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Narrative
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I started this presentation by saying that sustainability is a topic
that sounds more difficult to understand than it actually is.
Hopefully, by now you all have a much better idea of what
sustainability is. However, if you have a better understanding, you
probably also realize that the hardest part of sustainability is
actually achieving it. How do we move towards becoming a sustainable
community?
The first and most important step is education and outreach. As a
society, we need to become more aware of the concept: what does it
mean, how does it apply to our daily lives, what will be the benefits
of becoming more sustainable, what are the dangers if we don't move in
that direction?
You are not the first group to think about sustainability. As we have
seen, many communities and organizations have already begun working on
the issue. Many of these groups have developed tools that you may
find useful. There are also many resources available. I have briefly
discussed some of the many tools available. It is time to start using
them.
Another important step is for communities and organizations to develop
an understanding of the measures currently being used to measure
progress and how to better measure progress. MEGO stands for
my-eyes-glaze-over, something that happens to many people when the
subject of numbers and measurement comes up (Source: Pat Vasbinder,
NH Charitable Foundation). Instead of avoiding the issue of
measurements, communities need to develop ways to make numbers speak
to people, ways to express data in concise, clear ways--data
poetry.
However, no matter how much education and outreach is done, no matter
how much data poetry is written, if there is no political will to
change, we will not achieve sustainability. Political will is
needed at both the top--the Federal level--and at the bottom--local,
grassroots level. It does not matter how much federal legislators
would like to change the system; if there is no support at the local
level, change will not occur.
At the same time, regardless of how much a local community would like
to become sustainable, without support from the Federal level in the
form of changes to existing laws and regulations that perpetuate our
current unsustainable society, change will not occur. The push for
sustainability needs to happen at both the Federal and local levels
simultaneously in order for society to move towards a more
sustainable, enjoyable, equitable, and ultimately liveable lifestyle
for all members of our local, national and global communities.
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