(As I wrote the title to this essay, I could just feel the immediate words of objection from my friends who do carbon emissions calculations. How can you say that? What gets measured gets managed. So if you are one of those wonderful calculating-type people, then bear with me. To start, note my title says…More
The Things We Want and the Things We Need
One problem I’m sure we all are dealing with is how to make our private jets more sustainable. (I hope you realize I’m joking here.) I say this, because it has a hint of ridiculousness to it, and I think that sort of irreverent attitude is helpful in approaching this topic, of the things we…More
The Ways in Which We Think About Sustainability
I hear a “we’re doing our best; we’re making things better than they were” self-description of people’s sustainability efforts (personally and at work). I used to feel this way, too. Isn’t doing better than before a good thing, I thought? In fact, though, what this leads us to is celebrating incremental progress, in the face…More
The Opposite of Bad
Sustainability seems to have a strong focus on elimination of what is bad. Take the things we don’t like (racism, carbon emissions — you name it) and declare war against them. Measure them, and try to stop them. It’s a focus on making “not bad” happen. But unfortunately, the “not bad” isn’t something good. Not…More
Relying Too Much on the Past
We frequently judge ideas and concepts based on looking to what was done in the past. When we look back, the past inspires us with both inspiration and cautionary tales — things we want to ‘return to’ and history we don’t want to repeat. Of course, not everyone agrees on what is worth returning to…More
A Simple Experiment in Adaptation
One of the many, many ways in which we learn to play the victim is to believe that we cannot change our circumstances — our own and those of the wider world. Sometimes we feel bound by promises. Sometimes we feel trapped by “the way things are”. And sometimes we simply can’t see how things…More
dear mystery
i’ve led a constrained life for too longtaking advice from the parts of me that love me but can’t see beyond their own limitationslimiting me in turn in the center of me, i am only now learning to love the rivers and the trees and the grassmore than just for appearance’s sakeit humbles me, then…More
not for you
my darling, i’m not for youwhen you tell me you want to know how to fit in with the othersor how to put your dreams all tidy in a box for them my darling, i’m not for youwhen you want to be like me, copying my every move in hopes of the same resultdo you…More
you’re not for me
my dearest, you are not for mewhen your words will place me out of all safetyand tempt me back into the patterns of before my dearest, you are not for mewhen your actions will lead me down a path of numbness and avoidancei know enough of that on my own — i don’t need your…More
Feeling the Feelings
When we feel bad in some way — in reaction to what someone else does or says — we sometimes try to avoiding feeling that bad thing by trying to get the other person to admit they were wrong. In this way, we not only get to avoid feeling some of the discomfort and pain,…More
There Used to Be an Away
There used to be an AwayIn the air, where we could burn out plastic things in a barrel behind our homeFumes drifting away to somewhere, anywhere There used to be an AwayA secret basement where we stuffed all our feelings, and the things we wanted that society didn’t want for usNever mind our occasional outbursts…More
Consumption Volume: An Elephant in the Room
Local environmental sustainability efforts have some positive metrics, but global environmental sustainability is still failing. This often comes from judging sustainability progress on a per-unit basis. For example, I could cite you statistics showing how we’ve improved energy efficiency, but have grown our overall energy consumption. There are similar numbers for consumption of various materials.…More
Love and Sustainability
I have a strong conviction that our path forward is a path of seeking and moving towards the things and people we truly love1 . Not the path of fear and scarcity and anger – but mostly fear – that we’ve collectively been moving along for so long. It’s not easier, frankly. To love things…More
Letting Go of Certainty
Most sustainability books I’ve read go something like this: I don’t have any intent to follow this approach. Yes, I agree there are many things are going horribly wrong from many perspectives. Yes, I think more disastrous things are likely to happen if we don’t change. But I have no clue, personally, how to fix…More
Waiting for Customers to Change
The desire to make sustainability “fit” into current ways of doing business is pervasive. Most companies wait for customers to ask them to be sustainable, or don’t take sustainable actions without a guarantee of customer approval. They are, of course, motivated by the need to sell – companies might have a fear that customers will…More