Vision of the Future Part II: Sustainability is?

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Vision of the Future Part II: Sustainability is?

Dr Alan Knight outlined his 10 key points of focus for a sustainable lifestyle at the Goodenough Conference in July 09 as the following and I’d like to use it as a jumping off point for comment:

1)    I manage my own self esteem and health (What? Not being dictated to by a Lifetime Television for Women, Oprah, or Vogue? Not being overmedicated by my doctor. No miracle cream to make my marriage work? I can read and educate myself on illness, preventative medicine, exercise, and health? I can use my family and my inner strength as a compass to what is right for me, and not the next door neighbors Mercedes or my co-workers 500 euro heels? Hmmm.)
2)    I live within my own finance limits (triple star *** Living in continental Europe instead of the U.S., in France specifically, I learned how hard it is to get true credit cards. They are so closely tied to the actual money in the bank. That makes it tough to start businesses but people live in reality. They vacation in reality. They don’t put on completely false lives for the public with leased cars and McMansions because they can’t. It forces people to be more accountable. It’s less confusing and it creates less consumer anxiety. A rose is a rose is a rose. Now isn’t that refreshing.)
3)    The products I buy help local and international trade (This is a little vague to me. Of course the products you buy will “help trade”. What does this mean? ‘What kind of trade do you want to support’ is really the question. Buying with your values. Buying based on accountability. The practices of the company you are buying from. How do we do that effectively? More transparency. More ways to clearly see the records of the big brands, to see their operations flow. Where are their factories? How do they treat their employees? What are their quality standards? Who is in their top management and what are their personal records? No judgments, avoid rampant subjectivity, just the facts ma’am.)
4)    I only use clean and renewable energy (As an individual consumer, this is tough and I don’t know enough to decide. How many of us do? This seems a policy level issue. And again, an issue of education, transparency, clear choices offered to the customer without using guilt marketing. Please, no guilt marketing.)
5)    I am active in a vibrant community (In our solitude oriented technology driven lives, we crave togetherness, finding common ground with others, likeminded values, wholesome activity, nature, travel, peace, clean spaces, good services, easy interaction. This is huge and companies that make this happen or create the right environments to facilitate positive interaction will be the big winners. We like brands. We like business. Especially when business helps us to be a better, healthier, progressive, synergistic people and society.)
6)    I talk with, not at, people (YES. My cause celebre as an ethnographer. I never wanted to use women as a marketing tool, to learn how to sell them more soda and tampons. I want to work together to provide what we need and represent authentically.)
7)    I have found the right balance between technology, simplicity and stewardship (eloquent and right on the money, four stars ****)
8)    My political leaders have courage (Obama, and don’t forget freer press. The unpopular (but not sensationalist or divisive) opinion. See Noam Chomsky.)
9)    I use much less stuff (see my last post. this is took me the past three years living in France and Spain. Breaking away from shopping as filling a void. Shopping as something you need to do, a thing to get done, an accomplishment. Success in having more. Move house enough times and you realize its mental baggage to have too much. Find what is special. Get what you need. Eliminate the rest.)
10) There is a New Economics – a new form of growth aligned to nature. (Nothing is ever as beautiful as it is in unspoiled nature. Everything else is a striving toward the original.)