I remember when I was a teen recycle was a thing and changing the incandescent bulbs for CFL bulbs (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) was a huge deal. We also have once a year (only once), this event called “Earth Hour” around the end of march in which we have to turn off non essential lights during nighttime for 1 hour. While all those seem good actions, it was just not simply enough…

Being Sustainable the truth…

When you look up at sustainable in the dictionary it means: being able to continue over a period of time, when you look up the world sustainability it means: “The Quality” of being able to continue over a period of time, which leads me to another question. What it means by Quality? It is almost like a fancy connotation added to the term… That’s the tricky part.

For communities living on poverty levels, sustainable means “survival mode” and they have been practicing sustainability for long time out of necessity, they will repair and reuse because simply their is not enough financial opportunities to buy or replace goods. They won’t buy overpacked food or meals, they will grow their own food and eat whatever is seasonal in the area, probably farm some animals if they have some land available, they won’t use a car and tourism is not an option neither.

On the other hand, most people financially stable won’t repair and reuse, they try to go with the “sustainable living” trend of buying and trying new goods that claim to be “sustainable” following the path of convenience. Plastic offers a lot of practical ways to do things for an unstoppable world that never has time for anything. That said, sustainability requires time, dedication and sacrifices…and I believe we became so lost on realities and economies that won’t be able to offer us what we are destroying. We can’t live without: air, water, food. Think about it, we can not eat money.

There is substantial environmental movements, concepts and organizations that work against the clock to help to rescue our ecosystem of massive extinction and loss of our natural resources. Ergo we can continue as humanity. However, to understand those terms we need to know the problems we have and the mayor causes:

3 Biggest Environmental Problems

1. C02 Emissions (Air pollution)
2. Water Pollution – Ocean Acidification (Our Water Resources).
3. Deforestation – Massive animal extinction

The Mayor Cause

1. Human Poor Ecological Consciousness and Ignorance

Yeap! It is all our fault, we keep focusing on climate change, on the “big brother” whereabouts and political agenda. In my opinion, it all start from us and how we behave, from our homes principles, from how we consume, how we interact with others, the way we do businesses and the list goes on…BEHAVORIAL and ACTTITUD. If the entire people on our planet decide: I won’t eat meat on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or let’s just go biking to work once per week or just work remotely. Let’s plant a tree once per month and let’s just stop buying overpacking food at supermarkets, support local business or even better go to farmers markets, we’ll make it happen. The equation works if there is millions of people doing small things, and by that not only you can contribute to a real effect, but will force corporations to change their business model.

We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly.

Anne Marie bonneau

I mean, I am pretty new on this subject, and there so much to do and to learn…this is some of the movements and concepts I have been finding about sustainable ways…just little pieces of the puzzle some of them more radical than others but all focused in one goal. just kind of slow but this is what Beaurity is about, a live journey of a human being to realign our real necessities and joys. To embrace the responsibility we have with our children to deliver them a world where they will be able to continue…and to love it and respect it!

1. Upcycling
2. Minimalist
3. Slow Fashion
4. SecondHand
5. Eco-Tourism
6. Zero Waste
7. Circular Economy
8. Greenwashing
9. Tiny Houses
10. Composting
11. The Anthropocene
12. Renewable Energy etc, etc, etc…

I would like to go deep on each of these subjects on further postings. The more I research, the more I get impressive by the humongous green community out there, that keeps growing every day on sustainable matters. However, the focus is being always on how governments and big companies can change the way of doing things, and it seems the progress on that is almost invisible…We are the consumers, we are the people that cohabitate this planet and the only ones with the power of make real and radical changes for good. Even if governments and companies start approaching sustentability in a more proactive way, they can’t do so much if they don’t have the support of millions of people changing their lifestyle.