It’s been just over a month since I came to live in Auckland, New Zealand and I have slowly immersed myself in the culture of sustainability in its most everyday form, through actions that each inhabitant of this beautiful country carries out daily. Let us remember that the UN concept of sustainability since 1987 refers to: “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This definition of caring for our descendants has been the worldview of the Maori people for more than 400 years.
While in the West the system promotes excessive consumerism, focused on waste as a status symbol, here it is about using, enjoying, eating, dressing, building, etc., only what you need, –YOU NEED-, in bold and with capital letters, because you are not eternal. After you, other people must have access to the same thing and maintaining it, caring for it and regenerating it is your responsibility.
We could romanticize this way of living, returning to that common statement of “it’s easier there because…” And question all the advantages of the first world in comparison to developing countries. But what I see is simply non-profit organizations, schools, academia, companies from all types of industries and services, government and citizens, aligned with the same objective: “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
But it is not greenwashing. New Zealanders understand sustainability from an early age. For example, in each school, children have creativity challenges using materials such as pets, clothing, items that they will no longer use in the way they were created, to do something different with them. In each space where garbage is placed, people can leave furniture, clothing, pet or household items that they no longer need and whoever requires it can take it and take it home. It’s not considered trash and there’s no shame in giving something a second, third, fourth, or ninetieth chance. In universities, every student of any major has the subject of sustainability as part of the common core. And it goes a little further: A fisherman cannot simply monopolize the quantity of fish to sell. He has a limit to the amount of fish he can take from the sea, because the sea is not his, it is everyone’s.
So how can we do things differently? Working towards true sustainability means putting aside the archaic habit of “helping yourself with a big spoon”, in addition to appealing to a regenerative way of doing things (if I take two trees to build a piece of furniture, I am obliged to plant two trees). . Without a doubt, tax incentives and a true commitment from companies to generate a real impact are required, translated into actions, not just in annual ESG reports with made-up figures. Sustainability is very profitable, as it pushes organizations to be in constant innovation to provide greater value to their products or services.
Editor’s note: This text belongs to our Opinion section and reflects only the author’s view, not necessarily the point of view of High Level.
MORE NEWS:
Marcela Palafox Marcela Palafox is a professional with more than 16 years of experience in philanthropy, activism, fundraising, sustainability and alliances with CSOs, academia, government and companies. The projects she leads have a focus on Human Rights, gender perspective and childhood.