According to the White house blog, on October 5 President Obama signed a new Executive Order on Federal Sustainability, which challenges all federal agencies to lead by example in energy and environmental performance. The Order gives 90 days to set a 2020 greenhouse reduction goal and also sets targets for efficient, sustainable buildings, reduced petroleum use in vehicles, water efficiency, waste reduction, purchasing green technologies and products, and supporting sustainable communities. Council on Environmental Quality chair Nancy Sutley added that “…by putting Federal purchasing power to work – more than $500 billion per year in goods and services – the government can build on the momentum of the Recovery Act to help turn good entrepreneurial ideas into great American enterprises that create jobs.”
Sustainable living refers to a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual’s or society’s use of the Earth’s natural resources.
Sustainable living is in many ways is a reaction to many serious societal problems, including the prospects of a chronic energy shortage, the growing global disparity between developed and undeveloped countries, the prospect of resource scarcity, the pollution and toxins that poison our communities, and our planet’s environmental degradation. In essence it is a desire to make your life greener at home, in the garden, at the store as well as on the road. Sustainable living is fundamentally the application of sustainability to lifestyle choices and decisions.
Sustainable Living
Where did all this come from? While “sustainable living” is a topic that is becoming more and more main stream, it’s certainly nothing new. Living the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing was published in 1954 marking the beginning of the modern day sustainable living movement and paved the way for the “get back to the earth” trend in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973, Schumacher published a collection of essays focused on a shift towards sustainable living through the appropriate use of technology in his book Small is Beautiful. Going back even further, Henry David Thoreau published Walden in 1854, which may be the earliest piece of literature to specifically address the issue of sustainable living.
For most people sustainable living is a process and a journey. It is a way of life that includes embracing frugality of consumption, a strong sense of environmental awareness, and a desire to return to living and working environments which are of a smaller, more human scale. Sustainability itself is expressed as meeting present ecological, societal, and economical needs without compromising these factors for future generations. Sustainable living can therefore be described as living within the innate carrying capacities defined by these factors. Practitioners of sustainable living often attempt to reduce their carbon footprint by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet. There are many intertwined and in-depth factors to living in a sustainable, earth-friendly manner. The bottom line though is this: The most effective changes you can make start with your house, your car, and with the decisions you make from day to day. To get started, measure your own carbon footprint by visiting this site and clicking on How Big Is Your Ecological Footprint. You make be shocked by the results!
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