Social Sustainability Must-Have: Best Trust & ROI Guide

Kalle reflects on Social Sustainability – from Boundary Conditions to Systemic, Systematic, and Strategic progress

Takeaway for leaders at all levels, everywhere
A sustainable society depends on maintaining both ecological and social systems. Across sociology, psychology, anthropology, and political science, one insight stands out: trust is foundational for human cooperation. Social sustainability is about enabling trust in diverse communities so people can thrive together and collaborate across boundaries—gender, age, profession, culture, and geography. When trust and diversity are weak, communities struggle to solve shared problems and squander their collective potential. And without clear boundary conditions, planning in complex organizations and systems is not just difficult—it is impossible.

Why social sustainability must be designed

In a socially sustainable society, there are no structural obstacles to:
– Health
– Influence
– Competence
– Impartiality
– Meaning-making

Combined with three ecological boundary conditions, these five add up to eight boundary conditions within which all scalable, attractive goals should be modeled. The five social boundary conditions are as essential as the ecological ones for three reasons:
1) Social systems—organizations, regions, value chains, and other communities—create unsustainability in the first place, often violating ecological boundaries.
2) Only competent, diverse, and trustful social systems can repair the ongoing damage to both ecosystems and societies at global scale.
3) If these five social boundary conditions are missing from goal modeling (the “A” in ABCD planning), it becomes impossible to ask the right questions to ensure systemic, systematic, and strategic progress toward any attractive, scalable goal.

This implies that power structures must actively support collaboration—or at least avoid obstructing it. The social boundary conditions (numbers 4–8) have proven intuitive and energizing in group work, and they can be operationalized through strategic guidelines such as the Golden Rule, transparency, integrity, and accountability. These can be woven into a structured methodology that enables measurement and value creation from the boundary conditions.

In more detail: research roots and real-world practice

After completing the International Master’s in Leadership for Sustainability (MSLS) at Blekinge Institute of Technology, Merlina Missimer pursued a doctoral thesis to extend our ecological methodology into social sustainability. Defended in 2015, her work now underpins practical planning and follow-up across public and private organizations. This reflection synthesizes that research with lived experience in strategy and implementation.

Social sustainability is not “soft”—it is decisive

Social sustainability is not an add-on to ecological sustainability; it is a precondition for effective progress on every sustainability goal. People create ecological problems, and people must solve them. When trust collapses, “social diseases” follow: corruption, segregation, violence, crime, weakened diplomacy and democracy, reduced social mobility, and the risk of conflicts over dwindling resources. Research shows that once trust falls below a threshold, rebuilding it is exceptionally costly—this is “social entrapment.” The way out is stepwise: restore trust through a shared mental model for cooperation and leadership, and then build systems that make doing the right thing the easy thing.

Economy is a means within society—not a goal

The economy sits within the social system, not alongside social and ecological goals as an equal “bottom line.” Economic development is one of several means—alongside education, rule of law, and robust measurement—to enable transitions to an ecologically and socially sustainable society. To align means with ends, we must understand how social systems function, which mechanisms make them resilient, and how to guide institutional change toward those conditions.

The foundation: trust and diversity

Humans are a profoundly social species. Quality of life emerges from relationships and interaction. Social systems become resilient when two cornerstones are in place:
– Trust—between people and between people and institutions
– Diversity—functional variation that enhances adaptive capacity

With trust and diversity, people can self-organize toward social sustainability. When power structures suppress them, vicious cycles erode cooperation and legitimacy.

Principles for social sustainability: five boundary conditions

In a socially sustainable society, there are no structural obstacles to:
1) Health—for example, safety, rest, and reasonable work demands
2) Influence—for example, freedom of expression and meaningful participation in decisions
3) Competence—for example, access to education and lifelong learning
4) Impartiality—for example, no discrimination across social boundaries or generations
5) Meaning-making—for example, culture, identity, and shared purpose through co-creation

These principles define the boundary conditions for modeling any socially sustainable future. Within them, many designs are possible; outside them, designs are unsustainable. Like the ecological principles, they are necessary, sufficient, concrete, general, and non-overlapping—making them reliable guides for strategic modeling of scalable futures and forming the “A” of the ABCD methodology.

The Five-Level Model: putting concepts where they belong

To make social sustainability operational, use the Five-Level Model:
1) System—understand the whole (society, organizations, dependencies)
2) Success—define boundary conditions for social and ecological sustainability
3) Strategic—apply guidelines (e.g., Golden Rule, transparency) for stepwise progress
4) Actions—plan and implement measures aligned with levels 1–3
5) Tools—use indicators, education, policies, and systems to support and track progress

Where do common terms fit?
– Empathy: System level—human capacity that enables social cooperation
– Golden Rule: Strategic level—an “acid test” for intentions and decisions
– Independent control: System level—checks and balances that institutionalize success
– Transparency, integrity, accountability: Strategic level—norms that prevent drift from purpose and can be codified into governance
– Actions: Action level—examples include cc’ing stakeholders to enhance transparency and influence, or sharing founder stories that build meaning
– Measurement and reporting: Tools level—indicators and systems that track whether policies, training, participation mechanisms, and outcomes (e.g., reduced sick leave, mobility, turnover) are moving in the right direction

Only after the first four levels are in place does integrated reporting make sense, linking ecological and social sustainability with smart strategy.

How to start: the ABCD method for social sustainability

– A: Collaboratively model your vision and ask the right questions under each social sustainability principle
– B: Map your current state—assets and structural obstacles
– C: Generate options—design actions to remove obstacles
– D: Prioritize—sequence actions for stepwise progress and early returns on investment

From boundary conditions to systemic, systematic, and strategic progress

Social sustainability does not emerge spontaneously. It must be designed into your operative system:
– A: Robust boundary conditions for social goals—necessary, sufficient, concrete, general, and non-overlapping
– ABCD: Systemic, systematic, and strategic planning from vision to prioritized action
– Tools: Choose and adapt supports—decision aids, dialogue methods, monitoring, communication, and follow-up—to reinforce the process

Applied well, these steps build trust and leverage diversity, enabling organizations and communities to cooperate across boundaries and accelerate progress on every sustainability challenge.

Conclusion
Investing in social sustainability is the shortest path to comprehensive sustainability. By modeling goals within clear boundary conditions, using the Five-Level Model to align concepts and actions, and applying ABCD to move from intentions to prioritized steps, leaders create the trust and diversity required for durable progress. When social sustainability is embedded in strategy and governance, collaboration becomes easier, institutions become more legitimate, and ecological and economic transitions become achievable at scale.