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As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has directly affected many disparate areas around the world. However, also indirectly, this pandemic has had a tremendous impact on key initiatives launched in the fields of sustainable development. More specifically, 5 years ago, the world adopted a 2030 agenda to transform the world in the direction of increased sustainability with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but now in 2021 we can clearly see that such goals are far away in the priority list of global leaders dealing with a global pandemic.
Irrespective of the pandemic, as the Integral perspective shows us, isolated actions and policies, focusing on individual goals and targets, cannot make a decisive contribution to successfully face the complex web of global challenges. Schieffer & Lessem’s Integral Worlds approach is based on some 20 years of researching cutting-edge theories and advanced best practices to sustainable development, on an organisational, community and societal level. It emphasizes dynamic and regenerative balance among four mutually reinforcing dimensions (nature and community; culture and consciousness; science, systems and technology; finance, enterprise and economics), with an integrative moral value core. Past and ongoing research demonstrates that such holistic and dynamic inclusion of all parts of a living system is vital for the long-term resilience and sustainability of our social institutions and societal infrastructure.
Building on the existing integral knowledge base and the growing global practice field, this integral mindset could help Europe “Build Back Better” helping the Union fulfil the ambitious European Green Deal through a variety of actions:
· placing fundamental values, underlying the European cultural heritage, in the centre and as the starting point of visionary thinking as well as practical policies and measures;
· by rooting integral sustainable development in nature and community;
· by revisiting the economic paradigm that is to a large extent responsible for current environmental degradation, social and economic crises.
The EU has the great potential to become a driver for a truly regenerative economy and society – on a global scale.
Prof. Alexander Schieffer had the privilege to address these issues in his talk at the virtual scientific and innovation panel at the Alma Mater Europaea Annual Conference in Maribor, Slovenia.
The panel was co-chaired by Dr. Darja Piciga, the co-founder of the CITIZENS INITIATIVE FOR AN INTEGRAL GREEN SLOVENIA – a movement applying the Integral Worlds approach, in particular the Integral Economic model, into societal practice. The Citizens Initiative, led by Darja Piciga, has been working closely with TRANS4M over the past 8 years, including five international conferences focussing on an Integral Green Economy and Society – in Slovenia and the World.
For more info, check out the Integral Green Slovenia website and the Integral Green Slovenia book, co-edited, by Darja Piciga, Alexander Schieffer and Ronnie Lessem.