Sustainability, what does that word actually mean, anyway?
Sustainable, a word that’s become hugely popular over the last twenty odd years, one hears it at conferences, all over social media, in permaculture courses, and everywhere in between. You’ve probably heard or seen it on grocery store labels, corporate mission statements, and your favorite lifestyle blog. It’s become a buzzword that is used so much that nobody questions it. I use it myself.
But are we using it correctly? Since I do use it, I thought I should define it.
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, “sustainable” means “Capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment”, “Capable of being sustained”, and “Able to be sustained for an indefinite period without damaging the environment, or without depleting a resource; renewable.”
At its core, sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
It’s a way of thinking, living, and organizing society that recognizes the long-term impact of our actions on people, the planet, and prosperity. It’s often broken down into environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
You’ve probably heard about environmental sustainability – it includes reducing water and energy waste, fostering biodiversity, eliminating toxic chemicals from our food production, reducing carbon and methane output (to fight climate change), reducing plastic production and pollution, and cutting out chemical pollution, the goal being the protection of resources and ecosystems so that the planet can continue to support stable populations in the long term.
In Permaculture this is called earthcare.
Trapping and spaying these stray cats is an example of Earth Care - by humanely limiting the cat populations and keeping the cats well fed, we lower the pressure on bird populations.
Social sustainability means supporting the well-being of people and communities. It means building fair, inclusive societies where basic human rights are respected, and where everyone has access to clean water and air, education, healthcare, safe housing, and safe working conditions, to name a few requirements. (I would include clean food on that list.)
In Permaculture we would call this aspect of sustainability “people care”.
Everyone should have access to fresh healthy food. This is People Care.
Finally, we come to economic sustainability, which requires the creation of systems that support long-term economic health without creating environmental damage or social inequality. It’s about building resilient economies that pay a fair wage, encourage innovation while supporting local economies, and operate within the limits of the planet.
This is the “fair share” or “future care” ethic of Permaculture.
To get a better idea of why this matters, remember that we live on a planet with finite resources—clean water, fertile soil, fossil fuels, breathable air. At the same time, our global population and consumption rates are growing rapidly. If we continue to live and produce in ways that deplete or destroy these resources, we risk creating a future that’s harder—and possibly impossible—for future generations to thrive in.
If we continue to treat the earth as a resource to be exploited, damaging and poisoning ecosystems and all the creatures that depend upon them, and if we continue to treat all other species as inferior to ourselves and undeserving of our respect and care, then we risk grave consequences.
Sustainability isn’t just about saving trees or driving electric cars. It requires a shift in mindset. It asks us to think long-term, to value balance over excess, and to consider the broader impacts of our everyday decisions.
But is working to preserve the planet in its current state, in the hopes that it won’t get worse, enough? Is that sort of sustainability enough?
I would argue that it is not.
If we preserve the planet in the condition that it is in now, it would theoretically be able to sustain a population of about one billion. Our ecosystems, our topsoils, and our water supply have suffered too much damage to sustain 8 billion plus people; eventually there would be a population collapse.
Ladybug
When the aphid populations explode, ladybugs thrive and reproduce as they devour the aphids. Eventually the aphid populations will be reduced, as will the ladybug population.
Think of the biological model of a herd of 1000 ungulates living on an island. The island has lots of nutritious grasses for the animals to eat, and these ungulates also have no predators. The animals thrive and start to multiply, and multiply, and multiply, reaching 20,000. As their numbers increase quickly, they overgraze. Pretty soon they’ve eaten all the grass, and they’ve damaged the roots.
The topsoil starts to blow away, and the grasses no longer regrow.
Soon the animals find that they have very little to eat. Their population collapses because of starvation and accompanying illnesses, leaving only 400 survivors. But can the damaged island depleted of topsoil support 400 ungulates? No, the environment has been so damaged that it can only support 150; it can no longer sustain 1000.
This praying mantis sack will soon release baby praying mantises, which love to eat aphids as well as other pests.
The same is true of humans on Planet Earth.
We’ve lost more than half of our topsoil, depleted aquifers, poisoned many insects, caused many species to go extinct, polluted rivers, and filled the oceans with plastics. The planet can no longer sustain 1-2 billion people in the condition it is in without degenerating further.
We have to do better than sustainable.
What we need to do is restore, regenerate, and heal. Yes, we need to clean up the trash in the oceans, stop making plastic junk, stop spraying chemicals on our food, and stop polluting the air; all of this is true, but we must also create soil, restore our topsoil, and protect and foster species, especially predators like wolves, who have an amazing effect on ecosystems.
(See the link below to watch a film about wolves and their effect on Yellowstone Park.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q.
We need to protect water sources, clean up our rivers, and plant native species. And we need to stop disturbing the soil, causing harm to the vital creatures living in it and releasing the stored carbon.
A great way to do all of this is regenerative farming, which involves the use of animal management, moving the animals from pasture to pasture, so that they can’t overgraze and destroy the grasses.
When the animals move on to another pasture, the grasses they’ve just grazed are able to recover and grow, sequestering carbon as they do so. Biodiversity increases, and care is given to the health and diversity of the species living in the soil. As the soil begins to recover, water filtration and retention improves, and because the land is not plowed, the microbes in the soil thrive and sequester large amounts of carbon. The soil structure is preserved as well. Cover crops are planted between other crops or during the fall and winter, improving soil health and preventing erosion, a major contributor to topsoil loss. Crop rotation reduces or eliminates the need for pesticides.
To answer the question, then, of what we can do to be truly sustainable – those of us in towns and cities need to plant native plants that support wildlife and feed insects. We need to stop spraying to kill insects, so that insect eating birds can thrive. Let’s grow food in cities wherever possible, so that there’s less need to plow up fields (releasing the carbon that had been sequestered there and killing the rich communities of microorganisms that live in the soil).
Grow food in a container on your balcony, or plant a pollinator garden on a parking strip. And while we’re planting small gardens in cities, let’s include native plants. Let’s stop watering and spraying lawns and replace them with vegetable or herb beds, some native flowering shrubs, or a berry bush.
If we got rid of half of American lawns and planted native plants and food, it would be like creating a huge park, an enormous wildlife corridor, many times the size of Yellowstone.
These camas, beloved of the tribes who lived on the land where I reside, are native.
And while we’re at it, let’s plant trees wherever possible.
This magnolia tree is a beautiful addition to the garden. It provides beauty and habitat, and the flowers are edible!
In my next blog, I’ll go into much more detail about what you can do specifically in your own yard to make your garden sustainable, now that I’ve defined the term. Stay tuned! It’ll come very soon.
