The Problem

Herman Daly, the renowned ecological economist and thought leader in sustainability issues, defines sustainability in terms of the throughput of 'natural capital,' the capacity of an ecosystem to yield both a flow of natural resources and a flux of natural services. Development, according to Daly, is defined as increasing levels of utility per unit of throughput. Without such increases in utility, growth in human affairs simply results in (a demand for) more throughput.

The key issue for society, then, is how to achieve greater levels of utility from the throughput of natural capital, without increasing throughput itself beyond sustainable levels. Meadows, Meadows and Rander ('Beyond the Limits,' 1992) identify the related thresholds for a society as follows:

-	Its (a society's) rates of use of renewable resources do not exceed their rates of regeneration
-	Its rates of use of nonrenewable resources do not exceed the rate at which sustainable renewable substitutes are developed
-	Its rates of pollution emission do not exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment

Why, then, despite the fact that we (humanity) cross these lines all the time, do we continue to carry on as though we don't? Why, that is, do we continue to over-indulge the needs of current generations at the expense of future ones -- our own children included?

An Epistemological Solution - Adaptive Societies

Our firm takes an epistemological view of the sustainability problem described above. In societies, as in organizations, we see human behavior as nothing more than knowledge in use, and bad behavior as bad knowledge in use. By fixing the knowledge problem, we argue, behavioral patterns can change. The fix, however, is not so much in the form of prescribing or teaching knowledge. Rather, it is in the form of enabling people and social systems to learn better for themselves by fixing the deficiencies in their learning systems.

We call our theory of sustainable development an Epistemological Theory of Sustainability. And like most of the thinking seen elsewhere on this site, our views also reflect a crucial blend of organizational learning and adaptive systems theory. We believe that behavior follows from a combination of knowledge and situational contexts, and that knowledge production is an emergent, adaptive process in individuals and human social systems. Dysfunctional behavior, then, can often be blamed on dysfunctional learning systems which block, distort, or delay feedback cycles in the normal course of experience.

The unique contribution of epistemology to this problem comes in the form of Truth and Evaluation Theories, which when applied to the study of dysfunctional learning systems can reveal social epistemologies that routinely produce false and uninformed conclusions. Even modelers and analysts of unsustainable human behaviors frequently overlook this, and in the process often ascribe levels of rationality and reasoning to agents in such systems (or to themselves) that simply do not obtain.

All of this suggests a promising new epistemological line of thought in the field of sustainability, and a corresponding new style of practice. The vision it points to? Adaptive Societies. Societies in which feedback works, learning is effective, and development stays on the responsible side of sustainability thresholds. Macroinnovation Associates is pleased to be at the forefront of this important effort, the potential for which is very compelling indeed.