Nature prefers cycles, which can move backward and forward and yet remain static at the same time. The seasons, for instance, are constantly advancing forward, morphing from one into the next, yet they’re also repeating exactly what happened the previous year. Even as we experience the passage of time, the repetition of these cycles can make us feel like nothing is changing at all: a sense of simultaneous movement and stasis.

Cows graze in a fenced meadow, with a forest and blue sky in background — Mastodon Valley Farm in Viola, WI

A cyclical perspective can help us make sense of the concept of “sustainability,” which is a great way to think about how we ought to treat the planet we live on. Sustainability was defined by the United Nations Brundtland Commission in 1987 as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” and it forms the basis of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which seek progress against poverty, disease, global warming, inequality, and other societal challenges.

But although the natural world around us adheres to cycles, people tend to think linearly. In a linear perspective, progress has a discreet beginning and end, and it moves toward that end without repetition.. However, a sustainable future is difficult to conceptualize when we approach it from a linear notion of progress. The word “sustainable” can imply stasis or even stagnation; from a linear perspective, this means halting progress. It suggests that we must keep what we already have, regardless of its flaws, and “sustain” it at all costs.

How are we to advance – technologically, socially, economically – if we must also remain at a sort of standstill? On the other hand, even if advancement is possible as we “sustain,” how are we to repair the damage we’ve already done to the planet?

Thinking linearly, the task set before us seems impossible. We must simultaneously move backward, move forward, and stay right where we are. That’s why a phrase like “sustainable development” can seem oxymoronic. I believe the answer lies simply in changing the way we view progress – from a linear perspective to a cyclical one, from arrow to boomerang.

Focusing on “regeneration” in addition to “sustainability” can also help us to adopt this cyclical perspective. Regeneration looks to the past, but it is also forward progress. We might again look to the seasons as an analogue. If winter is a time of degradation, spring is a time of regeneration, repairing the damage of the past while making progress toward summer. As this cycle repeats, it sustains itself.

This concept is already taking hold in agricultural circles. For farmers, whose job necessitates being attuned to seasonal cycles, the switch from “sustainable” to “regenerative” is not just linguistic. It refers to the real effects of cultivation on the soil. Rotational cattle grazing, for example, adds topsoil and deepens plant roots. Cattle stick to a portion of the pasture at one time rather than the whole thing, so that the rest of the pasture has time to recover, deepen its roots, and add biomass. I had the opportunity to witness this practice firsthand as a part of a course at Mastodon Valley Farm in Viola, WI. Rather than the stubby grass you might see on a typical pasture, the regenerative practices at Mastodon Valley Farm made the land look more like a prairie.

If we include regeneration in our aims, sustainability becomes a more dynamic endeavor. Equally, if we know when to think cyclically, it can help us understand that the path forward is not a straight line. For a future that is truly sustainable, we’ll have to make some twists and turns along the way. After all, sometimes a lush spring begins with snow in April.

Jordan Akers is a CivicStory Sustainability Ambassador

Spring comes every year: reconciling sustainability and progress