Manifesto

« De la graine à l’humus » (From seed to humus) aims to make resources available to various audiences in order to move forward a sustainable development. Both theoretical and practical aspects are covered. The productions are available to everyone under free licenses, allowing sharing to as many people as possible. We want to share keys issues usually reserved for experts, so that everyone can reclaim them and thus lead to very concrete actions. In addition to the productions of this site, we wish to collaborate on existing projects going in the same direction (i.e. free productions related to the environment).

The name “de la graine à l’humus” echoes the maxim “from cradle to grave”, used in the context of Life Cycle Assessment (or LCA). LCA is an assessment method that determines and quantifies the adverse environmental impacts of a product or service. The expression “from the cradle to the grave” expresses the consideration of the impact of all the components, from the exploitation of resources to the end of life of a product. “De la graine à l’humus” aims to have a vision focused on understanding how nature works, in order to minimize the harmful impacts of human beings on their environment.

We intend to use a collective process of creating content which is made available free of charge and under free licenses. Above all, we learn with others, in a transversal way. The productions could be enhanced with new knowledge over time, in a logic of continuous improvement. To be as factual as possible, the content must be corroborated by concrete, technical and even scientific elements. If, obviously, the sciences are not perfect, they provide a good basis for understanding and they are constantly evolving. By science, we mean the formal sciences (mathematics, logic, etc.), the natural sciences (chemistry, physics, biology, etc.) and also the social sciences (psychology, sociology, history, etc.). The formal sciences allow us to design tools to understand various fields. The natural sciences apply the tools of the formal sciences to fields related to nature. Finally, the social sciences are interesting for a better understanding of the useful levers to enable changes in practices. Certain university contributions such as the understanding of cognitive biases, or popular education methods such as active learning are also useful for acquiring new knowledge. Pedagogy and access to as many people as possible are ambitious but necessary challenges.

By environment, we mean the natural environment, i.e. the natural components of planet Earth (air, water, earth, rock, plants, animals, etc.) as well as the phenomena and interactions that surround us (climate, food chain...). However, for human beings integrating the social environment (social, physical and cultural context in which we evolve) is also important. These two notions of the environment are essential in order to implement territorial actions.

We believe that human beings, like other animal species, are conditioned by their environment. It acts, most of the time, being persuaded to do the best for himself and/or those around him. One of the fundamental goals of “de la graine à l’humus” is to participate in raising awareness and to support a change in practices. In order to allow changes, it is necessary to demonstrate the benefits in everyday life in terms of social, cultural, health or even financial well-being. The audiences are accompanied without judgement, everyone progresses at it own pace.

Concept

“From seed to humus” acts in favor of sustainable development.
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [1].
For this to be more than words (whether it is unfulfilled good intention or greenwashing), it is important to confront this concept with the work carried out for each project.
The three pillars of sustainable development are social, environmental and economic. In addition to its three aspects, governance is also important.

For our case, this governance must be transversal, egalitarian and collaborative.
Thus, the use of open source (for methodology), free software (for ethics) and participatory methods (web 2.0, sociocracy, etc.) are part of this governance.