Conceptualizing SSO

I got this idea while cycling yesterday as I was thinking about the poster on sustainability in Buddha Garden that I have got to do for the Findhorn conference.  A way of conceptualizing the extent to which a farm has Sustainable Standards of Operation just seemed to drop into my mind.  It was very vivid.

The circle represents the farm and each of the lines are an aspect of farm operations which I call 'sustainability dimensions'. Other dimensions could be included or the circle could contain fewer items. In fact there might be a 'hierarchy of sustainability' with some dimensions being more basic/important than others. The hierarchy might be different in different climate zones.

In each dimension the line from the centre to the outside of the circle represents the percentage to which that farm is sustainable or not in that dimension. I have assumed that it would be 0% in the middle of the circle and 100% at the circumference.  Ways of measuring sustainablity in each dimension would need to be developed. For instance, for soil it could be determined by how the fertility of the soil is maintained (or not), for water it might be determined by what kind of water system is on the farm.  In each dimension a variety of indicators would be needed which would show the extent to which the operations relating to that dimension were sustainable. If, for example, it was found that a farm's activities with the soil provided 40% sustainability then this could be put on the diagram as shown.

This could then be repeated for each dimension.

When the dots are joined up it provides a very graphic way of showing not only to what extent a farm is sustainable overall but it is immediately obvious which aspects of the farm need further work to make them more sustainable.  

I've just sent the idea off to Vivek to see what he thinks of it.