The Human Element and Sustainability - Max Hamburger and The Natural Step - Co-presentation, Amsterdam

This session will explore an attempted definition of social sustainability, currently being developed within The Real Change Research programme. It will outline the journey of MAX Restaurant in Sweden, which has very successfully implemented the FIRO Theory and the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development in their organization.

The session is co-delivered by Dr Karl-Henrik Robèrt, Founder of The Natural Step and Pär Larshans, Head of HR and Sustainability at Max restaurants and is part of The Human Element European Update 2010 May, 12-15, in The Netherlands.

Sustainable development is a complex challenge in a complex system. To be strategic about it, we need robust definitions of the goal (social and ecological sustainability) as well as robust logical guidelines for systematic and economic approaches to that goal. A Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development has been explored and tested during a twenty year period by the NGO The Natural Step. The Framework is now being further developed in an international research program called “Real Change”.One focus is to further develop social sustainability principles and guidelines.

FIRO and the Human Dimension provide an elaborate and well tested principled definition for interpersonal relations in human communities. How could this work be at service for sustainable development? How do FIRO and The Human Elements relate to an attempted definition of social sustainability?