Sustainability
– I like it! What is it?
By definition sustainability is a systemic property emerging from the interactions between the environment, the society and the economy. It refers generally to the capacity for the biosphere and human civilisation to co-exist.
This article breaks down what sustainability really means and why it’s urgent to act. It introduces five levels of sustainability—economic, social, environmental, peace and partnership.
3+2 levels of sustainability
1. Economical level – re-think growth
The most significant economic shifts in relation to sustainable development occurred with the rise of industrialism and the subsequent surge in growth.However, some 70 years later, we can confidently state that infinite economic growth on a finite planet is an oxymoron. We are currently operating as the money would be scarce and the natural resources would be unlimited, but it is the exact opposite. money is just an instrument of our modern capitalistic system while the natural resources it depends on are incredibly finite and increasingly depleted.
At the heart of this issue is the linear economic model, which follows a take-make-waste approach. Materials are extracted from the Earth, turned into products, and ultimately discarded as waste. This linear approach has led us to a breaking point—where the post-industrial, hyper-consumerist culture we’ve built is beginning to crumble. This is because continuing down the current path of unchecked growth and consumption would only result in further environmental destruction and societal collapse. This trajectory fails to provide a future where thriving livelihoods are possible, not even for the ultra-wealthy. While they represent just 0.003% of the global population and control approx 13% of global wealth, they are not immune to the consequences of an interconnected, unsustainable system. Their wealth, like everyone else’s, is dependent on the broader health of the global system, showing that we all have a stake in this issue.
However, there’s no need to panic. Growth dynamics are not immutable laws—they can be rethought and restructured. Political and business leaders are now being forced to confront mounting challenges, including resource scarcity, workplace stress, inequality, volatile markets, shifting stakeholder expectations, fragile supply chains, and rising social tensions.
An alternative economic model is the circular economy—a regenerative approach that seeks to eliminate waste and pollution, utilizes renewable energy and materials, and aims to regenerate the natural environment. This model focuses on sustainability and long-term health, rather than short-term growth.
Many modern thinkers propose alternatives to traditional growth-oriented economic models. For example, Gibson-Graham offers a broader perspective, viewing the economy not just as a mechanism for growth, but as a means to maintain and enable livelihoods that prioritize well-being. Despite living on a finite planet with strained resources, there is still hope. Individuals and communities worldwide are already stepping up to address these complex challenges, proving that sustainable, regenerative alternatives are not only possible but already in motion.
2. Social level – meeting the human needs
Social sustainability is a process for creating sustainable, successful places that promote wellbeing, by understanding what people need from the places they live and work. Social level of sustainability covers topics from ending hunger and poverty to human rights, equity, gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as increasing health and well-being, opening free education for all and enabling people to live in sustainable cities and communities with clear energy solutions. In general, these issues are interlinked, intertwined and wicked by nature. They are at the core of the sustainable transition because without healthy, educated and empowered active people it’s pretty much impossible to fix the state of the planet.
Solving these wicked problems requires a high level of systematic and holistic understanding. We can’t, for example, prototype new income or healthcare models and simulate them in a closed environment or a laboratory. Instead, the improvement ideas related to these designs need to be tested in a real life environment with the possibility of these tests leaving traces, understanding and emotions into the society that can’t be undone.
3. Environmental level – that ultimately sets the boundaries to everything
While the economy operates on a quarterly basis, planetary changes unfold over much longer periods. This disparity makes it easy for climate impacts, such as those expected 100,000 years from now, to seem irrelevant in the context of present-day economic and political decision-making. Our society is transitioning from the stable epoch of the Holocene to the Anthropocene – era where humans have become the single most influential species on the planet, causing planetary boundaries to run out of safe limits.
As of 2022,, the troubling expansion of oil, gas and coal projects, despite science telling that fossil fuels must stay in the ground to avert the worst impacts of climate change is making the 1.5°C future even less possible. Instead, the global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate. The estimations of the global climate warming during this century are rising somewhere between 2.5°C and 3°C – even 4°C. Already, global temperatures has risen about 1°C above pre-industrial levels and unless emissions are rapidly reduced, temperatures could rise 1.5°C by 2040, 2°C by 2065 and 4°C by 2100.
Heat will one of the key factors determining the future of our planet. When air warms by 1°C, it can hold 7% more moisture. Warmer air pulls more moisture from the land (and from plants, animals, and our bodies, in the form of sweat) and tends to release it more rapidly. As a result, both droughts and deluges are becoming more common. Also the carbon is also locked in trees, plants, and soil and trapped in frozen land called permafrost in the Arctic are unlocked by heat. This leafs to further warming. Accelerated warming can create large forest fires or thaw tundra, which releases yet more carbon and further increases warming—this is known as a biotic feedback loop.
This is not some distant future scenario—it is already happening. Forests are burning at unprecedented rates, droughts are intensifying, and glaciers are melting. The good news is that we know the sources of these rising risks and, crucially, we have the power to address them.
4. Peace level – Stability for People and Planet
Without peace, sustainability crumbles. Conflict displaces people, degrades the environment, and disrupts governance. Sustainable societies are built on justice, transparency, and safety for all. Peace enables long-term planning, cooperation, and resilience—key elements for a thriving future.
5. Partnership level – Working Together Across Borders
No nation, sector, or individual can solve the climate crisis alone. Partnerships—across governments, communities, scientists, businesses, and civil society—are vital. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 17 emphasizes the importance of global cooperation, knowledge exchange, and solidarity in tackling shared challenges.
Key take-a-ways
To sum up, sustainability is a systemic property emerging from the interactions between the environment, society and economy.
In practise it means dealing with a complex, interlinked and interconnected system of which casualties we can’t even predict. We have to learn how to adapt our activities to the planetary boundaries that ultimately sets all the limits and the environmental changes that are unavoidable. Nevertheless, there’s no time to bathe in guilt and despair for too long. We must say ‘bye bye’ to solutions that accelerate mass consumption culture and ‘hello’ to decoupling, regenerative business, circular thinking and true inclusivity.