Sustainability is made up of three legs that make up what is called sustainable, whether it is a material for building, an energy source or a healthcare option. The three legs are economic, environmental and social. The social leg of Sustainability has been under attack in recent weeks and months. It has been distorted way out of proportion unfairly under the guise of social justice.
What is social justice? I always go for the definition of the words to start the discussion. Here it is defined as "the application of the concept of justice on a social scale." In the United States it appears in the Federalist Papers.
The papers are a group of articles or essays advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution which is the basis of what we
believe in as a country.
In the idea of Sustainability, Social justice doesn't stand alone. It has to work with economic and environmental ideals. That way, fairness to the people of a community works with the economic prosperity of the community as well as the environmental prosperity of the community. If we look to history, it is littered with examples of unsustainable practices. Early lumber practices are a prime example. Timber companies would come into a region and strip the hillsides of trees for lumber businesses, usually where lumber was scarce. The impact was usually devastating too local communities who had little say about the practice. Hillsides eroded, streams and rivers were choked with mud killing fish or driving them elsewhere. Birds disappeared as did the wildlife that inhabited the forests. The profits from the timber always went to some company located in a metropolitan area. The communities were left with ugly landscapes and floods when it rained and hotter temperatures and windy days due to the lack of the trees. The practice was an unsustainable practice because it violated all of the premises of Sustainability.
We are seeing unsustainable practices across the country and around the world. Another example is a quick look at the Colorado river. Water is extracted from the river at a greater level than the replenishing of the river. So the river never completes its path and villages and towns near the end have disappeared as the water never made it to their communities.
There are so many examples that it would take years to mention, but to attack social justice as a corrupting influence in our country is a travesty. We don't need less social justice but more. It is the foundation for family values as well as the root of all of the major religions, as well as most minor religions. As mentioned earlier it is the root of our country's constitution. So you have to really question why anyone would be disparaging social justice.
When you look at the premise of Sustainability, you have to wonder why everyone isn't talking about sustainable living. You hear about passing on the tax burden or the environmental mess to our children and grandchildren but we should also look at social justice and make sure that it isn't lost in the mix.