The Ohio University Sustainable Living Organization exists under the assumption that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Being socially responsible, environmentally friendly, and economically practical means being able to meet our needs without sacrificing the promise of a better tomorrow.
We are committed to inspiring sustainable living practices that make a difference in the quality of our lives. Our decisions and programs are guided by the following goals:
- To facilitate a concerted effort to make sustainable choices in our everyday lives.
- To educate through workshops, film, public lecture, event participation, and social networking.
- To reach out to all organizations and individuals regardless of their cause.
- To provide a forum for presenting and sharing information to build a community of informed consumers
- To support local businesses and organizations who demonstrate sustainable practices.
But what is Sustainability and Sustainable Living? Because of the holistic nature of sustainable living, there are almost as many definitions and focuses as there are individuals concerned about their checkbook, their health, their livelihood, their community, their world, their children, and the future of the Earth. View and post a comment in the current discussion of sustainable living here! These are the thoughts of the members of the Ohio University Sustainable Living Organization:
- Living sustainably is not raping and pillaging the Earth
- It’s easy to think about ourselves and for some it’s easy to plan for the future, but sustainable living is a step beyond that; it’s allotting resources and creating technologies that allow our children and our children’s children to have the same standard of living that we do
- Sustainable living is not about giving anything up; it’s more about simplification and logic. For example, if you eat at McDonald’s, it may be cheap and taste good, but later on you may get heartburn and have to spend more money on antacids or an expensive prescription. Also, money was spent to ship the food to the store in diesel semi-trucks (which average only 7 mpg) and emit carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate dust which are not only greenhouse gases but also aggravate lungs and cause asthma which cost people in prescriptions and businesses and schools in absenteeism. But buying organic, local, unprocessed healthy foods may be a little more expensive up front, but it has a lot fewer repercussions further down the road
- Many people can only think in terms of monetary benefit or loss, but sustainability makes sense in the economic realm too. Using resources efficiently makes sense in the market, produces stability, and will have a benefit for all involved
- Sustainable living begins with the simple everyday choices like choosing an eco-friendly detergent over a main-stream brand or compact fluorescent light bulbs over the dinosaur incandescent ones. Also, what you choose not to buy has an even larger impact. Choice by choice and refusal by refusal, you reduce your impact on the planet to a level where if everyone lived like you did, the Earth could handle it and thrive
- Maybe it’s easier to comprehend from space than from our current point of view, but we only have one planet. We have to realize that we are responsible as stewards of this planet to treat its resources in the thousands of ecosystems, the innumerable trillions of organisms, and their even more countless trillions of relationships with respect
- The term “non-renewable resources” usually brings to mind coal, oil, and natural gas, but it also includes resources like old-growth forests, the rainforest, polar ice caps, individual species, and the marginalized cultures of dying people who understand sustainability after eons of evolution. The preservation of these resources is of the utmost importance to us all
- Sustainability is also about looking to the past. We inherited a decaying ozone layer, a CO2 thickened atmosphere, scarred mountains, not a lot of environmental precedents in policy, and the materialistic, destructive way of viewing the world as disposable. A goal of sustainable living is bettering oneself as well as repairing the environment
- Sustainable living reaches across every discipline, every profession, and every lifestyle, therefore to conserve resources and promote efficiency; it takes creativity and innovation from every available source. The pooling of these ideas produces the greatest good
- The world is always changing and new technologies are always being created. Those concerned with living sustainably must be open to these changes and stay informed on the latest knowledge, technologies, and policies
- The problems of the world today are intimidating. Sustainability is not about fear or despair, but the hope that just doing your best is enough. Your actions may seem insignificant, but the collective actions of a group of committed citizens can change the world
- Every action has positive and negative impacts. A goal of sustainability is to become more informed on as many of the consequences of everyday actions and to make decisions that have more positive impacts than negative impacts on your own society, global societies, and the environment
- Everyone has heard the statistics that the American public is among the richest in the world, makes up a minority of the world’s population, but uses a majority of the energy and resources produced. Informed action should be used to reduce these statistics to create a balance and justice in the world
- Sustainable living often distinguishes itself from other forms of environmentalism by its striving for educated action and practicality. Awareness of current events, making economic choices, and defense of the environment for the benefit of all are not outlandish ideals, but real and attainable goals
- The mindset consists of three states: awareness of a problem in the world, discovering one’s responsibility in the issue, and acting in accordance with one’s responsibility
- One way a person has the power to affect change is purchasing power. At the end of the day, those trying to live sustainability try to buy products that are socially responsible, environmentally friendly, and economically practical
