The Marmot Murmurs, "Welcome."

Thanks for stopping in to the marmot murmurs site!  Ever want some concrete suggestions?   Committed to reducing your environmental impact, but don’t know where to go to get a jump-start? This is just a little blog to keep us all updated and in the loop about the services, activities, workshops, and lectures on Vancouver Island to help all of us in our efforts to live a happy, healthy, eco-friendly life.  Each week we will highlight a particular eco-friendly service in this neck of woods.  The weeks will also be sprinkled here and there with posts about upcoming lectures and eco-friendly, sustainability related events (as well as the occasional lecture review and critique).   

In recent years, sustainability and environmentally friendly have become near meaningless catch phrases used by countries, businesses, and individuals alike to garner blind support from a world population that just wants to do some good.   In light of this, we should clarify what we mean by environmentally friendly and sustainable.  Also, in each of our posts, we’ll tell you why these places, events, and/or services earn this title—or don’t!  

By sustainability, we’re talking about sustainable development.  While some people might consider sustainability (literally a maintenance of a certain state) and development (literally the changing of a certain state) as an inherent contradiction, we’d like to think otherwise—as long as you assume the joint terms both refer to different things. 

Sustainable will refer to a low impact (admittedly not necessarily sustaining, but—close) on the environment, or an impact that is countered by acts of environmental restoration by the individuals, organizations, or services.  In the end, an environmentally sustainable service will be one that cultivates a mutually nurturing relationship between people and the environment. Development will refer in part to the economic portion, but also to the non-monetary progress created (e.g. through the enhancement of the environment and the fostering of critical discussion and new ideas).

For organizations whose practices do more than just sustain the environment and offset their impacts through other environmental contributions, we’ll reserve the label “restorative development,” as coined by Storm Cunningham in The Restoration Economy. 

Why this insistence over the co-habitability of economics and our ecosystem?  Exactly because of their names, economics and our ecosystem.  Connected by their root words, economics literally means “the laws of the house” while ecosystem refers to the very “house” economics seeks to order.  For all you bibliophiles and fellow word-lovers out there, isn’t it about time we start looking at these words as interconnected as their related meanings suggest?  Luckily, there are people and businesses already on top of it.  

Some of the “sustainable” and “environmentally friendly” criteria we are looking for in services and businesses are: local production, low carbon emissions, organic, and also fairly traded items (though not necessarily Fair Trade items).  We’re also looking for people, places, and services that contribute to the local environment in a volunteer capacity. In terms of lectures and workshops, we’re looking for speakers, facilitators, and discussions that provide a critical and complex look at the many interactions between humans and the environment.

And expect us to be honest in our posts. None of this tip-toeing, afraid to step on a few un-recycled cans bit (we will of course promptly pick up those cans and toss them in a recycling bin). That said, we welcome your comments and expect you to be honest—even brutally so if you think we’ve missed the mark.  We also welcome suggestions as to places, events, etc. to take a look at and review. J

Thanks for reading! Happy greening!