What does sustainability mean to you?
Join me on seven pathways to sustainability, going from good intentions to effective actions that build a better world. In this biweekly column, we’ll use science as our guide to explore ways to meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.
Let’s take a quick tour of effective actions for sustainability, starting with food. How can we feed ourselves without compromising the ability of future generations to feed themselves?
From each farm, we can feed more people with fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables or fewer people with meat. When an animal eats a plant or another animal, energy and nutrients are lost. As omnivores, humans can use plants, fungi, bacteria, or animals for food. We can choose to get more calories by eating corn ourselves, rather than feeding corn to cows and eating them.
• Easy Step: plan a meat-free meal once a week or once a month.
• Intermediate Avenue: don’t eat beef.
• Expert Attempt: eliminate meat and dairy products from our diet.
Next, let’s consider our need for water. How much water we drink depends on how hot it is, how much we’re sweating, and how juicy the vegetables and fruits we’re eating. We also need water for washing ourselves, our dishes, and our clothing. The Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense and Energy Star programs set efficiency standards for water consumption.
• Easy Step: fill a reusable water bottle from the tap to stay well hydrated all day.
• Intermediate Avenue: upgrade showerheads and faucets to WaterSense standards.
• Expert Attempt: upgrade dishwashers and clothes washers to ENERGY STAR models.
After food and water, habitat is an essential need. We need land to grow our food–which we harvest from a community of living organisms. Land also naturally filters water for us. And for mental and spiritual well-being, we need natural places. Permaculture (“permanent agriculture”) is a sustainable way to grow food and protect nature on any parcel of land.
• Easy Step: grow flowers on a porch or windowsill for pollinator insects.
• Intermediate Avenue: stop using synthetic herbicides and pesticides for lawn care.
• Expert Attempt: plan and grow year-round permanent gardens in our yards.
Energy is the ability to do work. Harnessing additional energy beyond our food calories is the key to enjoying a modern lifestyle. We’ve been burning rare fossil materials for energy; for over a century, coal was king for generating electricity. But for the first six months of 2023, the United States generated more electricity from sun, wind, and water power than from coal. We are on
track to get all of our electrical energy directly from the sun in the future; the smarter we are about our electricity use, the faster we’ll reach this important milestone.
• Easy Step: conserve electricity by turning off lights and appliances when not in use.
• Intermediate Avenue: replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting with LED.
• Expert Attempt: install solar modules to generate electricity ourselves.
Most of us get bored if we don’t move. It’s also good for our bodies to go for a walk or a bike ride. In the United States, people tend to drive by themselves in a car, even for short trips that would be healthier for them and their community to be completed on foot or on bike. Cars that burn fuel waste two-thirds of their energy as heat, not motion. Taking literal steps to move instead of sitting behind a steering wheel is a good step for sustainability.
• Easy Step: combine errands to take fewer car trips each week.
• Intermediate Avenue: plan an errand on foot or on bike once a week or once a month.
• Expert Attempt: replace a fuel-burning personal vehicle with an electric vehicle.
We need a supply of goods and materials to keep our home and national economies humming. We’ve heard the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle,” but how many people know that composting (letting organic material rot and turn back into soil) is much more important than recycling? All of our stuff eventually reaches the end of its useful life. Paper, cardboard, wood, and all types of food waste can be composted to produce a rich soil amendment to grow more plants.
• Easy Step: buy in bulk to reduce unnecessary packaging waste.
• Intermediate Avenue: follow the guidelines our town’s recycling committee provides.
• Expert Attempt: compost all our compostable waste.
Finally, humans are social animals. We all get lonely, and we all seek community. How can we build community without compromising the ability of future generations to build their own communities? Sustainability is more fun and more effective if we do it together.
• Easy Step: share this column with a friend or family member.
• Intermediate Avenue: convince our family or organization to take one action.
• Expert Attempt: join a civic organization and become an environmental ambassador.
For expert-level advice to become superbly sustainable, visit SustainablePractice.life, where you can subscribe to receive a free action guide by email every Sunday. Fred Horch is principal advisor with Sustainable Practice.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
