A useful starting point for identifying stewardship behavior is existing behavior, however trivial it may seem in the larger scheme of things (e.g., a fishing harbor), however antithetical it may seem to the larger project of treading lighter on the planet (e.g., global finance).
Next, because embedded relations are more relevant to stewardship than individual choice, principles of social organization, especially the organization of natural resource and waste sink use, must be selected. Minimum selection criteria for such principles are: i. they have ecological content, ii. span the long term (including geologic), and iii. deal with the human propensity towards excess.
Finally, the current self-destructive path of modern, growth-oriented, consumer-driven, debt-laden, fossil fuel-dependent societies will not change without confronting current power relations, from the local to the global. A careful parsing of “politics” may help ecologists traverse this uncomfortable terrain.