Circles of Sustainability

Circles of Sustainability, and its treatment of the social domains of ecology, economics, politics and culture, provides the empirical dimension of an approach called 'engaged theory'.

Developing Circles of Sustainability is part of larger project called 'Circles of Social Life', using the same four-domain model to analyze questions of resilience, adaptation, security, reconciliation.

[4] For example, the Triple Bottom Line approach tends to take the economy as its primary point of focus with the domain of the environment as the key externality.

Thirdly, the size, scope and sheer number of indicators included within many such methods means that they are often unwieldy and resist effective implementation.

Fourthly, the restricted focus of current indicator sets means that they do not work across different organizational and social settings—corporations and other institutions, cities, and communities.

[5] Most indicator approaches, such as the Global Reporting Initiative or ISO14031, have been limited to large corporate organizations with easily definable legal and economic boundaries.

Cities that have used the Circles method in different ways to manage major projects or to provide feedback on their sustainability profiles include the following: Berlin, Broadmeadows, Christchurch, Hobart, Hyderabad, Johannesburg, Maryborough, Melbourne, New Delhi, Punta Arenas, São Paulo, and Tehran.

In particular, some of the 14 Innovating Cities in the programme have influenced the development of the Circles of Sustainability method through their management of major projects, some with intensity and others as a background feature.

The group was initially instigated by the Regional Court, TRF4 and consisted of the Vila Chocolatão Residents Association, local government departments, federal agencies, non-government organisations and the corporate sector.

The project ensured sustainability was built into the relocation through changes such as setting up of recycling depots next to existing slums and developing a formal recycling sorting facility in the new site, Residencial Nova Chocolatão, linked to the garbage-collection process of the city (an example of linking the sub-domains of 'emission and waste' and 'organization and governance'); and establishing a fully resourced early childhood centre in the new community.

The methodology was central to the approach used by the 'Integrated Strategic Planning and Public-Private Partnerships Initiative' organized by Metropolis, 2012–2013 for Indian, Brazilian and Iranian cities.

The Circles of Sustainability method now underpins that reorientation and pilot studies are being conducted in India, South Africa, Lebanon, Indonesia and elsewhere, to refine the methodology for aid delivery in complex urban settings.

The parameters of this area extend beyond the conventional sense of politics to include not only issues of public and private governance but more broadly social relations in general.