The word ‘Sustainable’ seems to be the buzz word of the early 21st century. It’s increasingly used by politicians and the government, business and marketing, media and entertainment and ordinary, everyday people. It is deployed in all manner of discussion and debate, policy and purpose, subject and science.
Increasingly used is the term ‘Sustainable Living’ and for a really good reason.
The best definition of Sustainable Living I have found is; “Sustainable living is fundamentally the application of sustainability to lifestyle choice and decisions. Sustainability itself is expressed as meeting present ecological, societal, and economical needs without compromising these factors for future generations. Sustainable living can therefore be described as living within the innate carrying capacities defined by these factors. “ See Earthhuddle.com for a diagram which better illustrates this definition.
There are several other definitions of sustainable living that may be easier for some to understand. For example, sustainable living is “a lifestyle that can be sustained without exhausting natural resources. That is: living simply and efficiently, and making everything we do use go as far as possible and achieve as much as possible”. Whilst this is quite acceptable, it does tend to focus on the environmental or ecological issues solely and does not address society and the economy, topics that must be included in today’s world if we are to become truly sustainable.
The expression “sustainable living” has arisen quite rapidly as a consequence of the current economical, social and environmental challenges we face. Many words and phrases have arisen with this, such as sustainable living, sustainable practices, sustainable housing, sustainable development, sustainable energy, sustainable business, sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry, and so on. All these are greatly important to the overall sustainability and sustainable living topic and there are many individual articles on these topics.
Sustainable living is absolutely critical. History has proven time and time again that cultures collapse and disappear when they are no longer sustainable. However, with reckless overuse of the word or phrase by politicians, business, media and the likes, are we in danger of prostituting the word so much that it loses its value, importance and impact? Is the word ‘sustainable’ becoming unsustainable?
Sustainable Living or sustainability is a subject we must all educate ourselves and others about. Sustainability impacts every level of organization, from the local family to the whole planet. It encompasses all challenges before us. It is something we must strive towards for the survival of humankind as we know it.
Self sufficiency is an important term to understand as well, for self-sufficiency – the ability to provide for your own needs without the assistance of others – is an extremely important strategy to achieving sustainability. It is sobering to realize that self-sufficiency and sustainable living are necessities of life for 80% of the world’s population. These people are considered by most westerners as being the poorest of people living on the planet. Does this mean we have to become poor as well? The simple answer is no. See our article “The Self Sufficiency Manager” on Earthhuddle.com
Sustainable Living, in summary, is a beautiful idea. It brings thoughts of community, happiness, independence, health, beauty, harmony, prosperity, and will give us all a bright future. Let’s all do our little bit to educate ourselves and understand the little things we can all do on our healthy quest for Sustainable Living.
If you are interested in learning more about sustainable living, consider joining www.EarthHuddle.com – a free online community focused on all areas of sustainable living, including sustainable practices, sustainable development, sustainable energy and green living.
For more information, plus videos, articles, a discussion forum and a whole lot more, visit www.EarthHuddle.com
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