Why Be Sustainable?Ethics: It's just the right thing to do. If we don't build a sustainable world, there will be massive death and destruction. We are being selfishly wasting the earth's resources and leaving a depleted planet to the next generation.
That's the essence of most sustainability conversations. It's an ethical argument. If you practice a sustainable lifestyle you are good; if you don't you are bad. Since western civilization makes it so difficult to live a sustainable lifestyle, those of us who try to live sustainably can end up feeling guilty for not living up to our ideals.
Guilt is not an effective long-term motivator. It's a good compass, but terrible companion. It helps us know what to do, but if overdone it can be counter-productive. One might decide to only do the easy things so one doesn't feel guilty for not achieving higher goals. You might decide not to tell others what you are trying to do for fear of being thought a hypocrite for not living up to your declared goals. That's counter-productive.
Remember the old saw, "You'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar." That works for yourself and for others. Focus on the joy of being sustainable. Feel how good it feels to reduce toxics from your life, eat more organically, grow some of your own food, send less trash to the landfill, and be more engaged in your community. Notice the words "reduce", "some", "less" and "more. We can not be perfectly sustainable and it is especially difficult within the current social and economic structures.
Guilt like salt is good in small doses. But sweetness and compassion wins the day.
[Insert quote: Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. - Henry David Thoreau]
Economics: Sustainability saves money.
If you use less energy and make less trash, you'll save money. It's that simple. The cost of energy and trash removable will only go up, so the people and companies that are leading the way in reducing energy and trash will have more cash on hand.Unfortunately economic rationale will not be enough to get us to a sustainable world, at least not until we change the laws so that people and companies are charged the full costs of activities that destroy the earth. The commons - air, water, and community - are especially vulnerable. Unbelievably, each year the world's taxpayers provide an estimated $700 billion of subsidies for environmentally destructive activities, [http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PB2/PB2ch12_ss3.htm] such as fossil fuel burning, overpumping aquifers, clearcutting forests, and overfishing.
As you'll learn in the 12 step sustainability program, there are plenty of ways to save money as you become more sustainable. And we'll need more reasons than economics. [need a more upbeat ending here]
Personal and Cultural Identity: Who do you think you are? The answer to that question has a great impact on how sustainable a life you will build. Our personal identity has much more to do with our cultural identity than we probably care to admit. If we want to change our values , we have to change who we hang out with. That's not to say you'll need to toss out long time friends, but you'll have to make a concerted effort to bring in new friends. Our friends have a huge influence on helping us define and live into our concept of a good life.
Most of us live in homogenous worlds of information flow. When was the last time you watched a whole show, read a book, or studied an internet sites that challenged your basic beliefs? It generally takes one-on-one conversation with someone we respect for some other reason in order to open us up to new values. After that we usually need to meet several others with the same belief in order for something to go from whacky to profound. You and your group of friends that understand sustainability can have that tipping point effect on your community.
Religious beliefs: My faith calls me to be a good steward of God's creation.
There's a debate going on among the evangelical Christian community. One side believes that God gave man dominion over the Earth and our unsustainable behaviors are fine because we won't need this planet after the Rapture. The other side believes that we were anointed to be stewards of the Earth and we're falling down on our responsibilities to God. The folks in the Evangelical Environmental Network www.creationcare.org have done powerful work on sustainability that goes way beyond economics because they address people's core identity as a Christian. They were responsible for that very provocative anti-SUV ad asking, "What would Jesus drive?"
The issues are more starkly presented in the evangelical Christian community, but many mainline churches and synagogues are also stepping up the task of bringing forth the religious implications of destroying our planet. Religious communities can have a huge effect in bringing more sustainable behavior to a community. To paraphrase the famous Hebrew National commercial, religious groups must answer to an even high authority"[insert you tube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf2j-YzZRAA]
Spiritual practice: Sustainable behaviors connect one to inner peace.
Every religious tradition has rituals to slow one down and connect to a spiritual dimension. The Sabbath, Ramadan, Lent, prayer, and meditation are all forms of slowing down and connecting to Being. This is the very antithesis of our fast pace, overconsuming modern culture. Sustainability practices also slow you down and ask you to become aware of your connection to systems of support that are much bigger than yourself and your family. Feeling your connection to all living things connect sustainability practices to spiritual practices.
This puts recycling in a whole new light. Instead of seeing it as just one more thing to pack into our all ready overflowing "to do" lists, what if one treated recycling as a spiritual practice? What if one were mindful of the connection between recycling and the circle of life and death every time we made a decision to recycle or toss in the trash? This may seem a bit farfetched at first, but let's look a little deeper.
What is the root cause of all our overconsumption? What emptiness are we trying to fill to fast and furiously? Every spiritual tradition says that one can't find fulfillment in things. Things are a distraction. Like all addictions, things are false satisfiers. They feel good for a while and then you need more the next time to get to the same place.
Though it is often covered by stronger more urgent motivators, inner peace is the ultimate motivator. If you are recycling from a guilty, busy, "getting the most bang for the buck" place, you'll never feel like you've done enough. Its frankly draining over the long haul.
If you recycle as a spiritual practice, the practice will bring you energy and contentment as you connect to forces and beings that are much bigger than you skin enclosed ego. It's not easy - spiritual practice is never easy - but it is the deepest, most satisfying way to get to a sustainable world. In fact, it is the only way that will get us to the end zone. It is the only way in which the means and the ends are in total alignment.
So as you contemplate the list of 12 steps to a sustainable community, please don't think of it as yet more tasks to add to your already busy life. First, confront your already busy life. How is your life unsustainable? Are you getting enough sleep, exercise, down time, family time, relational time, community time? What are you overconsuming? Feel into the real needs under your tired overfull life. There is a microcosm/macrocosm overlay between our depleted planet and our drive to stuff more excitement into our lives.
In a consumer culture quality is defined in terms of quantity. More is always better. We may know better intellectually, but uncovering all the ways in which this assumption plays out unconsciously takes dedicated effort. Is more money and more stuff always better? Are more friends always better? Is being in involved in more causes always better?
What kind of a life do you really want? It takes a lot of work to peel back everything we've been told about what creates a good life. We must examine our experience of fulfillment vs. what we've are told. We need to practice distinguishing short-term excitement from long-term content. Both are wonderful, but as a culture we've emphasized the short-term to the detriment of the long-term. The result is a long-term unsustainable economy and long-term unfulfilled lives.
As you'll find out after watching some of the Peak Oil movies, there isn't a cavalry of technical fixes coming over the hill to allow us to continue to maintain our consumptive lifestyle. Just in time, many of us are waking up to the fact that we wouldn't want to keep going as we are even if we could. It just isn't as fulfilling as we were lead to believe.
[Insert quote: I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Henry David Thoreau]
There is a movement called the Voluntary Simplicity movement that is tapping into this discontent. Some of their suggestions can seem a bit radical from inside our current culture, it is definitely worth reading their materials to ponder the ways in which we can bring more simplicity and fulfillment into our lives. Voluntary Simplicity is often caricatured as giving up the rat race big city job to go live off the land. But that is just a caricature. Simplicity is about living deliberately. The way cancer remission patients often do. It's about not letting the inessentials distract you. Saying no to things that don't bring you life. It's about creating the life that serves you, not serving the life that you've happened upon.
There is a theme that runs throughout all the 12 steps. The theme is: You can't create a sustainable lifestyle by yourself. You need support to make it fun, to keep inspired, to help tell each other the truth of your experiences. It takes lots of support to step out of the "more is always better" Matrix. So gather you friends and take this journey together. This is a journey where living more sustainably and more fully are in complete alignment.
If this looks like just one more list of to do's—then STOP! How you go about being sustainable is MORE important than you might imagine. We can't create a sustainable world from overextended lives.
Don't proceed until you read
"Guiding Principles for Lasting Change"
and
"Why Be Sustainable?"
The 12 steps are organized so that the things that take the least amount of time and money come first. Most items on the list will actually save you money. Many will also save you time.
In all the steps, we ask you to spend more time connecting with neighbors. Connecting with your neighbors is the only way to avoid getting overwhelmed.
A sustainable world is only possible within a deeply connected community — It's that fundamental.
Go to my cart
