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Checklist(s) for Sustainability? Not easy

Sara Wolcott | Friday 5th February 2010

I couldn't do any degree of productive work without my checklists. So I am both pleased and disturbed by the immense popularity of Atul Gawande's new book, 'The Checklist Manifesto'. Pleased, because I'm glad that what sometimes seems to be an annoying tendency (scraps of paper with 'to do's scribbled on them tend to litter my desk and home) is shown to be tool that can save lives. Disturbed that it has taken us so long to institutionalize this. Checklists are hardly new. Gawande points out that surgeons are proud experts who think they don't need checklists - even though it can dramatically reduce the rate of infections and death. There is often great resistance to using checklists within these fields.

It made me wonder if there were any sustainable development checklists. Hardly a 'field' in the way that engineering is a field, how do those who practice (or at least preach) sustainable development deal with checklists? Are we too proud? A quick google search suggested that yes, indeed, there are. Lots of them. Checklists for sustainable development include urban planning, for the '10 things not to forget' for sustainable policy, how-to-make sustainable development beautiful, innovative, and well designed. LEED is itself a glorified checklist. There are summaries of checklists, how-to-design-your-own checklist, and checklists for triple bottom line. Some of them are overwhelming, encompassing everything from financing a project to working with cradle-to-grave partners to changing national policy.

On reflection, it is hardly surprising that there are so many attempts at creating checklists for sustainability - and that they can be so large as to be overwhelming (and thus not helpful). In many ways it affirms Gawande's point: the world is really complex, and every field is becoming increasingly overwhelming. There are constantly new things to do. Checklists help us figure out and remember the really important things - like washing your hands before you practice surgery.

Sustainable development is particularly overwhelming - because everything needs to change. Understanding what it really means to 'put people and planet first' has led to many variations of different priorities - which often manifest themselves as checklists. Sometimes a checklist seems more like a visionary document than something to be accomplished by one person in one year:

Change national policy so oil companies are no longer subsidized and green energy enterprises are subsidized

Eat plants, not food made in plants (and read Pollan's new book)

Ensure green jobs go to poor people and put the needs of poor people and working people at the top of the priority list

Ensure future energy systems are decentralized, locally owned and maintained, renewable and integrated into a healthy local financial system

Be respectful, kind and compassionate to others and to self.

When to use checklists, when not to use them, and who should use them in what circumstances is complicated, and let us not pretend that it isn't. But that doesn't mean its not important. Discerning the true priorities - and who has responsibilty for ensuring they get checked off the list - is one of the most important tasks of this time.

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Sara Wolcott 1 March 2010

Great comment, thanks! :-).

Kendra Pierre-Louis 1 March 2010

I think sustainability is a lot like dancing. You can make a checklist for dancing and have it be passable, but ultimately good dancing is about finding the rhythm.