Sustainable Living – Why You Should Care

The word ‘Sustainable’ appears to be the buzz word of the early 21st century. It’s increasingly used by politicians and government, business and marketing, media and entertainment and ordinary, everyday people. It is used in all kinds of discussion and debate, policy and purpose, subject and science.

Increasingly used is the term ‘Sustainable Living’ and for a very good reason.

The best definition of Sustainable Living I have found is; “Sustainable living is fundamentally the application of sustainability to lifestyle choice and decisions. Sustainability itself is expressed as meeting present ecological, societal, and economical needs without compromising these factors for future generations. Sustainable living can therefore be described as living within the innate carrying capacities defined by these factors. “ See Earthhuddle.com for a diagram which better illustrates this definition.

There are many other definitions of sustainable living that may be easier for people to understand. For example, sustainable living is “a lifestyle that can be sustained without exhausting natural resources. That is: living simply and efficiently, and making everything we do use go as far as possible and achieve as much as can be achieved”. Whilst this is quite acceptable, it does tend to focus on the environmental or ecological issues only and does not address society and the economy, topics that must be included in today’s world if the world is to become truly sustainable.

The term “sustainable living” has arisen quite rapidly as a consequence of the present economical, social and environmental challenges we must face. Many words and phrases have arisen with this, such as sustainable living, sustainable practices, sustainable housing, sustainable development, sustainable energy, sustainable business, sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry, and so on. All these are extremely important to the overall sustainability and sustainable living dimension and there are many individual articles on these specific areas.

Sustainable living is absolutely vital. History has demonstrated that cultures collapse and disappear when they are no longer sustainable. However, with reckless overuse of the word or phrase by politicians, business, media and the likes, are we in danger of abusing the word so much that it will ultimately lose its value, importance and impact? Is the word ‘sustainable’ becoming unsustainable?

Sustainable Living or sustainability is a topic we should all educate ourselves and others about. Sustainability affects every level of organization, from the local family to the whole planet. It encompasses all challenges facing us. It is something we must strive towards for the survival of humankind as we know it.

Self-sufficiency is an important term to understand as well, for self sufficiency – the ability to provide for your own needs without the assistance of others – is an extremely important strategy to achieving sustainability. It is sobering to realize that self sufficiency and sustainable living are necessities of life for 80% of the world’s population. These people are considered by us westerners as being the poorest of people living on the planet. Does this mean we have to become poor as well? The simple answer is no. See our article “The Self Sufficiency Manager” on Earthhuddle.com

Sustainable Living, in summary, is a beautiful thought. It brings thoughts of community, happiness, independence, health, beauty, harmony, prosperity, and will give us all a bright future. Let’s all do our little bit to educate ourselves and understand the little things we can all do on our healthy quest for Sustainable Living.

If you are interested in learning more about sustainable living, consider joining www.EarthHuddle.com – a free online community focused on all areas of sustainable living, including sustainable housing, sustainable development, sustainable architecture and green living.

For more information, plus videos, articles, a discussion forum and a whole lot more, visit www.EarthHuddle.com