By Angie Cormican
Intern, Center for a Sustainable Future at IU South Bend
In personal reflection, and when speaking with peers about their introduction to sustainability and experiences, there is an overwhelmingly shared sense: emotion that motivates and promotes positive change. Learning about sustainability is like undergoing a 12 step recovery program for addiction…we are addicted to unsavory food, we are addicted to individualism, we are addicted to consumerism, we are addicted to a lifestyle that has been marketed to us.
These addictions have grave and destructive consequences for not only one’s self but all citizens, institutions, and natural cycles. Recovery from destructive patterns will help to solve ailments of the human condition and assist in the preservation and regeneration of Earth’s limited resources.
To begin the road to recovery, I offer the following 12 steps towards paving a more sustainable future:
1. We admit that we have an Earth problem and a people problem that has become unmanageable and unsustainable.
2. We educate ourselves and come to understand that we can help to solve or reduce these strains and burdens.
3. We decide to become more engaged and active with the Earth and its inhabitants.
4. We assess our individual daily actions and behaviors that are limiting the opportunity for sustainability.
5. We are honest with ourselves about our destructive patterns and admit and share them with others.
6. We commit ourselves to altering our identified destructive patterns.
7. We ask for help to increase a support network that will lead to positive change.
8. We re-envision our lifestyle based on accumulated education and network support.
9. We slowly begin to change our daily actions and replace destructive, unsustainable patterns.
10. We assess the lifestyle changes we have made through tangible measurements.
11. We self-correct and grow a deeper understanding of the Earth problem and people problem.
12. We continue to educate ourselves, grow our support network, and share our results with others.
I believe to pave a more sustainable path we need to start getting more emotional, more personal, and more honest. Admitting and accounting for our addictions will lead to a more pro-active approach to solving the Earth and people problem. We are taught to be individuals, but have proven to be followers. Let’s begin RECOVERY and follow the new path toward a more sustainable future.
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