ART & SCIENCE OF SUSTAINABILITY

ART & SCIENCE OF SUSTAINABILITY

Understanding the Basics

So many people keep talking about sustainability and there is no shortage of how everyone  defines it in their own way. Sustainability often used interchangeably with survival  carries  more weight to it. In simple words, to sustain means to keep going for years altogether. Whereas, survival is about being able to continue for short term.

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You might have come across the long list of sustainable  development  goals  also referred to as global goals which talk  about action to end  poverty,  protect the planet, climate change,  peace and prosperity among  others. But  who will ensure that  these goals are being fulfilled? Here comes the  Superhero UNDP (United Nations Development  Program)  which is  in place to help implement these goals, provide funding until 2030 in  about  170 countries  and territories. Their expertise and policy help  them to achieve the results along with the support of the  government,  private  sector and most importantly citizens.

Let us talk about someone who brings life to the term sustainability, shall  we? Yes, the tribes residing in the islands of Andaman and Nicobar. The  island is a house to a total of six different tribes and one would find its roots  from thousands of years ago. It is said that many of them are feared dead  because of the tsunami wiping away their villages. Such adversities made some of them dependent on the Indian administration for food and basic needs. But, there exist hunter-gatherers who are self-sufficient as they fulfill their needs by hunting forest animals. They maintain minimal contact with other  humans. Their population may just be a handful, but they have been doing a fabulous job when it comes to preserving their culture.

A distant look at them might make one think they are less evolved or come from some stone age. However, the fact that their culture has been constantly evolving over years’ highlights that there is no room for doubt about them not being able to sustain until their homes and resources are safe.

“Survival is not about being fearless. It’s about making a decision, getting on and doing it.” – Bear Grylls

Skills for Sustainability

By any chance, have you seen your grandmas or great-grandmas make chaklis or papad at home? They have magic in their hands. I always tell my grandma how if she cooked for a living or opened a dhaba, the crowd would go crazy over the taste.

Similar is the story of Lijjat, an organization which started with mere 7 women in 1959 in Mumbai, and today is a powerhouse of 43,000 women who contribute to a turnover of more than Rs. 750 crore. They are a living example of how skills like culinary knowledge, time management, basic financial literacy has not only helped them sustain but also empowered their existence. 

We can’t forget this one when we talk about sustainability skills. We say Amul, you say milk. When White Revolution happened, Amul, a dairy cooperative was originated in Gujarat state which turned India into the world’s largest milk producer. Their story is an interesting one.

“Survival is nothing more than recovery.”  – Dianne Feinstein

Say you are a farmer from Gujarat and you own a  cow, then you can contribute to their cooperative by selling them milk and earn money on spot. Though this can act as a side income for farmers, it is still a considerable sum for them. More than 80% of the profits go back to the farmers. With constant hardships that farmers face, a steady on the side income that makes a difference and helps them sustain acts like a boon for them.

Myths and Facts

Myth is a popular belief, it is contagious. And fact, on the other hand, is the lesser-known reality. Myth and fact often play catch in the playground of society. Let’s have a close look at some of them.

Sustainability means go green

Using only what is readily available in nature is what pops in minds of many when we think of sustainability. This is a very famous myth, seems true and hence easy to catch on. 

Using the green options for energy or life in general, is good for us but sometimes the decisions we take for sustainability are not all simple. For instance, the government needs to extract electricity from nuclear power, no one in them sane minds would call it a green option but it is a tough choice that they have to make.

• We Can Become Sustainable Easily Anytime

Things like such are easier said than done. This myth can be understood by a simple example of a tailor who is earning good since many years and hence refuses to learn to work on a new model – an automatic sewing machine. Say the old model gets worn out and is too outdated to be available. Suddenly, he is a tailor who doesn’t know how to stitch (on an automatic model). He now can lose his business unless he learns to use a new model.

This emphasizes if being sustainable would have been an easy crack, with small adjustments here and there, it wouldn’t have been a global problem.

• Being Unaware of Technology is Not the End of the Day

This is a myth made popular by people who fear change. A technologically challenged person misses out on a lot of opportunities. Problems don’t knock on the door before arriving. It is clearly evident how technology saved so many businesses from drowning in Covid-19 pandemic. If not for the interconnected nature of man and technology, the sustainability of businesses of a common man or big company would have been a distant dream.

• Too Much Change Too Fast is Dangerous

Aware of a common saying – a person learns to swim only when he is pushed in the water. In the same way, we bust this myth about change, by remembering the situation when Covid-19 changed the way we live, eat, work and so much more in a span of few months defying many societal and professional norms and finding a way around that was the opposite of dangerous.   

Basic Skills v/s Survival Skills

We can hardly go one day with fasting. During that time too, we probably think of what we will eat the next day. We  have our home or workplace, company of our friends basically the comfort of our surroundings to help us get through.    

Think how your city is chalked in a way that almost everyone has access to basic amenities like transport, grocery, hospital, and shelter. We don’t fear a landslide or snowstorm suddenly threatening our existence. In cities like Ladakh or Rajasthan, people have figured out ways for survival. The government is in place to ensure all the basic things are being provided to the residents of the city.

“Survival, in the cool economics of biology, MEANS simply the persistence of one’s own genes in the generations to follow.” – Lewis Thomas

Now think of military units who have their mission in jungles. They are trained with special techniques to survive in there. They are trained to build shelter from natural materials, eat snakes and scorpions, move through dense vegetation and water, and navigate. This training teaches them to live out of their comfort zone.

Adding to this, another real-life example of life at the Siachen glacier is an eye-opener. It is considered to be the highest battlefield in the world and life there is tough. The weather conditions are harsh, the soldiers have to trek for about a month to reach some of the places and stay in igloo. They have only kerosene stoves to keep themselves warm. There is hardly any fresh food available and then there is fear of extreme consequences of snowstorms and snowfall.

Many of us are fortunate to be in a zone where our basic skills work, but the universe can bait you with a shining opportunity and put you in a place physically or professionally where you would need to learn the survival skills to keep going.

 

Honing the Skills of Sustainability

How many times have you heard people say grades don’t matter? There sure is some grain of truth to that as academic achievements open the interview doors but don’t decide how you perform in the real world. To elaborate, let us take an example of two interns Gini and Johnny.

They both have the same set of academic achievements, work experience, and vocational skills. Gini has good tutor skills. She is resourceful and versatile. These skills give her a better chance of corporate success in less amount of time. She is leaving her mark as she hones her skills of working.

Not just in a workplace, honing your skills is important in other aspects too. Let us consider a cab driver who is driving a couple from Mumbai to Pune. While on his way, his car seems to slow down and he gets out of car only to discover that it has a flat tire. They are in the middle of nowhere, the mechanic guy isn’t to be seen in the vicinity and their phones have no network.

The couple starts to get worried. The driver has never been in such a situation before, hence he is a tidbit nervous but he doesn’t let his face show that. He had helped his friend once fix the same problem. He gathers his thoughts, removes the flat tire, replaces it with the spare one, and jacks it up slowly. In half-hour or so, the problem gets solved and they drive back to the city safe and sound.

What do the stories of random people tell us? That possessing a set of skills in your trunk like the spare tire wouldn’t hurt.

Your ability to articulate in clear and concise manner can have an influence over people, being creative can help you seek solutions, being adaptable can help encounter the challenges Covid-19 like pandemic threw at us, being able to negotiate can get you what you deserve and being empathetic with people when they are in discomfort can help you understand others perspective so that you can guide your actions.

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” – Leon C. Megginson

Famous & Classic Examples

Let’s dive in right away. For how long one can ride a bicycle? 30 minutes, an hour? There are professional cyclists who travel from one city to the other on a bicycle as an adventure but they have regularly practiced, have that kind of stamina and know what they are getting into unlike a 15-year-old wonder girl who made to the global headlines as she cycled along with her injured father on their 1200 km long journey.

If that wasn’t enough to surprise us, we saw an on-screen hero also be an off-screen hero. 

Sonu Sood, who won all hearts, who received UNDP’s Special Humanitarian Action Award for the relief work he did in Covid-19.  He helped poor migrants to reach their native places who were stuck in big cities during the coronavirus crisis. He arranged food, buses, trains even flights so that many could reach their home safe. Sonu Sood in those challenging times was truly a godsend.

Not just individuals, but corporates like Hindustan Unilever  too came  up  with the Project Shakti initiative that aims to enable and empower rural women and help them financially to set up their business. The women working under this project are called ‘Shakti Ammas’ and are trained about Unilever products, so that they are able to sell it among their community, in   their village. That’s how they earn and become self-reliant. It is a really good initiative and it has changed the lives of more than 1 lakh Shakti entrepreneurs. 

“As human beings, we do change, grow, Adapt, PERHAPS EVEN LEARN AND become wiser.” – Wendy Carlos

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

MR. PRAKASH ARYA

Enthusiast, Strategist, Keen Planner and Strong Charisma, these are some of the motivations with which he associate himself. He describes himself as an eProfessional, who evangelizes digital media as Entrepreneur, Mentor, Management Consultant, Speaker and Writer and Domain Knowledge Expert. In his phenomenal more than two decades of long career, he have played varied roles and been an eSpecialist in the sphere of Digital and Online Communication as well as in eBusinesses in different organizations in India and abroad.

 

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