After hearing quite a few times over the last months the question “sustaina… what?” I wanted to give a human face to this actual buzz-word “sustainability”.
I started thinking what is sustainability and how I could rephrase the word… Without knowing I was thinking, acting and communicating from the outside in, starting from what, from the marginal interest instead of the core. That was when great friends from the Net Impact Professional Chapter guided me towards author and strategic leadership professor Simon Sinek. I was in what he called “The Golden Circle” and had to start with “why” so that I could address the heart of the matter.
That was when I pivoted my project and started asking “Why Sustainability?”, why do we do this work, why do we care? The first one I asked was Moura Quayle, Strategic Design Professor at Sauder Business School, who said ” it’s all about balancing the three legged stool of environment, economic and social.” Moura quoted words great leaders like Robert Kennedy and Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day Founder, have used… “Economy is a subsidiary of the Environment and not the other way around…”
I then went on to ask a bunch of other people, with different backgrounds and different interests, to see why they think we do and need sustainability in our lives…
I will mention just some of their answers…
Julia, library assistant: “because resources are finite.”
Omid, MBA student: ” because otherwise things will degrade to levels you see in Iran! It is only by paying attention to the difficulties we can come up with innovative ideas…”
Gavin, plumber: “with limited resources in the world we need to make them last as long as possible and find new ways to produce new methods for survival!”
Jose, MBA student: “to be able to give more than we extract from the Planet; because it is a growing business demanded by the consumers; because it engages employees more than other initiatives; because it creates limitless opportunities and it drives our creative spirit! Because it brings people back to a simpler way of life!”
Jordan, Arts student: “because living on Earth is a privilege and if we’re not smart about keeping it healthy we might have to move to Mars and that sounds like a scary trip…”
Tim, Decision Theatre Manager, UBC: “because it’s about our future and creating a better present!”
Jason, MBA student: “because it simply makes sense!”
And the ones it made most sense to were Ryan and Iain, 13 and 14 years old high school students, who synthesized beautifully the answer to “why sustainability?” Because it is good for the environment, it creates long term benefits and less side effects and it protects nature.
I would say I accomplished this mission, as I gave more human faces to “sustainability” and showed it is a meaningful reason to act and not just an actual buzzword.
As for my “why sustainability…” I leave you with some more human faces and visions of the future…
Bach Choir Singing at the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Charity Event