Writers and other media folks have been addressing the various reasons to address climate challenges for decades, but society is still “losing the race” between “accumulating damages” and “developing global technologies for repairs”. Examples have ranged from empirical physical science to visual arts and music and now to what is to become an annual prize in Cli-fi, i.e., climate fiction. This website is another effort to help “close the gaps” between thoughts and positive actions so as to improve our prospects for posterity’s flourishing.
Earth systems are being stressed by GHGs (greenhouse gases) and other long-lasting pollutants in ways that the systems have not previously been experiencing during human existence*. Sustilience is a word coined from two important contemporary concepts pertaining to the future of Civilization or “life as we have known it”; namely, Sustainability and Resilience. Sustilience expresses the significance of the potential for producing long-lasting, reliable accomplishments through the design and implementation of climate mitigation and remediation projects that employ the simultaneous objectives of both sustainability and resilience, or “bounce back” capability.
An important characteristic of the sustilience concept is that it can also be applied at nearly every “organizational level”, from individual to the global community. At a personal level of analysis, the pursuit of sustilience consists of living each day with the practices of moving away from a linear “buy, use and throw away” consumption pattern to a “buy, use, reuse, repurpose, recycle” circular mode of living.
By broadening our scope slightly, we can highlight the family unit, however it might be conceptualized in a given human culture. Each member could be seeking to minimize net damage to the ecosystem while at the same time providing collaborative support for other members of the family during times when “recovery” is needed in some form.
In short, sustilient practices will prove to be useful for individuals, families, as well as all varieties of organizations (businesses, all levels of governments, charities, etc). In dealing with disasters, recovery should not only restore but do so in a forward-looking manner using sustainable approaches and adopting cyclic processes whenever possible.
Because matters involving “global heating” do in fact encompass the entire planet Earth, we will consider this site’s current primary arena, which is nurturing “sustilience for planet Earth.” This level has been illustrated in the article by Grant & Wunder in the JSMA journal**. Their analyses showed how the national practice of “cheap overseas sourcing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)” and related “economy & sustainability objectives” undermined the resilience requirement when the Covid 19 pandemic began to spread rapidly.
Beneath the global level of analysis, one could consider the nation-state or geographic region. Such a unit would involve balancing human populations, agricultural resources, expected changes in global heating, etc. with the “recovery capability” from water fluctuations, whether the water is potable or salty.
Also, we can imagine a corporation, NGO (non-governmental) or government agency. Here we think in terms of a business, not-for-profit or other organization which is connected to customers or clients, donors and insurance systems to recover and continue their activities under various market-based or charitable conditions.
There may have never been a period of time in human history when the balancing of these two concepts – Sustainability & Resilience — has been as urgent for the future generations of Earth’s civilization. The human population has been increasing, global temperatures are rising, biodiversity is declining and none of these trends seems amenable to a “quick fix” with any “silver bullet” solution. Therefore, sustilience describes a “state of being” that represents the integrating of objectives and the maintaining of a balance between adaptation (i.e., recovering/rebuilding based on plans that improve the likelihood of a more sustainable result) and determination (i.e., resilience) and simply rebuilding (recovering/rebuilding by immediate reaction with little or no plan to incorporate improved features which improve sustainability) and the effort to remain viable based on natural resource conservation and ‘regeneration.’ Regrettably, often there is a disincentive to use improved methods or techniques because of regulations, insurance provisions or community aesthetic constraints. At the same time, “politically acceptable” governance usually needs a time horizon extending into future generations (a component of Sustainability). After reviewing several successful disaster recovery efforts as well as responses to increased levels of atmospheric carbon, sustainability and resilience are among the key factors in most successful efforts. In summary, sustilience should be a key objective as a family or any larger organizational unit invests for a flourishing future!
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*Hansen, J. E., P. Kharecha, et. al. (2025) “Global Warming has Accelerated: Are the United Nations and the Public Well-Informed? Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, v. 67, 6-44.
**Grant, J. and T. Wunder (2021) “Strategic Transformation to Sustilience: learning from Covid-19” Journal of Strategy and Management, v. 14, 331-351.
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