“Susty” the Sustainability Squirrel

By Paul Cassel

"Susty" the Sustainability Squirrel

Hero: Sustainable Development (born, 1987 at the United Nations, New York)

Mother: Gro Harlem Brundtland (born Gro Harlem, 20 April, 1939 in Bærum, Norway)

Father: Maurice F. Strong, PC, CC, OM, FRSC (born April 29, 1929, in Oak Lake, Manitoba)

In preparation for the Stockholm Conference in 1972, environmental champion Maurice Strong commissioned a report entitled Only One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet, the world’s first “state of the environment” report.

Apparently a romance between Strong and European social custodian, Gro Harlem Brundtland ensued and in 1983, Susty was conceived as The UN’s independent World Commission on Sustainable Development set the foundations for the growth of global sustainable strategies.

After a lengthy gestation, Susty was born in 1987 with the publication of the Brundtland Commission’s report, Our Common Future.introduced to the world in this definition: “Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

In 1992, Strong took a rambunctious five-year-old to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where Sustainable Development was introduced as the key to integrating social, economic and environmental parameters into planning and policy making.

This was a formative event for young Susty, sharing nuts and brushing tails with heads of government, media and non-governmental representatives from around the world. Here in Rio, Agenda 21, a programme of action, was revealed, which called on global, national and local UN organizations and governments to take steps towards integrating Sustainable Development into planning and policy making.

In 1997, Susty took a place on the world stage in Kyoto, Japan and through the Kyoto Protocol inspired many developed countries to set goals to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.

Five years later, “Susty” sulkily marked a 16th birthday at the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development, where the Rio principles and Agenda 21 were reaffirmed as commitments worthy of responsible adults. However, Susty, fed up with process and feeling misunderstood, set off to find other like-minded young rodents.

Susty has reappeared in Toronto, fresh from European travels, with a word of wisdom to share and inspire:

“Sustainability begins at home. If you can’t manage your own nuts, you can’t expect the world to manage its.”

21-year-old Susty is now on the way to a date with maturity at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen. Let’s take a few tips from Susty and put the right spirit into our eco-hero for a successful engagement in Denmark,  because it would sure be a shame if Susty went into hibernation now.

Paul Cassel is president of Up Marketing and founder of Our Green Home.