[suh-STEY-nuh-buhl]

I recently completed a master’s degree in Global Community Engagement and, like any recent graduate, I have a lot of opinions about how the world should be. But also like most recent graduates, I don’t yet have the power or platform to make a real difference. With that in mind, I’ve decided to join the grand internet tradition of shouting my ideas into the ether in the hopes that someone will respond positively.

Over the past few years, particularly since starting my master’s degree in 2019, I’ve noticed that a lot of people tend to associate the word “sustainability” with recycling, composting, and tree-hugging and it is generally viewed in individual, rather than systemic, terms. Over the last few decades, we’ve all heard plenty on how we, as individuals, can be more sustainable — indeed, I’ve been taught, my whole [millennial] life, to recycle and not waste water. Often absent from this discourse, however, is what changes we can support on a systemic level in order to create a truly sustainable society. This omission is why sustainability is sometimes decried as pointless because one person’s actions won’t change the corruption of a corporation or industry. But here’s the actual dictionary definition of “sustainable:”

Quite simply, something is sustainable if it can be continued without issue. Using this definition as a guide, I will be exploring frequently overlooked issues related to sustainability, including wages, inclusion, maternity/parental leave, and healthcare access, among others. I will NOT be wasting your time or my efforts on the multitude of individual actions we’ve all heard a thousand times (recycle, compost at home, go vegan, cook everything from scratch and guilt yourself when you don’t…). Of course, my opinions are far from the final word on these topics, but I will be using only reputable sources and linking to them as I use them.

I hope that you’ll keep reading over the next several weeks as I gradually explore systemic sustainability and advocate for the kind of world that I want to live in.