How is Sustainability Measured?

 Answer: It's however YOU choose to do so!

In previous episodes, we established that there is a way to at once embrace the universal premises of sustainability and apply those to one's own facts/circumstances/conclusions. And so it is, here, with the measurement stage. 

There are, of course, well known and accepted criteria to accept and respect. 

• SOCIAL!
• ENVIRONMENTAL!
• ECONOMIC!

The question is not what the terms of assessment 'are' but HOW those can be at once empirical / objective AND somehow related to an ethical value judgement and brand identity in a changing world. 

I will not try and offer any calculable formulae via a superficial blog. But what I CAN say is that a balance of personal and societal utilities is not only possible but entirely logical and indeed, necessary, in the definition and consolidation of personal/professional progress. 

Think about the word, 'sustainable'. Even in colloquial and casual terms, it tends to refer to relationships and situations or transitions. 'Is this relationship sustainable' (ie, does a couple break up?). 'I don't know how long this situation is sustainable' (everything from daily commutes through to world wide geopolitical peace treaties). 

The question being asked, in each case, is not so much, whether one is doing the 'right' or 'correct' thing. But how the progress made can be retrieved and reinvented. 

A couple who realise that they live in differing towns and therefore cannot be exclusive lovers need not negate their reconciling and looking at moving closer together. The nation that is intent on war eventually has to confront an endgame objective, which, by its nature, will be either its own defeat, or some forced peace? 

Our planet, itself: cannot, overnight, remove the universal environmental degradation it has suffered. But we, as ecologically minded citizens, can begin to look at maintenance as a kind of substitute for repair. 

IE: sustainability, whether personal or professional, economic or environmental, personal or communal? ALL begins with a question about governing change, through admitting its inevitability. You then retrieve the essence of what 'works' and apply that to a new paradigm. 

In technology: this is happening, NOW. Companies are starting to see that their 'sustainability' (as brands, working units, moving from start up to scale up, and bigger picture contributors to a global economic /environmental ideal) = all 'about' the product /service paradigm shift. 

It is no longer 'sustainable' to be just product OR service. You must prepare for BOTH models, whilst also avoiding conflation/confusion/saturation, as therein lies the reverse of sustainability (extinction). 

HOW to do that? More on that next time. Meantime, here is an example of a company that gives us all hope of transitional sustainability, via tech and commerce. 

HAPPY JUBILLE!