The Natural Step:
One of the most well known and widely applied sustainability frameworks is The Natural Step (TNS), founded by Karl-Henrik Robert in Sweden in 1989. TNS is an internationally recognized organization with offices located in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States. It's been successfully applied across a wide variety of industries, including real estate, metals, appliances, utilities, food, retail, apparel, fast food, healthcare, paints, chemicals, furniture, and more. TNS has been adopted and successfully used by over 100 major companies including Bank of America, McDonald's, Nike, Interface, Starbucks, Home Depot, and Ikea.
TNS represents a systems approach to sustainability analysis and is based on four fundamental Principal of Sustainability analysis and is based on four fundamental Principal of Sustainability.
1. "Prevent the progressive buildup of substances extracted from the Earth's crust." For example, mining, extracting, and refining of the naturally occurring and highly toxic element mercury from cinnabar ore and preventing its subsequent accumulation in our environment through sustainable, lossless reuse.
2. "Prevent the progressive buildup of chemicals and compounds produced by society." For example, avoiding the buildup of highly toxic man-made compounds in the environment such as dioxins, PCBs and DDT, by using non-toxic, sustainable alternatives.
3. "Prevent progressive physical degradation and destruction of nature and natural processes." Examples include sustainable harvesting and replanting of forest regions, avoiding depletion of soil nutrients by using sustainable agriculture practices, and preserving fisheries and diversity of species through sustainable commercial fishing practices.
4. "Promote conditions that empower people's capacity to meet their basic human needs (for example, safe working conditions and sufficient pay to live on)." Other examples include off shoring and outsourcing operations that promote safe working conditions and standard wage levels, which combat the causes of social unrest, violence, and political instability.