It’s a term that’s been cropping up more frequently recently. And its popularity will only grow. It’s almost to the point of being a marketing buzzword. That is perilous territory because it’s precisely what has led to the awareness of our human practices.
What is Sustainability anyway?
According to Oxford Languages:
The ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.
According to McGill University:
Meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
According to Wikipedia:
The capacity to endure in a relatively ongoing way across various domains of life.
However, farther down on the Wikipedia page:
Sustainability can also be defined as a socio-ecological process characterised by the pursuit of a common ideal. An ideal is by definition unattainable in a given time and space. However, by persistently and dynamically approaching it, the process results in a sustainable system.
That final definition, I believe, truly captures it.
We are constantly altering, evolving, and iterating to achieve this ideal word for ourselves. That, I feel, is the crux of the matter – ourselves. We are gradually becoming a ‘me’ society rather than ‘we’. Each of us has an ideal world in our heads that we wish to see blossom, but the person beside us has a comparably vivid world that is somewhat divergent from ours.
There was a period when humanity coexisted peacefully with this planet, when we took from and returned to it. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, humans became smart. Too smart. Now, we overlook the planet's natural rhythms in pursuit of our own. We pioneered agriculture, clothes, medicine, and vaccinations. We have already made significant progress in developing intelligent robotics and synthetic replacement organs. No other species on the Earth has come close to matching our remarkable innovations.
However, this raises the question - is it sustainable? Can we afford to continue consuming and modifying so much of the world around us without consequence?
If you’re an Australian, you may recall our horrifying ‘Black Summer.’ The bushfire season of 2019-2020. We are well acquainted with bushfires; we anticipate them. However, many states of emergency were declared across New South Wales that season and the flames raged for weeks.
What’s funny is we’re seeing stuff in real life that’s exactly like what we've seen in fictional doomsday movies. Fires, floods, storms. It’s happening, and we’re not thinking twice about it.
- Marc, Gram Sustainable
Gram Sustainable is a top location (for me) in Melbourne. Marc, the founder and previous owner, was gracious enough to discuss why he opened Gram and his ethical framework on Sustainability.
My first question for Marc was, “Why Gram, and why now?”
They launched in 2019, coincidentally with the bushfires.
There was a much higher consciousness of sustainability when we opened.
Sustainability was discussed openly. Everybody realised we had a problem; avoiding such a major disaster was impossible.
People walked in right after we opened saying, “We get it, we need to change. Show me how to shop this way.”
That discourse was fantastic until COVID struck a few months later, and the discussion began to dwindle.
Marc, like many others, has persevered, but not without some scars.
At the moment, the appetite and willingness to hear the Gram message isn’t there. We’ve been barked at with restrictions for the last few years, and people are tired.
It should be self-evident that we need to examine our giving and taking from the planet. That said, we must also ensure that our perspectives are adjusted.
For me, sustainability is the ability for humans to sustain our lives on this planet. Part of the issue is the way sustainability is being communicated. We are on the narrative of it being good for the planet and the animals around us, but it’s about us. The planet will go on with or without us. We need to be sustainable for ourselves; the narrative needs to be about saving our lives.
We're simply shooting ourselves in the foot. The Planet will adapt and take whatever measures are necessary to stay balanced. The Earth is sustainable. It promotes balance among the species, ensuring that no one species has an advantage. We (humans) have the upper hand at the moment, but also possess the foresight to be sustainable about it.
People who shop this way have respect. And distilling it all down, that’s what it all comes to – respect.
One Planet is a beautiful documentary to see if you have time. Netflix has made the episodes available for free on its YouTube channel. Specifically, the Jungles episode.
They show the impact of a parasitic fungus at one point. It seizes control of its host and bursts from it, releasing spores into the air and claiming further victims.
The more numerous a species is, the more likely it is to fall victim to killer fungus. Checks and balances like these means no one species can ever dominate, so protecting the jungle’s incredible diversity.
- David Attenborough, One Planet
We believe we’re in control of our checks and balances, and a lot of it we can deal with. We overcame a global pandemic. However, the Earth will inevitably need to recover order; it is only a matter of time. We have limited choices. It’s either us, or us.
We don’t need 100,000 or however many people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions doing it imperfectly.
- Marc, Gram Sustainable
Stay safe, and pass-it-on.