Sustainability: business, life, environment

What is green living?  Is it living off the grid? Living in a green house? Working at a green job?  What exactly does it mean to be green?

A good portion of our sustainability consulting is really about helping executives and employees discover what sustainability means to them.  In many ways, it is about transformation and discovery.  Basically a process by discovering hidden treasures in daily habits that unite conscious habits and routines with eco awareness and eco actions to take.   Most of us recognize that change can be unsettling.  It can be scary, and too often it is just easier to slip back into a traditional and comfortable way of doing things.  However, implementing effective sustainable change does not have to be a laboring process.  How can we make sustainability work for us in 2012?

Create a plan - Personal sustainability programs are about making and sustaining a change in your life that you can be inspired and passionate about.  Although a sustainability plan originates as a comprehensive one, your actions are the expression of that plan in daily life. Eco actions can be anything from riding a bike to work or using eco-friendly office supplies to eating organic healthy meals or recycling.  It can also be about achieving a personal goal, sustaining it, and building from that platform.  Ultimately, it's about making choices that feel good to you and generate an expectation of more and better to come in your life and the environment.  

The basic premise of a personal sustainability program is to reduce your carbon footprint; lighten the load on the planet as well as be good to yourself, others, and your community.  

Do the green thing via subcategory or importance.  Categorizing gives awareness to the habit change as it relates to the sustainability concept.  For instance, energy consumption and turning off a light as you leave a room, or replacing bulbs, or using an energy strip. Another perspective is to prioritize the habit as it relates to environmental impact.  If your carbon footprint is large due to travel, then explore ways to reduce your travel. Suggestions made in our eco friendly consulting include: telework, virtual conferences, and green travel options.   

Schedule time.  If the habit requires a new way of doing things, then schedule time to learn the new habit, integrate it into your routine, and make adjustments as you learn.  Bike commuting would be an excellent example of embracing a new habit, reducing your carbon footprint, yet, requiring time to learn and develop a new routine. 

Reward and Review.  The process of linking sustainable living with new opportunities for development creates a personal incentive that further promotes the process.  Sustainable actions are reinforced daily by positive feedback from realizing your personal goals.  

Each of us has a role to play.  What is it that you specifically care about?  Is it the natural beauty in your neighborhood?  The campsite you visit each year?   Spotting wildlife?  Maybe it's that first breath of fresh air as you step outside to go to work each day.  Connect with that, and take eco action to support that.  Explore the habits and areas of your life that you can take eco action to support the environment that you love.  Your actions are a green beacon of light to others calling them forth to find the value, the eco actions for them to support the environment that they love. Inspiring eco awareness in others makes sustainability work for us all.