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Sustainability Action Areas

Currently we have sustainability activities underway in the following areas: agricultural land and food security, community resiliency and well-being, emergency response and community preparedness, energy, health care, housing and multi-level seniors care, sustainable economics: community currency, transportation priorities and actions, and water. To see what each group is up to click on the individual topic.

Economics of Sustainability

As there are no conventional sources to call upon for help in defining what constitute the economics of sustainability there is the wonderful opportunity to be pioneers.

It may help to think about what it is not. Unbridled and limitless per capita consumption seems an unsustainable model as it assumes limitless resources on planet earth. Improvements in productivity (capital assets displacing labor) has given increasing benefits over the past centuries but the “law of unintended consequences” has rudely asserted itself. The natural condition of the planet has and is being compromised as a consequence of the many new productivity measures adopted.

By contrast, the economics of sustainability must be about how humans live in accord with nature and live in a manner that does not assume unlimited resources. This idea has been captured with the popular phrase; “foot print on planet Earth”. Perhaps we should be embracing the doctrine of “minimal impairment”

As a start, the per capita consumption of energy could be a good indicator. All forms of energy come at a cost, direct and indirect. The per capita generation (reduction) of garbage could be another indicator.

Other ideas are welcome.