The concept of “sustainability” is an outgrowth of the study of whole systems. This was an incredibly obscure idea in the early sixties. Partner, William C Reed postured that to integrate man and nature, the project had to balance out in both economic and biological way. Thus, the term “ecology” was born. The economics is “what’s the trade-off between development versus habitat management ?”.

The biological component is really,  ”what did nature have planned here?.”

One of the original sins of the industrial era was to rush past perfectly good technology all ready working the right way. They called it “common sense” back then but was years of trial and error by farmers and builders. The most logical things to planners in the 60’s and 70’s were to back-up- look at things from a “long view”. To those of us that were tuning into Astronaut Bill Anders picture of “earthrise”, the long view had special meaning- seeing the earth as it actually is, a small, fragile, blue ball. After that, satellite imaging and remote sensing became a fact of planning.

Once you have placed your project into the “high view” and determined it’s eco-system, sustainability can be achieved. A very important thing to remember is that not everything is Bio-available. (eg. Vitamin d) You can’t produce, synthesize, grow, blend, or organize everything. Sustainability is the end product of the over-lays and boundaries of the eco-system. Your “village” is the thing that that does not offend the system outside of the scope of you boundaries. This is what is called “making a stand” or ‘going to ground” impulses inherent in humans. A certain amount of cooperation is necessary. This is generally being on board with the over-all site plan of the eco-boundaries, rather than the traditional real estate assessment plots. This is to put an end to the “downstream” affect.