What is the Natural Step?
“The Natural Step” refers to both a non-profit in Sweden and an international movement to create sustainable “green” systems. The principles of The Natural Step have been used successfully by cities, community groups, and corporations such as IKEA to reduce wasteful spending and wasteful practices that degrade our earth and our way of life. Find out more here: http://www.naturalstep.org/en/our-story
What are the principles of The Natural Step?
The principles of the Natural Step call upon us to reexamine the way we extract resources from the earth’s crust, to reevaluate the way we manufacture and release chemicals, and ultimately, to work with and nurture the natural world.
What does your group do?
Our group just completed a reading and discussion of The Natural Step for Communities. This book is a guide for grassroots sustainable change in businesses and communities which contains case studies of transformation such as the evolution of the Swedish town of Overtornea in Sweden. Overtornea is now a 100% fossil-fuel-free and the largest organic farming business community in the country with 200 new enterprises. Previously, the town of 5,000 had 25% unemployment and had lost 20% of its population over 20 years. Overtornea was the first of what would become 60 “eco-municipalities” in Sweden.
Eco-municipalities are now dotting nations all over the world.
Who are the authors of The Natural Step for Communities and what do they do?
Co-author Torborn Lahti played a key role in facilitating change in Overtornea and developing the eco-municipality movement. Curently Lahti teaches at the University of Umea in Sweden, lectures throughout the world, and is the project manager for the Sustainable Robertsfors project, a pilot project for democratic sustainable municipal development in Sweden. Co-author Sarah James currently provides sustainable community planning and development services through her Cambridge, MA firm Sarah James & Associates.
Who are the facilitators?
Carol Gruba and Liz Ferguson are your co-facilitators. Carol and Liz attended a study circle in Fall of 2008 with The Natural Step Monona and a workshop on study circle facilitation.
For further information:
Read about Karl Henrik-Robert, the founder of The Natural Step: http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Robert.htm
A free Natural Step toolkit for homeowners in PDF format: http://www.naturalstep.org/en/sustainability-home-a-toolkit
The Natural Step Monona www.tnsmonona.org
City of Madison and The Natural Step http://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/tns/index.cfm
SustainDane and The Natural Step http://sustaindane.org/Pages/ecomunicipality.htm
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