Sustainable Is Good

I was thrilled to hear that Sustainable is Good recently featured our e.a.t.^® product line. Part of Martha Stewart's "Martha's Circle" collection of lifestyle internet sites, Sustainable is Good regularly explores the world of sustainable lifestyle from a consumer's perspective often focusing on the role design plays in producing a sustainable product and its packaging.

Adopting a sustainable perspective is indeed good, although I'm the first guy to admit that the word "sustainable" is not often the most image friendly. Particularly in its association with ecological issues, it seems that "sustainable" has only recently become a regular part of our modern consciousness and lexicon, and is sometimes used in a negative context.

For sure, implicit in the word "sustainability" is a complex history evoking radical theories, thoughts of major societal transformation, long term commitment, sacrifice, and often times confusion, among other things. We're creatures of habit after all, and partly because of this the inevitable question as to whether most of our habits are even sustainable has been forced upon us.

Peter Senge of MIT’s Sloane School of Management argues the term is akin to “survival” — that it motivates by fear and that that’s not a sustainable emotion.

"On another level, it’s just a bad word. It’s technically what we would call a “negative vision.” We don’t want the unsustainable, we don’t want civilization to collapse, we don’t want the human species to fail. Well, of course we don’t want that, but those images don’t move people. “Survival” is not the most inspiring vision. It motivates out of fear, but it only motivates for as long as people feel the issues are pressing on them. Soon as the fear recedes, so does the motivation."

Senge proffers a good substitute for "sustainability" is: "All about the future".

I agree and so does Gary Locke. In a bold and prescient move hailed by environmentalists and industry representatives alike, Obama administration Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke recently approved the Arctic Fishery Management Plan, which was prompted by changes in the Arctic that have come with global warming and the loss of sea ice. This plan would prohibit an expansion of commercial fishing in the Arctic, at least until more is known about the area. Locke said the goal now is to come up with a sustainable fishing plan that will not harm the overall health of the fragile Arctic ecosystem.

Sustainable is good when it's all about the future.