A System's Approach to Sustainable Development

How do we continually grow the compassionate engagement of people (community) that serves environmental, social, and economic well-being?


Check out "Practice of Sustainable Community Development" a new book published by R. Warren Flint of Five E's Unlimited

 

 


 

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What We Do
Five E's Unlimited assists regions in creating authentic choices for future development through cross-disciplinary inquiry and consensus-building. We work hand-in-hand with clients to facilitate understanding of how one practice affects another and how one resource affects another. We help clients to seek common-ground solutions to their problems by articulating and clarifying crucial controversies and identifying strategies to advance their sustainable development objectives. We also encourage looking beyond solving problems one at a time, to a position where clients envision the development of communities, organizations, and systems that prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

We work with communities (geo-politically defined groups of people, corporations, governments) within a watershed and/or coastal area context in recognition of the fact that only systemic approaches will protect entire ecosystems and their services that humans rely upon. This approach further recognizes the artificial nature of geopolitical boundaries and how limiting they are to effective long term planning. Instead, the watershed approach assures that all future development of land and water resources is able to sustain the well-being of plants, animals, habitat, and humans in this generation and for future generations.

We integrate the building blocks of sustainable development theory and practice with our understanding of sustainability science to facilitate processes of community capacity-building and leadership development that will empower all interested stakeholders in taking charge of their own destiny toward planning and implementing strategies they believe will lead to community/regional sustainability. We help people living in the communities we serve become successful change agents.

By linking science, conservation, and socio-economic improvement programs on a global basis, we are able to design, direct, and assist projects in:

  1. Planning & Action for Community Sustainability
  2. Adaptive Watershed Management
  3. Group Facilitation & Conflict Resolution
  4. Sustainability Education & Public Awareness
  5. Coastal Zone Sustainability
  6. Urban Revitalization & Smart Development
  7. Food System Security & Diversified, Sustainable Agriculture

Typically, our approach to a project is to immerse ourselves into the communities that we serve by spending significant blocks of time on-site. In this way, we learn the context for perceived issues and familiarize ourselves with circumstances, get to know the different stakeholders, and discover first hand what will work and what won't. We attempt to become a thread in the community tapestry, because we believe that without a thorough understanding of the community, its history, needs and desires, we would be unable to effectively and efficiently meet a client’s needs and encourage buy-in and engagement by all stakeholders.

 

Check out our Project pages to obtain a better idea about our work in the above areas.


General Delivery, Placencia Village, Stann Creek District, Belize C.A. ---- Phone: (512) 256-7633 ---- e-mail: rwflint@eeeee.net

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Last Update: 1/1/15
Web Author: Dr. R. Warren Flint