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Nested sustainability.

Sustainable society is a society which strives to reach and maintain some sort of sustainable development. This sustainable society intents to persists over generations and should take into account present and future generations. It ensures the health and vitality of human life and culture and of nature's capital, without undermining physical and/or social systems of support.

The concept of a sustainable society has been originally proposed as a society in need of a completely new set of political institutions, which meant that a transition into a sustainable society was required. Later research has revealed the lack of consistency in the original requirements, and rejected the initial assessments. Less ambitious and more realistic goals have been adopted such as sustainable development.

The idea of a sustainable society still exists in numerous mission statements of environmental, political and educational organizations. The concept has turned into a political ideal, and is no longer seen as required political instrument.

Overview

Several notable descriptions have been given by notable scientists in the course of time:

• A sustainable society is one that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
  • World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), as cited in: Meadows et al. (2004; 254)

Furthermore

• A sustainable society is one that ensures the health and vitality of human life and culture and of nature's capital, for present and future generations. Such a society acts to stop the activities that serve to destroy human life and culture and nature's capital, and to encourage those activities that serve to conserve what exists, restore what has been damaged, and prevent future harm.
  • Stephen Viederman. Sustainable Society: What is it? How do we get there. Poynter Center, Indiana University, mimeo 24pp (1993).

• It is simplest to say that a sustainable society is one that can persist over generations; one that is farseeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough not to undermine either its physical or its social systems of support.
  • Donella Meadows, ‎Jorgen Randers, ‎Dennis Meadows (2004), Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update, p. 254

• We have formulated the Brundtland+ definition as follows:

A sustainable society is a society

➢ that meets the needs of the present generation,

➢ that does not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,

➢ in which each human being has the opportunity to develop itself in freedom, within a well-balanced society and in harmony with its surroundings.

• Geurt Van de Kerk and Arthur R. Manuel. "A comprehensive index for a sustainable society: The SSI—the Sustainable Society Index." Ecological Economics 66.2 (2008): 228-242; p. 229

• A much quoted definition of sustainable development in Our Common Future reads: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
  • Robert C. Paehlke (2013), lemma "Sustainability", in: Conservation and Environmentalism: An Encyclopedia. p. 612

Alternative terms have been proposed such as. William Ophuls (1977) already explained:

Stationary-state society and equilibrium society are alternative terms [to steady-state society]. The former is the traditional economic label for a state of zero growth. Because it tends to imply a condition of rigor mortis, it is not entirely suitable as a description of what is in store for us. Some believe that even steady-state is too static and prefer equilibrium or a sustainable society. Advocates of a sustainable society believe that “growth” can continue to occur but must conform to natural limits. Rightly understood, however, steady-state is appropriate and we shall normally use it.

More recently Steffes (2008) confirmed these interchangeable terms:

... as “stationary state society,” “equilibrium society,” and “steady state society,” but ... Eventually Randers landed on the phrase “ecological sustainable society...

And Robert C. Paehlke (2013) also declared:

Other writers began discussing an "equilibrium” society but further thought disclosed ...

History

The concept of steady state society

1970s U.S. postage stamp block

The 1972 book The Limits to Growth Meadows et al. (1972; 177) spoke about a steady state society as an equilibrium state, and the conditions to enhance such state:

Technological advance would be both necessary and welcome in the equilibrium state. A few obvious examples of the kinds of practical discoveries that would enhance the workings of a steady state society include:

• new methods of waste collection, to decrease pollution and make discarded material available for recycling;

• more efficient techniques of recycling, to reduce rates of resource depletion;

• better product design to increase product lifetime and promote easy repair, so that the capital depreciation rate would be minimized;

• harnessing of incident solar energy, the most pollution-free power source;

• methods of natural pest control, based on more complete understanding of ecological interrelationships;

• medical advances that would decrease the death rate;

• contraceptive advances that would facilitate the equalization of the birth rate with the decreasing death rate.

Furthermore Meadows et al. (1972; 182) stipulated the consideration of both current and future generations:

The equilibrium society will have to weigh the trade-offs engendered by a finite earth not only with consideration of present human values but also with consideration of future generations...

Meadows et al. (1972; 182) continued and gave some suggestions how this could be realized:

...To do that, society will need better means than exist today for clarifying the realistic alternatives available, for establishing societal goals, and for achieving the alternatives that are most consistent with those goals. But most important of all, long-term goals must be specified and short-term goals made consistent with them.

In the last chapter of The Limits to Growth, named "The State of Global Equilibrium," Meadows et al. (1972, 184) revealed, that they saw the equilibrium society as a "new form of human society-one that would be built to last for generations." The last paragraph if that chapter read:

If there is cause for deep concern, there is also cause for hope. Deliberately limiting growth would be difficult, but not impossible. The way to proceed is ckar, and the necessary steps, although they are new ones for human society, are well within human capabilities. Man possesses, for a small moment in his history, the most powerful combination of knowledge, tools, and resources the world has ever known. He has all that is physically necessary to create a totally new form of human society-one that would be built to last for generations. The two missing ingredients are a realistic, long-term goal that can guide mankind to the equilibrium society and the human will to achieve that goal.

A state of equilibrium

James C. Coomer (1981) in his first chapter, "the nature of the Quest for a Sustainable Society," introduces the concept of a sustainable society as a thing man inevitably encounters:

... man has attempted to find an equitable relationship with the physical environment so that he will not generate changes that may seriously impair that which sustains him. Seeking that equitable relationship is the perpetual for a sustainable society..."

Subsequently Coomer (1981;1) gave a series of attributes of the sustainable society:

• ...that sustainable society is one that lives within the self-perpetuating limits of its environment. That society, contrary to some popular opinion, is not a "no-growth" society. It is, rather, a society that recognizes the limits of growth. It is not a society that continues to seek alternatives to growth. It is, rather, a society that l0oks for alternative ways of growing.

The sustainable society recognizes that there is one primary environment - the physical environment - within which all other environments function. All other environments - political, social, economic, to name three major ones - exist within and and act upon the primary environment.

Haugan (2013) talked about the state of equilibrium, and even the equilibrium society in compare to the sustainable society

• In an equilibrium society, or sustainable society, some people are being born while others are dying, new factories, roads, buildings, and machines are being built while old ones are being decommissioned and recycled, and the input approximates the output.
  • Gregory T. Haugan (2013), Sustainable Program Management. p. 4

Transition towards a sustainable society

Brown (1982) speculated about a possible transition towards a sustainable society

• The transition to a sustainable society will challenge the capacity of countries everywhere to change and adapt. Some adjustments will occur in response to economic forces, some in response to public policy changes, and still others as a result of voluntary changes in life...
  • Lester R. Brown, "Building a sustainable society." Society 19.2 (1982): 75-85. p. 75

• ... the shift to a sustainable society takes place in two stages. First, trends that the environment and the economy cannot withstand must be arrested; then they must be reversed. For example, the historical growth in dependence on oil has apparently ended; it will have been reversed if the fall in consumption that occurred between 1979 and 1980 continues. By contrast, soil erosion is worsening, and its reversal is as yet impossible to foresee. Similarly, while awareness of deforestation is spreading, concern has not yet been translated into sufficient programs and resource commitments.
  • Lester R. Brown, "Building a sustainable society." Society 19.2 (1982): 75-85. p. 75

Milbrath (1989) argued that it is science and technology fail to solve the problems and the society (or politics (?)) must initiate change:

• This book provides a penetrating analysis of how we have come to this point, of why science and technology will fail to solve these problems, and of how we as a society must change in order to avoid ecological catastrophe

• Lester W. Milbrath (1989), Envisioning a Sustainable Society: Learning Our Way Out.

From steady-state society to sustainable society

In 1977 William Ophuls still spoke of the steady-state society, explaining

Many of those who examine our ecological predicament tend to agree that we are headed toward a steady-state society. Although the concept must be refined further, a steady-state society is one that has achieved a basic, long-term balance between the demands of a population and the environment that supplies its wants.

By that time Robert L. Stivers had already published his The sustainable society: ethics and economic growth (1976).

Recent overview

A recent publication Paehlke (2013) explained, that the origin of the term traces back to the 1970s,

• In the later half of the 1970s the phrase “sustainable society” began to be used and soon became widely accepted. The phrase implied that our present trajectory was not sustainable but it did not pre-judge how a sustainable society would be structured. It allowed for dynamic learning and personal growth and development. No one argued against the desirability of sustainability, but there was considerable disagreement about what it would require in everyday practice. Even so, people of many persuasions felt comfortable under this umbrella. The perceived need to urgently address global environmental problems drew the conservation and environmental movements together so that they are now close partners and nearly indistinguishable.

The United Nations General Assembly established in 1983 a World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). In its report, Our Common Future (1987), it called for "sustainable development.” The phrase caught on, becoming the topic of hundreds of books, thousands of conferences, and billions of discussions. It became the central focus of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. This first planetwide summit of national leaders was soon dubbed the “Earth Summit” and firmly established environmental concerns and the sustainability of society and its ecosystems at the top of the world's agenda.

• Robert C. Paehlke (2013), lemma "Sustainability", in: Conservation and Environmentalism: An Encyclopedia. p. 612

Sustainable society, topics

Framing of sustainable development progress according to the Circles of Sustainability, used by the United Nations.

The structure of sustainable society

Meadows et al. (2004) talked about the structure of sustainable society:

• From a systems point of view, a sustainable society is one that has in place informational, social, and institutional mechanisms to keep in check the positive feedback loops that cause exponential population and capital growth. This means that birthrates roughly equal death rates, and investment rates roughly equal depreciation rates, unless or until technical change and social decisions justify a considered, limited change in the levels of population or capital.
  • Donella Meadows, ‎Jorgen Randers, ‎Dennis Meadows (2004), Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update, p. 254

Van de Kerk and Manuel (2008) focussed on resources:

• For many people, the basic idea of sustainability focuses greatly on depletion of resources. Others consider that sustainability covers also (irreversible) pollution, conservation of nature and other environmental and ecological aspects. Some include the aspects of quality of human life, the human well-being. From an anthropocentric point of view, sustainability comprises all three elements:

1. depletion of resources → in order not to leave future generations empty-handed,

2. environmental and ecological aspects → in order to enable present and future generations to live in a clean and healthy environment, in harmony with nature,

3. quality of life → in order to ensure human well-being for present and future generations.

All three elements are important for developing towards a sustainable society.

• Geurt Van de Kerk and Arthur R. Manuel. "A comprehensive index for a sustainable society: The SSI—the Sustainable Society Index." Ecological Economics 66.2 (2008): 228-242. p. 229

Sustainable development

Main article: Sustainable development

Sustainability measurement

Main article: Sustainability measurement

Sustainable Society Index

Main article: Sustainable Society Index

Green politics

Main article: Green politics

See also

• Eco-investing
• Environmental education
• Resource-based economy
• Steady-state economy
• Sustainability organizations
• Worldwatch Institute

Selected publications

• Becky J. Brown et al. "Global sustainability: toward definition." Environmental management 11.6 (1987): 713-719.
• Lester R. Brown, "Building a sustainable society." Society 19.2 (1982): 75-85.
• Gro Harlem Brundtland, and M. Khalid. Our Common Future. New York, 1987.
• James C. Coomer (1981) Quest for a Sustainable Society: Pergamon Policy Studies on Business and Economics. Elsevier, 2016.
• Steven C. Hackett, Environmental and natural resources economics: Theory, policy, and the sustainable society. ME Sharpe, 2001; 2010.
• Holmberg, John, Karl-Henrik Robèrt, and Karl-Erik Eriksson. "Socio-ecological principles for a sustainable society." Getting down to Earth (1996): 17-48.
• Lester Walter Milbrath, Envisioning a sustainable society: Learning our way out. Suny Press, 1989.
• William Ophuls, A. Stephen Boyan, Jr, Ecology and the politics of scarcity Revisited; The Unraveling of the American Dream, 1977/ 1992.
• Robert C. Paehlke (2013), lemma "Sustainability", in: Conservation and Environmentalism: An Encyclopedia. p. 612
• Dennis C. Pirages, "Sustainable society: implications for limited growth.[16 papers]." (1977).
• Robert L. Stivers. The sustainable society: ethics and economic growth. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976.
• Sharon E. Sutton, Weaving a Tapestry of Resistance: The Places, Power and Poetry of a Sustainable Society, Bergin and Garvey Publishers, Westport, 1996
• Thomas H. Tietenberg and Lynne Lewis. Environmental and natural resource economics. Routledge, 1988-2016.