A blog article from the folks at Southern Crafted Homes (which I found through a Twitter alert) starts with a dictionary definition of sustainability and quickly suggests a more simple one:

Resources must be consumed at a rate that allows them to be replenished.

I bring this up because when I talk about our site, earthsayers.tv, and emphasize it highlights the voices of sustainability the first comment is often the question: what is sustainability anyway?  On EarthSayers.tv we are capturing the language of sustainability to include definitions from all kinds of people ranging from environmentalists to designers to politicians.  This one from Southern Crafted Homes is a good one.

The writer also notes there are extremes of sustainability positions among professionals and our citizens, but, again, the writer simply points out:

“…logic tells us that if we extract a resource from the ground and that resource cannot replenish itself then at some point that resource shall cease to exist. The question then is of scale and context.”

Sustainability Advocates

An interesting earthsayer is Shai Agassi, founder and CEO of Better Place. In an interview by Kristian Steenstrup of the Gartner Group, she asks: “Shai, did the concept of electric cars and environmental issues give you motivation to leave SAP?”

Not exactly, but the Young Global Leaders forum started him thinking of the question, “how would you run a country without oil?” as the answer for “how are you going to make the world a better place?”

This thinking resulted in his founding the venture-backed company, Better Place. A sustainable electric automotive solution is vital to economic opportunity, energy independence and a cleaner planet.

Does he miss SAP? “No, I think it was the best thing for me to do this, because I have found my passion. I wake up every morning full of life and full of energy to do this. I think SAP has been one of the most instrumental tools to get where I am right now, the ability to do something like that.