Sustainable development is part of a culture of peace, while exploitation of nature is part of a culture of violence. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development¹ not only recognizes that peace and security are prerequisites for achieving sustainable development, but that sustainable development provides the path to peaceful societies. Agenda 2030 sets out how countries can implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from both a development and peace perspective.

Violence towards nature is a symptom of a culture of violence, in which humans are seen as rulers of nature, rather than an (equal) part of it. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, this has become an increasing problem. Of course, many more raw materials have been extracted from the earth since then, but a different way of thinking also emerged as a result of all the changes in the production process. More and more people moved to cities, which caused people to become even further removed from nature. Nature, and even humans, were increasingly compared to machines. Culture and civilization, which mainly emerged from urban life, became superior to nature. All these changes in perception increasingly encouraged ‘extractivism’: taking whatever you want from nature. Before the Industrial Revolution it was necessary to extract oil, gas, metals, etc. from the earth on a large scale. However, in recent decades we have become aware that in this way we are destroying the earth and possibly even driving humans to extinction…! A turning point was a report by the Club of Rome, “The Limits to Growth” released in 1972, which pointed out that raw materials are finite and therefore the economy cannot continue to grow indefinitely. So the world view is slowly changing and the question is, will it be fast enough? To promote ‘sustainable development’, we must first start by changing our world view, because that will naturally also change our behavior.

We could draw inspiration, for example, from the philosophy of life of indigenous tribes. For most indigenous peoples, the concept of land ownership is very foreign: people belong to the land and not the other way around. Indigenous people respect nature and see life as a web where all living things and beings are connected (interdependent) for their existence. This may sound abstract when you hear it for the first time, but it is actually very concrete. For example, while eating, think about all the actions that took place before this food ended up on your plate. Starting with someone who puts a seed in the ground. One meal involves so many people, animals, bacteria and actions! That is interdependence and connectedness. It is the core of our existence.

What does interdependence have to do with peace? Many Western cultures have made “independence” and competition core to their value system and world view. We are told that we are after ‘profit maximization’, only wanting to selfishly promote our own interests, which creates competition with other people around us. This is also called a ‘zero-sum’ attitude: if one wins, the other loses. However, there is also ‘win-win‘: both parties benefit from a certain situation or outcome. And, you will also feel that you do not always only think about yourself, but also care about others. Humans are social beings, and cooperation is crucial to our well-being. It was even crucial to our survival; people were able to survive precisely because they lived in groups where they cooperated with each other and minimized competition.

For ‘sustainable development’ it is also important that people work together and work with nature. Vandana Shiva talks about the ‘law of return‘ in which all earthlings not only take something from the earth, but also give back to it. It ia responsibility we have towards nature. In this way, the Earth and its inhabitants can cooperate with each other and form an “Earth Democracy”. (Vandana Shiva is an Indian activist who, among other things, founded Navdanya², a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living matter, especially indigenous seeds.)

A more popular way of understanding sustainability is also called the “planet, people, profit” model. Sustainable development was defined in 1987 by the United Nations Brundtland Commission, based on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) principle: in addition to financial performance, social and environmental performance is also taken into account. See the image above. When a company works based on this principle, it strives to promote the natural order as much as possible or at least not to harm it and to minimize the impact on the environment (the lower ‘bottom-line’ of ‘natural capital’). Social justice refers to fair and beneficial business practices toward labor and the community and region in which a company does business. A company devises a reciprocal social structure in which the well-being of corporate, labor, and other stakeholder interests are interdependent (the ‘bottom-line’ of ‘human capital’). This is of course a very economic approach, in which nature and even people are reduced to ‘capital’, while a more holistic view probably promotes more peace than such a limited approach.

A newer sustainable economic model is that of the ‘Doughnut Economy‘. This model measures prosperity by looking at the realization of a social foundation without exceeding ecological ceilings. Simply put, the goal is to meet the needs of everyone within the carrying capacity of the Earth. The name ‘doughnut’ is taken from the shape of the diagram: a circle with a hole in the middle. The model’s gap shows how many people do not have access to basic necessities such as health care, education, and housing. The crust indicates the extent to which the ecological ceilings (planetary boundaries), on which life depends, are being exceeded. The diagram was developed by Oxford economist Kate Raworth in a report for Oxfam called A Safe and Just Space for Humanity. She further developed the model in her book Doughnut Economy: In seven steps to an economy for the 21st century (2017).³