Global sustainability in the 21st century seems to be an elusive goal. There are too many issues, too many problems—and, increasingly, too many people—to make the major changes required in the time various experts tell us we have left before it’s too late.

To create a sustainable future, we need to change the game itself. We cannot simply try to solve our problems one at a time. Instead, we need to reimagine sustainability in all its dimensions—social, cultural, environmental and economic—to create a global system that reflects how we should be living together, one that generates both hope and possibility.

In this thought-provoking work, Peter Denton argues that the attitudes and values associated with the economics of exchange are in part to blame for our current situation. We need to rediscover what it means to live in a universe of relations, not merely in one that can be counted and measured. The more we are able to replace an economy based on transactions with an ecology based on gifts, the more likely a sustainable future becomes for all of Earth’s children.

Peter Denton is the author of Gift Ecology (RMB, 2012) and Technology and Sustainability (RMB, 2014). He has been teaching interdisciplinary variations on the theme of technology, ethics and sustainability across Canada for 30 years. He is an activist, writer, editor, speaker and consultant, as well as an ordained minister of the United Church of Canada. He is involved in several volunteer roles with the United Nations Environment Programme, both as a civil society representative and as a contributor to UNEP’s latest Global Environmental Outlook, GEO 6. Peter chairs the policy committee of the Green Action Centre in Winnipeg. He lives in rural Manitoba.

Peter Denton's profile page

This is a very powerful book . . . We seem to be about at the limits of what we can accomplish through endless economic exchange—maybe, as the biologists and climatologists insist, somewhat over the limits. So it's good to know that there are people articulating the other possibilities—we need them!—Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth

Peter Denton offers a game-changer, with fresh insight into how our moral development has not kept pace with our technological development, and how we can choose a new way forward, moving from an ‘exchange mentality’ to a "gift mentality." This is a profoundly hope-filled book, demonstrating how sustainability is rooted in the heart and soul, in relationship with the community of Life, and the Love from which all life springs. These pages will inspire you—Mardi Tindal, 40th Moderator The United Church of Canada

We need to bake a new economic cake . . . a sustainable, cyclical, realistic borrow-use-return gift-based ecology, with wonderfully holistic metrics for success. Denton adds organic yeast . . . intentional relationships, enriched by unexpected Gifts. Thank you!—Bob Willard, author of The New Sustainability Advantage and The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook

A change has become imperative . . . We need to make Giving the organising principle of our lives. We need to unleash our capacities to care, for the Earth, for our communities. Peter Denton's Gift Ecology is a gift for making this transition.—Vandana Shiva, founder of Navdanya and author of Staying Alive

A thoughtful and original examination of the meaning and application of social sustainability. Denton's analysis is a fascinating blend of literary, historical and personal references. Gift Ecology is both inspiring and enlightening.—Samantha Nutt, CM, executive director of Warchild Canada and author of Damned Nations