Sustainability is a timely, important, and complex subject. Thoughts, shared last week in the first of three BZP Bulletins on the topic, are summarized as follows: Sustaining well-being and good health for people, organizations, and communities is mission critical for equity, diversity, social cohesion, and quality of life.

Common sense suggestions are needed but, as was attributed to Will Rogers, “The trouble with common sense is it is so uncommon.”

Focusing on food choices, alternative transportation, home updates, healthy products, and recycling materials, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shared a World Health Organization report:

“13 million deaths annually and nearly a quarter of all disease worldwide—including 33 percent of illnesses in children under age five—are due to environmental causes that could be avoided or prevented. Doing your part to take care of the environment helps you protect yourself and others from the climate’s effects on health. Health issues such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease, and stroke can be aggravated by an unhealthy environment.”  

Here are a few actions you can take to do your part to live smartly.

Food choices: Producing, processing, packaging, and transporting food are highly dependent on using fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers. Converting to healthy consumption and sustainable choices helps the environment and, in general, is better for the consumer. Modeling good choices can help all learn and ultimately change their habits.

Alternative transportation: Pollution causes premature mortality, cardiopulmonary disease, and other maladies. Switching to walking, biking, public transportation, carpools, vanpools, telework, and alternate work schedules saves time and energy.

Home updates: Choose energy saving behaviors and products by utilizing good insulation, prudent use of heat and air conditioning, xeriscaping, on-demand water heaters, and the like.

Recycling: Buying only what you need saves money and ultimately decreases land fill space. Materials used and energy consumed during production burn up resources. Recycling rather than merely discarding can save 30% of the substances used for production. Electronics are particularly wasteful when produced if they are not intended to be upgradable.   

Transitioning away from the above current concrete suggestions to longer-term intangible aspirations brings up a mindset change called “cathedral thinking.” In medieval times life expectancy for architects and builders was shorter than the time needed to design a memorable edifice. For example, a cathedral requiring plans, foundation, walls, roof, windows, buttresses, and decorations was never seen by the original workers. Their children and future generations profited by their effort. Nonetheless, forward-looking, engaged, altruistic workers invested knowing they personally might never see or enjoy the fruits of their labors.

Current society faces a similar dilemma. “Greenhouse gas emissions from global economic activity are at the heart of climate change, with atmospheric carbon dioxide already 50% above its pre-industrial levels,” according to a current HBR article. Following the above four principles will help future generations even though we are investing our time, energy, and resources but may never see the benefits. We should embrace modern-day cathedral thinking.

Next week: “Why is sustainability so difficult?”