Finding creative ways to make sustainability comprehensible is a fun task. Ultimately, many words can be used to describe sustainability. This ABC of sustainability focuses on words that aim to uplift our outlook on life paired with a pinch of social and environmental responsibility.
The ABC of sustainability shows my view of the world, hence treat it as a source of inspiration. Your list might look different depending on your knowledge, beliefs and values. Most importantly, using the simple set of 26 letters to describe a better future is a positive experience. It puts matters into perspective depending on which lens you see the world.
Related:
The Power of Words: Why We Should Change The Way We Talk About Sustainability
All definitions come from the Oxford English Dictionary Google results to make the ABC of sustainability easier to understand.
Awareness
Knowledge or perception of a situation or fact.
Concern about and well-informed interest in a particular situation or development.
Importance: Without awareness, there is little motivation for action and action from every one of us is what we need right now. Being aware of our inner self and surroundings helps us gain insights into our beliefs. Hence, it is needed to create any sort of change because if we are not aware that something needs to be changed, we are less likely to initiate change.
Biodiversity
The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable.
Importance: Biodiversity is essential for all life-supporting processes on our beautiful Earth. Healthy ecosystems depend on a variety of animals, plants and microorganisms. Without prosperous biodiversity, our lives would look very grim as it ensures our health, and food security, fights diseases, provides livelihoods, protects us and so much more.
Culture
The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement are regarded collectively.
The ideas, customs, and social behaviour of particular people or society.
Importance: Culture provides social benefits such as improved learning and health, enhanced quality of life and improved communication. Human life experience is shaped by culture through knowledge, language, values, norms, customs and traditions. Culture reflects a community or nation, it creates a feeling of solidarity.
Degrowth
Part of a movement to reframe how we think about growth and development.*
*Degrowth is not registered in the dictionary yet.
Importance: Industrial economies place an immense burden on the Earth’s ecosystems. Degrowth aims at putting policies into place which support less energy and resource use while simultaneously improving well-being over profit.
Empathy
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
Importance: Empathy helps us to respond appropriately by understanding others’ feelings in a particular situation. It is part of social behaviour where we can truly understand what others are going through and connect on a deeper level with them.
Footprint
The impression left by a foot or shoe on the ground or surface.
The area occupied or affected by something.
Importance: There are different footprints: Ecological/Resource/Water/Carbon Footprint. It is a simple metric to make our (individual) impact on Earth easier to understand. Accordingly, it measures humanity’s demand on the planet’s ecosystems, but it also helps to understand the interconnectedness of our lifestyles with the state of the Earth’s ecosystems. It is sort of human’s demand on nature.
Global
Relating to the whole world; worldwide.
Relating to or encompassing the whole of something, or of a group of things.
Importance: We live in an interconnected world where we can make a decision in one place and it has an effect on the other side. Another related term is globalisation which affects how nations, businesses and people interact. Many issues arise with global practices due to taking advantage of low labour costs, outsourcing, free trade, and intransparent international supply chains.
Holistic
Characterised by the belief that the parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.
Importance: A holistic system approach is essential to address the magnitude of challenges in our world. It enables us to look at a problem as a whole, which means taking every part of a system into account to find the best solutions to occurring problems. The integration and relationships of the different parts within a system support our understanding of room for improvement.
Impact
The action of one object coming forcibly into contact with one another.
A marked effect or influence.
Have a strong effect on someone or something.
Importance: Impact has become an integral part of conversations about sustainability. It is about how to implement change to achieve desirable results – the impact. Additionally, it is looking for long-term solutions which sustain the benefits of the intervention of change. Making an impact can become a personal choice.
Justice
Just behaviour or treatment.
Importance: Arbitrary and irrelevant characteristics lead to treating individuals unequally and exploitatively. Justice is a central part of ethics – promoting fairness and equity – and in sustainability conversations, we come across the term climate justice. Climate Justice refers to the impacts of capitalist expansion and consumerism and how differently it affects the rich and the poor.
Kindness
The quality of being friendly, generous and considerate.
A kind act.
Importance: Our world would be a happier place if we were kinder with each other. Optimism, happiness and confidence come from acts of kindness. It comes as no surprise that people demand more kindness to improve well-being and health. Kindness is a simple gesture which can make a huge difference.
Livability
The degree to which a place is suitable or good for living in.
Importance: No one wants to live a miserable life, but there is an immense discrepancy in the quality of life, well-being and access to life-enhancing services due to unequal distribution of resources, geographic location and political agendas. Livable areas improve public health, affect communities positively and enhance overall well-being.
Mitigation
The action of reducing the severity, seriousness, or painfulness of something (bad).
Importance: Mitigation is a topic we do not pay enough attention to. The global challenges are massive and some of them are (probably) irreversible. Mitigation aims to reduce the potential risks, damages and suffering from disasters. Mitigation is similar to prevention but addresses the consequences of not-prevented phenomena.
Nature
The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape and other features and products on the Earth, as opposed to humans or human creations.
Importance: Would it not be great if there was something that would solve all our crises? We depend on the creations of nature like forests, rivers, lakes, oceans and soils to sustain ourselves with food, air and water. Equally, our well-being is inherently linked to the well-being of natural systems. Unfortunately, they are far from well.
Opportunities
A time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.
A chance.
Importance: Goals are a motivational factor for action and we learned that we need action to create change. Opportunities help us achieve goals faster and are a chance to take advantage of a situation. They help us expand into new areas plus get better at something.
Prosperity
Condition of being successful or thriving.
Importance: To live a meaningful life, we need enablers to build the present and future we want. Prosperity enables us to pursue opportunities, lead thriving lives and spend our time valuable to our desires. However, prosperity is more than a number in your bank account, it is something to look forward to beyond financial status: It is a future worth looking forward to.
Quality (of life)
The standard of health, comfort and happiness experienced by an individual or group.
Importance: Our quality of life depends heavily on the natural as well as social environment. It embodies overall well-being and happiness enabled through access to education, work opportunities, security and mental and physical health.
Regeneration
The action or process of regenerating or being regenerated.
The formation of new animal or plant tissue.
Importance: Our natural environment is in a dire situation. Increasingly, it is losing its ability for its natural processes to replace or restore damaged parts of plants and animals. Living systems depend on this process, but if it is damaged they cannot naturally regenerate themselves. Natural habitats are disappearing, leaving us with unimaginable consequences.
Systems
A set of things working together as parts of mechanisms or an interconnecting network; a whole complex.
A set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organised scheme or method.
Importance: Understanding systems enables us to look behind the curtain. Life is not linear, the natural world is circular, but humans built exclusively linear processes. In a system are different parts with different functionalities which depend on each other.
Transparency
The condition of transparency.
Importance: Transparency supports sharing crucial information and ideas to get a new perspective, new opinions and better processes. It increases efficiency and helps to identify problematic practices easier.
Unify
Make or become united, uniform or whole.
Importance: One planet, many challenges. There are times when individual action cannot move the mountains needed to be moved. Unifying our global efforts to tackle the world’s crises is needed. Remember: We are all in this together.
Viability
Ability to survive or live successfully.
Importance: Similar to resilience, viability enables our long-term survival. Considering that we cannot be sure about the effects of all-encompassing environmental destruction, difficult times are ahead or we might be already in the eye of the tornado.
Well-Being
The state of being comfortable, healthy or happy.
Importance: Good living conditions are fundamental for our well-being. It is not only the environment that impacts our well-being positively, but we are also responsible for our well-being and that of others. More importantly, we live in times where we have to understand that we need to take care of nature so that she can take care of us – for her and our well-being.
eXplore
Travel through (an unfamiliar area) in order to learn about it.
Inquire into or discuss (a subject) in detail.
Importance: We need a sense that anything is possible. Exploring our opportunities leads to knowledge and understanding of how to make our world a better place. Humankind is driven by exploration which shapes our world. The less we explore, the less we get a chance to improve life on Earth.
Youth
The period between childhood and adult age.
Importance: Anything we do determines the future for those who come after us. The youth is the backbone of every nation which needs to be encouraged and empowered to renew, refresh and maintain humankind’s pathway. The youth can only become a positive force if it doesn’t have to pay for the mistakes of older generations.
Zero
No quantity or number; nought; the figure 0.
Importance: Achieving zero status equals the balance of human impact on the natural systems. In other words, humans become part of the natural environment by living within the means of the planetary boundaries.
ABC of sustainability: Now it is your turn
Everyone can make a personalised ABC of sustainability. You are more than welcome to create your own ABC of sustainability. However, if there are any other words you find important but not covered in this ABC of sustainability, let us know in the comments.
Moreover, we should not underestimate the power of words. One simple word can change the trajectories of the world. Also important is the way we speak about sustainability. Therefore, I created a Sustainability Wordlist for you which will be delivered right into your email inbox for free (!) when you subscribe to the Reimagine Sustainability Newsletter.
Finally, let us make sustainability easy-peasy to understand with the ABCs of sustainability!
I love this so much! It is so important to know the ABCs of sustainability. This can help when you are just starting out on your sustainability journey. Thanks for sharing!