The 3 pillars of sustainable development: People, Planet and Profits

Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth have been on the agenda of government for many years, without effectively addressing the three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. These three pillars are informally referred to as people, planet and profits.

It is essential to understand that the implementation of sustainable development is not limited to government. Inclusive growth has to be a joint commitment of business, civil society, international and local donor organizations, and – the national and local governments.

But let’s go one step further: the successful implementation of the three pillars – people, planet, profits – also hinges on communities or societies that want to pursue sustainability.

The following six principles of sustainability can help a community ensure that its social, economic, and environmental systems are well integrated and will endure. We should remember that, although the list of principles is useful, each of them has the potential to overlap and inter-relate with some or all of the others.

1. Maintain and, if possible, enhance, its residents quality of life

Quality of life or livability differs from community to community. It has many components: income, education, health care, housing, employment, legal rights on the one hand; exposure to crime, pollution, disease, disaster, and other risks on the other. Each locality must define and plan for the quality of life it wants and believes it can achieve, for now and for future generations. And this applies to rural and urban communities.

2. Enhance local economic vitality

A viable local economy is essential to sustainability. This includes job opportunities, sufficient tax base and revenue to support government and the provision of infrastructure and services, and a suitable business climate. A sustainable economy is also diversified, so that it is not easily disrupted by internal or external events or disasters. Especially in the rural environment, the introduction of agricultural supply chains are essential, a clear area where social business organizations help develop sustainable agriculture by taking the middle-man out.

3. Promote social and intergenerational equity

A sustainable community’s resources and opportunities are available to everyone, regardless of ethnicity, age, gender, cultural background, religion, or other characteristics. Further, a sustainable community does not deplete its resources, destroy natural systems, or pass along unnecessary hazards to its great-great-grandchildren. Again, looking at the agricultural sector, we have to make efforts to keep the children on their farms, providing technology and finance for them and helping them to see opportunities in the agri supply chain.

4. Maintain and, if possible, enhance, the quality of the environment

A sustainable community sees itself as existing within a physical environment and natural ecosystem and tries to find ways to co-exist with that environment. It does its part by avoiding unnecessary degradation of the air, oceans, fresh water, and other natural systems. It tries to replace detrimental practices with those that allow ecosystems to continuously renew themselves.

5. Incorporate disaster resilience and mitigation into its decisions and actions

A community is resilient in the face of inevitable natural disasters like typhoons, earthquakes, floods, and drought if it takes steps to ensure that such events cause as little damage as possible, that productivity is only minimally interrupted, and that quality of life remains at (or quickly returns to) high levels. A disaster-resilient community further takes responsibility for the risks it faces and, to the extent possible, is self-reliant.

6. Use a consensus-building, participatory process when making decisions

Participatory processes are vital to community sustainability. Such a process engages all the people who have a stake in the outcome of the decision being contemplated. It encourages the identification of concerns and issues, promotes the wide generation of ideas for dealing with those concerns, and helps those involved find a way to reach agreement about solutions. It results in the production and dissemination of important, relevant information, fosters a sense of community, produces ideas that may not have been considered otherwise, and engenders a sense of ownership on the part of the community for the final decision.

As mentioned above, there is the need of government (national and local) to work closely with business, civil society, and communities in achieving the changes needed to achieve sustainable development and inclusive growth. Let’s all be supporters of the here pillars: People, Planet and Profits!

Comments are appreciated; email me at hjschumacher59@gmail.com