We are Just Asleep

Yoga teaches about three levels of consciousness – the unconscious,  conscious and superconscious. The unconscious is a state of dim awareness, most often accessed when we are asleep. The conscious is the rational mind guiding our daily decisions. Our source of intuition and creativity is our superconscious, which lets us see all things as they really are but as we rarely see them – as part of a whole and connected.

As sustainability professionals, we see that the state of our planet and our species are in peril.  But after leading some 20 trainings around the country this year, we have both come to a place of optimism.

Our Behavior Based Sustainability© (BBS) training allows individuals to deeply connect to sustainability through their own values. Similarly to the Lean Manufacturing work of James Womack and Dan Jones, BBS allows participants to Learn to See.

BBS learners see that (for the most part) every piece of plastic that ever was, is. They see how the local fishing lakes they love can be harmed by their collective behaviors. They see that there is no such place as “away” and what we throw “away” ends up in our air, water and even our bodies.    They see that Earth’s population will pass the 7 billion mark, and they sense the urgency associated with more people and more pressure on the ecosystems which support us all.

Schoolchildren in the 21st Century are aware of much of this already.  And make no mistake – the concern and energy of children can be a powerful influencer of adult consciousness, and gives us hope that our species may yet flourish over the long term.  But children don’t draft budgets, they don’t make products, and they don’t make the daily decisions which determine how smartly – or foolishly – companies use scarce resources.

The participants in our BBS workshops do all this, and once their consciousness opens to the urgency of our collective challenge, their responses are both inspiring and humbling. We have trained people at all levels of organizations – from CEOs, company directors and supervisors to sales representatives, machine operators and administrative assistants.  We do this because in our experience, good ideas can come from anywhere.  And we have seen that sustainability resonates on the concrete just as much as it does on the carpet.

When we are asleep, we are just unconscious–in the dream state. One could argue that we, collectively, must be dreaming to imagine that we can continue using our resources in the same way we did in the 20th Century, on and on to infinity.

What we need is a wake-up call – not the harsh buzz of a hotel telephone, but something more like the slowly rising sun – to nudge us gently but firmly into seeing the world a bit differently. BBS plays this role by teaching that our behaviors are (or should be) linked to our values, that these behaviors are rooted in choices (and can therefore be changed) and that these behaviors have consequences (which can also be changed).  Awareness + Intent + Action = Change.

Can we wake up tomorrow no longer depleting and contaminating our water, no longer emitting harmful pollutants, and no longer destroying the ecosystems that support our lives and our lifestyles?  Probably not.  But can we on an individual level shift from unconsciousness to consciousness when we toss out an aluminum can or styrofoam cup? Can we raise ourselves to superconsciousness by asking and learning how the products we use were made or grown?

Our answer is yes.  We can wake up. We know because we’ve seen it, over and over.

If we thought most people woke up every morning trying to figure out new ways to pillage and plunder we would not be filled with optimism. Instead, when people “Learn to See” that we are all connected and that each of our decisions has either unsustainable or more sustainable consequences, people challenge themselves and their peers to do things they never thought possible. They begin to enter superconscious awareness and realize that they can make a difference to their families, their communities and to the planet.  Bottled water…gone. Styrofoam (cups, plates, takeout containers)…gone. Recycling at work and home, done. Exercising… in progress. Taking sustainability to church…happening now.

All this has taught us that sustainability is possible, but to get there we should realize that it’s about much more than metrics and reports. It’s about all of us, making every decision with the awareness and intent of making our grandchildren proud.