Practicing Sustainability—

Herman Daly in 1991 said that a sustainable society must be based on using renewable resources at rates that do not exceed their capacity to renew themselves; using non-renewable resources at rates that do not exceed our capacity to substitute for them; and using no resources at rates that exceed the capacity of the natural world to assimilate or process the wastes associated with their use (Steady State Economics, 1991).

Lester Brown et al. said that a sustainable society requires a population in balance with its natural support systems, an energy system that does not raise the level of greenhouse gases, and a level of material demand that neither exceeds the sustainable yield of forests, grasslands or fisheries, nor systematically destroys other species (Saving the Planet, 1992).

Stanley Euston and William Gibson said, "We interpret sustainability to mean a condition in which natural systems and social systems survive and thrive together indefinitely."

Religious faiths and sustainability

The twin issues around which the world's future revolves are justice and ecology. Justice points to the necessity of correcting maldistribution of the products of the Earth and of bridging the gap between rich and poor countries. Ecology points to humanity's dependence upon the Earth. Society must be so organized as to sustain the Earth so that a sufficient quality of material and cultural life for humanity may be sustained indefinitely. A sustainable society which is unjust can hardly be worth sustaining. Humanity now has the responsibility to make a deliberate transition to a just and sustainable society..." --The World Council of Churches, 1979

We are building towards the climax of crisis. The spiritual crisis is folding into the ecological crisis, and the ecological crisis is folding into the economic crisis. ...Challenging market economics with a biblical sense of the goodness of God in Creation is to join a spiritual struggle. Faith in God, solidarity with the suffering poor and all other forms of life demands that we take a stand and say, This destruction must stop.

"We must be perfectly clear about the implications of undertaking this responsibility. It is more than just setting up household recycling bins, growing organic vegetables, or riding a bike to work. It is more than a talking job. It is a renovation which will change everything: the way we do business, the way we eat, the way we travel, the houses we build, the products and services we can expect and the prices we pay for them, the way we feel about trees, and the way we worship God." —Keith Helmuth, 1990, for Britain Yearly Mtg.