Sustainability actually means to ‘sustain’ and we can’t really afford to just ‘sustain things’, we need to improve them”, chef Chantelle Nicholson tells me. It sounds like it should be simple: the word “sustain” is right there in black and white, after all, it’s not hiding. Yet, the actual meaning of this word, which now feels so deeply rooted in our daily lexicon, is obscured.
The word no longer describes the movement it was supposed to represent, nor does it feel like it’s working towards its goal: helping to end the climate crisis. It’s become tainted, no more than a buzzword. Greenwashing – where companies over-inflate their eco credentials to appear more environmentally friendly – has rendered it close to meaningless.
