What sustainability means to me
As I set out in a previous post, sustainability is a key component of coexistence. But what does sustainable actually mean? If you look it up on Wikipedia you find reference to ‘the capacity for the biosphere and human civilization to coexist’ and a UN report defining sustainable development as “meet[ing] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
By any objective measure we are not meeting this definition of sustainability. The Global Footprint Network measures the demand on and supply of nature and calculates our Ecological Footprint every year. In 2022 we exhausted our ‘supply’ of nature, meaning we used up what the Earth’s ecosystems can regenerate in a year, on 28 July. The date is the joint earliest ‘Earth Overshoot Day’ (EOD) has ever happened and is a day earlier than 2021 butsignificantly earlier than 2020, when the initial COVID-19 lockdowns mean consumption dropped enough for EOD to be delayed until 22 August. For the remainder of the year we are in ecological deficit, depleting our natural capital and compromising the planet’s future regenerative capacity. The chart below shows how we have gone from a balance of demand and supply in 1970 to using resources equivalent to 1.75 Earths.
To me, sustainability means redressing that balance and moving back to equilibrium with the planet. By using more resources than can be regenerated, we are effectively depriving future generations of their fair share. Not to mention all the other animal and plant species we share Earth with currently. Collectively we need to move away from a model of growth that relies on the consumption of non-renewable resources and embrace green, renewable sources. That is going to require significant policy changes by our governments, and transformation by our biggest corporations. Individually, particularly here in the West, we need to do our bit too. There are a wealth of resources out there on living more sustainably, not to mention the mantra ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, all of which I will cover in future posts. Fundamentally though, I think we all can start by challenging our behaviours around consumption. When consuming anything, we need to consider how we can do less with more, how we can move away from using things once and throwing them away, and indeed whether we need to consume something at all.
Sustainability has entered the mainstream, but this is a blessing and a curse - at the same time the number of companies who attempt to greenwash their products is on the increase, making choosing products and services that are actually sustainable a minefield and something that merits further exploration.
As he always does, I think Sir David Attenborough summed it up best at the launch of Seven Worlds, One Planet. When asked by five-year-old boy what he could do to save the planet (ok, his Dad actually asked on his behalf when the nerves set in), Sir David answered:
“You can do more and more and more the longer you live, but the best motto to think about is not waste things. Don’t waste electricity, don’t waste paper, don’t waste food. Live the way you want to live but just don’t waste. Look after the natural world, and the animals in it, and the plants in it too. This is their planet as well as ours. Don’t waste them.”