Joel Makower raises an issue I’ve tackled before – how do we come up with a term to describe the goal of protecting life and the planet? http://bit.ly/cdgrTA
Extension on my comment to him:
“Green” is too focused on environmental issues and not on the overall well being of people and societies. It also encourages fad-a-day to look green. I spent too many years fighting marketers wanting to make environmental claims on this puffy term with no technical definition and ease of being misleading to support it’s use comfortably.
“Sustainable” Is a world where nothing changes really what we want to have? I’ve blogged about making it a verb – “sustainably” – where whatever we do is done with avoiding adverse consequences in mind. But the biggest problem is that it’s like a fortune you can read into whatever you want.
“TBL” – business jargon
I like 2Rs: Responsibility and Resilience
“Responsibility” – yes, the Golden Rule that should apply to every organization and every individual. It's an ethic that seems to have been lost across the board in today's society.
"Resilience" - "Resilience is the capacity of a system to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of unforeseen changes, even catastrophic incidents." see http://bit.ly/bb2StQ First, we have to recognize that we are all parts of multiple systems - geographic, social, economic, etc. What we do affects others - short term and long term. Second, change is going to happen no matter what. We have to be aware and capable of adapting and/or changing direction quickly. Life cycle thinking has to become "common sense."
More: http://lcthinking.wordpress.com/category/sustainability/