Sustainability – what does this really mean?
Sustainable: pertaining to a system that maintains its own viability by using techniques that allow for continual reuse & able to be supported as with the basic necessities or sufficient funds
It is easy to understand and support the idea of sustainability when referring to developing nations, as our first world guilt dictates that we should pay a slightly higher price in developing nations to promote sustainability.
And, in first world counties operating sustainably is often not understood in the same fashion. And, it is often misconstrued that in the first world a sustainable company is just using this terminology as a front for being expensive and/or overpriced.
Sustainable applies equally and in the same fashion regardless of where a company’s operations take place with the only real difference being the price point.
Operating sustainably in the first world, and in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with the highest cost of living, requires that a sustainable price point reflects the real costs of doing business which includes paying living wages, taxes, and at the same time maintaining the correct operating margins.
There are only a select few companies operating in a true sustainable fashion in the first world; and it is your duty as a consumer to seek out these companies and pay the price required when adventuring in the first world!
