Article

Thinking about sustainability

Looking around in the Netherlands it is easy to become really pessimistic, we don't separate our waste properly, buildings are consuming way too much energy, we shower too long, eat too much meat and on top of it all we pay way too little for those actions.

As someone who has a habit of always looking at thinks from multiple perspectives, regularly pissing off friends who try to complain, sustainability can keep me really occupied. Though everyone agrees on the nescessity of a more sustainable exploitation of our planet most solutions are easily contradicted. Either because of the costs or due to another argument proving how a part of this new solution is worse than the old one. In the mean time, hardly anything seems to happen.

Luckily, that's where I think the positive part is: take care of the pence, the pounds will take care of themselves ("alle beetjes helpen") is my motto here. Off course we won't be able to solve all our problems within a day! But sustainability is gaining more and more attention, every big company has to mention it on their website, (preferably in combination with a sign showing a green check mark), it is incorporated in almost every course at our university and on a household level: 2,5 million Dutch inhabitants recently recieved a check from the Postcode Lotery stimulating them to buy sustainable groceries.

Though there is a large pathway to be taken, the first steps are clearly visible in our society. And though we will always be forced to look at our behaviour critically, we recently learned how energy saving light bulbs might have been a step back, I think we all find some satisfaction in helping our planet leading us to the right decisions. Therefore I try to look at it from a positive side: we can all be proud to participate in this transition, even if it's only by being a little bit better every day!