How Can We Save the World Through Sustainability?
Sustainability is usually only talked about in relation to environmentalism, but it also has a strong connection to the world of family support. Here at Be Strong Families, we believe sustainability is an essential way of approaching family development and engagement. That is why throughout the month of February we facilitated and joined conversations about how we can have sustainable families and communities. Terry Gips, the CEO of Sustainability Associates and president and co-founder of the Alliance for Sustainability, joined us over several webinars to talk about how we can bring the worlds of environmentalism and family support together using sustainability as a bridge.
This definition for sustainability showcases how we can think through the societal and environmental conditions that our families and communities need in order to be sustainable. We can keep ourselves and our families strong by thinking about sustainability through the relevant lens of Dr. Manfred Max-Neef’s concept of the Fundamental Human Needs. The Fundamental Human Needs concept posits that human needs are comprised of four points that must all be satisfied in order to be truly considered a human need.
Human needs must be:
Defined and possible to classify
The same in all countries and in all historic times
Not interchangeable
Possible to satisfy at a high degree while decreasing society’s use and disposal of natural resources
Terry Gips talks about the 10 Fundamental Human Needs
By understanding and meeting these Fundamental Human Needs, we can quickly transform our lives, families, workplaces and communities and help bring about sustainability while also creating an antidote to Affluenza.
How do we achieve this fundamental transformation? We can use the Natural Step Framework, a proven, widely used approach that extensively utilizes Max-Neef’s concepts to achieve sustainability in the family, workplace and community.
During the webinar, Terry set the stage by providing a metaphor: "We are astronauts in a spaceship and the spaceship is Earth. We need to keep it strong because we depend on it for life.” So how can we learn from one another and work together instead of continuing to ignore the planet’s operating system?
Are You an Astronaut?
The Natural Step Framework looks to human beings surviving and thriving by paying attention to the planet’s operating system using four basic principles:
1. Limit what we take from the Earth
Minimize mining of metals and minerals and burning of fossil fuels
2. Avoid toxic substances we make
Find substitutes for hazardous pesticides, plastics and chemicals
3. Respect the Earth
We need to protect biodiversity, ecosystems and natural resources
4. Meet Human Needs
Remove barriers to people meeting their fundamental needs
The fourth principle is especially vital to the connection between sustainability and family support because it incorporates Max-Neef’s Fundamental Human Needs. These are the human needs of everyone, and we must acknowledge that we exist in relationship to one another. Through this mentality, we can use co-creation and interdependence as the bridge between family and community sustainability and environmental sustainability.
The entire month of February featured many revitalizing conversations around sustainability, and Terry’s webinars were essential to those conversations. You can watch the webinar about Fundamental Human Needs and the webinar about the Natural Step Framework to see more of the in-depth conversations around both topics, and you can find the PowerPoint slides for these presentations on our Webinar Recordings page. Join us for our upcoming webinars whenever your schedule allows! If you or your colleagues would like to host a webinar with us, contact us.