My word: sustainability
Sustainability, My word
Polarising. Restrictive. Unimaginative. It sounds like Naked Planet founder Dan Burgess has got it in for sustainability.
Dan Burgess
“Sustainability is a troublesome word,” says Dan. “I think we could do with a new one.”
What’s wrong with sustainability? ”It’s not an interesting word or a rich word,” explains Dan. “It’s a word that polarises people’s opinions and makes them turn off. It feels restrictive because people think it’s about limiting stuff.”
“Sustainability can be about limiting,” he continues. “But it’s also about happiness and well-being. When you write a marketing or communications brief around sustainability, it’s rare for people to take it to another space — to be really imaginative in their approach.”
“A lot of businesses still think of sustainability in terms of individual issues like recycling, packaging or energy — the fundamental housekeeping. They don’t often talk about better ways of doing business or opportunities to do something beyond selling stuff.”
So what should we say instead of sustainability? Answers on a (recycled) postcard.
My word looks at the language behind the issues