Glossary

ABCD method: A strategic tool for backcasting
from sustainability principles
. The letters represent the following steps:

• A – Gain Awareness and develop a vision of the ecological and social systems your organisation operates within, based on an understanding of the principles for sustainability. From this understanding, create a vision of what your organization would look like if it operated within these principles;
• B – Undertake a Baseline assessment of today’s current reality noting where violations of the principles for sustainability occur and identify organizational assets;
• C – Create solutions to the issues discovered in the B step without technological, political or other constraints – this is brainstorming. Imagine measures to achieve these. Be creative!
• D – Decide on priorities. Prioritise the actions developed during ‘C’ by asking: i) is this action consistent with the sustainability principles? ii) can this action be built upon in future? iii) does this action bring an acceptable financial, ecological and/or social return on investment?

Backcasting: A fancy word for a strategic planning method where a successful future is envisioned first, and the current reality of today is assessed against the vision by asking ‘what do we need to do to get from here to there?’ More

Basic human needs: A comprehensive set of fundamental human needs that are culturally and historically universal, non-overlapping, nonsubstitutable, complimentary to one another, and seek continual satisfaction. They are recognised as: subsistence, protection, affection, idleness, identity, freedom, creativity, participation and understanding. These were created by the Chilean economist, Manfred Max-Neef and form the definition for the fourth system condition.

Biosphere: the portion of Earth and its atmosphere that is capable of supporting life.

Capacity-building: the transfer of knowledge to practitioners from experts with the intent of creating self-sufficiency.

Community Planning: Any planning that is done for a community. This may include, but is not limited to, Official Community Plans, Municipal Planning Strategies, and/or Integrated Community Sustainability Plans and may encompass planning for a variety of aspects, such as sustainability, water use, economic development, parks, and/or land-use planning.

Community Engagement: the involvement of the community in the creation and implementation of major decisions. Continuous improvement: in the context of management systems, means the continuous focus on improvement of an organization’s performance from assembly line to the CEO, as a permanent objective.

Decision-maker: A person who has the authority to make decisions. Decision-makers do not always have formal authority, but can be the individuals within an organization or community that make decisions behind the scenes.

Downstream Solutions: solutions that deal with the symptoms of larger systemic problems often in reaction to the obvious symptoms without examining the cause of the symptom.

Early Adopter Program: A program in which a group of local businesses, organizations, community groups, concerned citizens and ideally the local municipal government who come together with a commitment to provide leadership by introducing and incorporating sustainability into their respective organizations and by working together towards community sustainability. The Natural Step pioneered this approach in Whistler, British Columbia by providing a training program for Early Adopter organisations, which focused on building community capacity by building a common understanding and shared language for sustainability among a variety of community stakeholders, creating local success stories, and then having this core group of leaders disseminate the lessons, knowledge and energy they have gained throughout the community.

Earth’s Crust: Also known as the lithosphere. The thin outermost layer of the Earth, approximately 1% of the Earth’s volume, that varies in thickness from 30-70 km below the continents to 6-8 km below the oceans.

Eco-municipality: An eco-municipality aspires to develop an ecologically, economically and socially healthy community for the long term, using The Natural Step Framework for sustainability as a guide, and a democratic, highly participative development process as the method. It becomes the driving force for involving citizens and sectors of the larger community in the process of becoming a sustainable community. An eco-municipality collaborates with other organizations regionally, nationally, and internationally, to learn from each other and to assist other communities. Groups of eco-municipalities are found in Canada, Sweden and the United States.

Five level model framework: A generic framework for planning and decision making in complex systems utilizing 5 distinct, non-overlapping levels: (1) System, (2) Success, (3) Strategy, (4) Actions, and (5) Tools.

Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD): Describes a generic five level framework used to understand and plan progress towards a sustainable society, by using backcasting
from sustainability principles
to prioritize strategic actions.

Full-cost accounting: a method of accounting where the full costs and benefits of the decision are weighed (ie. costs are estimated for the entire life-span of the decision, hidden costs, externalities, overhead and indirect costs are included).

Funnel metaphor: A metaphor developed to demonstrate the outcome of continuing along our current path. More here
.

Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP): A long-term plan, developed in consultation with community members that provides direction for the community to realize its sustainability objectives.

Greenhouse gases: Gasses in the atmosphere which reduce the loss of heat into space. Human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases are believed to be a main driver of current global temperature increases and increasingly erratic weather.

Indicators: are measures used to follow up on the business goals of an organisation and determine whether the organisation is moving towards its vision.

Mental models: Deeply ingrained assumptions, generalisations, or pictures and images which influence how we understand the world and take action. Municipal Sustainability Plan (see ICSP)

The Natural Step Framework: a mental model that allows individuals to understand the root causes of un-sustainability and then move strategically toward sustainability.

The Natural Step (Organization): an international non-profit organisation founded in Sweden in 1989 by Swedish scientist, Karl-Henrik Robèrt. The Natural Step has pioneered a "Backcasting from Principles" approach to effectively advance society towards sustainability. The organization is committed to helping create a sustainable human society using The Natural Step Framework to communicate the scope and scale of the current problem and empower individuals to move towards strategic solutions.

Photosynthesis: The process by which plants utilize solar energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and oxygen.

Precautionary Principle: is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action.

Procurement guidelines: A set of guidelines to help in the combined functions of purchasing, inventory control, traffic and transportation, receiving, inspection, store keeping, and salvage and disposal operations to ensure that an organization moves toward sustainability.

Risk: the ‘probability of a consequence occurring’ multiplied by ‘the magnitude of the consequence’.

Root Cause: The most basic reason for the presence of a problem, which, if eliminated, would prevent its recurrence.

Shareholder: A person or group who owns shares of stock in a corporation or mutual fund.

Stakeholder: Any person or group who has an interest (a stake) in an organisation or community.

Strategic planning: is an organisation's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people.

Strategic prioritization questions: three questions used to make strategic decisions within the constraints of the system conditions.

Strategic sustainable development (SSD): development and planning based on first-order principles for sustainability. This field was pioneered by a network of sustainability researchers in cooperation with the non-governmental organization, The Natural Step.

Sustainability: A state in which society does not systematically undermine natural or social systems within the biosphere. Achieving sustainability would happen when the four system conditions of The Natural Step are met.

Sustainability plan: encompasses comprehensive, or integrated, objectives including social, economic and environmental. An environmental plan focuses primarily on the environment. This integrated planning approach sets it apart from other traditional community plans. Because sustainability problems are often complex and overlapping, they cannot be solved in isolation and are best addressed using a comprehensive, systems-based approach that addresses the root of the problem, rather than only the symptoms. For example, toxic effluent in rivers affects fish health (environmental), which affect people (social) and financial prosperity (economic). All of these elements and their connections must be considered to arrive at optimal solutions.

Sustainability principles: First-order principles for sustainability that are designed for backcasting from sustainability. These principles state that, in a sustainable society, natural systems are not subject to systematic increases of:

• Materials drawn from the earth’s crust;
• Substances produced by society;
• Degradation of natural systems by physical means;
• And in this sustainable society, people are not subject conditions that systematically undermine their ability to meet their own needs.

System Conditions: Four conditions for achieving sustainability. The conditions are stated in the negative to create the constraints within which creativity can flourish as conditions stated in the positive are messy and hard to implement. They are: In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing:

• Concentrations of substances extracted from the earth’s crust
• Concentrations of substances produced by society
• Degradation by physical means
• and people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs

Systems-thinking: is an approach to problem-solving that assumes that the individual problem is part of a much larger system. The intent is to solve the problem in a way that does not create further problems down the road. This approach is particularly important in complex systems where we do not always understand the inter-connection between parts. See systems thinking FAQ
.

Technosphere: Refers to the human system as a sub-system within the biosphere, in which materials, industries and their products interrelate / interact.

Upstream Solutions: Proactive solutions that address the source of the original problem, as opposed to the effects of it.

Visioning: The process of imagining a desired future.

List of acronyms:

ICSP: Integrated Community Sustainability Plan

FSSD: Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development

MSP: Municipal Sustainability Plan

SC: system condition

SP: sustainability principle

SSD: Strategic Sustainable Development

TNS: The Natural Step

TNSF: The Natural Step Framework