What does sustainability mean?

Sustainability and Design were a lecture topic at New York's Gift Fair yesterday. And the place was packed! It's great to see that the green word is getting out there.

The question of what the word sustainabilty means came up. The good people over at Artecnica and Aid to Artisans stated that being sustainable goes beyond being "green". Their approach to sustainability is going to 3rd world countries and taking the crafts people know and applying them in new ways. Like Artecnica's taTu table - they found a region where people made wire sculptures and they trained them to use the same idea to make their wire table.

To the nice people at 3R Living being sustainable means looking for "manufacturers and artisans who dedicate their talents to creating clever, modern, and earth-affirming products out of unwanted everyday items. In addition, we look for fairly-traded products and those made from organic ingredients." That sums it up pretty well.

RePlayGround's take on sustainabilty is to reuse found objects, normally thrown away, and give them a second chance.

I think sustainabilty is a combination of these answers.

I've said it before - being green isn't always black and white. There are nice shades of other colors mixed in there. Like the sustainable taTu table on top there - that's a nice shade of red.