Broadly, Sustainability Street is a manifestation of what Paul Hawken describes as "the Earth's immune system kicking in". 

Paul is the author of Blessed Unrest, a catalogue of the perhaps hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of small, local groupings of people who are coming together to live differently and work toward more authentic communities and ecological sustainability.

Check this YouTube of Blessed Unrest.  click, view and be INSPIRED!

So, apart from being an aspect of the manifestation of the greatest global movement in human history, as described by Paul Hawken ...

What Else, Specifically,  is the SSA?

1. Deep Sustainability
2. Dynamic Capacity Building
3. The 1, 2, 4, 8, 5, 2, 3!

• The comprehensive, how to Manual ... "It's A Village Out There"
• Southern Cross of Optimism
• the ecological finger•print - appraised and endorsed by David Suzuki.
• The Train the Mentor program
• Stories of  other communities around Australia 

Selection of Items from the Sustainability Street Glossary,

• Beacon Communities.  A Sustainability Street Village, who by the very fact of getting together and living differently, out there in the ‘burbs, have the potential to viscerally influence both local and wider culture.  Think model behaviour, fashion and the deep, core human imperative of social emulation for survival upon which we have relied on for millennia of millennia.
• Definition of Sustainability Street … at one end of the spectrum, a basic training program in sustainable living around the home and the neighbour hood, through to, at the other end of the spectrum, whatever the imagination of a local group of people dreams up …. And some extraordinary dreams have been realised all around Australia by Sustainability Street Villages.
• Transformation … and fostering in the community a re-evaluation of aspirations, culture and behaviour, drives from two aspects
• Deep Sustainability:  The SSA goes way beyond 101 tips, guilt, fear, and the soapbox.  It thoroughly fosters optimism and imagination.  Deep sustainability is wound up in the so called 1, 2, 4, 8, 5, 2, 3; the framework or core of the SSA, as enunciated below.

and

• Dynamic Capacity Building:  Self identification and a sense of belonging are powerful sociological and psychological human drivers.  A growing contingent of people are concerned and want a visceral, authentic, practical, effective and enjoyable path to travel to reach ecological sustainability.  Noted US sociologist, Robert Putnam, an influence in the development of the SSA has said that in the USA more people watch friends than have friends.  The Australian corollary might be that more people watch neighbours than talk to the neighbours.  Yet social epidemiologists tell us that local social connections can add ten healthy years to lifespan.  The relationships that local people build and cherish provide the foundation for hope, imagination, comradeship and above all – amazing environmental accomplishments …  and a fantastic model for others – the so called SSA Beacon Community!

 

 

The 1, 2, 4, 8, 5, 2, 3 of Sustainability Street;.

• One purpose … Coming Home
• Peter Dombrovskis, photographer to the Franklin River said “people think that going to the wilderness is getting away from it all.  It’s not.  It is coming back to it all, back to what is meaningful …
• The SSA weaves the protection of and wonderment at the miracle of Biological Diversity through its entire corpus being, that and promoting reconnecting physically with nature …
• Two  Greatest Imperatives In All of Human History
• To get along better with each other, locally and globally … and to get along much better with all other life forms, again, both locally and globally …
• Four Iterative, self informing, locally owned and nourishing stages of personal and group growth and accomplishment
• Mulch, Grow, Harvest, Sow … or … learn, do, celebrate teach.
• Eight Principles
• Such notions as … spurning the doom and gloom, seeking out the good news, avoiding the holier than thou soapbox and taking time to contemplate a clean, green, sustainable future … because we have to believe it to see it.
• Five Beacons/blockers
• The SSA has synthesised the whole, complex environmental “debate” to five broad domains … which are beacons if we choose to act, blockers if we ignore.
• Two Conduits … think local and believe deeply in our capacity to influence others
• Three Areas Of Daily Focussed Effort … waste, water and energy … we all make dozens, scores, hundreds of Earth Decisions every day, week, month … waste, water and energy are at the root of every decision and connected to the giant natural systems.

 

Other empowering, optimistic and inspiring aspects of the SSA;iavot book …

• The Learning Shortcuts; conserving waste, water and energy smarter, not harder!
• The Southern Cross of Optimism:  five huge, axiomatic and uplifting reasons for hope.
• The ecological•fingerprint (appraised and endorsed by Dr. David Suzuki)
• The coming home stories, insights into nature that would even bring a tear of joy to David Attenborough’s eye.
• The wikiSSA, the accompanying website (underway) which will be based on web 2 social network and virtual community technology, allowing people to educate, inspire and broadly engage on line