There are many ways to define sustainability. The most lyrical definition I’ve come across is from Charles Dickens:
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery” (David Copperfield, 1849).
Dickens never used the term “sustainability” but he grasped the concept perfectly. While his words are just about one person’s modest budget he is also speaking to the reality of any system of any size: if you use more (of anything) than you have access to, you will eventually run out. If you use less than you have access to, you will always have enough. What else do we need to know to live sustainably?
Welcome to the inaugural post of the First Third Blog. The unifying feature of these posts is focused yet covers a lot of territory: “Work, social justice, and the human side of sustainability”. In upcoming posts I’ll write about the future of work, the lessons of the moose and wolves, the myth of “work-life balance”, Twitter in the workplace (and why you’d better pay attention), my “intersecting planes” theory of career planning, why the GDP is a faulty construct (and a better way to view economic growth), and lots more!
I hope that this forum will provoke your thinking and stimulate a lot of discussion – your comments are always welcome. In fact, if you would like to contribute a post of your own, let me know.
