Seven-generation sustainability is a concept derived from Native American culture that states our decisions should be made thinking seven generations ahead and determine if those decisions would benefit our children seven generations from now.

 

The first recorded concepts of the Seventh Generation Principle date back to the writing of "The Great Law of Iroquois Confederacy”, although the actual date is undetermined, the range of conjectures place its writing anywhere from 1142 to 1500 AD. The Great Law of Iroquois Confederacy formed the political, ceremonial, and social fabric of the Five Nation Confederacy (later Six). The Great Law of Iroquois Confederacy is also credited as being a contributing influence on the American Constitution, due to Benjamin Franklin’s great respect for the Iroquois system of government, which in itself is interesting from the perspective that the United States formed their Constitution not on the principles of European governments, but rather on that of a people considered “savages”.