You've probably heard the word, a buzzword that is loved and hated and used time and time again. But what exactly is sustainability, what is the definition and what does it mean in practice? Many divide sustainability into four main categories: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, cultural sustainability and political sustainability.
The environment
In ecology, sustainability is defined as biodiversity and infinite production. It simply means that for something to be sustainable, it must give back as many resources to the earth as it takes.
So to put it bluntly: producing clothes using today's methods is not sustainable, no matter how many considerations you take. The production from raw materials to finished garment is carried out in a way that takes more resources from the earth than it gives back.
Today, 97% of climate scientists agree that climate change is man-made. When we were in middle school, the environment was something that activists in Natur og Ungdom did, something hippies did, and something many people laughed at. Today, Norway has its own Minister of the Environment, and international climate conferences bring together the most important international politicians.
The environment and climate have received a huge amount of focus in recent years, but has it helped? Unfortunately, it probably hasn't, by and large, even though more and more people are choosing organic and locally sourced food, and more and more people want to protect the environment. Global consumption is increasing every year, and that's part of the reason why the situation is not getting better.
The problem lies largely in the growing world population, and continued economic growth in more and more countries. Countries with many people are seeing more and more people getting out of poverty, and that is basically a good thing. Except that the richer people get, the more they consume.
The economy
This leads us to economic sustainability. For how will it be, when several billion people are going to have our Western middle-class lifestyle, which means that each one will eat 76 kilograms of meat a year, and 20,000 liters of water are used on average to produce one kilogram of beef. If the rest of the world follows in the footsteps of the Norwegians, they will also throw away 46 kilograms of edible food per year. And we haven't even started talking about other consumer goods such as clothing and technology. The problem lies in the fact that our dear planet has a limited amount of resources. If everyone in the world is going to live the way we do, we need three planets, not one.
In any case, society must survive, and with our economic model, that means making money and the economy must have steady growth. It is clear that there will come a time when there are no longer resources to continue this annual economic growth. And then it is natural to ask whether we have an economic model that is sustainable.
Today, many companies in the world are making big money developing solutions in an attempt to address the challenges and problems surrounding sustainability. With more and more people lifted out of poverty as a result of economic growth, we face the next challenges to global sustainability.
Political and cultural challenges
Political sustainability is largely about how we will manage these challenges. How will we create laws and regulations, trade agreements that ensure the security of all parties? In the wake of this, many ethical questions also arise.
How should the Western world deal with the great immigration? Is it a refugee crisis or are we just seeing a migration of people, which is not so sensational from a historical perspective? How we solve this is connected to cultural sustainability. Identity, gender equality and health are just some of the challenges related to the sustainability of culture. And these are concepts that will change in line with new forms of society
Sustainability is difficult to understand, and often you encounter more questions than answers when you ask. And that's actually fine, but we think it's important to think about these things, reflect on them, and form an opinion.
In summary, we are convinced that knowledge is power, and that knowledge will drive change in society. When we were in middle school, a lack of knowledge characterized the social debate. That is no longer the case. And we are happy about that.
