WHAT'S IN A WORD? — "Sustainability" is a broad term that both serves to encompass the vast range of things we know we need to do differently — and functions as a great marketing buzzword. We've been asking our interview subjects all year how they define it. The responses are more uniform than we expected; Exxon Mobil, for example, uses the exact same definition as the U.N., it turns out. Most say it's about preserving resources for the future; the disagreements are over the pace, the technology and the profit margins. Here are some of the most thought-provoking answers: These responses have been edited and condensed for clarity. Dave Andrew, Exxon Mobil's VP of new market development: It’s meeting the needs of the current generation, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It’s a dual challenge. Society wants to grow, people want to do better, people want their kids to do better. That requires innovation and materials and energy and we need to supply all of that as efficiently as we can. At the same time, we can’t be compromising our children’s ability to meet their needs. We have to protect the environment, we need to conserve resources. We need new ways of producing energy to lower emissions. It’s that balance — making life possible while making sure our children’s lives are more prosperous than our own. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown: It's very important to figure out how to describe the way we have to live in order to have a better future. And sustainability is the idea that we're not going to make anything worse. As a matter of fact, not to make it worse, we have to make it a lot better. So if we don't want to make it worse, we've got to cut off 40 to 50 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year. So that's a lot of action, just to prevent it getting worse. Shannon Thomas Carroll, AT&T's head of global environmental sustainability: I think in the simplest terms, it’s when you’re looking at your environmental, social and economic impacts and how those things intersect. In the corporate world, there’s obviously no lack of resources looking at the economics, so it’s really important for groups like ours that have sustainability professionals within their corporations to really focus in on the social and environmental. Eloisa Lewis, founder, New Climate Culture: Longevity. I want to have really old trees, like thousands-and-thousands-of-years-old trees. I want to have really old water systems that are going to last for seven and 14 generations. Maybe we've been changing too fast, is the problem. We've gotten too excited and we're all in this beautiful virtual space. If we're in our own version of the Sims or whatever, this is really horrible. I can imagine better. Public spaces that serve the public, instead of just entertain them. Emily Ma, head, Google's Food for Good : For me, it means that the generation not born yet, 100 years from now, can enjoy a quality of life that is comparable to what I can today. Someone made a choice 80 years ago that made it possible for me to be here today. And it's my responsibility to make decisions today to make sure that somebody 80 years from now can also be where they are at. I owe it to an incredible, courageous woman who was going to be politically persecuted for what she did, if anyone ever found out, for helping my father survive. That made it possible for me to be here today. So sustainability is what can we do to ensure that 80, 100 years from now, those folks have a chance. Jigar Shah, DOE Loan Programs Office director: For me, sustainability has always been figuring out how we live within the natural limits of our planet. As we grow population, use more energy to live a modern lifestyle, bring people out of poverty, we still have to stay within the physical limits of our planet. And so a lot of that is through technology; inventing new technology that has a much lower ecological footprint and it's just doing a lot of what we do today more efficiently. Tom Stricker, Toyota's VP of sustainability and regulatory affairs: For Toyota, sustainability is about meeting the needs of our customers today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Sustainability also means leaving no one behind — regardless of income or social status — when it comes to offering products and services that help address societal challenges and leave a positive net impact on the environment. Darren Walker, Ford Foundation president: History has taught us time and again that inequality and imbalance are not sustainable. Sustainability means building and maintaining a world in which everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential: where people, profit, and the environment are not at odds with each other, but are in balance with one another. Bill Weihl, founder, ClimateVoice: Sustainability, broadly, is taken to mean operating in a way that preserves the ability of future generations to thrive. Fifty years ago, we didn’t realize, or most of us didn’t, that carbon emissions were such a problem. But we know now, and have for several decades. But the framing of corporate sustainability — by companies, by business schools, and by many NGOs — is focused on what each company can do. How can company X be more sustainable? Sometimes, that’s enough. For climate, it’s clearly not.
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