Recently during our bi-weekly team meeting at Package Costa Rica, one of my employees nailed me for having certain non-sustainable habits…like leaving the office and forgetting to turn off the lights. He’s right, there’s no doubting that. Sustainability, if you’ll remember, is about managing our interactions and impacts and it requires focused thought until you can engage in sustainable actions as unconscious habits. I admit I am not there yet, not anywhere close, but I am working on it. In the meantime, it helps to be surrounded by sustainability experts, since I am hardly one. I write about this topic not from a position of expertise, but from a deep love of nature that I have carried with me all of my life and I believe a sense of what is right…and sustainability is the right thing to do. I heard Obama speaking the other day about his goal to move the U.S. towards more of a “green economy,” or one in which economic activity related to creating a more sustainable world becomes a significant GDP component. He said he just felt it was the right thing to do. I agree. But as I am more successful at becoming sustainable, one thing I do not want to become is judgemental. I would never want to be one of those people who throws blood on Hollywood celebrities as they exit fancy restaurants wearing animal hide or fur. Being judgemental never wins converts, but generally only inspires rebellion. People think for themselves, well usually, and don’t really want you doing their thinking for them. They must choose to be sustainable in their own way, or else it just doesn’t matter. Sustainability is not about competition, but rather the antithesis of that concept…it is about being in harmony, with nature and with other people. Jesus, for example, was a decidedly sustainable fellow. He lived a low consumption lifestyle and was a pretty nature loving kind of guy….at least from biblical accounts. Yet he was never judgemental. In fact he admonished his followers whenever they began to criticize and compete. It is that critical and competitive spirit that has the world in the mess it is in. In our rush to be better, prettier, faster, stronger, richer and to have our backpacks more overloaded with useless stuff that we have become completely unsustainable. Much more of that and, well, who knows, but the outlook isn’t too great. I believe sustainability should be completely non-judgemental. It should be influential, but by example primarily. Walk the walk and others may just follow in line. I am glad to have employees who help me to do so.
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