Abstract
Sustainability has traditionally been conceptualised at the level of ecological systems, natural resources, institutions, and economic development. Although contemporary frameworks increasingly recognise human well-being, the human being is often positioned as either the beneficiary of sustainable development or a resource through which sustainability is achieved, rather than as a system whose own capacity must be actively sustained. Psychological science, public health, occupational health, gerontology, and organizational research have generated extensive evidence concerning well-being, burnout, resilience, social connection, preventive behaviour, help-seeking, organizational support, and healthy ageing, but these literatures remain fragmented across disciplinary boundaries. This paper develops a broader conceptual framework of Human Sustainability, defined as the capacity of individuals and the systems in which they live to maintain, restore, develop, and express physical, psychological, relational, social, and functional capacity over time without requiring the progressive depletion of the human resources necessary for continued participation and flourishing. The framework is developed through an integrative synthesis of literature on healthy ageing, intrinsic capacity, psychological well-being, resilience, burnout, job demands and resources, social connection, social determinants of health, preventive health behaviour, help-seeking, flourishing, autonomic regulation, restorative environments, and existing human-sustainability scholarship. The paper proposes that Human Sustainability is neither synonymous with mental health nor reducible to individual well-being. Instead, it represents a systems-level capacity construct situated at the intersection of person, body, organization, community, natural environment, and societal structure. Six initial domains are proposed for the candidate Human Sustainability Index (HSI-CV1): psychological well-being and resilience; burnout and emotional exhaustion; organizational and leadership support; community and social connectedness; access to preventive resources and help-seeking; and physiological regulation and restorative environment. The sixth domain captures the regulatory state of the body, described heuristically as the continuum between the chronically sympathetic Red Mind and the parasympathetically anchored Blue Mind, together with access to the natural, aquatic, and temporal conditions that restore it. The model is explicitly multidirectional: sustainability requires not merely the absence of depletion but the availability of resources that enable maintenance, recovery, development, participation, and contribution. The paper further differentiates Human Sustainability from related constructs including sustainable development, healthy ageing, intrinsic capacity, flourishing, psychological healthspan, resilience, burnout, employee sustainability, and quality of life. It proposes a preliminary conceptual architecture and candidate measurement model, and concludes with propositions for empirical validation, cross-cultural adaptation, longitudinal testing, and application across education, healthcare, organizations, communities, and public policy.
Publication details
Article URL: https://www.nijamss.org/articles/nijamss-v1s2-aug2026-020/
Full-text PDF: https://www.nijamss.org/articles/nijamss-v1s2-aug2026-020/full-text.pdf
References
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Citation
Dr. Moumita Nandy; Dr. Arpit; Prof. Dr. S. Sandhya; Col. Prof. Dr. Jyotirmaya Satpathy; Dr. Sweta Adatia. Human Sustainability: A Multidimensional Framework for Sustaining Human Capacity across the Life Course: Toward the Development of the Human Sustainability Index (HSI-CV1). Nexus International Journal of Applied Science, Medicine and Social Sciences, Vol. 1, Issue 2, August 2026.