Sustainability

I remember reading a few weeks ago in my textbook for one of my business classes a little Ausschnitt about the term sustainability. It described sustainability as this new made-up word to make some firms look bad. It supposedly had only a nebulous meaning that referred to general do-gooding (social and environmental concerns in particular) and that it was just a veiled attempt by 'radicals' to once again make life tough for poor multinational and multi- billion dollar operating businesses and their right to a free market without any rules or responsibility to anything but pure profit (which I guess is the most enlightened path for society). While reading an article about Bundeslandwirt

schaftsministerin Aigner planting the "Tree of the Year", I noticed a part about something called the SOKO Wald, an environmental program going into effect next year for the 300th birthday of Hans Carl von Carlowitz's term "Nachhaltigkeit" (sustainability). This part struck me because I had one source saying that sustainability is just a trend and we just need to wait for people to forget it and move on to real problems, while another source noting its 300 year history (which after some research I confirmed) and suggesting that it is a central government policy that mostly goes undisputed among Germans. It later mentioned that Germany's proportion of forested area has increased from about 23% to about 1/3 of of the nation's total area within the last 40 years. In the US forest area has been pretty much stable for the last 100 years, at about 2/3 of its pre-European settlement proportion, thanks to many Americans who do take this issue seriously. However stable means that we still haven't restored much of our forests, it just means conditions haven't gotten worse in this area. The main difference I see is that the environment is a primary concern for most Germans but for now only a secondary concern for many Americans. Hopefully we can learn from Germany's past mistakes and current progresses and legitimize sustainability before it becomes an emergency.

http://www.bmelv.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/2012/320-AI-Baum-des-Jahres-2012.html