Fifth Principle -10 Principles For 100 Mile Design- By JC Scott

5. Sustainability is a big word today

We hear the word sustainable being used all the time and in many ways so for me the best short question about sustainability was asked at the Living Futures Conference:

“What if we lived here as if we planned to stay?”

Oddly as a species in general or perhaps better stated as a corporate dominated species living with under an agenda with absolutely no meaningful global government controls, we are living today on this earth as if we have another planet to move to when business has wasted the one we have.

A local movement to change this is growing all over the globe.  People like Paul Hawken have documented that there are hundreds of thousands of community based and larger groups around the world working for a more sustainable existence.  People see the need for sustainability.

We are part of that voice for Southern Vancouver Island where sustainble principles are the norm, we have councilors who bike to work, we have more organic garden produced food than anywhere else in Canada and we have a firmly committed design and construction industry leading the way to healthy building practices.

Please don’t wait for governments and Home Depot to show you the way, there is more than enough information available about how to make every facet of your own life more sustainable.  If you have family think about their future.

If you have no family and you are really selfish, think about how you want to live, in a healthy safe home, or in a home full of drycleaning chemicals, volatile organic compounds and toxic offgassing?  Please, go ahead, buy a new car and sit in it with the windows rolled up.  Your result is called evolution, because survival of the fittest will be for those who have adapted to a sustainable healthy lifestyle.

Photo Credits:

1) Globe

2) Moss street Market