Here’s the deal: sustainability—the mindset that all human value extraction from the planet has limits—is no lightweight thing. Like weight loss or weightlifting or sitting down to do your taxes or that term paper, ‘thinking sustainable’ is an active discipline. It doesn’t just *happen.*
And discipline isn’t passive: you have to learn how to make a habit stick.
The good thing is that there’s a quiet revolution underway, with curriculums all over the world integrating sustainability as mindset.
How’s that work? The twin biggies are ‘systems thinking’—thinking about the entire system when tackling a single problem—and collective/collaborative approaches to problem-solving.
Want a better, more liveable, more equitable planet? Then teach yourself, your kids and your colleagues to think 360º and collaborate around sustainability.
Fashion programs from Ryerson’s to London College of Fashion centre their design focus on renewable processes and ethical choices: simple as that. Chefs’ schools are on the same page: buy locally, buy sustainably and know the provenance of what you’re buying.
The best research on sustainability? Wait for it: try the insurance companies who’re trying to figure out what homeowners’ policies in Florida look like in ten years. Why? Insurance companies want to be sustainable—in business—in a decade too.
Face it: sustainability is all about survival and resiliency and thinking local. And those three qualities are habits of mind, whatever your age or outlook.
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