Starting Points
In order to change the direction of sustainable practice in America, the whole idea and way we talk about “sustainability” needs to change. I will feel happy when one day we can stop talking about whether a product is sustainable, or safe, or recyclable, because that is just the way that every thing is. Imagine a world where you can feel good about every object that you make, sell, buy or consume. Would that not be amazing and wonderful? This is the utopian ideal that I aim to pursue and hopefully direct others towards.
It is both easy and hard for this to happen. It seems easy to me because why would anyone not want a lifestyle that is safe and self-sustaining to them, their children, and their environment—and I do not just mean the natural environment here—I am includeing our built environs, cities, towns, our neighbors, along with the natural places. It is hard because we have constructed an entire society around the concept of destroying and polluting and poisoning ourselves and our planet. We have built and grown communities with the car as the central being and not people.
This is going to have to change. But it does not have to change too much. We need not stop consuming, we just need to consume the right things—our idea of consuming needs to take a new shape.