070 | THE PRISM OF SUSTAINABILITY
       
    the prism    
         
The German Wuppertal Institute (commissioned by Friends of the Earth to develop a methodology for the Sustainable Europe project) uses a model, which defines sustainability as consisting of four dimensions: social, economic, environmental and institutional (institutional includes not only organisations, but also mechanisms and orientations). The links between these dimensions are also defined. This is described as the 'Prism of Sustainability'.    

The prism of sustainability


Source: Joachim Spangenberg, SERI
All four imperatives derive from the definition of sustainability given by the Brundtland Commission.    
         
    the imperatives    
         
The environmental imperative describes the need to reduce the pressure on the physical environment to within ecological system limits. The environmental dimension of sustainability aims at keeping intact, indefinitely, the stability of the processes of the ecosphere, as a dynamic and self-organised structure. An economic system is environmentally sustainable only as long as the amount of resources utilised to generate welfare is permanently restricted to a size and quality that does not overexploit the sources or overburden the sinks provided by the ecosphere. This imperative is defined from an anthropocentric point of view.

The institutional imperative calls for strengthening people's participation in political governance. The mechanisms of decision-making have to integrate people's wishes and activities. This way, the acceptance of and identification with political decisions both become broader, and democracy is strengthened.

The social imperative demands that all individuals have access to the resources and facilities they need to live a healthy and dignified life. This implies a non-discriminatory social fabric, supported by measures to reduce social exclusion and guarantee social minimum standards and human rights.

The economic imperative is to satisfy human needs for material welfare. This implies an economy which supports employment and livelihoods, in a framework which is competitive and stable at the macro-economic scale.		  

Text taken from "Indicators for sustainable communities", Anke Valentin & Joachim Spangenberg, Wuppertal Institute 1999
         
    the interlinkages    
         
It is not enough to define the four dimensions of sustainability. The interlinkages are also very significant, and relate to the most important fields of policy making. So they must be considered too.

For example, the degree of equity in access to limited resources is as important for sustainability as the total amount of resources extracted from the environment. This is an interlinkage imperative connecting the social and the environmental, which establishes a "right to resource access".

Democracy is the interlinkage between the institutional and the social imperative, and the basic condition for a society of more tolerance and solidarity. Participatory democracy is a basic condition for social cohesion, and thus for sustainable development. Increased material welfare is rarely without distributional impacts. Both the cost and the benefits should be fairly distributed. Fair burden sharing is the basis of the welfare state. This constitutes the interlinkage of the social and the economic dimension.

The interlinkage between the institutional and the environmental imperative - care - describes a combination of dedication and action. Legal regulations as well as organisations and individual action should care for the environment. On significant aspect of care is the precautionary principle, which guides us to avoid irreversible or serious impacts where there is uncertainty or ignorance about the likely effects - for example in the introduction of genetically modified crops. Care also represents the values needed for sustainable development: the limits of societies' caring capacity will probably be as essential as those of nature's carrying capacity.

Eco-efficiency - the economy-environment link - is a measure of how efficiently we use resources to deliver our social and economic needs. The Wuppertal Institute uses an indicator of Total Material Requirement (TMR) as a physical measure of resource use for the totality of economic activities. More widely eco-efficiency is measured according to the economic wealth generated per unit of environmental resources used.		    
         
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For a technical discussion of the above, you can download "Indicators for sustainable communities" from the web site of the Wuppertal Institute.    
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