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rowing up, the word sustainability was never a common term in my household. My parents, like many others, focused on providing for our family, paying the bills and getting my siblings and I to school. I wasn’t exposed to the idea of being “eco-friendly” until growing up a little and learning about Earth Day at school and how to garden from my grandma. Now, I see the word sustainability thrown around often with brands, influencers, etc. But, even more so, I see people or companies throwing the word sustainable into their marketing in order to seem more humane, but not really backing it up. Similarly, with social media and new trends at our fingertips constantly, we’ve learned how to talk the talk and not walk the walk. We learned how to make our lives “aesthetically pleasing” for an Instagram feed, but not actually enjoy it. We’ve learned how to seem ethical but not actually live that ethical lifestyle consistently. “Sustainability means that something can be reused, recycled, then repeated in some way because we aren’t over using resources,” fashion design major Serenity Duran said. “It also means we can preserve and use our resources wisely without exhausting goods to meet short term goals.” Sustainability has become one of the latest trends, by thrifting and reducing the amount of fast fashion bought, going vegan, DIY-ing, advertising for more sustainable things with less plastic packaging, and much more than I’d like to keep up with. All of these are not bad ideals to have, and I hope to see more people take them on! The problem is not the ideals however, it is the execution. The same people who say that fast fashion is disgusting post about their Amazon clothes haul, the same people who go vegan may still be eating out and not reducing their carbon footprint and buying bottled drinks everyday.
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