Hello and welcome to another episode of flourishing within planetary boundaries, with your host Dr. Tara Naylor. Today, I am talking about a topic that drives me crazy and that is the word and concept of sustainability.
Because.. when it comes to the health and wellbeing of people and planetary living systems, words, images, and emotions matter.
Then I plan to shift to an idea and term that is much more inspiring and empowering and that is regeneration.
I tell you a story about the answers to the questions "How does the project contribute to reducing the impact of climate change?" Or “How does this project contribute to a sustainable environment?“ from some construction projects I worked on and what that meant for my own relationship with the concept of sustainability.
All too often this term is used to highlight a few small things a person or organization has done, while ignoring the really big systemic issues. It has become this warm and fuzzy term that signifies improvement to environmental performance
Now, when you look up the terms sustainable and sustainability in various online dictionaries, there are quite a few definitions but generally the main meanings seem to be related to
1. the ability to be maintained at a certain level or rate
2. the avoidance of depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.
I don’t know about you but I certainly do not find those inspiring words or definitions to change my life. If you were to ask someone what they want to do with their lives, I would bet that most people wouldn’t say I want to sustain myself. No, as people we want to grow and be inspired and do something with our lives.
In 2021 during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26), I was doing my autumn garage clean-up and listening to CBC radio. The program was interviewing people in the Canadian fossil fuel energy industry about the impacts of an energy transition in response to climate change.
The more I listened the more pissed off I became, the sustainability they were talking about seemed to be more about sustaining business as usual rather than any other meaning.
I know that many people who use the term sustainable or sustainability do genuinely care about the health of our planet’s biosphere but for others it is a feel-good term that helps to assuage the guilt they feel for a highly consumptive lifestyle.
So the big questions I have for anyone who uses this term to ask and think about are:
· What are we sustaining and for how long?
· What is our end goal and when are we going to achieve it?
· How do we measure sustainability?
Because depending on the answers to these questions, the results we see and the lives we live may be very different from what we really intend.
Then Tara goes back to basics and imagines a world where our human needs are met within the capacity of Earth’s biosphere.
This where regeneration comes in and what I love about it, because, we have forgotten that we are biological beings that came from and are dependent on life and living systems.
What I love about regeneration, is that it focuses on life and living systems. After all we are alive, we are complex living systems, and, without healthy living systems there will be no humans. We are all dependent on the air, water and food that living systems produce.
Hello and welcome to another episode of flourishing within planetary boundaries, with your host Dr. Tara Naylor. Today, I am talking about a topic that drives me crazy and that is the word and concept of sustainability.
Because.. when it comes to the health and wellbeing of people and planetary living systems, words, images, and emotions matter.
Then I plan to shift to an idea and term that is much more inspiring and empowering and that is regeneration.
I tell you a story about the answers to the questions "How does the project contribute to reducing the impact of climate change?" Or “How does this project contribute to a sustainable environment?“ from some construction projects I worked on and what that meant for my own relationship with the concept of sustainability.
All too often this term is used to highlight a few small things a person or organization has done, while ignoring the really big systemic issues. It has become this warm and fuzzy term that signifies improvement to environmental performance
Now, when you look up the terms sustainable and sustainability in various online dictionaries, there are quite a few definitions but generally the main meanings seem to be related to
1. the ability to be maintained at a certain level or rate
2. the avoidance of depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.
I don’t know about you but I certainly do not find those inspiring words or definitions to change my life. If you were to ask someone what they want to do with their lives, I would bet that most people wouldn’t say I want to sustain myself. No, as people we want to grow and be inspired and do something with our lives.
In 2021 during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26), I was doing my autumn garage clean-up and listening to CBC radio. The program was interviewing people in the Canadian fossil fuel energy industry about the impacts of an energy transition in response to climate change.
The more I listened the more pissed off I became, the sustainability they were talking about seemed to be more about sustaining business as usual rather than any other meaning.
I know that many people who use the term sustainable or sustainability do genuinely care about the health of our planet’s biosphere but for others it is a feel-good term that helps to assuage the guilt they feel for a highly consumptive lifestyle.
So the big questions I have for anyone who uses this term to ask and think about are:
· What are we sustaining and for how long?
· What is our end goal and when are we going to achieve it?
· How do we measure sustainability?
Because depending on the answers to these questions, the results we see and the lives we live may be very different from what we really intend.
Then Tara goes back to basics and imagines a world where our human needs are met within the capacity of Earth’s biosphere.
This where regeneration comes in and what I love about it, because, we have forgotten that we are biological beings that came from and are dependent on life and living systems.
What I love about regeneration, is that it focuses on life and living systems. After all we are alive, we are complex living systems, and, without healthy living systems there will be no humans. We are all dependent on the air, water and food that living systems produce.