Sustainability update #5

I continue to extend my efforts in personal (and industry) sustainability.  I have made a second trip to Australia and again offset my CO2 emissions.  I write this from a hotel in the USA on my third and likely final trip of the year.  I continue to struggle with the conflicting need to “physically see my customers” and what I can do to reduce my impact on the planet.  There is not an easy fix for this, but I will continue to use video conferencing to the greatest extent possible.   On a personal front, my “consumption level” is down considerably.  Much use, nearly exclusively, of public transport.  On this trip to the USA I will not rent a car and I believe in retrospect humans will view the personal automobile as a source/symptom of many of our environmental problems.    I continue to believe in the sum of all our small personal choices – recycling levels, minimization of useless packaging, consideration of transportation distance and impacts in purchase selection, there are many more things influencing my personal choices these days.   Of course, this is hard to see the evidence of on a daily basis, but I remain committed to the principle.

On the industry front, it is easier to see progress.  I remain very proud of the geosynthetic industry, but we need to, and are doing more.  I hope that the sum of all the contributions makes enough of a positive effect.