You may be asking, "What is sustainability?", and that is a valid question because it is such a broad and overused term. Sustainably-focused operations employ the triple bottom line concept to measure and achieve success in three ways: financially, environmentally and socially. More commonly you may hear the phrase "people, planet and profits". I think of personal sustainability as living healthfully within the real limits of one's local environment and natural resources, finances, and social norms, without creating impacts that would prevent other people – current or future – from also living healthfully.
Pretty vague, right? Yes, indeed. But still, I am fascinated by the concept, its practices and the many ways that people, companies and organizations are exploring it. I think sustainability is not just one goal or a clear series of steps to the good life but rather a set of values that guide your decisions toward the positive results that you want to create and away from the harmful results you want to avoid.
So what fuels my fascination with sustainability? It’s a question I posed myself a few years ago: "Am I living my life in line with my values?"
My first thought was, yes of course I am. I treat other people with respect. I haven’t committed any major crimes. I have never even been in a girl-fight. I’m kind to small children and animals. I give to charities. I get along well with my family and rarely screen their calls. So far I’ve got: respectful, law-abiding, non-violent, generous, and reachable by phone.
All very well and good.
But are these the values that actually guide my day-to-day life? Certainly some are – respect and generosity, for example. But when I thought more deeply about what I truly care about, other values surfaced, some that started in my childhood.
In my 4th grade American History class, I earned the nickname “Miss ERA” due to my outspoken support of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. I still think of that moniker with pride. My entire life I have been a proponent of fairness and equity and often find myself rooting for the underdog or for the people that have been left out. As an adult I’ve been in leadership positions where I had the choice to: A. Tell everyone what we were going to do and how we were going to do it, or B. Share my thoughts and encourage collaborative brainstorming and decision-making. I almost always choose B – it’s not the fastest way to get things done, but it feels fairer to me and stimulates more ideas and ultimately more buy-in from everyone involved.
Health and safety are very important to me, and I strive to achieve a good balance between things that are good for me (like exercise and arugula) and things that are temptingly bad (like Reese’s peanut butter cups and wine). My health is one of my most valuable assets. If I am not healthy every other aspect of my life is affected, and the older I get the more important staying healthy becomes. I find myself growing more attuned to the source of my food, the quality of my drinking water and air, the overall condition of my surroundings.
Beauty is another central value. I think of beauty in the higher sense – not in a physical attractiveness way, but beauty that inspires and moves you. I think of music; the rich golden quality of light at sunset; the scent of rosemary when you rub your fingers on the leaves; a magnificent old building. I worked as a graphic designer for a few years after college and my favorite part of that work was when I felt I had created something of beauty. Long after I left the field, I retain a sense of admiration for a great poster or a well designed page spread in a magazine – even mundane things can inspire you. I continually seek out ways to bring beauty and inspiration into my life.
And finally there is my desire for discovery. I want to travel the world and learn how other people live. I liked vacationing with my family as a kid but I truly fell in love with traveling when I went on a 2-month trip around Europe at age 24. I had expected to sight-see and have a Grand Tour-style adventure, and I certainly did both, but my real discovery was how much I learned from meeting people from different cultures, different backgrounds, different histories. Place matters. Where you live and where you go influences your attitudes and assumptions, and this is made very clear when you are away from your own comfortable place. I am a firm believer that it is harder to hate someone once they have been a guest in your home, or vice-versa. This is not to say that you will have perfect understanding of someone very different from you, but at least the impulse to fear and hate "the other" is not so knee-jerk. That is the power of travel and one of the main reasons why I chose it as my career field.
As I became more aware of the concept of sustainability, I realized that all of my central values come together under its umbrella. Equity, health, beauty, discovery and tolerance all have a role in sustaining people and places now and in the future. I find this thrilling and challenging. This blog is my way of exploring these values, the practices I try out, and what I learn as I shift toward greener living.
Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.
– Albert Einstein
