Creating a Sustainable Future

From what I have learned these past few weeks, there has to be a significant change in the mental mode of the way we as consumers picture our future. Our mental mode shapes the way we envision and see our world, whether we are optimistic or pessimistic about the future sustainability of our world. Personally, there are three characteristic that are important in being more conscious about the sustainability of our actions and thinking optimistically and they include educating ourselves, becoming more habitual on recycling and creating foresight for the future.

Education

The past blog posts I have stressed how important it is to be educated on every aspect of our consumption decisions. I truly believe that the more educated a person is, that more informed decision can be made which results in a better decision making process. Education can take us in the right direction towards a sustainable future because if we know the latest information about a particular fiber or how it is produced, we can make decisions on whether our environment will benefit from the consumption of this product or not. The article, Limiting Consumption discusses the importance of knowing how our ecosystems are affected by our actions and how consumption goes full circle. One has to believe that educating themselves on the products and resources used and the time and effort it takes to become fully educated is worth it.

Recycling

Another huge habit that one must create in order to become more individually sustainable is the habit of recycling. I feel that our generation has been able to shed some light on the importance of recycling and has even taken it one step further into making it “the cool thing to do.” The reason I believe this has become a “cool thing” is the recyclable shopping bags. The bags have been made in multiple different colors and sizes and are very trendy right now. I have seen these bags anywhere from the grocery store, to the public libraries all the way to campus and class. As opposed to filling our landfill with recyclable goods, if we take the extra effort necessary to recycle, we can ultimately help the apparel and interior industries by providing materials that can be used to create products. This will create an interconnected cycle, linking all of us to a sustainable future.

Foresight

Another characteristic that I believe we should be conscious of is foresight for our future. The article, Thinking Ahead: The Value of Future Consciousness discusses this very concept. We all poses the ability to imagine our future and so we should shift our mental mode from a pessimistic stand point, “it doesn’t matter what I do because I am just one person,” to an optimistic point of view, “I want to create the best possible future for myself.” The article specifically states that we need to “challenge existing habitual beliefs about [our] ability to influence the future.” We have the ability to change our world and consumers mental modes to create a sustainable world by consciously thinking about our education, recycling habits and having an optimistic foresight.

The article, Visioneering: an essential framework in sustainability science,  Joon Kim states “sustainability remains an elusive concept and its nature seems unclear for the most part.” I agree with this quote 100%. The topic of a sustainable future is very hard to grasp and most wonder if we can ever become a truly sustainable culture. But I believe that if we focus on education, recycling and the foresight of a sustainable future we can become a truly sustainable culture.