From the CEO: Sustainability is about more than the environment; enter Boom Crash Opera.

By Peter McDonald

Sustainability is a major topic of discussion these days. But I’m going to qualify that as a notion its only being considered in partiality with respect to our sector.

Across the literature its claimed that there are now 4 (where there were once 3) pillars of sustainability: human, social, economic, and environmental.

Environmental sustainability is the Kardashians of the concept. It’s the ‘look at me’ one that many people are intrigued by and feel compulsion to engage with. It aims at improving human wellbeing in the long-term (less sure the Kardashians do that!) by preserving the environment and more rational use of natural resources.

But I want to have a chat about social sustainability.

Social sustainability is a critical component of a community’s wellbeing and longevity. It is largely neglected in mainstream sustainability debates.

It aims to preserve social capital by investing in and creating services that constitute the framework of our society. The idea accommodates a larger view of the world in relation to communities, cultures and globalisation. It means to preserve future generations and to acknowledge that what we do can have an impact on others and on the world.

Social sustainability focuses on maintaining and improving social quality with concepts such as cohesion, reciprocity and honesty and the importance of relationships amongst people. It can be encouraged and supported by laws, information and shared ideas of equality and rights. Social sustainability incorporates the idea of sustainable development as defined by the United Nations sustainable development goals.

Recent years have put a kibosh on how we lived and sustained our way of life. People have become complacent, and society has become poorer for it.

In our own MEA world, we’ve attempted to deliver events but needed to postpone and even cancel them because where once people were in the groove of being out and about – as was the norm – people are now staying put because the effort of getting glammed up after working from home seems to be out of balance compared to the ever-questioned ROI.

But I say to readers that the industry workforce needs to be as cognisant of and deliberate about social sustainability as it is environmental sustainability. The case could be argued of what’s the point of heading in the direction of a more naturally beautiful world if we’re going to be hermits and not enjoy it and share another natural beauty of life – people.

So I’ll leave this week’s sign off to Boom Crash Opera as food for thought:

I opened up my mouth
And wailed at the moon
I sang it out aloud
I didn't speak too soon
My voice carried up away into the air

C'mon c'mon
Get out of the house
Get out of, get out of the house
Get out of the house
Get out of, get out of the house

If we don’t keep things going – ie: sustain them – they become a part of history.

The regularly repeated to me folklore of pre-pandemic MEA is that branch social and PD events were regular, always well supported and the place everyone wanted to be. There’s a couple of events in various jurisdictions ahead of the annual Christmas parties that will be happening late November/early December. If you are an advocate of the principle of sustainability and a lover of the MEA community, channel your inner Boom Crash Opera and walk the talk (or song as it may be) and get out of the house and along to one or all of those happening on your turf. Let these events be the kick restart of your business as usual professional social life that you sustain into 2023 and beyond.

Source:

Song – “Get out of the house”
Artist – Boom Crash Opera
Album – “These Here Are Crazy Times”