Toward Sustainable Development

I went to a workshop this morning entitled, Toward Sustainable Development. It was, thankfully, quite productive. We managed to introduce ourselves in less than half an hour, and then broke up into small groups to discuss different aspects of sustainability. The group I joined talked about how Subud, as an organization, can become more environmentally sustainable. We developed a proposal to send to the WSC about investigating what can be done to ensure that all Subud gatherings (at the regional, national and international levels) can at least attempt to minimize environmental impacts. There were six main areas that should be researched and solutions put-forward: 1. water use (does the hotel/conference centre have a strict water conservation ethic? Is there the option to not have linens and towels washed everyday, etc?); 2. energy use (is there unneccesary air conditioning? are the buildings passive in their energy use? does the hotel/conference centre have a strict energy conservation ethic, are venues walkable/bikeable distances, etc?); 3. food sourcing (where does the catered food come from?); 4. waste stream (does the hotel/conference centre recycle, compost, sort waste? Can we work towards a "zero waste" gathering, etc?); 5. pre-gathering awareness (ways Subud members can reduce their environmental impact PRIOR to the gathering so that they can travel guilt-free) and; 6. off-set programs (contribute to or develop programs that help off-set the environmental impacts of a gathering).

With a bit of effort and some dedicated people, I do believe that we can at least make these ideas available and begin to encourage the various organizing committees to use them. It certainly takes an awareness on the part of everyone to make the necessary changes and implement ideas that might not be as favorable as the same-old-same-old.