Chapter 1. What Is Sustainability?

Section 1.1

Section 1.2

Section 1.3

Section 1.4

Section 1.5

Section 1.6

Section 1.7

Section 1.8

Section 1.9

Because sustainability means different things to different groups and individuals, this makes it sometimes difficult to discuss it, so I’ll just give you my definition. For example, I met a “conservative environmentalist” once who was chiefly focused on climate and carbon issues. His advice to me on my own project, Reveal (a sustainability rating and labeling system for consumers—see Chapter 17), was to measure only climate-related issues (like carbon dioxide production) and leave the social issues for people to figure out on their own. My response was that if customers discovered that the product they believed to be “better” due to the ratings actually had questionable social impacts (such as animal cruelty or child or slave labor), all trust would dissipate for both those products and the rating system.