Yesterday I was riding my bike in the park and I saw these two women out walking in their full walking gear. They were both holding very large takeout mugs from Starbucks which they were sipping as they walked. As I kept passing them (they were walking counterclockwise around a loop meant for bikes which was mildy annoying) they had me thinking about balance. Is that balance, when you are drinking back the fat and sugar exactly at the same moment you are walking around to burn the fat off. Does this result in equilibrium? Not getting skinnier but then not getting fatter either?
I spent a lot of time thinking about this (I was riding for a while) but this is also something I think about often when it comes to businesses involved in sustainability. There are a lot of businesses that are doing some great things when it comes to sustainability and those initiatives are well known and much talked about. On the other side when you are in the store or actually experiencing the brand you see a lot of things that are pretty unsustainable. A product packaged in a plant based, minimal packaging but the product inside is full of harmful chemicals. A supermarket with a strong sustainability strategy around sourcing but when you enter the store you are hit by a wall of excessive plastic packaging.
Does one thing cancel the other out and create balance? Not moving forwards but not moving backwards either? Perhaps this is how it starts and then the coffee cups will get smaller, the walks with get longer and we will really see some changes.
