What's in a Name?

Ensemble (noun)

a group of items viewed as a whole rather than individually.

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Welcome to our first ensemble - meditations exploring the art of living and working sustainably.

With each ensemble, I'll share a story, a quote, an excerpt, a clip, etc., from the wide world of sustainability that evoked a thought, idea, or question within me.

Perhaps unlike other media on sustainability, here we'll seek understanding.

As we arrive at the material, themes, and stories we discuss, we'll seek out what matters—the principles, values, and ideas we can take with us on our collective journey to build a more sustainable world.

Yes, we'll discuss the tactical and practical of living and working more sustainably, but our driving motivation will be to find wisdom

I can't help but feel we have a problem.

We might all want to live in a "completely sustainable world," but are we sure what it means? What does that entail? How do we (personally and societally) have to change?

Sure, we might have to plug our cars in at the end of the day versus stopping at the pump, but does that bring into question what values, beliefs, and stories are worth revisiting?

We must consider if the tools we used in the past are the right ones for this job.

We are not adequately critiquing what we value and how we think. 

We aren't interrogating what we believe is possible, the stories that we tell ourselves and others. 

We aren't altering what we aspire to.

A greened-up version of the status quo will get us nowhere. Acting and seeing things in isolation will get us nowhere.

It feels naive to believe that the understanding and level of consciousness I have today is all that is necessary to manifest an Ecotopia that's habitable and fair for everyone.

Did I miss us doing this before?

Changing how we live in the world must require changing how we think about the world.

Because living and working sustainably is not just about changing how we do the things we do. That is just one part.

It's about from the ground up building a better, more compelling, and inspiring story for what we value and what we believe is possible.

To build what's possible, we have to learn what's possible.

To build a better world, we have to learn what's "better."

By learning and understanding more about the world we inhabit and choosing to see things as part of a greater whole vs. in isolation, we can build the better, more sustainable world we've always wanted.

We can corral the courage within ourselves, within all of us, to believe that "just the way it is" only remains as such for as long as we allow it.

We can believe how we live, run our economies, and organize our communities can be restorative and regenerative just by nature.

So, I'm grateful to have you here by my side as we explore and seek to understand this art of sustainable living.

I'll share stories of people who have challenged convention for their conviction of what's right, not just for themselves but for the greater whole. Like my friend Eric Henry, who believes you should only build your business' supply chain as far as you can drive in an afternoon.

I'll share new visions and ideas of progress that might challenge the paradigm that bigger is always better and scalability is an absolute. Like my friends at Bodhi Surf + Yoga, a resort nestled in Uvita, Costa Rica, where they have decidedly scaled in the depth of their participation in their local community versus scaled the presence of their business.

I'll share with you both the incredible innovations of today, like a coral farm growing coral at 50x the regular rate to restore the world's dying reefs, as well as the wisdom of ideas of yesterday.

Tactics alone, technology alone, won't bring about the future that we all hope to live in. Of course, strictly philosophizing about it won't, either.

It's about all elements coming together, noticing the patterns between the seemingly unrelated, performing music versus a bunch of notes or noise played in isolation.

It's about viewing things as a whole rather than individually.

It's about seeing the ensemble.