100 Quotes About Sustainability

Laten we op zoek gaan naar 'vreugde' in plaats van naar eerlijk voedsel en schone lucht en een gezondere toekomst op een bewoonbare planeet! Alsof geluk volstaat om ons te beschermen tegen de gevolgen van winst-waanzin. Audre Lorde

There is a deeper point to be made here, however, having to do with the specificity of everything. One of the great failings of our culture is the nearly universal belief that there can be anything universal. We as a culture take the same approach to living in Phoenix as in Seattle as in Miami, to the detriment of all these landscapes. We turn wild trees to standardized two-by-fours. We turn living fish into fish sticks. But every fish is different from every other fish. Every student is different from every other student. Every place is different from every other place. If we are ever to hope to begin to live sustainably in place (which is the only way to live sustainably), we will have to remember specificity is everything. Derrick Jensen

If we could treat every natural resource as a gift rather than a commodity, we would be on the path to sustainability. The difference is that a gift does not belong to us but to the universe. It comes into our lives from a source that is unknown and ultimately unknowable; eventually , it returns to its source. Victor Shamas

No connection is always easy or free of strife, no matter how many minutes a day we meditate. It’s how we relate to conflict, as well as to our differing needs and expectations, that makes our relationships sustainable. Sharon Salzberg

Engage the whole community with a common purpose to build an innovative and sustainable enterprise. Miguel Reynolds Brandao

So imagine that fans of our products or services no longer simply consume and use them. Now we are creating a new opportunity for them to both participate directly in the development of the products but also benefit from a share of the profits too. Miguel Reynolds Brandao

I see entrepreneurship, like many other activities, as a type of mission. A mission by which we can provide better life chances and quality for both our current and future generations. Miguel Reynolds Brandao

We need a new ethic of place, one that has room for salmon and skyscrapers, suburbs and wilderness, Mount Rainier and the Space Needle, one grounded in history. Matthew Klingle

We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls. Derrick Jensen

The more serious about gardening I became, the more dubious lawns seemed. The problem for me was not, as it was for my father, the relation to my neighbors that a lawn implied; it was the lawn’s relationship to nature. For however democratic a lawn may be with respect to one’s neighbors, with respect to nature it is authoritarian. Under the mower’s brutal indiscriminate rotor, the landscape is subdued, homogenized, dominated utterly. I became convinced that lawn care had about as much to do with gardening as floor waxing, or road paving. Gardening was a subtle process of give and take with the landscape, a search for some middle ground between culture and nature. A lawn was nature under culture’s boot. Mowing the lawn, I felt like I was battling the earth rather than working it; each week it sent forth a green army and each week I beat it back with my infernal machine. Unlike every other plant in my garden, the grasses were anonymous, massified, deprived of any change or development whatsoever, not to mention any semblance of self-determination. I ruled a totalitarian landscape. Hot monotonous hours behind the mower gave rise to existential speculations. I spent part of one afternoon trying to decide who, in the absurdist drama of lawn mowing, was Sisyphus. Me? A case could certainly be made. Or was it the grass, pushing up through the soil every week, one layer of cells at a time, only to be cut down and then, perversely, encouraged (with fertilizer, lime, etc.) to start the whole doomed process over again? Another day it occurred to me that time as we know it doesn’t exist in the lawn, since grass never dies or is allowed to flower and set seed. Lawns are nature purged of sex and death. No wonder Americans like them so much. . Michael Pollan

Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know: the earth does not belong to man - man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood that unites one's family. All things are connected. Chief Seattle (Sealth)

Deep inside, we still have a longing to be reconnected with the nature that shaped our imagination Janine Benyus

Everyone has the power to make a difference, to themselves and others, and to our world. Yasmin Davar

Weapons never stay in their boxes. Once a weapon has been manufactured, sooner or later someone will use it. If it were possible to bring about true and lasting peace by force of arms, then we should turn all our factories into weapons factories. But that is impossible. Even though it is difficult to try to bring about peace through inner transformation, it is the only way of establishing sustainable peace in the world. Dalai Lama Xiv

Our entire system, in an economic sense, is based on restriction. Scarcity and inefficiency are the movers of money; the more there is of any resource the less you can charge for it. The more problems there are, the more opportunities there are to make money. This reality is a social disease, for people can actually gain off the misery of others and the destruction of the environment. Efficiency, abundance and sustainability are enemies of our economic structure, for they are inverse to the mechanics required to perpetuate consumption. This is profoundly critical to understand, for once you put this together you begin to see that the one billion people currently starving on this planet, the endless slums of the poor and all the horrors of a culture due to poverty and pravity are not natural phenomenon due to some natural human order or lack of earthly resources. They are products of the creation, perpetuation and preservation of artificial scarcity and inefficiency. . Peter Joseph

Caterpillars chew their way through ecosystems leaving a path of destruction as they get fatter and fatter. When they finally fall asleep and a chrysalis forms around them, tiny new imaginal cells, as biologists call them, begin to take form within their bodies. The caterpillar’s immune system fights these new cells as though they were foreign intruders, and only when they crop up in greater numbers and link themselves together are they strong enough to survive. Then the caterpillar’s immune system fails and its body dissolves into a nutritive soup which the new cells recycle into their developing butterfly. The caterpillar is a necessary stage but becomes unsustainable once its job is done. There is no point in being angry with it and there is no need to worry about defeating it. The task is to focus on building the butterfly, the success of which depends on powerful positive and creative efforts in all aspects of society and alliances built among those engaged in them. . Elisabet Sahtouris

We don't think a sustainable society need be stagnant, boring, uniform, or rigid. It need not be, and probably could not be, centrally controlled or authoritarian. It could be a world that has the time, the resources, and the will to correct its mistakes, to innovate, to preserve the fertility of its planetary ecosystems. It could focus on mindfully increasing quality of life rather than on mindlessly expanding material consumption and the physical capital stock. . Donella H. Meadows

...a woman smart and persistent enough that even a PhD in psychology hasn't clouded her insight into how people think and act. Derrick Jensen

The choice is ours to make whether the stars in the night sky shine upon us as headlights of an approaching paradise or as tail-lights of receding fortunes Agona Apell

Kids born today will see us navigate past the first greatest test of humanity, which is: can we actually be smart enough to live on a planet without destroying it? Alex Steffen

We're experiencing the genesis of a community where it does not matter where your roots lie, but what you believe in. We will continue to create an inclusive and sustainable spirit, spreading the word from coast to mountaintop. Akilnathan Logeswaran

No matter how big a company is, one has to always look at business basics. Tarun Sharma

For organisations to become truly sustainable we believe it is essential to create a new organisation model: a more cooperative leader, a new way for people to cooperate inside the organisation and a new way for organisations to be measured by society. Miguel Reynolds Brandao

Inaction is no longer acceptable. Eric Lowitt

If left unexecuted, even the greatest competitive strategies are not worth the paper on which they were written. Eric Lowitt

We need to defend the interests of those whom we've never met and never will. Jeffrey D. Sachs

Limitless material growth is not sustainable or moral. Bryant McGill

Sustainability is a new idea to many people, and many find it hard to understand. But all over the world there are people who have entered into the exercise of imagining and bringing into being a sustainable world. They see it as a world to move toward not reluctantly, but joyfully, not with a sense of sacrifice, but a sense of adventure. A sustainable world could be very much better than the one we live in today. . Donella H. Meadows

The pressure of adversity is the most powerful sustainer of accountability. It's as though everything you do is multiplied by 50 in order to surpass those with a head-start. I was never capable of slacking when at the threshold of failure. Criss Jami

The focus of innovations and investments need to shift from slogging innovations like phone and, drone type innovations to solve real problems that are killing the inhabitants of the planet. Saurabh Gupta Earth5R

To reverse the effects of civilization would destroy the dreams of a lot of people. There's no way around it. We can talk all we want about sustainability, but there's a sense in which it doesn't matter that these people's dreams are based on, embedded in, intertwined with, and formed by an inherently destructive economic and social system. Their dreams are still their dreams. What right do I -- or does anyone else -- have to destroy them. At the same time, what right do they have to destroy the world? . Derrick Jensen

Why does no one speak of the cultural advantages of the country? For example, is a well groomed, ecologically kept, sustainably fertile farm any less cultural, any less artful, than paintings of fat angels on church ceilings? Gene Logsdon

Sustainable change, after all, depends not upon compliance with external mandates or blind adherence to regulation, but rather upon the pursuit of the greater good. Douglas B. Reeves

Gardening and making your own soap and home-birthing your babies are fine, but these are inherently limited actions. If we want to see genuine food safety, if we want to see sustainable products, if we want to see a better women's health system, and if we want these things for everyone, not just the privileged few with the time and education to DIY it, then we need large social changes. Emily Matchar

Can we actually suppose that we are wasting, polluting, and making ugly this beautiful land for the sake of patriotism and the love of God? Perhaps some of us would like to think so, but in fact this destruction is taking place because we have allowed ourselves to believe, and to live, a mated pair of economic lies: that nothing has a value that is not assigned to it by the market; and that the economic life of our communities can safely be handed over to the great corporations. (from 'Compromise, Hell! ' published in the November/December 2004 issue of ORION magazine) . Wendell Berry

If we are going to start calling industrial corn sustainable, then we might as well say that petroleum is a renewable resource if you're willing to wait long enough. Catherine Friend

Until there is a reversal of the sense of values which cares more for size and appearance than for quality, there will be no solving the problem of food pollution. Masanobu Fukuoka

I'm not one of those academics that don't do shit but reads about it. The difference is, I do shit. I have a proof of concept and it works. Ron Finley

The greatest lesson came with the realization that good food cannot be reduced to single ingredients. It requires a web of relationships to support it. Dan Barber

Love foods that sustain and protect you, and love you back. Bryant McGill

Sustainability is best illustrated by those who sell food … just so they afford something to eat. Mokokoma Mokhonoana

.. ..how and what we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world--and what is to become of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life afford quite as much satisfaction. Michael Pollan

Social entrepreneurship represents the opportunity to redefine the role of government. Robert Hacker

Monitor, transparently, and enforce the separation of Democracy powers: Legislative; Executive; Judicial Miguel Reynolds Brandao

While the word charity connotes a single act of giving, justice speaks to right living, of aligning oneself with the world in a way that sustains rather than exploits the rest of creation. Rachel Held Evans

When we use these words and we talk about plants having a strategy to do this or wanting this or desiring this, we’re being metaphorical obviously. I mean, plants do not have consciousness. But, this is a fault of our own vocabulary. We don’t have a very good vocabulary to describe what others species do to us, because we think we’re the only species that really does anything. Michael Pollan

What is the point of "labor saving" if by making work effortless we make it poor, and if by doing poor work we weaken our bodies and lose conviviality and health? (Health is Membership, pg. 93) Wendell Berry

Alas, our technology has marched ahead of our spiritual and social evolution, making us, frankly, a dangerous people. Steven M. Greer

When we flood our creative problem-solving mind with the endorphins of gratitude, we are open to receiving the spectacular solutions that are needed now to ensure that generations to come will enjoy this beautiful blue ball that we call home. Natalie Pace

These steel monstrosities screamed night and day, blotted out the starlit skies and Northern Lights with flashing red strobes, slaughtered thousands of bats and entire flocks of birds banished tourism and wildlife, made people sick and drove them from their now-valueless homes. Mike Bond

A photograph of a disposable diaper floating in the arctic miles away from human habitat fueled my daily determination to save at least one disposable diaper from being used and created. One cloth diaper after another, days accumulated into years and now our next child is using the cloth diapers we bought for our firstborn. Gloria Ng

Western civilization is a loaded gun pointed at the head of this planet. Terence McKenna

We're reaching the point where the Earth will have to end the burden we've placed on her, if we don't lift the burden ourselves. Steven M. Greer

Monoculture is mono for the earth. Khang Kijarro Nguyen

The aquatic environment must be safeguarded by men. God created mankind to care for the environment and all the living resources. Lailah Gifty Akita

Feeling at home anywhere on earth, and a foreigner even in the country where I was born, I consider myself an earthling, a citizen of the world. I love nature dearly and all creatures that contribute to make it what it is. I see the beauty in all expressions of life, and I see how blind so many of us still are. Our planet is remarkably abundant and there's more than enough for us all. It is greed and shortsightedness that create the illusion of scarcity. I have lived through tremendous adventures and survived only because other people risked their lives for me. Realising how interconnected and interdependent we all are, I am neither shy or embarrassed when it is time for me lean on another to ask for help. And when I have the opportunity to help another, I view it as my duty and privilege. Yossi Ghinsberg

We are such spendthrifts with our lives, the trick of living is to slip on and off the planet with the least fuss you can muster. I’m not running for sainthood. I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer, who puts back into the soil what he takes out. Unknown

Another principle that I believe can be justified by scientific evidence so far is that nobody is going to emigrate from this planet not ever.. It will be far cheaper, and entail no risk to human life, to explore space with robots. The technology is already well along..the real thrill will be in learning in detail what is out there.. It is an especially dangerous delusion if we see emigration into space as a solution to be taken when we have used up this planet.. Earth, by the twenty-second century, can be turned, if we so wish, into a permanent paradise for human beings.. Edward O. Wilson

Ban privileges. The rules of the game should be the same to all players, regardless of their size, location, or any other criteria Miguel Reynolds Brandao

It shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to figure out what's cruel and what's kind, what's environmentally destructive and what's sustainable. Cruel and destructive food products should be illegal. We don't need the option of buying children's toys made with lead paint, or aerosols with chlorofluorocarbons, or medicines with unlabeled side effects. And we don't need the option of buying factory-farmed animals. . Jonathan Safran Foer

Markets cannot meet the needs of the very poor. The desperately poor are not consumers who will create an immediate profit. Jeffrey D. Sachs

Make no mistake. The greatest destroyer of ecology. The greatest source of waste, depletion and pollution. The greatest purveyor of violence, war, crime, poverty, animal abuse and inhumanity. The greatest generator of personal and social neurosis, mental disorders, depression, anxiety. Not to mention the greatest source of social paralysis, stopping us from moving into new methodologies for personal health, global sustainability and progress on this planet, is not some corrupt government or legislation. Not some rogue corporation or banking cartel. Not some flaw of human nature and not some secret cabal that controls the world. It is the socioeconomic system itself at its very foundation. Peter Joseph

Of course, chaos can lead to failure and extinction. But so can order. Far more nations, people, and ideas die of atrophy than die from revolution. Both order and chaos are necessary ingredients for long run success - for sustainability. John Ikerd

OURSOCIETY ISCONTROLLED BY LAWYERSAND FINANCIERS"PROBLEMMAKERS WE NEED TO EVOMETO A SOCIETY LEAD BYCREATORS, ENGINEERS, SCIENTISTS PROBLEMSOLVERS. SURELY WE WILLHAVE MORE INGENUITYCOOPERATION ANDPEACE Miguel Reynolds Brandao

CEOs should be measured by the value they create into the community, the shareholders and the members of the company. Miguel Reynolds Brandao

Ban short-selling, high speed trading and all other instruments of pure speculation Miguel Reynolds Brandao

This heated (environmental) debate is fundamentally about numbers. How much energy could each source deliver, at what economic and social cost, and with what risks? But actual numbers are rarely mentioned. In public debates, people just say “Nuclear is a money pit” or “We have a huge amount of wave and wind.” The trouble with this sort of language is that it’s not sufficient to know that something is huge: we need to know how the one “huge” compares with another “huge, ” namely our huge energy consumption. To make this comparison, we need numbers, not adjectives. . David Mackay

Often I'll go outside and just place my hands on the soil, even if there's no work to do on it. When I am filled with worries, I do that and I can feel the energy of the mountains and of the trees. Andy Couturier

Time is what we have in this life, and how we use it determines what our life is. Andy Couturier

My goal is to draw a line with some 'flavor' to it. Andy Couturier

I think all people want freedom, but they've got this idea inserted into their head about money. Andy Couturier

I finally understood that I couldn’t avoid working to provide for myself, but that can also be a wonderfulthing, a beautiful thing. Andy Couturier

Sometimes just to touch the ground is enough for me, even if not a single thing grows from what I plant. Andy Couturier

Why is it that so many people start to value money so much that they trade in most of the hours and years of their life in order to get it? Andy Couturier

They have taken the idea of nonharming, of gentleness toward the earth, to a very radical level. Even the weeds are not enemies. Andy Couturier

What art should do, I think, is advance the generation into the next era. It should be one step ahead of the ordinary, ahead of what is already known. Art is what pulls on the next age. I’m not saying that my art is that, but that it would be good if it could be. Andy Couturier

I thought I should make a place to bring light down into this world. All things that become realities start in that place of someone imagining them. Andy Couturier

People 'over-produce' pollution because they are not paying for the costs of dealing with it. HaJoon Chang

If you can't reuse or repair an item, do you ever really own it? Do you ever really own it? Do you ever develop the sense of pride and proprietorship that comes from maintaining an object in fine working order? We invest something of ourselves in our material world, which in turn reflects who we are. In the era of disposability that plastic has helped us foster, we have increasingly invested ourselves in objects that have no real meaning in our lives. We think of disposable lighters as conveniences -- which they indisputably are; ask any smoker or backyard-barbecue chef -- and yet we don't think much about the tradeoffs that that convenience entails. Susan Freinkel

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before. Robert Lynd

The idea of unlimited growth... needs to be seriously questioned on at least two counts: the availability of basic resources and... the capacity of the environment to cope with the degree of interference implied. - E.F. Schumacher Wayne Ellwood

Nature is inexhaustibly sustainable if we care for it. It is our universal responsibility to pass a healthy earth onto future generations. Sylvia Dolson

You maybe able to fool the voters, but not the atmosphere. Donella H. Meadows

Banks should actively encourage companies that are doing a good job on environmental and social fronts. Banking for community development is the banking of future. Saurabh Gupta Earth5R

The New Economy brings the need to tap people’s curiosity, quest for knowledge and understanding, in order to develop a sustainable society. Miguel Reynolds Brandao

Taking measures to ensure stability could assure the long-term economic growth and welfare at a global level Miguel Reynolds Brandao

Glorify Sustainable Organisations since they benefit all society Miguel Reynolds Brandao

What is now called 'green architecture' is an opportunistic caricature of a much deeper consideration of the issues related to sustainability that architecture has been engaged with for many years. It was one of the first professions that was deeply concerned with these issues and that had an intellectual response to them. Rem Koolhaas

It's shocking to think about how little the travel industry cares about sustainability - and it's the basis of their business! Jochen Zeitz

Sustainability is the key to our survival on this planet and will also determine success on all levels. Shari Arison

Sustainability goes across everything I do with Adidas and everything I do with my own house, so the Olympic kit is no exception. It is incredibly environmental in the way that it is manufactured. For example, there's no leather; it's free from PVC. There's lots of woven materials, which means a lot less waste. Stella McCartney