“Sustainability” is a term that is frequently thrown around rather loosely, but its use tends to be restricted to specific practices or areas — sustainable urbanism, agriculture or energy, for example. While there has long been concern over rising human population levels and resource consumption, the larger question of where the ultimate limits might be — the Earth is a fixed size, after all — has been subject to as much rhetoric-charged debate as considered research.

The challenges of finding quality day care are familiar to nearly all working parents. Not only are the costs rising in general to raise children — and the work demands increasing for many parents — but the flaws of the system of organized care as a whole are becoming more apparent.