Where, What, When, Why & How

Where?

It's not someone else's problem...

It is ours. It has been said that we need to think globally and act locally. We need to see Winona as interdependent with larger systems - local, regional, national, global. The things that we do here in our community DO affect the world around us.

It also means getting involved in the larger picture because those larger systems impact our lives.

In particular, the U.S. is a primary perpetrator of imbalance in the world. We use a vast amount of the world's resources and create a disproportionate amount of the world's waste and environmental problems. Many of these are not created inside our borders, but in the countries where businesses that feed our lifestyles do their business.

What?

It is not just an environmental thing...

Protecting our environment is an important part of sustainability, but it’s not the whole story. The bigger picture is much broader and more holistic than this and, in reality, is affected by choices made in every element of our lives.

Sustainability is achieved when the environment, the economy and society develop in collaboration using only the resources that can be replaced. An essential element of the concept is ensuring future generations’ ability to do the same.

When?

The sooner the better...

Currently we are using the Earth's resources at a 123% rate each year. It takes over a year for the Earth to regenerate what we use each year.¹

We do not have to make a massive change to our lifestyles immediately. To do so would overwhelm our good intentions. We need to look at our lifestyles and find ways to make small, incremental, but meaningful changes. Then we need to keep making changes.

Why?

For the sake of future generations...

Fact: We’re running out of space, creating more waste, running out of natural resources, consuming more and more, and over-consuming in the U.S. - while elsewhere in the world poverty is increasing.

What we buy and consume needs to provide a fair price for producers worldwide and to make our own communities and indigenous industries prosper.

Our use of fossil fuels is creating an increase in the levels of carbon in the atmosphere which is causing world-wide changes to our climate. It’s essential that we respond now before the problem becomes too big to manage.

How?

Making different choices...

Sustainable living means considering every decision we make in day-to-day life; ensuring that we do not use more than we need to and considering other people’s well-being and the planet's well-being at all times.

For our government, sustainability means creating policies and making decisions on behalf of the people that equally support our communities, maintaining our standard of living and our environment, and also respecting quality of life and the environment world-wide.

The thing to remember is that sustainability, or sustainable living, doesn’t mean missing out on the comforts we’ve become used to. It just means finding ways to achieve the same sorts of human comforts while behaving in a way that’s more thoughtful and less wasteful.

Look for and shop at businesses that do their part to promote sustainability. There are some you can go to for advice or information and others you can go to for practical help, goods and services.

1. Global Footprint Network - Footprint Overview