Sustainability 101

What is sustainability? We’ve all heard the term, whether on instagram or in class or on the news. It’s often associated with plastic straw bans, recycling, and solar panels, but in actuality, it’s a little more than that. According to the EPA, sustainability describes the fact that we rely on the natural world for almost everything we do, and that there is only so many resources in that natural world. Therefore, we must only use what can be replenished in a reasonable amount of time, so that there are resources left for the future.

Modern discourse on sustainability often pushes the responsibility for it onto individuals. We are told to use less, reuse more, and overall put the burden of our planet’s future on our own shoulders. However, individual action is not necessarily the way forward, and may not even be a logical strategy for protecting the planet. Rather, corporations, who are responsible for the majority of our emissions, and also have far more in terms of assets than the individual, should be taking the lead on this one.

This is not to say that individuals should not or cannot do anything - we absolutely should. However, the future of this planet depends on people with more influence and more impact - corporations, governments, etc - taking their share of action.