Sustainability

Sustainability watchdog argues for an end to larger family tax benefits and a bigger political debate on reducing population growth and its impact

Drawing people's attention to the enormous challenges we face is one thing; revelling in the collapse of society is quite another. Dark Mountain could learn from Douglas Adams, says Solitaire Townsend...

Self-builders are no longer a niche segment of society: they are industrious, skilled, innovative individuals who should be helped to create vital, sustainable communities

Obsessed with technology, we have overlooked something critical that lurks in our institutionalised notion of sustainability

Being off the beaten track need not require lashings of fossil fuels to provide a comfortable lifestyle. James Morrison tells the remarkable story of the inhabitants of Scotland's Knoydart Peninsula

Though it was slow, choppy, wet and tiring, Ewan looks back on his wind-powered crossing to Australia as an experience worth every minute

The newly opened Langley science academy in Slough ticks just about every box - airy, light, modern interiors make for good learning environments, and the school building is stuffed full of eco features

Treasury accused of writing a 'blank cheque' with taxpayers' money for bank to make environmentally-damaging investments

Tim Jackson's new book, 'Prosperity Without Growth', is an explosive indictment of the failure of economic growth to provide sustainable wellbeing for the world's population. But there could be another way forward...

Ewan travels south through Laos and Thailand, discovering a landscape that speaks of the awkward throes of industrialisation...

Economic growth is destroying more than it is creating, argues the French president as he calls for a new measure of national wealth

Design is everywhere, deciding how things look, how they work and how systems run. But effective ecodesign is difficult when decisions are made in isolation, says Steve Evans

Will Day is still to prove his credentials to environmentalists as he replaces the high-profile Jonathon Porritt as the head of the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). In one of his first media interviews, he gives the Ecologist his position on GM technology, nuclear power and the jargon of sustainability

Ten festivals worth digging your wellies out for this summer

The outgoing chief of the Government's independent sustainability watchdog, Jonathon Porritt, has criticised the Treasury and Department for Business for a failure to advance the sustainable development agenda

When it comes to reusable packaging and the environment, consumers are keen to do the right thing, but it seems sparking a refill revolution in Great Britain means getting the price right first

Mel Poluck visits a flagship environmental project that rescues, reuses and recycles tonnes of wood destined for landfills, doing much the same for those it employs

It has grown from a local to a global phenomenon, but how does the Transition Movement keep itself relevant in the current political and economic climate?

Sustainability consultant Dr David Strong tells Pat Thomas why the way we think about sustainable building needs to be demolished and rebuilt

Building a more sustainable future is vital if our societies are to survive in a post-fossil-fuel future – but, argues Susan Roaf, the way we build must itself first change

I know, I know. Every time you think you've gone your greenest, some killjoy comes along and raises the bar a little higher. Apologies in advance.

Comedian, writer and actor Marcus Brigstocke reveals some of the eco-renovations made to his home in true MTV Cribs style

Uncontrolled growth of financial debt is currently laying waste to large parts of the global economy. An explosion of ecological debt looks set to do the same, but worse, to a biosphere friendly to human civilisation.

More and more educational establishments are becoming environmentally friendly, thanks to the Eco-Schools scheme. Is this our road map to sustainability?