What is Sustainability?
Tribe, some days back I came across an article on The National, UAE’s leading newspaper about ‘resident’s awareness about word-Sustainable‘. The article says a third of UAE’s residents do not know the meaning of Sustainable! Truly speaking, it was not a surprise for me, however, surely, this is not a case of only the UAE! Being a Sustainability Professional (you can read more about my professional background here), I always come across this question professionally & socially. What exactly sustainability means? And what exactly is the nature of my work? These kinds of questions come from people from all walks of life, education level, and nationalities. So for example, not only people from the UAE but people from UK, Australia, Singapore, India ask me similar questions. I will say in general, sustainability awareness is still not as countable in societies all over the world. Coming across people, who believe ‘sustainability & green is just a new fashion or bubble’ is a very regular thing for professionals like me!
What is Sustainability? And Why Sustainability is important?
Sustainability is not just part of HSE (Health, Safety & Environment) or CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) or some environmental certification or campaigns on industry level but all these are definitely part of Sustainability. But be sure that Sustainability is not some slogans, signs, green-colored things, or marketing tact (because that is called greenwashing or fake sustainability claims)! On an individual as well as social level, Sustainability is not only recycling or saving natural resources, but all this is necessary for sustainability. Finally, Sustainability is not for Saving Earth, but on the contrary in a big picture view, sustainability is for saving the human race & our existence on the Earth. ‘Sustainability would be long-term survival of humans on the Earth’! Sustainability is a philosophy, initiative, measure, plan, goal, action, process, result, quality, quantity, lifestyle & all-inclusive best practice! Sustain means ‘maintain’, ‘support’, or ‘endure’. So one will ask, what should be sustainable? & for whom it should be sustainable?
Sustainability is a broad term that deals with Environmental, Social & Economic Dimensions. Sustainability could be for us, humans, not for the environment. But human depends on the environment, so it would be feasible to say ‘we need to have a sustainable environment to have a sustainable future for us’. But can we sacrifice economy or development or society to have a sustainable future on Earth? Of course not, so we can have sustainable solutions, in which we can make sure environmental sustainability, social sustainability & economic sustainability and secure our all-inclusive ‘sustainability’ for now & in the future. Isn’t it a win-win situation? Does ‘sustainability’ sound like ‘harmony’ or ‘balance’?
The simple definition of sustainability is ‘Improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystem’
According to the definition by Brundtland Commission of United Nations, “Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
Sustainability is scientific research, it can be measured, accounted, audited, reported & has reference standards. Environmental Performance Index, Carbon Footprints, Ecological footprint, Life cycle assessment, Air Quality index, ISO 14oo1, Green Building certifications, GDP per capita, Sustainable Governance Indicator, Biodiversity indicator. These are a few scientific techniques to deal with the Environmental, Social & Economic parts of Sustainability.
Business to business approach to sustainability varies. Sustainability in business also depends on what core business the organization has. Here you can read some important tips on sustainable business practices. Also, it’s important to understand that not all places on Earth can have the same environmentally and socially sustainable approach! It’s not a ‘one size fits all’ solution. The sustainable solution varies from place to place depending on the natural system and socio-economic systems of different regions on the Earth.
Personally, I am very positive that society & decision-makers in industries are being more open to sustainability now than in the past years. Professionally & socially people discuss with me; the concept of Sustainability and related topics like paper recycling, energy-saving, carbon footprint, some signboards they see here and there & how sustainability is mentioned in their children’s syllabus. I say people are getting aware of the idea of ‘Sustainability’ to some extent. But thanks to social media and the popularity of the topic in recent times, there is a lot of half-baked information available on the internet. It’s a need of time to spread the right information and sustainability education along with clarifying ambiguity surrounding sustainable solutions. Sustainability Tribe has been contributing to the solution of this problem by making scientific and authentic sustainability education available for the masses for free since 2009.
On a positive note, our youth is more open to learning about sustainability, and why not, it’s going to be a survival skill for them in the future. But I can’t say in this case that the beginning is half done. Once the understanding and awareness of sustainability are spread wide and far, the next step is taking actions or you can call them climate actions. You are already at the right place to find how to start a sustainable lifestyle, we have a huge resource on Sustainability Tribe. The mission behind this educational website is to raise social awareness and inspiring people to take action.
For the businesses and entrepreneurs, I can help you realize your dream of making a sustainable transformation of your business or set up a sustainable business, or even help you get recognized for your efforts, find more about our services here.
Lastly, do not forget to Join our Tribe, it’s Middle East’s pioneering grassroots movement for a sustainable change!
