Creating sustainable futures/CSF102/Baseline/E-activity2

Learning challenge tasks

Consult the Sustainability Principles Diagram you printed out on the previous page.

An important first step before carrying out a sustainability impacts assessment is to define the scope of what you are assessing. A useful way to do this is to draw a map of the system (be it an organisation, community, project or a whole value chain) that you are assessing. The map can show the flow of materials, energy, organisations, people and money involved.

For a sustainable business, the principles can be seen in the Business Principles Diagram you printed out on the previous page.

Consider an organisation or sector or activity.

Use the sustainability principles to identify the high level impacts as either degenerating or regenerating based on the fishing business example below. Note in your journal or submit for formal credit.

1. Audit an organisation's system using the business principles, by stating whether the business is meeting this principle Never, rarely, sometimes, often, very often and always.

Example for an ocean fishing business

(High level snapshot only)

• Principle #1: Materials remain in the earths crust
  • Degenerating: Burning of fossil fuels to power boats (always), steel extraction (always), heavy metals used (always)
  • Regenerating: Recycling steel for reuse at end of life, bio fuel being used (rarely)
• Principle #2: Use chemicals nature can process
  • Degenerating: Nylon net and lines, Paint (always)
  • Regenerating: Lines that dissolve after use are used (rarely)
• Principle #3: Living Systems are not broken
  • Degenerating: Diminishing fish population (rarely), by catch of fish species and birds, marine mammals
  • Regenerating: Fishing occurs only in a measured abundant fish population (rarely)
• Principle #4: People are not subject to structural obstacles to health
  • Degenerating: Marketing mistruths are told as to the health value of fish products (very often)
  • Regenerating: Valid information is used to tell the story of the health value of fish products (rarely)
• Principle #5: People are not subject to structural obstacles to influence
  • Degenerating: Governments legislate to protect commercial fishing interests using false data of a fisheries health (often)
  • Regenerating: Communities have a say in how commercial fishing quota is managed (very often)
• Principle #6: People are not subject to structural obstacles to competence
  • Degenerating: Limited sharing of knowledge of product being sold using practices that harm or benefit nature (always)
  • Regenerating: Full detail of product and practices harm or benefit nature (rarely)
• Principle #7: People are not subject to structural obstacles to impartiality
  • Degenerating: An uneducated population does not question industry practice (most often)
  • Regenerating: Fishing organisations actively educate about industry practice (rarely)
• Principle #8: People are not subject to structural obstacles to meaning making
  • Degenerating: Knowledge of the oceans is not valued and is scarce.(very often)
  • Regenerating: Knowledge of the oceans is valued and abundant. (sometimes)