So, how do we make people care about issues of sustainability? And not just part of the spectrum, but all of it. Consistently, we have people who single out an element of what it means to be sustainable, show little regard for anything else, and consider themselves sustainable. For example, we have the people in the corporate world who are focused on energy efficiency in order to decrease carbon footprint and still sustain if not augment profits. We have extreme environmentalists who are focused on, solely, the environment. And we have social dissidents who dislike many elements of society's current direction in general and thus fight for some kind of change. But sustainability means to bridge all these elements, coalesce them into some semblance of harmonious work.

One goal is to influence Wal-Mart, for example, to continue their push for large scale energy efficiency, while simultaneously understanding and promoting the environment, such as conservation of natural land (forest cover, prarie, desert, whatever the case may be) in urban and semi-urban areas and build their stores with a smaller footprint. At the same time, Wal-Mart must also demonstrate an understanding of the elements of social sustainability by limiting limiting urban sprawl, which destroys small communities and the environment, by providing its employees a living wage with benefits, and by promoting decent wages to the people in other countries who make the goods that Wal-Mart sells for so cheap. Yes, sustainability is an international, borderless pursuit, and sweat-shop labor does not fall into the paradigm of sustainable growth.

The staunch environmentalist still has the hardest battle in all this. For him/her, there will always be compromise. Land will continue to be gobbled for development, but therein lies one of the goals. If land is being built upon, the environmentalist's responsibility is be a watchdog, to make sure that the fewest necessary trees are lost, that as little natural land as possible is lost to parking lots, and that the land scar is controlled in order to protect watersheds. He/she must also provide the companies and developers with the tools to help do such things. It is no easy task, but the tools are available and the developers need to learn how to use them.

The social dissident must also make compromise, but in fact most people of this line already do. I believe that their fight must shift to the realm of social sustainability because the most immediate change can be realized and lasting types of changes can be achieved. Social sustainability is the least discussed element of this new buzz, but its weight equals that of the other, more popular realms. Urban trails are a great example of how the life of communities is improved. But there are other, more subtle ideas too, such as building education (for young and old alike) about the importance of biking and walking, eating different foods and less meat, and going to the woods. There are countless other possibilities, and one needs only to use the imagination.

We are blessed with the opportunity to apply our understandings of sustainability in ways that will help manifest the changes that we desire. Knowledge can be powerful, and applied knowledge can be unstoppable. This essay is meant to be open ended, and I'm looking for responses. Please write comments, or post another blog essay if you have something to say, anything, as long as it's relevant: support, criticism, new ideas, everything. Let's keep this discussion going.