The Natural Step offers my favorite definition of sustainability. Here it is:
“In a sustainable society, nature is not subjected to systematically increasing 1) concentrations of substances from the earth’s crust, 2) concentrations of substances produced by society, 3) degradation by physical means, 4) and in that society there are no structural obstacles to people’s health, influence, competence, impartiality, and meaning.”
That’s a lot to digest. Let’s back up and come at this from another angle.
I came across the concept of environmental sustainability for the first time in college. It wasn’t a great time for me — I was nearing the end of my first relationship, everything was mega-stressful, and it felt to me like there were very few certainties in my life. Enter sustainability, stage left, claiming to be the end-all be-all of all things environmental.
I disliked the idea instantly. On the one hand, it was perfect — an ideal of how Things Could Be that was equitable, just, that could endure for hundreds if not thousands of years. On the other hand, what did it even mean? How could a person or a society or even a single product ever actually get there? Didn’t the idea of sustainability imply knowledge, certain knowledge, that a thing was actually able to be sustained? And you’re telling me no one knows how the measure this??? Then what on earth is the point of having the concept?!?!?!!
… I tend to get worked up about things I care about, at least in writing. And I’ve come to appreciate the idea of sustainability more nowadays, but I have just as many reservations about it as ever.
Because the bottom line when it comes to sustainability is that no one knows what the bottom line IS. We have the concept. We have fantastic systems like the Natural Step’s Sustainability Framework that are designed to position organizations so they can pursue sustainability, incorporate sustainable technologies into their everyday business practices, and do the best they can within their mission. That’s great. But…. we have no actual understanding of whether x technology or y business practice is itself sustainable. We have no certainty around whether modern industrial civilization could ever be sustainable. The one thing we know (and even that is disputed by people who prefer putting their heads in the sand to actual breathing) is that our current society is not sustainable, as evidenced by the immense damage that human society has been doing to our environment for the last several hundred years, including the dangerously high levels of CO2 that industrial activity has dumped into our atmosphere. Among other problems.
My frustration with sustainability remains, because the concept remains so appealingly flexible. Anyone can claim that a thing is sustainable, but there’s no way to prove it. None. There is no certification for sustainability that I trust, but I still pay attention to little logos like “Rainforest Alliance Certified” or “Sustainable Forestry Initiative” on toilet paper because some certification is better than none, right? It absolutely is better to have the concept than not, better to have a certification than none at all, but part of me still longs for more certainty, longs for the ability to Know For Sure that something — anything — in my world isn’t built on an unsustainable foundation that’s ultimately part of the problem.
I suppose walking is sustainable, now that I think about it in terms of single actions….
… and that leads me to the other part of sustainability. The part of the concept that’s more personal, that people rarely talk about even though it’s hiding behind our best definitions.
“In a sustainable society, nature is not subjected to systematically increasing 1) concentrations of substances from the earth’s crust, 2) concentrations of substances produced by society, 3) degradation by physical means, 4) and in that society there are no structural obstacles to people’s health, influence, competence, impartiality, and meaning.”
That part there, in the 4th criteria for sustainability. That part about there being no structural obstacles to people’s… health… to people’s impartiality or competence…
This might feel like a stretch at first, but stay with me:
Sustainability requires that people encounter no structural obstacles to their health.
For a system to be sustainable, it must help take care of the people it serves to organize.
The hardest part for me of coming to understand sustainability has been understanding this: our current society is not only unsustainable, it also systematically devalues sustainability. Sustainability isn’t “sexy,” and actions associated with sustainability are perceived as more feminine, according to an unusually depressing study discussed in Scientific American. That’s a death knell if I ever heard one.
And yet… to my mind, it’s also a tiny ray of hope.
What on earth do you mean, Elyria? It’s HOPEFUL that we’re living in a system that is doomed to fail?? How is that hopeful?!
In just this one little way: given the way people operate, systems don’t just end. Other newer systems grow up while big, old, entrenched ones slowly limp towards failure. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not a simple, pretty, or easy process. Call me a pessimist (ha! I don’t believe it!) but the fact that modern industrial society will not last forever because it fails to take care of people is one of the most uplifting thoughts I’ve had in weeks. People are already resisting that unsustainable system, in ways large and small. We have a thriving secondhand economy. We have apps that help people trade services like Simbi (the symbiotic economy), we have housing cooperatives and ecovillages and families that take care of one another in ways that are decidedly anti-capitalist. The seeds of something new are growing up all around us, powered by Big Industrial Capitalism… and Big Industrial Capitalism can’t do anything to stop them, because they work better. We’re in a period where there’s immense pressure and immense rewards for new ideas that work, and not to steal a page from Neil Gaiman in the intro to JMS’ “Becoming Superman” or anything, but sometimes, for some people, when you apply enough pressure to coal, what do you get?
In this case, I hope — we get to live, eventually, in a world where there are no structural obstacles to people’s health, influence, competence, impartiality, and meaning.
We get to live to see the diamonds after this industrial age crumbles under the weight of its own coal.
I hope.
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This probably isn’t where you were expecting this blog entry to go! From sustainability to the end of modern “free-market” capitalism in such a short time? Unthinkable! But this is my blog, and sometimes ideas get linked in unexpected ways while I’m writing.
Heck, I thought this entry was going to be about sustainability and self-care, but that’ll have to come later. (You see it though, right? To do anything sustainability, the system in which a thing is done whether that’s a human system or a society-wide system must be able to keep on doing that thing in perpetuity. So of course it’s unsustainable to work out for 3 hours a day without eating really damn well, of course it’s unsustainable to scream into the political void with no response for four years (or four hours, unless you’re filibustering), and of course it’s unsustainable to resist oppression without taking time to recharge, however you need that to happen.)
What does sustainability mean to you? Can you envision a world where we have both gas-powered personal cars, and where folks don’t go bankrupt trying to treat the cancer that was the result of environmental degradation they never even knew was happening? Can you imagine what sustainability would look like? Chuck Wendig imagines it all too realistically in Wanderers — AI and a mysterious plague is sounding better and better these days — are there other stories you think paint a picture of what sustainability could look like? What do you hope sustainability could look like? How much would you be willing to give up of your modern industrial lifestyle in order to live in a sustainable society — if indeed anything has to be given up at all? Let’s talk it out!