Sustainability Manifesto

I cannot count the number of times in my sustainable development work when I have gone rummaging through file cabinets looking for specific information regarding a particular fact about sustainability. Out of frustration, I finally decided to try and put all in one place the many different details I have accumulated through the last decade on this topic.

That is the reason for this Manifesto. It represents what I have discovered through my own work as well as what I have learned from the cutting edge work of others on sustainable development – exploring its meaning and getting inside its application. This writing is an effort to synthesize and integrate significant amounts of detail and many ideas that exist on different elements of the global sustainability picture.

With this information all in one place I believe anyone can more effectively advance society’s collective wisdom for this concept and advocate for its important influence on the future design and implementation of development projects and programs that simultaneously impact society and the environment. The sequence of manuscript sections in the full Manifesto publication is significant because they represent a hierarchical development of background toward the expression of our understanding for this complex subject area in an almost crescendo-like, very simple interpretation of sustainability. Following this interpretation, with all the background information to support its rationale that even the general public can "put their arms around," I have provided several sections that focus upon sustainable development implementation, including tools to use and means of potential testing for sustainable outcomes. The Reference section of the Manifesto publication, in and of itself, is a valuable document because it offers what I believe are the most recent systemic thoughts and comprehensive writings on the subject of sustainability.

Although some of the ideas are my own, I have also borrowed extensively from many different persons engaged in sustainable development teaching, research, and practice in order to identify the extent of our knowledge in calling attention to the significance of advocating for sustainability goals in the growing global society. I thank and congratulate all of those persons for their stimulating thinking on the subject.

Warren Flint

The Manifesto's contents are listed below. The side panel of this page also provides links to summaries of each section in the Manifesto that you can review. Complete copies of each section or the entire Manifesto can be obtained by going to the GET THE MANIFESTO page of this site.

The Manifesto also provides the foundational reading for group workshops or retreats Five E's offers organizations or businesses interested in their members exploring the concept of sustainable development in depth. These facilitated awareness events can be arranged for by going to the Sustainability Workshops page of this site.

Manifesto Contents (summaries of different sections can be reviewed by clicking on links below or links in side panel)

• Executive Summary
• Is Our Global Society On-Track to a Healthy Future?
• What is Required to Change Present Conditions?
• Planting the Seed
• Sustainability’s Triple Threat
• Challenges to the Idea of Sustainability
• A Conceptual Understanding for Sustainability Philosophy
• Fundamental Truths
• A World of Interconnections
• A Simple Interpretation of Sustainability to Proceed
• What Sustainability Is and Is Not!
• Spirituality and Sustainability
• Principles That Can Guide Sustainable Actions
• Transitioning to Sustainability
• A Practitioner’s Challenge in Sustainable Development
• Tools to Consider in Sustainability Practice
• Testing for Sustainability
• References