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While many sustainability discussions focus on technologies – thin film solar, hybrid autos, fuel cells, biodiesel – sustainability is ultimately not about technology. Rather, it is about the needs and abilities of people and their communities.
In fact, in creating a cultural shift of the magnitude now required, the highest leverage intervention is not the adoption of new products; it is the adoption of new perspectives and paradigms. If we want to act differently, we need to learn to think differently. But it’s hard to “think different,” as the Apple ad urges. Paradigms (worldviews or mental models) are to people as water is to fish – a context we swim around in without ever realizing how it so thoroughly shapes our lives.
So let me use a biological metaphor and try to “infect” the system with a paradigm that holds the potential to accelerate and focus sustainability work, and attract a large number of new partners and allies. It’s a strategic vision, a template for program design and delivery, and an assessment tool, all rolled into one. This paradigm supports the well-being and transformation of individuals, communities and the planet. It’s incredibly powerful, yet delightfully simple – raise healthy children!
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This is critical because, at present, there is a large disconnect between advocates for sustainability and advocates for children and social justice. In general, neither group recognizes the urgency or relevance of the other’s work. But it’s all the same work. There is no possibility of saving the planet if our children are unable to honor, foster and defend it in their turn. Nor can we raise healthy children and bring forth social justice in a world of environmental scarcity and disasters. Just as our children stand to benefit most from social and environmental remediation, it is they who, given the opportunity, will make the greatest contribution to a just, joyous and sustainable future.
There is a movement growing in SF and across the industrialized world, around this paradigm. While the language varies, it is increasingly framed as a “Whole Child” model, and it meshes perfectly with sustainability work.
Whole Child is an effort to ensure the health, well-being, and academic and life success of every child and young person through addressing the social, emotional and economic factors that largely determine their life chances. It applies systemic interventions to address not only the needs and well-being of young people, but also of their families and community. The goal of a Whole Child effort is ambitious – to ensure
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