What is 'Sustainability'?

Trafton B.

December 26, 2010 - 5:44 PM

You're probably wondering, where is this coming from? It's the holiday season and we're all still enjoying winter break, but I really never stop thinking about these sorts of things. Topics like sustainability, environmentalism, policy, and planning aren't simply questions I discuss with classmates or write academic research papers on. They are the issues that I choose to tackle on behalf of my community, both present and future.

Today's question...what exactly is ‘sustainability'?

What does it mean to live sustainably? Work sustainably? Eat sustainably? How to we measure sustainability? Are we sustainable now? Is who sustainable? Am I sustainable? What does sustainability refer to? Is there a limit on sustainability?

In my summer environment science class at Aim High I explained sustainability in terms of the three tiers of environment, community, and economy that I learned in several of my lower division ENVS courses. In order to measure sustainability you have to look at it from all three angles. Does it adversely affect the environment? Does it throw the balance of a community off? Can it be continually financed over time?

In that sense something can be sustainable in one aspect, yet unsustainable in another aspect. I used the example of fast food this summer, partly because my students were always walking into class with Jack in the Box breakfast containers in the mornings. Fast food can be considered economically sustainable because it's cheap. My students liked it because they could buy a big breakfast sandwich for only a couple dollars. However, Jack in the Box like other multinational fast food chains are not environmentally sustainable as they purchase beef and food from large non-organic food suppliers. These food suppliers use chemical pesticides to grow their food and furthermore need to transport their food thousands of miles to each store, which leads to air pollution and oil consumption; all processes that rely on an infinite supply of resources - clean air and fossil fuels - which we do not have.

Sustainability is all about perspective. Sustainable in terms of what exactly? That's apparently what I'll be learning more about next quarter in Prof. Bob Doppelt's course called Thinking Sustainably: Planning and Decision Making Under Uncertainty and Complexity (PPPM 399). More importantly we'll be discussing how to achieve sustainability and how to think in terms of creating a sustainable system. A program or agenda, so to speak, that can be set in place that will create balance and thrive on interdependence.

I love that word...interdependence...the dynamic of being mutually and physically responsible to, and sharing a set of common principles with others.

I've watched several social/cultural documentaries over break thanks to my new subscription (and mild addiction) to Netflix. These are movies that would be considered by some as "fight the power" documentaries, or "hippie" films as my roommates might put it, and there seemed to be a common trend in ideology about achieving sustainability...community.

Michael Ruppert, CEO and President of Collapse Network Inc., believes that "community will save us all. You will die as a rugged individual and you thrive as a family." We should all thrive to become a contributing member of a family or society. In order to create a sustainable civilization we need to rid ourselves of complete reliance on others. On a major scale this means reducing our reliance on foreign nations for oil, or more importantly reducing our reliance on oil and fossil fuels to generate electricity. It means reducing our reliance on agribusinesses for food and other large industries for consumer goods.

I'll stop bantering there, but I'll leave you with one last pressing set of questions. What will you do to reduce your dependence? And what community will you invest you time, knowledge, and skills into in order to create a more sustainable future for yourself and your family?