The question goes like this:

Most equate sustainability with the environmental realm and often fail to make the connection that sustainabiility is multifaceted. A recent teaching cohort in sustainability that I organized this
academic year was made up of liberal arts and technical faculty, representing a wonderful diversity of disciplines, yet the conversations always seemed to revert back to the environmental realm. Economics and sustainability was understood by most, but that darned old social dimension just seemed out of reach. There is a mind-set that is hard to crack. What advice can you give that can help me better facilitate such groups in the future? 

In many ways, this question gets at the fundamental challenge for the sustainability movement.  How do we make sure that the social dimension of sustainability is kept at the center of the conversation and its connection with the environmental dimension made clear? 

I have two approaches to suggest, one theoretical and the other practical.  The more theoretical approach involves understanding the role of diversity in both the ecosystem and social/cultural system.  Few people would dispute the notion that biodiversity is a central condition for the health of the ecosystem.  In fact, it is widely understood that greater biodiversity means greater health.  This is why the sixth and latest mass extinction, predicted by E.O. Wilson in The Future of Life to eliminate half of the existing species by 2100 at the current rate, is such a cause for concern. 

Just as diversity is vital to the health of the ecosystem, so it plays a central part in the health of our social system.  Given the impact of human beings on both biodiversity and climate change, it is clear that unless we pay attention to the social and cultural well being of humans we will not succeed in meeting the environmental challenges that threaten our very survival; the two are inextricably linked.

Why is diversity crucial to social and cultural well being?  Let me offer one example that I think helps to illuminate the connection between diversity in the biological and social spheres.  Obviously, creativity and innovation are required if we are to come up with effective solutions to the issues of biodiversity, climate change, and the transition to a low carbon economy.  The famous and overused Einstein quotation about how the problems we face will never be solved by the same thinking that first created the problems is relevant here. 

The most recent research, as outlined in Steven Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From, underscores the extent to which innovation is best fostered in a dynamic social web rather than in intellectual isolation.  Those "eureka moments" of the lone genius are few and far between.  The most fertile environments for sparking creativity, as Johnson suggests, are those in which diverse and even divergent perspectives come together and interact.  In short, the more diverse the social system and the greater the degree of engagement the more likely it is that we will develop the necessary solutions to the immense challenges we face in the 21st century.  It's a pretty good bet that the same old elites in the same old silos (read higher education as we know it) that created the environmental crisis of our time will not come up with the answers we need. 

What about the more concrete suggestion for making sure in talking about sustainability we don't lose track of the social dimension, especially the issues of equity and justice?  I can sum this up in one word: food.  If there is one thing that brings together the environmental and social better than any other, this is it.  Food makes real the connection in a way that more abstract concepts of  biodiversity and climate change simply don't and can't.  Everybody relates to food because it is a vital part of everyone's day to day life and there are very few people who do not derive significant pleasure from eating food.  Even more important, there are few more widely agreed upon measures of equity and justice in society than access to high quality, healthy, and affordable food. 

A thoughtful discussion of how the food movement can revitalize environmentalism can be found in a recent column in Time by Bryan Walsh, the magazine's environmental reporter. Walsh rightly argues that the food movement has the potential not only to change the way we eat and farm but also "the way we work and relate to one another."  It is the social and political diversity of the food movement and its decentralized character that makes it so powerful.  The food movement has taken root and spread rapidly from Berkeley to the Bronx and from Wal-Mart to Whole Earth.  In other words, its structure mimics that of a healthy and vibrant biosphere.  

More than any other issue, food has the greatest potential to connect the social and the environmental in ways that can engage the most fervent social justice advocates, on the one hand. and most passionate environmentalists, on the other, and help them see what they have in common.  We need  to make sure that not only are our gardens properly tended but that everyone has a seat at the table.  Could you pass the guacamole, please?