Child Honouring is a philosophy—a vision, an organizing
principle, and a way of life—the children-first way of
sustainability. It starts with three givens: The primacy of
early years—early childhood is the gateway to humane being. We
face planetary degradation that is unprecedented in scope and
scale—a state of emergency that most endangers the very young,
and that requires a remedy of equal scale. This crisis calls for
a systemic response in detoxifying the environments that make up
the world of the child. Child Honouring is a children-first
approach to healing communities and restoring ecosystems. It
views how we regard and treat our young as the key to building a
humane and sustainable world. It is a novel idea—organizing
society around the priority needs of its youngest members. The
essence of the vision is expressed in A Covenant for Honouring
Children and its underlying principles. Its spirit is
invitational—a call to imagine and create a diversity of child-
friendly cultures. A child-honouring society w