What is Sustainability?

This week's newspaper column: (Read it in the Hattiesburg American.)

The concept of sustainability has been sustaining the earth for as long as it’s been around – that’s why this planet is still here. Yet there seems to be some disagreement among twenty-first century humans about the meaning of sustainability.

Some people claim that sustainability is a collection of costly boutique solutions only affordable to the extravagantly wealthy for the sole purpose of elevating guilt about how their retched excesses are allegedly destroying the planet. Wrong. Sustainability is not an isolated tactical solution here and there; it is set of interdependent principles that work to sustain the life of the planet and its inhabitants. Here are a few hopefully-not-so-boring concepts:

Sustainability is self-perpetuating. In a sustainable world, life goes on naturally as the decayed remains of the old feed the next generation of growth. In a sustainable world, there is no waste to be buried in a landfill. The last phase of one cycle is the first phase of another. As architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart put it so poetically in their classic book “Cradle to Cradle” - waste equals food.

Sustainability is holistic. Isolated solutions are inconsistent with sustainable practices. The history of man is full of unintended consequences as a result of isolated solutions. Use DDT to control pesky mosquitoes and you wind up killing humans, channelize a river to prevent floods and you deplete rich farmland of important replenishing nutrients, kill off a species here and another codependent species dies off, and the list goes on and on. Even when it’s not apparent, decisions in our physical world are never truly in isolation . In a highly sustainable environment, everything is connected to everything.

Sustainability is organic and dynamic, and nature is the best example of sustainable growth. In nature, growth happens where renewable resources abound. In the wild, diversity is a constant. Life flourishes when multiple species of flora and fauna exist in close proximity. Nature encourages integration and coexistence. The most sustainable places on earth are where, naturally, the greatest diversity occurs. A suburban lawn - limited by choice and Roundup weed killer to one grass species - by contrast, is one of the least sustainable micro-systems on earth.

Sustainability takes the long view, and is not necessarily efficient in the short run. “Slash and burn” expediency has quickly enriched many a businessman, and the pressure of tomorrow’s stock price is no friend of green solutions, but sustainability is the one thing that is essential for our long-term survival. Non-sustainable solutions are like sparklers: fast spectacular burn - then nothing. Sustainable solutions, by nature, endure and become stronger with the passage of time.

And most important, sustainable solutions are not necessarily costly. In fact, Mother Nature has been providing no-cost solutions long before humans lurched at the reins. By taking our lessons from nature, we have a ready roadmap to all things sustainable.

Put away your GPS and, instead, take a good look at the world around you.

Declaration of Energy Independence

Image: American painter John Trumbell, The Declaration of Independence (1795)

For the want, will, and hopes of the people, and with acknowledgments to Thomas Jefferson and the Second Continental Congress, I submit to you this Declaration of Energy Independence.

WHEN in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the Emotional and Economic bonds which have connected them with a destructive Energy Policy, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should chart a New Course.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Energy sources are not created equal, that they are endowed by their Nature with certain identifiable Costs and Characteristics that affect Life (Sustainability), Liberty (Energy Independence) and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Women and Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Energy production becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a policy of Alternative Energy production, laying its foundation on sustainable principles and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.

The history of the present Energy Policy is a history of repeated Environmental and Economic injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over their Quality of Life. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

The current Energy Policy of these United States of America:

Has shackled the People with economic burdens of relentless and unpredictable spikes in the cost of Energy;

Has enriched certain Corporate entities while placing great strain on the Livelihood of the Citizens and the Health of their Planet;

Has fostered social habits among the Citizens so as to constitute addiction to and dependence on Non-Renewable Energy resources;

Has placed their Economic fortunes in the hands of rogue despots and unfriendly nations having control of oil and gas supplies;

Has influenced aggressive invasions of foreign lands by their Elected officials resulting in loss of life and limb and treasure and good will;

Has discouraged and downplayed the viability of Alternative Energies, and has underestimated the ingenuity of the Citizens of the United States;

And, by its short-sightedness, has caused the deterioration of the Health, Welfare and Well-Being of the American People.

We, therefore, the Citizens of the United States of America solemnly publish and declare, That the People are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent of all forms of Imported and Non-Sustainable Energy, and That the goal of Energy Independence shall be a National priority, and That the elected Leaders of the People shall act with urgency, intelligence, and resolve to achieve real and lasting Energy Independence.

A Change of Seasons

This week's newspaper column. Read it in the Hatteisburg American.

When it comes to understanding sustainability, Nature is our greatest teacher. And one of Nature’s fundamental lessons is that the cold dark gloom of winter is always followed by the bursting exuberance of spring.

Many times we look at the winter in the world around us and see only desolation. How often do we see a rundown neighborhood and count it out, or experience an economic downturn and pronounce it permanent?

Just as in Nature, the world we create is in a state of constant change. Here’s the difference: Nature always honors the natural cycles and creates systems that self-perpetuate; sometimes we humans do not.

But Nature has vision along with a fail-safe solution for dealing with death and blight. It’s called “spring.”

Spring is fresh. It is a time for new beginnings and new growth. With help from the birds and the winds, Nature relentlessly spreads the seeds of the next generation. A good number of those seeds find fertile ground and, under the nourishing warmth of the sun, grow heartily.

Spring is bold. It does not flinch at the deadness of winter. Spring is not deterred by the brown surface patina visible to the naked eye. In fact, the robustness of spring benefits from the nutrients of last season’s fallen remains. What Nature knows is that great potential lies underneath, and the fulfillment of that hidden potential lies just a season away. What we call “dead” could in fact be the genesis of a new beginning.

Spring fosters a collective forward momentum. In Nature, growth fosters growth. The sprouts of new life collectively create a synergy that attracts the pollinating forces necessary for the expansion of an even more robust life.

Spring is optimistic. Even after the harshest winter, spring arrives with great enthusiasm and confident of ultimate success. Spring acknowledges obstacles, but is not discouraged. Witness the shoots of green winding up through cracks in the sidewalk, or fast-growing vines taking over a brick wall, or trees growing through fences. In spring, growth inevitably softens the hard edges of winter.

Spring is diverse. Variety is everywhere. Nature understands that diversity is necessary for natural sustainability. Look at unattended patches of earth. Never does one see a single species growing in one place. Natural, healthy growth comes in as a chorus of sizes, shapes, and colors influenced by the local climate and soils. (Ironically, large pristine grass lawns are among the least diverse patches of spring; that’s why they take so much maintenance.)

So if you look around and see patches of winter in the world, now is not the time to write an obituary. On the contrary, it is the time to ferociously plant seeds. And with Nature as our guide, the beginning of the harvest can’t be far away.

No Man is an Island

This week's newspaper column:

Sustainability – essentially – is about connections.

Take the human body for example. Life is sustained as the heart pumps blood through a connected system of veins and arteries distributed throughout the entirety of our bodies. This system works by degree in that the more those connections are disrupted, the more quality of life is degraded. Terminate the veins in the wrist and you lose a hand; block the main arteries close to the heart and you’re dead.

Translate this metaphor to all physical and social connections and you’ve got a pretty good working understanding of sustainability.

Almost four centuries ago, English writer and clergyman John Donne articulated the concept well:

No man is an Island, entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.

Now how many times have we heard the word “deserted” preceding the word “island”? Ever stop to wonder why some islands are deserted? At the risk of stating the self-evident, islands tend to be deserted when they have no clear connection to the mainland and are not big enough to maintain an ecosystem hospitable to human life.

So in considering sustainable design, it’s always important to think in terms of connections. Physical connections, social connections, cultural connections, environmental connections – all are important in the manifestation of a built environment that sustains and enhances a healthy human existence.

For example, when planning and developing alternative modes of transportation in a community (meaning other ways to get around besides the automobile), the success of those systems hinges on how comprehensively everything is connected with everything else. When sidewalks are intermittent and leave some areas of heavy human activity completely unserved, or when bike lanes are planned for some neighborhoods and not others – sustainably speaking – those are destined to be dead or ailing systems and will only be utilized to a small fraction of their potential.

Conversely (and fossil fuel issues aside), automobile transportation has the very sustainable quality of having roads connecting every home with every possible service and work opportunity. In fact, it’s the only fully connected system of transportation we have in America – that’s why so many people use it.

Naysayers to sustainable development are quick to say, “Why build sidewalks? Nobody wants to walk.”

But there was a time when people made the same arguments against the automobile. I bet you didn’t know that Henry Ford fielded universal cries of “Who would ever want to ride in a horseless carriage? Where would you go?” That, obviously, was before the universal connection of our roadways.

The more connections we make, the more sustainable we become and the more options we have. And in a sustainable world, each individual’s fate is connected to the viability of everybody else.

Donne famously concludes his profound treatise on sustainability saying:

Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind;

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.