2021-09-30
Speaking of Sustainability

SPEAKING OF SUSTAINABILITY

School lunch today at Hacienda Dominguez & Chelenzo Farms includes a handful of organic red grapes, two slices of dry chorizo, a pocketful of corn nuts, jicama sprinkled con Tajín and a sandwich made with flourless 7-grain toasted bread spread with mayonesa con Tapatío, a thick slice of smoked turkey and a thinner slice of pepper jack cheese. And lots of plastic…

The latter I am not proud of and certainly endure a daily dose of guilt because of it, especially since the hot topic of the day yesterday with Maddy & Enzo was “Sustainability”:

What does it mean?

How do we achieve it?

Does it mean no lawn? No swimming pool? No plastic bags?

Can you establish and sustain a commercial enterprise with the aim of financially supporting your long term sustainability goals and simultaneously meet the stringent standards of a purist’s sustainability sensibilities here and now? Lo dudo mucho.

In my experience, getting to where you ultimately want to be, especially if it is in some lofty esoteric space, requires flexibility, agility and lots of little compromises.

For example, do you accept that your initial appeal may be to a particular target market that can help you build capital to fund programs that enable equal access and sustainability education across many more segments of society? Yes, absolutely, even it means initially compromising one’s sense of sustainability.