basic principles so decisions made to address the challenge are effective and agreed upon. Only then can specialist knowledge become a source of solutions rather than a barrier to communication between people and groups. This Natural Step Framework will interest people who work across disciplines, because it allows for effective communication and planning.A set of 4 scientifically robust and peer reviewed principles (3 ecological and 1 social) which clearly define the problem of 'unsustainablity' in any given project, how to generate a vision of sustainability for that project and how to move towards that vision in a strategic and effective manner.
Solution
The Natural Step framework is
* Based on a scientific consensus of the 4 basic principle ways in which humanity is destroying the biosphere.
*Uses these principles as a lens to gain a clear understanding of how a project (business, product,community) is contributing to unsustainability.
* Generates a future vision of how the project would look if it was complying with these 4 principles and was ‘sustainable’
* Allows for cross disciplinary communication using a common language that brings the full benefit of specialists to bear on a particular issue but within a holistic framework.
* Effectively makes the vital link between long term ecological and short term financial viability.
* It is open source, scale neutral, peer reviewed and led by the Swedish NGO of the same name.
