In February, Janet Karon was one of five Duluthians who attended a weekend conference in Ashland facilitated by Torbjorn Lahti and Sarah James.

“Torbjorn challenged the group … we came home and started study circles to learn about (The Natural Step) concepts, and are going from there,” Karon said.

The Duluth native, educator and civic activist spent much of her adult life away but returned to her birth city six years ago from Ohio.

In a July 5 presentation, Karon told members of Duluth’s comprehensive planning committee: “Our goal is to promote four objectives of sustainable development and growth. The objective of Sustainable Duluth fits with the comp plan (under development). We want to be a force for helping to create a healthy, vibrant community plan. We are working for a Duluth that is lively and productive in the present, and also will provide for the needs of the future.”

She continued the presentation, examining the four system conditions at the core of The Natural Step, all of which have been adopted by the American Planning Association as a best practices framework for sustainable development:

• Reduce wasteful dependence upon fossil fuels, scarce metals and minerals. All substances from below the Earth’s surface are finite resources, and planning and development practices should reflect that. Furthermore, heavy metals, some minerals and their emissions are steadily accumulating in all living organisms as well as on the Earth. Many break down slowly and are toxic.

• Reduce wasteful dependence on chemicals and synthetic substances. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists 70,000 chemicals in common use. Many are persistent and carcinogenic. According to the federal agency, 700 chemical contaminants are present in every U.S. citizen’s fatty tissue.

Each of the above urges reducing dependence upon and wasteful use of chemical and synthetic substances, not an immediate cessation.

• Reduce encroachment on nature. Earth’s life-giving surface system also has its limitations. Continued depletion of natural systems faster than renewable capacity destroys the viability of that life-giving system. In Duluth, the natural environment also is key to its uniqueness, and a major draw for the city’s $400 million tourism industry.

• Meet human needs. Among them: food, clothing, shelter, safety, security, creativity and freedom.

“It is time to take sustainability from theory to practice, and The Natural Step allows us, all of us, to do that each in our own homes and businesses, in our own way,” she told the committee.

More information about Sustainable Duluth

is available from the group’s Web site, www.sustainableduluth.zoomshare.com. It has links to other resources about The Natural Step.

• The generation gap finds its way to work -7/21/2010
• Split Rock Lighthouse celebrates 100 -7/13/2010
• I'Falls paper mill turns 100 -2/23/2010
• Is the Internet the future for print? -12/15/2009
• Study documents mystery harbor corrosion -11/25/2009