In this whiteboard animation, I present a way to use the fundamental human needs we need to satisfy in order to make sustainable decisions, design sustainable products and services and ultimately to progress toward sustainability.

Fundamental human needs (social needs) as developed by Manfred Max Neef are an alternative to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. This topic is related to sustainable development, sustainable community, triple bottom line.

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Explainer videos are created by Alexandre Magnin using years of experience drawing and working as a sustainability consultant with businesses and communities: http://www.amcreative.org

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In this video about social sustainability, I present a way to use the fundamental human needs we need to satisfy in order to make sustainable decisions and to design sustainability products and services.

This is an interesting theory about human needs developed by Chilean economist Manfred Max Neef. He published in 1991 a book called “Human scale development” demonstrating that human needs are finite and classifiable; there are 9 fundamental human needs that are constant through all human cultures and across historical time periods; and what changes is the ways these needs are satisfied.

These 9 human needs are: subsistence (we need food, water, shelter), protection (a safe place to live, social security), participation (being part of decisions that affect our life), idleness (some free time, relaxing), affection (we need friends, love), understanding (learning, meditating), creation (cooking, designing, inventing), identity (a sense of belonging, knowing oneself) and freedom (being able to choose how we live our lives).

It can be used for social sustainability because being sustainable is about being able to meet our needs within our ecological constraints. Manfred Max Neef’s human needs can be very useful to find ways to satisfy needs using fewer resources. They provide a new lens and help us take another look at the system we are trying to change, which is crucial to stimulate innovation and to avoid superficial problem solving. If you are interested in reading more about this, the book “Human scale development” is available as a free PDF online.

Resources:
Human Scale Developpement (PDF): http://www.wtf.tw/ref/max-neef.pdf
Manfred Max Neef: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_Max_Neef
Brundtland Commission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brundtland_Commission
Maslow's hierarchy of needs:

This video has references to:
The 4 root causes of un sustainability: http://youtu.be/2Gng0tfOuNM
4 Principles to Win the Sustainability 'Game' (conditions of success): http://youtu.be/BO9_hQO9nTo
Triple bottom line & sustainability: the science of good business: http://youtu.be/2f5m-jBf81Q