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The
Sustainable Living Project at OSU
Viviane Simon-Brown
Abstract
The Sustainable Living Project at OSU is designed to help mainstream adults
and older youth make environmentally-responsible consumer decisions. Its mission
is to reduce environmental degradation and improve quality of life in the Pacific
Northwest by fostering new consumption patterns and promoting sustainable lifestyles.
The program takes a thoughtful approach to balancing economic, cultural and
environmental needs.
Key Words: Environmental education, sustainable
development, sustainable living, voluntary simplicity.
Overview
What's sustainable living? A life that is deeply satisfying, fulfilling and
appealing, and at the same time, environmentally responsible.
In January 1998, the Sustainable Living Project quietly began at Oregon State
University. Since its inception, over 5,500 people have participated in workshops
and presentations. Since 1999, over 122,000 people have browsed our website.
In 2001, Cooperative Extension Service selected the project as a Natural Resource
Environmental Management (NREM) Flagship Program for Oregon.
This program offers opportunities for mainstream adults and older youth to
thoughtfully and consciously examine the cultural, economic and environmental
aspects of our American lifestyle values. We provide research-based educational
information on a variety of traditional Extension topics, such as energy usage,
financial management, healthy foods and gardening. We also offer a safe intellectual
environment for thoughtful dialog about quality of life issues. And, we act
as conduits to other programs, such as Earth Ministry in churches, voluntary
simplicity classes and simplicity circles for individuals, and EcoTeams for
neighborhood groups.
Oregon State University has a long tradition of educating people to manage
natural resources. The Sustainable Living Project focuses on education to manage
ourselves. It creates an ethical base on which to support the concepts of sustainable
management of natural resources.
What Sustainable Living Is... and Isn't
To understand sustainable living, it helps to understand what it is not. First
of all, it is not about living in the woods, eating nuts and berries and wearing
tie-dye clothes! It's for mainstream adults and older youth; typical Americans
with two cars in their garage, one of which is a sport utility vehicle. It's
for people who hike, snowmobile, canoe, rollerblade and waterski. For people
with mortgages, and people who live in the city. It's for people with Costco
cards and who shop at malls. And for people who regularly drive up to fast
food windows.
Second, sustainable living is not about never ever
buying anything again. It is about making thoughtful
decisions, considering the impacts of our consumer
decisions, and finding alternatives. Answering "What was the last thing
you bought that you really didn't need? Why did you buy it?" helps workshop
participants begin to question the reasoning behind their purchasing. Round-table
conversations about what kinds of things people are willing to buy used, and
what would they never buy second-hand, lead to further discussions. One tool
we use is the Unshopping Card, designed to fit next to credit cards in a wallet.
Third, sustainable living is not competitive. Each participant comes to the
program with a different set of needs and values. Sustainable living is deeply
personal, based on individual definitions of quality of life. It's critically
important that the person directing the dialog be as value-neutral as possible.
Sustainable
living is not guilt-driven. It focuses not on what's been done in the past
but what will be done in the future. It combines practical research-based
information with intangibles such as lifestyle values and personal quality
of life. It's individually-driven.
And finally, sustainable living is not "gloom and doom." While
it's about taking positive steps at the individual
and family level, it's important
to consider the global context in which we live. Wackemagel and Rees in Our
Ecological Footprint state "It would require four Earths for everybody
on the planet to live the lifestyle of North Americans."
Threats to Global Sustainability
The United Nations Environment Programme has identified four primary threats
to global sustainability. The first is ozone depletion. This is being successfully
addressed; equilibrium is projected to be achieved within 20 years. The second,
the depletion of oceanic food sources, is attributed to the growing percentage
of PCBs. Global warming is the third, with COZ emissions, primarily from the
use of fossil fuels, identified as the major contributing factor. The fourth
global threat on the list is the halving of human sperm counts since 1950.
If the reduction continues, within two generations, fertilization will be compromised.
Why the Time Is Right: Trends and Transitions
Global, national and regional trends underscore the timeliness of an education
effort. According to the World Future Society, the following trends impact
sustainability. First, the likelihood of an energy related economic/environmental
crisis is increasing. The crash of the Asian economy is one example. A gasoline
crisis is predicted.
Second, sustainability is becoming a central concept in environmental management,
ecology, business and industry. And third, people are increasingly aware of
the linkages between personal behavior and environmental health, and industrial
behavior and global health.
We are in the midst of a meta-transition in America. Time and quality of life
are becoming relatively more important than money. Sixty-six percent of Americans
say they want more balance in their lives. Sixty percent want to simplify their
lives. The voluntary simplicity movement which approximately 35 to 40 million
Americans (or 16 percent of the American population) espouse, is moving from
the early adopter phase to the early majority phase. When car, banking and
soft drink companies exhort consumers to simplify their lives (by buying their
products), you know the concept is mainstream!
In
Oregon, sustainable living melds with Oregon values.
In the Oregon Business Council's 1993 survey of 1361
Oregonians, three qualities were most valued by residents:
Oregon's natural beauty, its environmental quality,
and its strong land use planning laws. Three of the
five Lead Oregon Benchmarks for Quality of Life-air
quality, affordable housing, urban mobility-are direct
and measurable sustainability issues.
Conclusion
Sustainable living: deeply satisfying, fulfilling, appealing, and environmentally
responsible.
The still, small voice whispering to me in the
depths of my consciousness is saying exactly the
same thing as the voice whispering to you:
I want an Earth that is healthy, a world at peace, and a heart filled with
love.
Eknath Easwaran, "The Lesson of the Hummingbird"
Literature Cited
1998-99 World Resources: A Guide to the Global Environment. 1998. A
Report by World Resources Institute, UNEP, UNDP, and The World Bank. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Easwaran, Eknath. 1989. The Compassionate Universe. Tomales, CA: Nilgiri
Press.
Oregon Business Council. 1993. Oregon Values and Beliefs. Salem.
Oregon Progress Board. 1993. Oregon Benchmarks: Standards for Measuring
Statewide Progress and Government Performance. Salem.
Outlook 99. The Futurist 32 (9) Dec 1998.
Schor, Juliet. 1998. The
Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer. New
York: Basic Books.
Wackemagel, Mathis, and William E. Rees. 1996. Our ecological footprint:
reducing human impact on the earth. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
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