By Diane Keefe
We hear the word “sustainability” everywhere these days—on television, in social media posts, and in casual conversations. But what does it really mean? In my book Greenhouse Gardening for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Organic Gardening, Lower Grocery Bills, and Stress-Free Growing, I talk about sustainability in terms of food, composting, and nurturing the soil. Yet I wanted to know what others thought, so I took a walk through the Missouri Botanical Garden and asked visitors for their perspectives.
Their answers were as diverse as the gardens themselves:
- Shelby from St. Louis sees it as “leaving a small impact while being on earth when it comes to waste and taking care of waste in a way that doesn’t affect the environment as much.”
- Kinsey from North Carolina connected it to the future: “To me, it means looking at the long-term conserving of resources.”
- Lynn N., also from St. Louis, admitted she first had to ask questions to understand the term. Now, she says, it’s about “climate, care of the earth, and continuing what we have on this earth.”
- Mr. Woods from Edwardsville, IL focused on action: “It’s about cleaning the planet up. Clean the water and clean the air. Then we can start with love and souls and all that.”
- Gabe, a garden staff member, pushed further, challenging our economic systems: “We need to end this for-profit system that gobbles up all the resources on the planet. Products should be built to last, with parts available to keep them working as long as possible.”
Listening to these voices reminded me that sustainability is not one definition, but many. It can be as personal as composting food scraps, as practical as conserving water, or as systemic as rethinking how we consume and produce.
Perhaps the real meaning of sustainability lies in the question itself. When we ask, What does sustainability mean to me?—we begin to notice how our daily choices ripple outward, shaping the planet we pass on.
So, what does sustainability mean to you?
Diane Keefe is the author of Greenhouse Gardening for Beginners and shares more on gardening, sustainability, and community on her Facebook page, Books by Diane Keefe, and on Amazon.