How Can I Tell What is Sustainable?

When you hear the words sustainable or sustainability, what do you think of? These terms have been tossed around as corporate buzzwords enough that they are nearly verging on meaningless. It's a difficult term to understand, something you really need to think about. Author of Geography of Hope Chris Turner asks us: "Would this - this place,this machine, this social system or way of life - be capable of continuing on its present course for the forseeable future without exhausting the planet's ability to sustain human life at something like the current population and quality of life?"

Once you've rapped your mind around the meaning of sustainability, than you can ask yourself "How can I tell what is sustainable?" To do this you must understand the concept systemically, to put into context, establishing the very nature the relationships that are existing. Sustainabliity involves three systems into one: economic, social, environment. The environment is a natural system that is so complex that we will never fully understand it. Sustainable systems are those that are centered around low energy consumption with a very high level of complexity. As you can see, sustainablility can be a mouthful, but this should not stop us from understanding it.

In chapter one of "The Geography of Hope", there is a great example of sustainable development in action. About 15 years ago, a group of people living on the island of Samso in Denmark had a dream. They didn't have a leader to say, but rather a collective of leaders - a community. Their dream was to reduce their C02 emissions to less than zero and to be the world's first island to be powered entirely by renewable energy. In less than ten years, through a lot of hard work, this dream became reality. "The wind and the sun, straw and wood, plus longer-term plans involving biogas and excess heat from ferries - here in a miniature, was a congress to replace a fossil king". This project created dozens of jobs that revitalized a stagnant economy. It transformed conservative village people into an enthusiastic group who cared about the future of their lives and their childrens and grandchildrens lives.

Samso's transformation was not just revolutionary, it has inspired change that is attainable to all of us. This has taught us to look at the world as millions of little islands(cities, towns, villages). Each one of these islands can do this by: determining our climatic conditions, calculating our own energy demands, and figuring out what sustainable technologies would work best for the area. There is hope for us out there but we must work together as one unit. I believe this is how will really change. Through creativity and innovation, diversity, technology, networks, stable governance, trust, cooperation, connectivity, and adaptability. We must no longer work separately, but together to solve our problems.

Reference:
Turner, Chris. (2007). The Geography of Hope. Toronto, Canada: Vintage Canada.