Sustainability Statement

In our culture, it is impossible to live sustainably. Which makes everything sound hopeless. But that is just right now; it is not impossible to make our society sustainable, in the future, if we keep the fight up. The more individuals and organizations who are interested in living sustainably, the easier and more possible it will be in the future.

My current sustainability goals, to make my life as good as it can be right now, are rather demanding. I don't buy anything new (yes, that includes even underwear) if I can help it. The major exceptions are when I have to get something for somebody else. The more that I can recycle, the less goes to the landfill, the more complete the cycle of matter is.

I try to throw away as little as possible. I am less successful with this than I am with the above goal. I don't even compost very well right now and one would think that would be easy.I recycle what the Gunnison Recycling center takes, but don't have an impressive collection to take out of the valley when I have the opportunity.

I turn off everything I can, even unplugging them to limit "phantom load". The less power I use, the less CO2 is burned for my own energy.

I never drive. Only rarely carpool. I use buses for long distance travel more than anything else. I rather abhor cars and don't think I will ever have one. No, I will never have one.

I try to buy what I can from good businesses and boycott the ones that are less sustainable and ethical themselves. I try to buy what I can locally and eat as few animal products as I can. Though I am quite the failure at cheese, I am still trying to reduce it.

I always want my mind to be open to new ideas in the future. What can I do to make my own footprint smaller and smaller and smaller. More than that, what can I do to make other's footprints smaller? This is a very tricky question, but one which is important to engage in: no matter how good I am, I am only 17*109 of the world's human population. A very small portion. Whatever outreach things I can think of, I try to do. Currently, I am trying to implement a Bicycle Library in Gunnison and implement recycling in the Nursing Home kitchen where I work. And will be beginning a Sustainability Plan for the Firebrand and then the Nursing Home in the future.

I do what I can to support forward thinking organizations. I sign about 2 hours worth of petitions a week and donate what I can.

If I could go back in time, I would have never taken loans from financial institutions who are arguably the spawn of satan (I really hate you, Nelnet.). They have made them selves more money (out of thin air) and are causing me untold amounts of stress, when usually I suffer almost none.