Sustainability...What does it really mean?

Sustainability. That is the current buzzword of the day in the environmental world, as well as life in general these days. We all hear about creating a sustainable economy, a sustainable tax base, a sustainable energy supply. We even hear about sustainable development. But is anything really sustainable? Wikipedia defines sustainability as seeking "to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future". But is anything that the human race do really sustainable? In my view, the only way that humans can really be sustainable was during the hunting & gathering era which we grew out of eons ago. Lets face it, with our current population levels (which are growing rapidly), we will consume resources on this planet and make an impact.

However, we can make efforts that reduce our impact, minimize waste, and conserve resources as compared to the way we have been living. As a society, we can consiously make efforts to use less energy, drive less, conserve water, live in tighter quarters, etc. This is what I think we mean when we use the term "sustainable". It is simply a new word for conserving.

With this context in mind, I do believe in sustainable development, sustainable landscaping, and other measures as they relate to the built environment. To start with, I think there are things we can do to make our cities more energy efficient. Recently the mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper, touched on this with his "Greenprint Denver" initiatives outline during his recent "State of the City" address. In this initiative, for example, he calls for replacing some of the worn out city vehicles with hybrids. Another example is to use the methane generated from old landfills to generate electricity. Another idea that has been touted by others is to place Photoveltic systems on city buildings, primarily the Colorado Convention Center.

Another idea that he had was to plant a million new trees within the metro area over the next 20 years. Of course he did also address some of the issues of conserving water to water all those new trees, but he didn't go deep enough.

These are just some of my ideas, I would welcome more comments and thoughts from others!