Buzzwords. For those of us who live and work in media, they are the bane of our existence, and we latch onto them like the rabid vultures you all know and love us to be. The love part is subjective.
We hashtag the heck out of them, we blog the bejesus about them and we write silly little columns like this on them.
Enter one of the most widely accepted, all-encompassing buzz words of our time: sustainability.
If you Google the term itself and check out the Wiki definition, you may become even more confused:
“…Sustainability is how biological systems endure and remain diverse and productive…more recent accounts have broadened the idea of sustainability to include social wellbeing, resilience and adaptation across four domains: ecology, economics, politics and culture.”
In other words, sustainability is the ‘green movement’ buzzword that seeks to promote personal and corporate responsibility by lessening our carbon footprint across the globe.
Go online rather than support print. Carpool or take transit. Lobby oil companies and corporations to adhere to more stringent environmental regulations. Take up gardening and support local. Buy a Neil Young album. Sign an online petition against almost anything. Drive a Prius.
Just start typing ‘Is sustainability…’ into a search engine and two of the first options to pop up are ‘a fad’ and ‘possible’.
Has ‘sustainability’ become the future: prompting environmental responsibility and advocating change? Or has the term become so overused that it initiates more eye rolls and shoulder shrugs than proactive movement?
Let’s bring it home for a moment.
The Town of Cochrane officially adopted the Cochrane Sustainability Plan (CSP) in 2009.
The town makes a deliberate effort as they move forward to align all its decisions and goals with the CSP.
The overarching framework established 13 ‘pathways’ centered on sustainable practices related to community cohesion, environmental practices and fostering a ‘culture of responsibility’.
Five years later, and the group tasked with ensuring the CSP is implemented, Sustainable Partners Uniting Resources (SPUR), has had its grant funding considerably slashed for 2014 (from $30,710 in 2013 down to $10,000).
What does this say about the role of a group like SPUR for the long-term? Do they serve a vital role as community stewards and environmental crusaders? Or are they advocating for actions and a mindset that everyone should have adopted by now?
For more on the CSP, check out Kathryn McMackin’s article on page 7.
Some might argue that buzzwords are generally void of substance — indicative of a bored, overstimulated, narcissistic society with too many first-world problems and a lack of accountability.
Others might say they’re indicative of a ‘culture of responsibility’, an ardent society seeking positive change and an antithesis of the end of mankind.
From ‘holistic’ and ‘organic’ to my personal favourites, ‘selfie’ and ‘twerk’ — what do you think buzzwords say about our society?
