University of Wisconsin-Extension Cooperative Extension

Sustainable Community Development

Identifying and Using Indicators of Sustainability
David S. Liebl; May 1997

1. Sustainabilty is a way of thinking about one's relationship to the natural world in the context of time.
2. The goal of sustainable thinking is to secure well being.
3. Sustainable thinking may not be typical of the human species, although it has been adopted by families, communities and social groups over time.
4. Relationships that embody sustainable thinking can be established with the natural world, among individuals and groups, and through social, economic and cultural institutions.
5. Adoption of sustainable thinking requires overcoming certain barriers: individual self interest, lack of long-term planning ability, reductionist thinking, inability to ensure continuation of initiative over/beyond lifespan, limits to knowledge and ability, fallibility of human judgement and decision making, uncertainty about the future. Taken together, these comprise the intuitive and emotional reluctance to think sustainably. This reluctance is valid, and the basis for these barriers will not go away.
6. Any efforts to promote sustainable thinking must explicitly and repeatedly acknowledge the validity of these barriers while at the same time presenting practical options for overcoming them.
7. Indicators of sustainability must identify those factors in individual and social thinking and behavior that encourage sustainable thinking. They must also identify those methods of communication and decision making that promote adoption of sustainable strategies.
8. Sustainable thinking may also be manifest as measurable social activities and outcomes. However, care must be taken to discriminate between the outcomes of sustainable thinking and similar outcomes that are arrived at by nonsustainable means (e.g. farming practices that reflect economic andtechnological influences, rather than sustainable thinking, yet result in similar outcomes can create an illusion of sustainable agriculture).
9. Through the process of developing indicators of sustainability, we must identify the type of thinking that will move toward sustainability, identify factors that demonstrate the existence of that thinking, look for opportunities and capacities that will allow that thinking to flourish, and only then identify measurable indicators that reflect the actual or potential outcome of that thinking.
10. Indicators of sustainability should reflect the priorities and values of, and be developed and adopted by, the communities that will use them.