Linking Culture and the Environment

122 ‘The Natural Step’ to Sustainability Planning
that uses a science-based, systems framework to help organizations, individuals
and communities move towards sustainability. The organization’s stated
mission is to make fundamental principles of sustainability easier to understand
and effective sustainability initiatives easier to implement. It does this
by providing a shared mental model, common language and understanding
that facilitates cooperation across stakeholder groups and disciplines (Robèrt,
2002). Aimed initially at corporations, TNS has caught the attention not only
of the business world, but other institutions and communities around the
globe (James and Lahati, 2004). Although most extensively adopted in
Sweden where it originated, there are Natural Step offices in at least 12 countries
including North America, the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa,
Japan, Israel, Brazil and elsewhere. Large corporations such as Ikea,
Electrolux, Nike and Alcan are among the many local and global organizations
that have adopted the TNS framework. At a community level, many
Swedish towns were ‘early adopters’ of this approach. Now over 600 Swedish
communities are licensed to use the TNS brand, although implementation
levels and degrees of success vary. The adoption of TNS by the mountain
resort community of Whistler, British Columbia, has drawn attention to its
applicability as a community-oriented planning tool in a North American
context. Whistler’s advances in planning towards sustainability have been
internationally recognized (LIVCOM, 2006) and the resort is heralded by
TNS as a ‘best practice’ model. Within North America other communities
such as Madison, Wisconsin; North Vancouver, British Columbia; Halifax,
Nova Scotia; and Canmore, Alberta have now adopted the TNS framework.
The TNS framework
The TNS framework, rather than being prescriptive, directs each organization/community
to find its own solutions based on four guiding principles
that define a sustainable society (http://thenaturalstep.ca/). These principles
are derived from the work of Dr Robèrt and a team of scientists who
reduced the notion of sustainability to a set of ‘system conditions’. These science-based
‘system conditions’ identify ‘sustainability filters’ that focus
attention on eliminating activities leading to: (i) progressive build-up in concentration
of substances from the earth’s crust (e.g. fossil fuels); (ii) progressive
build-up in concentration of substances produced by society (e.g.
aerosols); (iii) ongoing physical degradation of nature (e.g. over-harvesting);
and (iv) barriers in the ability of other people to meet their needs worldwide
(e.g. unfair wages).
A second component of TNS framework is its funnel metaphor (Fig. 7.1).
A simple graphic distils and communicates in lay terms the science-based
resource management principles and consumption behaviours needed to
reach a more sustainable community condition.
The TNS also uses ‘backcasting’ as the fundamental planning process to
identify the actions that must be taken to achieve desired sustainability outcomes.
Robèrt (2002) identifies an A-B-C-D implementation methodology
that guides organizations along a pathway to sustainability. The first step,