Understanding Sustainability – Backwards
When I think of the word “sustainability” I picture Al Gore. I picture packaging made of recycled cardboard. I picture the lady selling me organic cheese. Sustainability, for people my age at least, has been almost completely associated with the green movement. To us, it’s about businesses ensuring that our kids will be able to breathe clean air and pet sheep and all the stuff my parallel universe self is doing while I watch MTV.
What’s odd about this association is that sustainability has become an emotional word, whereas technically, it’s a very unemotional concept. Think of it this way – for skeptics, the green movement inspires suspicion, because people feel like it’s not necessarily an efficient way to do business. There’s a misconception that in the interest of doing things in an eco-friendly manner, we’re making a sacrifice, valuing morality over functionality, good-feelingness over necessity or demand. As a result, it’s easy to associate sustainability with what we assume are emotional motives.
But sustainability isn’t about the environment, it’s about using design thinking to maximize functionality. Basically, sustainability is the capacity of something to endure – and to create something durable and long-lasting – it has to be well-planned. Let’s say I want to start a small business that sells ice cream cones. In order to make sure it lasts a long time, I’m going to design the whole experience of creating, selling, marketing, in the way that is most efficient, in terms of resources and time. It’s that word there – resources – that has made it so easy for the green movement to adopt.
Once you start thinking of sustainability as being first centered on efficiency, the green movement starts to look a lot smarter – not just more ethical. Conserving resources isn’t just good for the environment – it’s cheaper too. Starting the conversation this way makes it easier for economics-minded people to get on board, and put the green movement in language that businesses speak.
Oftentimes green-friendly and organic processes do take the long way, but that’s not the same thing as being inefficient. When a process is designed to deal with long-term complications up-front, it might take more time to produce something, but that result will be more efficient in the long run. You don’t have to go green to appreciate sustainability – you just need to like a process that was well thought-out.