Embarking on a sustainability journey from the inside-out
A couple of months have gone by since the writing of my last blog. In the meanwhile, my situation has fundamentally changed in multifaceted ways. First, I progressed on my professional pathway and moved away from managing financial portfolios to advising clients from the financial sector on becoming more sustainable about climate change. This deliberate step is closely connected to my decision to be part of Cohort 11 of the graduate programme of Sustainability Leadership at the University of Cambridge. Second, I moved to Colombia in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic due to personal reasons. And despite some challenges and delays in getting settled, I have not regretted the decision at all.
Nonetheless, my private setting has completely changed. I moved away from a country which, according to the World Bank Group, accounts for a GDP per capita of $46,445 (current US$) to Colombia, where the analogue figure reaches only about 15% of the German figure. And this economic gap reflects on the sustainability context, with two aspects mentioned to depict the disparity. In terms of waste generation, in Colombia, the average person causes 277 kg yearly waste — a number roughly in line with the global average — while in Germany, an average person disposes of 628 kg waste per year. Germany accounts for about 9.52 metric tons of CO2 emissions regarding the climate crisis, while a Colombian person is only responsible for about 1.87 metric tons per year. In summary, moving to Colombia has brought a fundamental shift in all aspects, not just on a geographical level.
One may ask why am I comparing both countries? The answer to this question relates to my previous blog post in which I announced to set “up a series of alterations to my day-to-day life, exercising stress through changes to my habits. Eventually, these changes lead to a fundamental shift, and likely the whole process will last longer than the envisaged two years of the Master’s programme.” At the time of this writing, my original idea was to accompany the envisaged series of personal stress-tests by comprehensively measuring the impact by comparing the ex-ante and ex-post situation. Alongside my background in finance comes the propensity for quantification, following the quote “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” (whilst being often attributed to W. Edwards Deming, the statistician and quality-control expert, it can also be found associated with Peter Drucker, eventually one of the most recognised management consultants). However, establishing a clean and sound impact measurement starts with having a solid baseline, which I found extremely difficult to accomplish. Because how would I benchmark my behaviour with regards to sustainability correctly? Compare it to my way of living back in Germany? Compare it to the average Colombian person whilst being in the privileged situation to afford an education at one of the most prestigious universities and having the privilege to fly to Europe once a year to visit my family over there? I do not think so.
Also, I had a conversation with my partner about the sustainability challenges that I was about to implement within our household. Acknowledging this decisive aspect that I had left out in my overconfident and overly optimistic last blog, another more appealing aspect resulted from our discussion. And after reflecting on it, I concluded the idea being a sound and convincing aspect of sustainability. And it goes that sustainability on a personal level starts in the first place with a conscience about values and self-perception. Sustainability is not primarily about measuring, comparing, and reporting behavioural change on sustainability, since it starts with asking “Who am I?” and “What is the way of living aligned with my inner values and beliefs?” As Horlings (2015, p. 165) puts it: “Values — and how we work with them — are a vital determinant for whether sustainable development remains a dream or solidifies into reality.” Ives et al. (2020, p. 208) share this idea and paraphrase it with the following: “We argue here that our inner worlds, such as our emotions, thoughts, identities and beliefs, lie at the root of sustainability challenges and are fundamental to the solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.”
Thus, whilst my previous blog post was aiming in the right direction to become more sustainable personally, I skipped the most fundamental initial step: to become conscious of my values and beliefs alongside the potential for change but also the boundaries to it. Accordingly, Horlings (2015, p. 163) argues that “transformation requires a shift in people’s values, referred to as the inner dimension of sustainability, or change from the inside-out.” He moves on and concludes that change but also the associated leadership requires “giving attention to the way we view ourselves and the world (philosophy), what forms of improvement appear to be most appropriate (development) and how to motivate and help direct us to get there (leadership).” Thus, rather than “Embarking on a journey across the ocean of sustainability”, the title of my first blog should have been “Embarking on a sustainability journey from the inside-out.” Therefore, I will take the time until my next blog to start reflecting on my values and beliefs. A journey from the inside-out, following the advice of Ives et al. (2020, p. 208) to prioritise “enquiry into how spirituality, contemplation and sustainability transformation relate, and encouraging scholars and practitioners to intentionally cultivate their inner worlds to strengthen inner resources necessary for addressing sustainability challenges.”
Colombia, March 2021
References:
Horlings, L. (2015). The inner dimension of sustainability: personal and cultural values. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 14, 163–169.
Ives, C., Freeth, R., & Fischer, J. (2020). Inside-out sustainability: The neglect of inner worlds. Ambio, 49(1), 208–217.
Kaza, S., Yao, L., Bhada-Tata, P., & Van Woerden, F. (2018). What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050. Retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/30317
Our World in Data (2021). Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/
