Describe what sustainability means to you and highlight inspiration examples using:
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When I think about the term sustainability, I think about the definition along the lines of meeting our current needs without compromising the impact to our future needs and generations.
I also think about the idea of meeting the triple bottom line. What are the social costs, environmental costs, and economic costs, of a project? Sustainability to me is being able to meet all three of these demands from all potential stakeholders in a project without compromising on of the three aspects just for economic gain, especially if that “economic gain” isn’t seen evenly by all stakeholders.
Sustainability also usually means implementing new and innovative solutions to historically known problems for any given project. One project that I can think of along these lines that does this well is “CopenHill” in Copenhagen, Denmark (see below). CopenHill has turned a municipal solid waste energy generation facility into an entirely unique space through an innovative idea like putting a ski slope on top of a functioning incineration facility. This turns what would otherwise be a “not in my backyard” kind of project into a useful recreation space for the public in the surrounding area.
It’s innovative ideas that make energy, water, land use or whatever else more efficient and serve greater purposes to the public that I tend to identify with sustainability.
