The National Step Framework - A Win-Win for Profits, People and Planet

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by what we're doing to the Earth and wonder whether we really can create a sustainable future? Can you imagine a land where:

• The three major supermarket chains, including two co-ops, joined hundreds of large and small businesses in making a commitment to sustainability and offering ecologically sound products and services that increased profitability, improved performance, and provided competitive advantage while becoming more environmentally and socially responsible;
• The largest oil company developed clean-burning, farmer-grown bio-fuels and lobbied the government to raise air-quality standards while McDonald's eliminated toxics, used green, renewable energy and even solar panels and wind turbines, made a commitment to go organic by selling only organic milk, and serving veggie burgers and hamburgers with organic beef.
• Conventional farmers made a commitment to develop "the cleanest agriculture in the world" and to become sustainable, saving money and the environment by reducing pesticide use by 75 percent in less than a decade. At the same time they created the world's most environmental conference center by becoming fossil fuel-free with renewable energy, utilizing sustainable forestry, converting their model farm to organic, and serving organic food;
• Thousands of young people became concerned about the Earth and created their own environmental projects, computer networks, video programs and a youth parliament; and Seventy major cities and rural communities became eco-municipalities, thereby decreasing costs and waste while creating more jobs and improving performance?

Would you like to live in a land like that? You can. Sweden has already accomplished it and more. And the ideas behind this success are spreading around the world--in part through an initiative called the Natural Step (TNS) framework, a consensus approach for bringing about sustainability.

Launched in 1989 as a nonprofit educational organization, TNS was the creation of Swedish medical doctor and cancer researcher Karl-Henrik Robert. Concerned about rising cancer rates among children, Robert's research convinced him the causes were connected to environmental factors, not lifestyle. He began a consensus process among his fellow researchers on the conditions for planetary sustainability. After 21 drafts of a paper, Robert achieved consensus from 50 leading Swedish scientists.

But he knew that to bring about real change, he needed to creatively engage people and reach out to the broader public. Robert persuaded major corporations that they should support an effort to send an audiocassette and educational pamphlet on the findings to every home and school in Sweden, 4.3 million altogether. This not only brought awareness to young people and their families, but inspired artists, musicians, and actors to create a range of musicals, comedies, artworks, games, CDs and even a national television special to share the NSF with the backing of the King of Sweden.

Since then, there has been an impressive series of shifts. Hundreds of corporations in Sweden have implemented the NSF, including three major supermarket chains (two of which are co-ops), the world's largest manufacturers of appliances (Electrolux) and furniture (Ikea), Swedish Railways, the largest hotel chain (Scandic), and McDonald's.

The NSF was brought to the U.S. by author Paul Hawken and organizational learning professor Peter Senge in the early-1990s. It is used by businesses like Interface, Home Depot, Starbucks, Nike, CH2M Hill (one of the world's largest engineering firms), and Bank of America, as well as the State of Oregon, City of Santa Monica, Whistler Ski Resort in British Columbia, University of Texas Houston, hospitals (Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia), and churches (such as St. Joan of Arc).

As a result of the NSF, $1.4 billion Atlanta-based Interface has developed the first recyclable floor coverings and a solar-powered manufacturing plant while saving more than $200 million in just eight years. Sustainable forestry products manufacturer Collins Pine is saving $1 million a year.

The Natural Step Framework (NSF) Four Sustainability Principles or System Conditions:

The NSF emphasizes that the only long-term, sustainable manner in which business and society can operate is within the Earth's natural cycles. The NSF was established with the purpose of developing and sharing a common framework composed of easily understood, scientifically based principles that serve as a compass to guide society toward a just and sustainable future.

The NSF holds that in a sustainable society, nature won't be subject to systematically increasing:

• Concentrations of substances extracted from the earth's crust;
• Concentrations of substances produced by society;
• Degradation by physical means; and, in that society,
• Human needs are met worldwide.

(Source: Natural Step US, 2002 www.naturalstep.org)

To make the principles more easily understood we have developed the following interpretation of the principles:

• What We Take From the Earth: Mining and Fossil Fuels - Avoid "systematically increasing concentrations of substances extracted from the earth's crust." Simply, we need to use renewable energy and nontoxic, reusable materials to avoid the spread of hazardous mined metals and pollutants.
• What We Make: Chemicals, Plastics and Other Substances - Nature must not "be subject to systematically increasing concentrations of substances produced by society." Simply, we need to use safe, biodegradable substances that do not cause the spread of toxins in the environment.
• What We Do to the Earth: Biodiversity and Ecosystems - Nature must not "be subject to degradation by physical means." Simply, we need to protect our soils, water and air, or we won't be able to eat, drink or breathe.
• Meeting Basic Human Needs - "Human needs are met worldwide." Simply, we can use less stuff and save money while meeting the needs of every human on this planet.