One of the first real occasions where much of the world began talking about the concept of ‘Sustainability’, it ought to be said, was over a decade back in time when organisations and governments both began to become increasingly conscious about sustainable development goals.
What you thought of being some popular catchphrase or perhaps an eco friendly measure specifically adopted by the developed part of the world, soon became more than some bumper sticker expression.
What do we see now? Well, not only advocates for more responsible ways of living but ecologists, scientists, economists, microbiologists and urban designers; the entire gamut of them thinkers have put forward what can, quite simply, be called the right way of living in this age: Sustainability.
And yet, despite no dearth of clarity on a concept that’s more than some bo-ho green school of thought, there are these common myths about sustainability that you must address and maybe now:
1. Sustainability is an abstruse term!
First but not the last; let’s begin with one of the most common myths about sustainability and it’s that this is a complex term, really beyond the grasp of understanding of the common literate person.
But this is not even close to being true. In no bloody way!
When the UN World Commission on Environment and Development published back in 1987 Our Common Future, the phrase first entered the layman’s lexicon.
And the layman isn’t a scientist.
One of the benefits of the report was that it was able to clearly define what is meant by Sustainable Development (which is development that meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs).
2. Sustainability only specifically concerns the environment!
You might be surprised to know about one among the common myths about sustainability.
Sustainability has a lot to do about the environment, but that’s not the only thing that it concerns itself with; only the opposite is true.
Among the initial understandings of the phrase was, to put it simply, about finding ways in which poorer nations could match or, if not, then get up to speed with the richer ones with respect to the standard of living.
In that regard, the prime sustainable development goal was to accord the disadvantageous countries of the world with much improved access to all natural resources, whether water, food and energy.
In that aspect, it’s pivotal to understand what “Scientific American” had to offer as clarity about this massive misconception related to Sustainability:
If too many of us use resources inefficiently or generate waste too quickly for the environment to absorb and process, future generations obviously won’t be able to meet their needs.
3. Sustainable is basically a synonym for the phrase ‘green’
The way the planet is steadily progressing towards what can only be called population explosion, it can’t be that the philosophy of Sustainability exists in isolation (or without factoring in) of technology.
For after all, in order to give a comfortable standard of living to approximately 3 billion more people expected on the planet, sustainability has to make the most of technology.
In that regard, whether we see a throng of electric vehicles, increased dependence on wind turbines or the heavy adoption of solar cells, all of these environmental friendly ideas are but a result of the world working towards a sustainable revolution.
But then, isn’t technology an intricate part of each of these massive steps toward the ‘big right’?
At the end of the day, what makes sustainability fuel the alternate energy ideas or power generation methods is technology.
4. Sustainability is largely about recycling!
Meet yet another overused and commonly seen myths about sustainability!
Truth be told, recycling is a great direction of sustainability, but that’s not all sustainability is about.
Some of the salient concepts deeply embedded in the realm of sustainability are energy and transportation.
Think renewables, forget not about pure electric drives, whether on two or four wheels.
5. Sustainability implies lowering the standard of living!
One of the famous entrepreneurs, authors as also an environmentalist connected to the realm of sustainability couldn’t have put it any better especially when dealing with a rather flimsy myth concerning the subject.
The bespectacled 77-year-old American who was born in California and is regarded as one of the great orators concerned with sustainability says, “It does mean that we have to do more with less, but as Hawken argues, “Once we start to organize ourselves and innovate within that mind-set, the breakthroughs are extraordinary. They will allow us to achieve greatly superior rates of resource productivity, which in turn allow us to be prosperous, fed, clad, secure.”