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Sustainability Vs Actual Performance

Sustainability Vs Actual Performance

Quality, Consequences and the Construction Industrial Complex (part 279).

Some documentaries can really impact your thinking. For me, Seaspiracy is one of them and I urge you to watch it.

To quote Bill Blain, Seaspiracy is about greenwashing, it is about the “exposure of greenfoolery on a missive scale, waking us up to difference between what we think we know, and what we don’t”.

I realize there is zero chance of me becoming a vegetarian and I love sea food. However, following Seaspiracy I will be making much more informed choices and probably reducing my seafood intake by 90%.

Seaspiracy also helped me realize that most of the sustainability movement is about avoiding difficult issues and box ticking ESG nonsense. It is virtue signaling and a form of manufactured consent replete with badges, in-groups and misallocated money. Being part of the “sustainability movement” signals group inclusion and provides cover to do nothing as long as you are in the gang.

I am a full blooded capitalist who holds “wokeistan” in contempt and yet I care about the environment and the pursuit of performance. IMHO, these are not incompatible thoughts.

The real difference between showboating sustainability Vs real sustainability is definitions and measurement. Whenever you hear the words “sustainability”, “climate change”, “equity”, “green” and “net zero” without hard definitions plus metrics, you are being virtue signaled to. It is gaslighting, it is marketing.

Definitions with metrics followed by measurement, analysis and public reporting shows who is really performing.

In my dark moments I sometimes think the use of hard to define labels such as “sustainability”, “climate change”, “equity”, “green” and “net zero” is deliberate to ensure people without domain knowledge are concerned but not angry. It also gives people an excuse. Most people assume they cannot impact “climate” so they signal concern and outsource their worries to the “green movement”.

To translate these hard to define words into actionable understanding we are really talking about pollution, resource depletion and literally throwing tons of plastic into the ocean and our food chain each year. We can all impact this with our choices and actions. Mass consumer disobedience is the most powerful economic force in the world with the advantage that the powerful cannot target you for your choice, not to buy something.

Next time your project discusses “sustainability”, “climate change”, “equity”, “green” and “net zero” insist on a hard definition and metrics. BTW: LEED, BREEAM, WELL certified are intentions and not sustainability. Actual verified performance e.g. EUI or embodied carbon that beats a benchmark is.

Related

Seaspiracy 

#273 Showboating Vs Doing

#262 Can a Culture of Capitalism Ever Support a Truly Green Leader?

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