This article features the work of the pupils of Temple Primary School, Manchester, which was part of the Sustainable Stories interactive exhibition staged at CUBE. The aim of the exhibition was to share and provoke discussions about the future of Greater Manchester. Its aim was to engage the public in a shared conversation about challenges, issues and solutions to make Greater Manchester more sustainable.

In this essay, Alison Surtees argues that we need to work together differently if we want to create sustainable communities. A balance has to be struck between economics (who pays), ecology (impact on environment) and society (communities); and everyone (communities, the public, private and third sector) has to be involved, bringing their expertise in each area to ensure collective ownership.

Stuck on the wheel and can't get off? Wonder why you're wealthier but can't quite pull yourself our of bed in the morning? The evidence suggests that money and status are failing to deliver health, wealth and happiness according to Amanda Wood, writing in Industrial Evolution in 2004.

From the archives: GDP is dead. Long live social capital, environmental value and a sense of what makes us happy. It's time to redefine prosperity, change our measures of progress and work harder to achieve a sustainable future, writes David Ward in a June 2004 edition of Industrial Evolution.