Relating the fundamental human needs to the environment

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Last week we reviewed the 9 fundamental human needs, pictured above, which we had introduced at the block course.  Hopefully many of you had a chance to take some time out to see that your needs were being met, or if they weren't to look at ways to allow them to be met.  

What I want to do this week is link those needs to the environment.  The human need of sustenance (food & water), shelter, mental and physical health cannot be met without a healthy environment.  And I think you will all agree that if we don't have good food, clean water, shelter and good health then the odds are very poor indeed.  

Many people currently think of sustainability like this model pictured below. This model puts equal emphasis on environment, social and economic factors and unless all three of these are balanced, then the result won't be sustainable.This is a weak model for sustainability because  it does not ensure that the need of sustenance will be met by a healthy environment. If the environment is not looked after, or similarly unhealthy economic can make sustenance more difficult to attain.  

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In order to really ensure that our needs can be met we should work on the model of strong sustainability.  In this model the environment is of most importance because if we don't have a strong and healthy environment or if we continue to not adhere to the 4 system conditions (which will be detailed in next weeks post) required to maintain a healthy environment, then the people on this planet will not be able to keep going, and as the money system is created by the people, this too will collapse.  

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You can read more about weak and strong sustainability at this link

These are tools that you need to understand which you can use in conversations on this subject when you are wanting to implement change in your business (or any other area).  We will explore more tools in the coming weeks before looking at industry specific problems and working through potential solutions.