The key to sustainability, says Ken Dunn, is to view it cyclically, and to realize that truly sustainable lifestyle practices can at once take on all our society’s problems caused by over-consumption. Dunn is the founder and director of the Resource Center, a non-profit environmental education organization, which has demonstrated innovative, hands-on approaches to recycling and re-using materials since he started it more than 30 years ago. Dunn shared his visions and experiences at Chicago Green Drinks on January 9, and I caught up with him the next day.
He started by offering a definition of sustainability: “Finding a high quality of life in a way that can be shared by all people presently sharing the planet and all future generations too. We have to take care of the planet so that we’ll ensure its high quality in the future, while also taking care of social justice so that it is shared equally by all people on the planet. A point that cannot be overlooked, however, is that it must function in the present social system and economy. We can’t expect a utopia.”
Dunn offered a brief history of projects the Resource Center has undertaken since it started in the early 1970s. His first project experimented with the possibility of conserving resources while simultaneously achieving social justice. “I took some containers to a vacant lot in a low-income community where people were drinking and throwing the bottles into the lot. I asked them if they would be willing to pick up the bottles, and told them that I would sell the bottles and bring the money back to them.” Ultimately, says Dunn, the bottles were recycled into different materials, and the return cash aided the recovery of human beings who could then join the workforce.
“That became the principle of Resource Center projects: to identify human or material resources that are overlooked by the dominant economy.” Cleaning up vacant lots full of litter created a space for growing food, provided that Dunn could find a little compost to enrich the soil. He solved that problem by visiting everything from restaurants to horse stables to collect food waste, leaves, grass clippings and horse droppings. “Removing organic waste from high-end restaurants led to urban agriculture as a significant business, thus completing the cycle by enriching vacant lots with compost.” Mainstays in the consumer society, it turns out, could easily become cogs in the wheel rolling toward sustainability.
Other projects have taken the same approach: The Resource Center salvages old bicycles and uses them with teen programs to develop skills for inner-city kids. Or the bikes are repaired and sent to children in third-world countries, especially Guatemala and all over Africa. In addition, paper companies are now donating 10 tons of paper refuse every week that are used in school art projects. It’s true, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
“I challenged the group (at Chicago Green Drinks) to think not just of individual programs, but to look at sustainability as a whole. Throughout our city and commercial food system we have to think of programs that are tied to jobs for every individual. It is possible under a sustainable lifestyle to take on all problems: unemployment, crime, poor nutrition, bad air quality, too much car use … Take them on all together and imagine solving them.”
One of the key problems that Dunn identifies in our society is the notion of a difference between producer and consumer. “Everyone should know the producer of their food instead of dealing with an intermediary. That means incorporating producers within the community.”
Of course, he is realistic when it comes to other problems, which we Americans won’t easily overcome. After all, says Dunn, a sustainable planet means no air travel and no automobile for every human being. We shouldn’t think of it as an all-or-nothing challenge. “We can make steps toward sustainability, and along the way we’ll imagine other ways to get there.” Dunn cites as an example his riding a bike. Though biking gives him immense and visceral pleasure, he still has to drive to work because in his truck he carries everything from manure to bicycles. “People shouldn’t do nothing just because they can’t do everything.” Start somewhere.
