About Sustainable Future Solutions
Sustainable Future Solutions is a consultancy created to provide services in the area of future local and global sustainability. The background reasons for the creation and the underlying beliefs of this consultancy are outlined below:
Concerns for the future
In the current era of unsustainable environmental management, climate change, global issues of poverty, financial inequalities between countries and continued unrest amongst ethnic and religious groups, many people, especially young adults, have become concerned with the future of this civilisation.
Local and global perspectives
Personal and communal sustainabilities are very closely linked, as one cannot exist without the other. The same is true for sustainability of local and global environments. In our efforts to protect the local ecology we need to consider potential impacts on wider areas of reference, including the planetary situation.
Human Values
In addition to scientific and technological solutions, we must also be aware of the importance of values and motives in human relationships with Nature and with other human beings. The character of these relationships is, in fact, the deciding factor in the success of our efforts in ensuring future sustainability.
Complex problems
Local and global considerations of all the major pillars of societal functioning, such as human rights, social welfare, ecology, economy and health, have become indispensable for the achievement of a balanced development on the planet. The longer we wait for solutions to those difficult global problems - more complex they become.
Integrated thinking
Simple linear thinking, suitable only for finding solutions in straightforward situations or in emergencies, will have to be replaced by holistic thinking and integrated solutions to many complex problems facing this civilisation today. Some leaders will have to further develop their thinking capabilities.
New era of advanced cooperation
Our civilisation is faced with many complex problems, which can only be effectively addressed when a new, unprecedented cooperation between individuals and nations becomes a global reality. People need to start thinking and acting as ONE. Current concepts of cooperation will have to be extended to frontiers, never seen before. To progress safely into the future, extraordinary efforts are required. Why? Because we are facing extraordinary difficulties.
About the Founder
Danuta Nowak is a professional engineer and a writer. She was born in Poland where she obtained her Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering. In 1981 Danuta immigrated to Australia with her family. Great interest in environmental protection led her to further her education in that area. She commenced studying for a Masters Degree in Waste Management at the University of New South Wales in Sydney in 1989, and obtained the degree in 1992.
In her professional career she worked as a design engineer, tutor, part-time lecturer, process and construction engineer, contract evaluator and administrator, leader and facilitator of community consultation processes, environmental policy and strategy development officer, secretary of a multi-agency taskforce, organiser of conferences and training workshops.
After she completed her studies in the environmental area, Danuta became convinced that there are deeper reasons for humanity's failure to address environmental problems - reasons which go beyond technological limitations. This in turn has led her to further studies of disciplines such as anthropology, history of civilisations, psychology, sociology, comparative religion, and both Eastern and Western schools of wisdom.
In 2002 she completed her first book about the survival options for our civilisation Civilisation: Where Are You Going? In this book, which is the synthesis of her ten years of exploration into human history, psychology and spirituality, Danuta shows the depth of the problem humanity has to face in order for it to continue peaceful existence on this planet. She contends that the human species has an inbuilt potential to create a peaceful civilisation. Peace on Earth is possible but it can only come as a result of a Great Transformation. This Great Transformation is a spiritual renewal, which is absolutely essential, if people are to become more mature and responsible for the life of this civilisation.
The spiritual writing that followed the completion of the first book is a result of contemplations on deeper aspects of life, especially from the perspective of a Cosmic citizen. Life on Earth can be experienced very narrowly if we do not consider ourselves as being the Cosmic spiritual citizens. Only when we acknowledge our innate spirituality and try to learn something about the spiritual dimension of life and the Universe, can we get to the point in our lives where we fully understand ourselves and our role in the Cosmic drama we are all engaged in. For more information go to www.collegiumforcontemporaryspirituality.net
Today Danuta works as a global sustainability consultant, conducting courses, workshops and specific sustainability-related projects.