Whenever I tell people that I’m traveling, whether it was when I was working in Poland and Canada, visiting friends in Asia, New Zealand and Australia, or celebrating Mo Udall’s legacy on this bus tour across the US, the most common reaction I get is “Wow, that’s a wonderful thing that you are doing!” Many people seem to think that traveling is clearly a “good” thing to do, but I believe nothing should be assumed to be completely positive. Environmental, economic and cultural benefits (i.e. education), as well as degradation, result from travel. If everyone in the world traveled as much as we do, the adverse effects of travel would be grossly evident.
Can you propose a set of guidelines to decide if a travel plan is justifiable (or “sustainable”, if you will)?
(To add your thoughts, click on the word “comment” immediately below this post)
Question Posed By: Bret Strogen
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Question of the Week #2 - When is travel justifiable/sustainable?
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Question of the Week #1- What makes a sustainable business?
Each week we’ll be posting a question on our blog – seeking to spark discussion with you all about something we’ve come across in our travels. This week was inspired by our visits to the White Dog Café as well as the Fryodiesel Pilot Plant in Philadelphia. (For some more context, see below.)
THE QUESTION IS: What makes a sustainable business? What makes a sustainable economy? What would it look like, how would it operate, how big or how small would it be? Which businesses or organizations can be included, and which do you look to as models – or promoters of a business model – that you think is sustainable?
To post your thoughts – scroll down to the bottom of this post, and leave a comment.
For context: Judy Wicks’ White Dog Café has grown a bit since she started, but she believes strongly in staying small and staying local. Fryodiesel, also in Philadelphia, is making partnerships with diesel distributors and is hoping it can fill the niche of trap-grease biodiesel producers – but, they’re not sure that if the big companies get into the game whether they’ll be able to survive without becoming larger. What would make these companies (or the economy as a whole) sustainable – environmentally, economically, and socially?
BONUS QUESTION OF THE WEEK: All the riders have some quirky sustainability habits of our own (read about them here) What are yours? Leave a comment on that blog post and share a little bit about yourself!
