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Community Sustainability and the Natural Step Process
A paper prepared for the Clonakilty Town Council by A Wickham, 26 March 2007.
What does sustainability mean?
Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present day, without affecting the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It is about making sensible use of scarce resources and respecting the environment so that our children and grandchildren can live comfortably in a natural world, just like ours. It is not about greedily consuming with no thought for tomorrow’s citizens, or leaving it up to others to sort things out in the future.Is sustainability really necessary?
Yes. International scientific evidence shows that accelerated global warming is occurring now and that the discovery of oil is not keeping pace with demand. For our society to continue to live using the world’s resources extravagantly is not defensible. Denying that change is happening and doing nothing is only making the situation worse. There is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained by living in a sustainable manner.
Why should Clonakilty Become a Sustainable Town?
• For the sake of our children and future generations.
• Because oil is running out and global climate change is here.
• Because we all need to think about our own impact on the planet and do what we can to lessen the environmental damage we leave behind us. We are only passing through this world and should leave it in as good a shape as we found it.
• To maintain Clonakilty’s lead as a progressive town and a ‘Livable Community’.
• To strengthen people’s sense of community by focusing on a common purpose.
Is Becoming Sustainable Expensive?
People and businesses around the world have found that moving to more sustainable practices reduces costs and increases prosperity. Waste in the form of pollution is often a sign of systems inefficiency and eliminating it can simultaneously improve productivity, profits and the environment.
What is the ‘Natural Step’ Approach to Sustainability?
The ‘Natural Step’ process is a way of making a community or business sustainable and is based on the work of a multiple award winning Swedish visionary Karl-Henrik Robert. It is a science based, practical, logical process tried and tested in 70 communities in Sweden. Subsequently, over the last 15 years, it has spread to 12 other countries, as different as Israel, New Zealand, Italy and Japan. Its systematic approach prevents groups working at cross-purposes and the democratic, participatory method means the townspeople themselves decide what sort of community they want for the future.
Where can I read more about it?
The book called The Natural Step for Communities - subtitled ‘How Cities and Towns can Change to Sustainable Practices’ by Sarah James and Torbjorn Lahti (available in the Clonakilty Library). It is full of sensible advice about sustainability implementation. Proof that the method does work is illustrated by case studies of sustainable projects carried out in towns and eco-communities in Sweden and United States. There is also excellent advice on how to gain involvement and commitment from citizens.
Entering ‘Natural Step sustainable communities’ into any computer search engine will also generate a wealth of information about it.
Why choose the Natural Step process over any other approach to achieving sustainability for Clonakilty?
The Natural Step is only one of many approaches to sustainability but is appealing as a process to begin with because:
• It is tried and tested, and it works.
• The basic principles are simple and easy to understand and apply, whether to a single person, a company, a town, a city, or an entire country.
• The underlying guidelines are based on scientific principles .
• The process is systems based and prevents working counter-productively or duplicating effort.
• It involves every stakeholder group in the community in the change process, which comes about from the bottom up. In other words, the people of the community identify what they want their community to be like in the future, and are given education and assistance to steadily move towards that goal from the current position.
• It is not about laws, regulations etc being imposed from the top down, but about the people deciding for themselves what makes sense and moving toward a common goal alongside the local authorities.
• The Natural Step change process provides guidelines on how to communicate the message effectively, and obtain buy-in. The guidelines mean we can learn from others’ experience and don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
• Sustainable towns and businesses in Sweden have found that economic success has followed on from sustainability.
What are the underlying principles of the Natural Step approach?
The Natural Step process is based on four simple sustainability objectives, all of which must be met before change is undertaken.
1. Reduce wasteful dependence on fossil fuels, scarce metals and minerals.
2. Reduce wasteful dependence upon chemicals and synthetic substances that accumulate in nature.
3. Reduce encroachment upon nature.
4. Meet human needs fairly and efficiently.
According to the Natural Step book, a community can be pictured as a tree. The tree metaphor demonstrates how important it is to seek out the underlying causes of non-sustainable practices and treat them at the root rather than just treating random leaves. Treating the leaves instead of the root cause, can lead to duplicated efforts and working counter productively. Going back to the roots and applying the four sustainability principles leads to systematic, concerted efforts towards improvement.
Why would a Swedish system be relevant to Ireland?
Despite being in the extreme cold and dark for about a quarter of the year Sweden has half the CO2 emissions of Ireland . Most Swedish people speak excellent English. Sweden is only a few hours away by air. Sweden runs English speaking international conferences and tours focusing on sustainability for others to learn from. We can learn from this country.
How do we know it will work here?
Clonakilty has shown that hard work and leadership can bring about change for the better with its Tidy Towns and Liveable Communities awards, blue flag beaches, green flag schools, Ireland’s first Fair Trade town, nature reserves, a prize winning recycling centre, a farmer’s market, and excellent opportunities for employment. These successes show the obvious commitment of the community to make the town more ‘livable’ and progressive.
The principles of change management as detailed in the Natural Step book are consistent with organisational psychology best practice. Everyone having the opportunity to participate in the change process, and generate ideas and solutions, is a technique also used in the highly successful Total Quality Management (TQM) process that swept the business world. TQM was the process that started in Japan post WW2 and led it to turn around its reputation, from producing poor quality goods to today’s outstanding reputation for product innovation and excellence. Going back to the root cause of a situation in order to address a problem in a new way is also part of TQM.
Who needs to be involved?
Everyone in the community who cares about the planet and the future generations can be involved, especially local authorities, businesses, schools, clubs, organisations and so on.
How long will it take to see results?
Very soon for some things, but bigger projects will take years.
What steps do we need to take to get started?
Firstly, raise community awareness of the need for sustainability. Everyone needs a common understanding of what sustainability means and a framework to ensure that we can all work productively towards achieving it. Once that is achieved people are asked to think about how they want their town to be in the future. Non-sustainable practices are identified and changed for sustainable ones by going back and identifying the root of what is trying to be achieved.
The Sustainable Clonakilty group has made a start in this regard by encouraging people to take individual action in reducing their own carbon footprint. The group is focusing on practical, sustainable actions that can be achieved locally and apart from regular meetings is also organising information evenings that help people increase their own sustainability knowledge and skills. The March 14, 2007 talk on ‘How to Grow your own Vegetables’ was an excellent indicator of the level of local interest with over 60 people attending.
What can citizens, councils, businesses and other organisations do?
• Liaise closely with and support the work of Sustainable Clonakilty.
• Agree to adopt the Natural Step Principles in their own home, school, business, organisation etc.
• Become active in promoting sustainability in the town.
• Be good role models in living and working sustainably.
• Be early adopters of sustainability initiatives where ever they come from (such as Cork County Council Sustainable EPROC ).
How do we find out how sustainable Clonakilty is?
We need to answer questions such as the following:
1. How dependent is Clonakilty on fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources?
2. How secure is our food supply, as oil gets scarcer and more expensive?
3. How polluted is Clonakilty’s water, air and land?
4. What are the major environmental concerns locally?
5. What is the current state of the local economy?
6. Is there a labour shortage or unemployment locally?
7. To what degree is Clonakilty reliant on one or a few industries?
8. What are the main social issues in our community?
9. Is there adequate access to health care, education, open space, recreation, protective, emergency, and other community services?
10. To what extent are members of the public involved in civic affairs?
11. Is the local physical infrastructure adequate?
If every one of us makes a personal commitment to doing what we can toward sustainability, we may be surprised at what a large effect we have. And it is our children and other descendants who will reap the benefits – what finer legacy could there be?
