Sustainable Sustainability

One Community is evolving sustainability and helping to facilitate ecological and holistic living’s transition to being both mainstream and global. For this to happen, we believe sustainable solutions need to be made easier, more affordable, and more attractive. Our approach to accomplishing these things is open source do-it-yourself plans while evolving the scope of sustainability to include business, education, and a Highest Good society model of fulfilled living and contribution.

This page discusses evolving sustainability with the following sections:

Table of Contents

WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY

One Community defines sustainability as the coexistence of humanity with nature and each other in a manner that stands the test of time. We additionally believe that true sustainability has a proactive and regenerative effect that leaves things better for future generations. Holistically, this means encompassing all aspects of the human experience and ecologically addressing all life and living and non-living systems on our planet. The two facets we see as essential to this are physical sustainability and societal sustainability.

Here is what we include in physical sustainability (survival needs):

The second half of sustainability is built upon the first half and includes the non-essential but equally important financial, educational, and fulfilled living components. These are the social and societal components that go beyond basic needs to help people live lives that are meaningful and vibrant.

Here is what we include in societal sustainability (socioeconomic and personal needs):

Combining these two areas is what we call sustainable sustainability because it simultaneously meets both the physical/tangible sustainability needs and the non-physical/emotional foundational human values.

USING SUSTAINABILITY IN DECISION MAKING*

In decision making at One Community, the core value of “Sustainability” is applied by asking ourselves the following two key questions:

What decision best supports our goals for a global transition to sustainability?
Is this decision sustainably sustainable: supporting and forwarding One Community’s open source goals, Highest Good of All philosophy, and Highest Good society intentions too?

Asking these questions, we create and demonstrate transition strategies that are large-scale implementable and increasingly more desirable than current mainstream approaches, which builds a bridge between the pragmatism of operating in today’s world and the idealism of the future we know is possible for our planet.

WHY EVOLVE SUSTAINABILITY

A comprehensive and duplicable world-change model has never been more needed. Right now over 40,000 people starve to death each day (World Health Organization Statistics 2008), 1.6 billion people (about 1/4th of humanity) are without electricity (Millennium Development Goals Report 2007), and over 100 million people worldwide are without a home (2005 UN Commission on Human Rights). Education statistics and statistics on general unhappiness and the rising use of anti-depressants also point to the need for a comprehensive solution. Simultaneously addressing the socio-economic and personal needs of people is important because all of these things are connected.

We are addressing these needs with our approach because we believe people truly want:

> Comprehensive solutions
> Better, more affordable education
> More affordable housing that lasts longer
> Cleaner and healthier food, water, and air
> A way to make a positive difference in the world
> A form of living that is good for them and the Earth
> More time with friends and family, and a more enriching lifestyle

A solution model that addresses all these areas simultaneously has the potential to change the world positively and permanently for everyone. We are here to provide this in the form of do-it-yourself blueprints and templates for individually-implementable modular components and complete village infrastructure. Free-sharing these solutions that are a win for individuals and local communities also addresses the entire planet.

ONE COMMUNITY’S APPROACH TO EVOLVING SUSTAINABILITY

Click to Enlarge

One Community Highest Good Housing and Energy Poster

Click to Enlarge

One Community Highest Good Society Summary

Click to Enlarge

One Community’s approach to evolving sustainability is recognizing that survival needs and socio-economic and personal needs are all interconnected and interdependent. We are building and open source sharing a model to simultaneously include all of these areas and show that this combination reduces living expenses and improves quality of life. Through sustainable and self-sufficient teacher/demonstration communities, villages, and cities we can teach others how to do this too, and that is what makes them capable of transforming life on this planet for everyone and everything living here.

SUMMARY

One Community defines sustainability as the coexistence of humanity with nature and each other in a manner that stands the test of time. We create and demonstrate transition strategies that are large-scale implementable and incrementally more desirable than current mainstream approaches, which builds a bridge between pragmatism and idealism. Everything we create is implementable as individual components or a complete holistic-living model. This model simultaneously addresses the socio-economic and personal needs of people in the form of self-replicating teacher/demonstration communities, villages, and cities, helping to spread and share this idea of sustainable sustainability across the world. Through these teacher/demonstration hubs we can teach others how to do this too, and that is what makes them capable of transforming life on this planet for everyone and everything living here.