What defines true sustainability?

The idea of sustainability has been around for some time, but I think it is worth some reflection to decide what it really means. True sustainability has to beyond an environmental focus. We have seen in the past few years that financial sustainability is also something that deserves more attention. I wonder what other kinds of sustainability we should be considering in our lives.

Before starting to make a list, let’s revisit what sustainability means in general terms. For something to be sustainable, it means you can keep doing it forever without any degradation in performance. So of course environmental sustainability means that a particular behavior doesn’t cause environmental damage at a faster rate than the environment can repair itself. The related idea of resource sustainability means that a behavior does not use up resources faster than they can be replenished. Financial sustainability means that a behavior doesn’t require more money than it produces and that it doesn’t transfer money from one group to another in a way that would cause the giver to run out.

So what other kinds of sustainability are there? How about political/social sustainability? This would be a behavior that does not alienate others to the point that they would enact a law banning it (political) or to ostracize the actor (social).

How about emotional sustainability? This would be a behavior that does not emotionally drain the actor faster than available rest and relaxation can replenish him or her.

Personal health sustainability would be a behavior that does not damage the actor’s health faster than the body can repair itself (smoking or bad eating habits for example)

And for all of these, we can think in terms of an individual, group, or the world at large. I may do something that is financially sustainable personally, but has externalities on the world that are not sustainable. And the opposite can also be true – I can do something that is not sustainable in some way to myself, but doesn’t impact anyone else. Or maybe the behavior is not sustainable to myself if I do it alone, but as long as other people also do it, we become sustainable as a group because we balance each other out.

Maybe if we put more time into ensuring that the things we do personally and professionally are sustainable in all of these ways, we could really make the world a better place. Or at least avoid destroying it!!!