Sustainability Is Not a Buzzword, It Is a Way of Life

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There is something deeply unsettling about walking into a store, picking up a smartphone wrapped in biodegradable packaging, and being congratulated for making a “sustainable” choice when the device itself is a result of an extractive, energy-intensive, and culturally unsustainable cycle of consumption. Somewhere along the way, sustainability got hijacked. It became a fashion statement, a corporate PR tool, and a greenwashed excuse to keep consuming, just with slightly less guilt.

But sustainability was never meant to be a label. It was a rhythm, a culture, a sacred contract between living beings and the systems that nourish them. In the race for green capitalism, we’ve turned it into a cosmetic fix, masking the deeper wounds we continue to inflict on the Earth and on our own spirit.

The Absurdity of Paper Boxes and Plastic Words

Walk into any tech showroom today, and you’re likely to hear about how the packaging of your new device is made from 100% recycled paper. That same phone, churned out of rare minerals mined under exploitative conditions, transported through a carbon-intensive supply chain, and designed to last two years before planned obsolescence kicks in, is now certified “eco-friendly.”

It’s the equivalent of eating a bucket of fried chicken and washing it down with diet soda to “stay healthy.” We are trying to compensate for excessive consumption with superficial sacrifice.

Switching from plastic to paper is not sustainability. Not when the paper is processed using coal-generated electricity, chemically treated to appear clean, and mass-produced for a product that didn’t need replacement in the first place. Sustainability cannot be achieved when we continue to consume indiscriminately, merely altering the wrapping rather than rethinking the intention.

The Death of Repair: A Silent Cultural Collapse

When was the last time you mended a torn shirt, repaired a leaking bucket, or fixed a broken appliance rather than replacing it? The culture of repair is vanishing, not because we no longer need it, but because we have been trained not to bother. “Just buy a new one,” we are told. “It’s cheaper, faster, and better.”

And yet, the most sustainable thing is not buying at all. The most profound act of sustainability is to repair our objects, our ecosystems, and our relationships.

The irony is brutal; in the name of “sustainable mobility,” we replace our cars with electric vehicles whose battery production causes severe environmental degradation. We forget that the greenest car is the one that’s already built and still running.

We live in a paradox; we chase newness in the name of saving the planet, when in fact, our addiction to novelty is precisely what is killing it.

India’s Forgotten Genius: The Culture of Extended Use

India doesn’t need to import sustainability from the West. We were born with it in our breath, carried it in our rituals, and practiced it not from policy but from parampara, from deeply lived traditions.

Here, a curtain that had aged was not discarded. It became a sofa cover. When that too wore out, it was cut into pieces for mopping the floor. Eventually, it found a final life as a rag for dusting the motorbike or the window grills. In this multi-phased life of a single cloth, one finds the soul of true sustainability, uses with reverence, discards with dignity, and never wastes what still has use.

This was not done for Instagram likes or ESG scorecards. It was done from a place of empathy towards the Earth, the economy of the household, and the ethics of humility.

We drank tea in washable steel or glass tumblers, not because we had no choice, but because it made sense. Today, we call plastic cups “convenient” and ignore the landfill they will die in and the river they will poison. Modern convenience is the most inconvenient truth of our times

The Spirituality of Sustainability

There was a time when nothing was separate from us. The cow was not just an animal; it was Gau Mata. The tree was not just a source of shade or fruit; it was Vruksha Devta. The river was not a body of water; it was Maa Ganga. This was not mythology. It was a mindset. It ensured that exploitation was restrained by reverence.

In this way of life, repairing a broken relationship was as important as repairing a broken object. Divorce was not the norm, not out of regressive thinking, but because relationships were considered sacred, worth effort, and worth mending. Old-age homes were rare because ageing parents were not a burden but a blessing.

True sustainability is relational, not transactional. It is not what you buy; it is how you live.

Conscious Business vs. Buzzword Sustainability

The modern corporate world has fallen in love with the word “sustainable.” Sustainability reports are printed on thick recycled paper, logos are greenwashed, and CSR campaigns plant trees in the same week they destroy forests elsewhere.

But the world doesn’t need more “sustainable branding.” It needs conscious businesses, enterprises that acknowledge their footprint and take steps to walk lighter. Businesses that dare to ask hard questions:

Do we need to produce more or produce more mindfully?
Can our employees lead dignified, non-exploitative lives?
Is our product life cycle ethical, not just from production to consumption, but also to disposal?

The shift from green marketing to value-led consciousness is the next real frontier.

The Deeper Economics of Enough

Gandhi once said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”

This is not just a spiritual message; it’s an economic formula. The moment we consume to impress, we step outside the circle of sustainability. The economy of enough does not mean deprivation. It means discernment. It means learning when to say “this is good enough” instead of “what’s next?”

We must relearn the economics of restraint. Minimalism is not a hip Western trend; it is the original Indian operating system. Owning less, wasting less, and sharing more—that was how villages survived and how communities thrived.

Time to Return Home: Redefining Sustainability in Indian Terms

For Brydgework Consultants and every citizen of this ancient land, the call is not to mimic Western definitions of sustainability, but to resurrect our own.

Sustainability is:

A mother rinsing an old milk packet and using it to store coriander.
A cobbler re-stitching a torn sandal so it lasts another season.
A wedding sari passed from mother to daughter, not for lack of money, but for the richness of memory.
A tiffin box made of steel, used across generations without ever entering a landfill. A home that was built once and maintained for a lifetime, not replaced with glass towers every 10 years.

Brydgework Consultants remains deeply committed to sustainability, weaving eco-conscious values into both its internal culture and the solutions it offers clients. The firm actively encourages responsible business practices that go beyond profit, advocating for strategies that reduce environmental impact and promote long-term ecological balance. Whether it’s through helping businesses streamline operations to cut waste, guiding them to adopt greener technologies, or fostering community initiatives that uplift local ecosystems, Brydgework ensures that sustainability is more than just a checkbox, it’s a core principle. In doing so, Brydgework stands firm on building a future where growth and environmental responsibility go hand in hand.

Self-Reflection: Are We Truly Sustainable?

So let us pause and ask ourselves:

When we preach sustainability, are we practicing it?
Are we repairing more than we’re discarding?
Are we building businesses that walk with the Earth or march over it?
Are we raising children who know how to live with less but live more fully?

The deepest sustainability begins not with policy, but with perspective. It is not what we put in the dustbin, but what we keep from reaching it.

The Way Forward: Conscious Regeneration

Sustainability must be reborn as regeneration, not just of resources, but of relationships, values, and wisdom. And that begins at home, in our daily choices, in the way we speak to our parents, cook our food, design our products, and teach our children.

It is time to de-market sustainability and re-root it in the soil of our consciousness. It is time to stop packaging the Earth into campaigns and start living like it is sacred again.