To answer that question we probably should define what we mean by sustainable. Sustainable means that a process retains its function and value...stays the same...year after year way out beyond the foreseeable future.
Sustainability, on the other hand, is a process that ensures that your operations are environmentally and economically sound, and that they are equitable in how the support all involved in the process for todays generation, but also for the generations the follow. Further, sustainability is not just about us (our organization), it impacts all of our stakeholders and those in their spheres of influence.
While I live in the United States and feel that our culture
should be a sustainable one, sustainability is not limited to our nation…or the
developed nations…it is about all nations, the entire planet. And for
sustainability to become sustainable we need to create clear, simple, programs
that promote sustainable culture
If we take a simple issue…and a very common organization…we
can find a way to look at S/S so that it lasts for the long haul. Let’s consider
this issue:
Storm runoff management is an important issue for communities, so
we should look at this issue through the eyes of the small town, community,
small city point of view.
Like most, this issue requires
that we define the problem for our specific area, as well as the things about
it that we see as dangerous for our three areas of interest (Environment,
Economy, and Equitability). We also want to project into the future and try to
understand how our issues today will impact the generations to follow.
If we look at this for one lake
or river we find that our runoff delivers all of the things washed into the
gutters, drains, road side ditches that feed the waterways in our community to
our precious bodies of water. Failure to restrict this pollution from entering
our system means that we are impacted today, as junk in the lake is bad, but it
also remains in the water and settled to the bottom of the water course so that
it will impact future generations.
Our solutions need to be realistic,
effective, and sustaining…drainage systems need to route water where we need it
to go. They also need to be accessible so that they can be cleared, where possible
they need to have effectively designed settling bays that allow some of the
heavy constituents to be captured, and not allowed to flow to the waterway or
lake. At the same time we need to limit our costs, both for initial development
and for continuing maintenance, and we need to have a reasonable replacement
strategy so that we continue to effectively meet these needs.
Best practices include flowing
water to common collection sites before moving it on to storage locations, in
support of the needs of the community. We also find that some towns and cities
have flowed water through downhill targetable regions so that we automatically
water these areas, without having to pipe or pump water to take care of these
needs.
Through these simple design steps
we have looked to meet environmental and economic (cost) aspects of the
problem. But how do we ensure equity… in this example we plan and design our
solutions so that all of our community is addressed to cover our current needs,
while looking toward future community growth to see how we feel the future will
be serviced by our solution…years to decades, decades to centuries.
Sustainable
Sustainability… multi-faceted and deliverable if we plan for it effectively.
