Sustainability is not a new subject, but one that has greatly evolved over the last fifty years. Nowadays, it has become more and more common to call on people to be more thoughtful of their own the responsibility to be more sustainable. When we see such calls, whether it is online or on the streets, it is almost always a call to the individual person. We see it, for example, in government advertising telling people not to shower for too long, or advertising posters telling people to reduce the consumption of red meat. If there is one big downside to this approach on the individual person, it is that these calls are easily dismissed or simply ignored. In my opinion, approaches centered on the individual aren’t enough to promote sustainability to its full potential. Promoting this topic has to be a collective endeavor—one where people can learn from each other and sustainability will be promoted by people showing each other how it can be done.
In my experience, a collective approach is all but impossible. I learned this via my local scouting association. It comes down to the resourcefulness that scouting teaches you and the core values of scouting. When on camp, your resources are finite. Because of this, responsible usage of water and firewood becomes a group endeavor, necessary for our own comfort and survival. In such a case, you have to work together in a disciplined manner to ensure a sustainable way of usage. The same resourcefulness can be found in the tendency to repair rather than replace—from the stitching of clothes to the repairing of tools. Teaching scouts how to repair gives them insight into how to maintain their belongings and helps them attach more value to their possessions. Resourcefulness and sustainability walk hand in hand, and scouting can’t do without it.
At my time in the scouting community, I learned ‘value-consciousness’. It means being aware of what you have and using it the best you can. It is a value I still hold in high regard, just like my fellow scouts. Values like these serve as a foundation for our actions. It gives a clear reason for why we do this and keeps us motivated and disciplined to keep going. It is values like these that are carried by the entire scouting community. As a group, we all believe in what is right and how to get there.
My experience has shown that sustainability isn’t a restriction, but rather becomes a common purpose within a group. If we want to bring out the fullest potential of sustainability, then we must stop asking the individual person to fix a crisis. Instead, we must expand its reach to communities, point to the finiteness of our resources, and start a group commitment to value-consciousness. During my stay in the UK, I will take my values and experience with me to promote sustainability—not the individual kind, but the communal form, where sustainability is a commitment rather than a grinding task
