Metrics on less

The world of sustainability is deeply rooted in metrics.  There is the saying "you can't manage what you don't measure".  And the big push is what you are doing less of.  Because less means you are more efficient, you save more, you use less stuff or consumption of goods.  And all of this is about sustainability because we need to live with less in the future with a growing constraint on resources.  But that's not a bad thing - people do well with less.  Because less means - less things to stress about, less stuff to trip over and clean and put away, less means more time for the things you love.

When you have a baseline of one behavior it is relatively straight forward to show how you measure less of something.  For instance, your home uses 10 mega watts of energy a year.  You change some behavior, change out some light bulbs, unplug electronics and soon you are using less energy.  You can measure this and track it.  This is the core of so many sustainability programs across the world.  To take their existing business and keep producing, but with less.  And it is not just energy, but water, materials, chemicals, maybe even people.

What will be interesting for companies of the future is to show their commitment to sustainability, but are already starting out with less.  For instance, a new company builds their building with the latest in design and technology such that it doesn't use any energy off the grid - this company starts with less.  Maybe another company doesn't use any packaging for their products - they don't have less of anything because they started out smart and didn't need to reduce.

Your current business now, and especially new businesses can really set themselves up for a bumpy future if they are relying on less to still offer their products and services.  The idea here is to offer more if the things that have a positive impact, like trust, authenticity, care, and respect - this makes the customer happier.  And actions like these create a connection and build a story stronger than more stuff. 

You may ask yourself "Well, How did I get here?"

I have expanded...
And not in a good way.  As Parkinson's Law states - the work expands to fill the time allotted - the same can go for - the stuff expands to fill the space.
Two things I have noticed about my personal expansion.  That makes me scratch my head and ask really - how did i get here?
In 2007 I bought a car, I had owned a car back in University for a year to help take my grandmother around, but didn't like having the overhead of the car and sold it.  I survived for 8 years without one after that. (For full disclosure, my significant others during that time own vehicles or had friends who lived close).  But I didn't own a car and I would take public transportation, bike or even walk.  I was surprised how little I relied on the car.  I also was in pretty good shape.
But in 2007 I bought a car - I was living in Ventura CA and well, you really need a vehicle in Southern California as distances are far and public transportation is spotty.  Now 4 years later I cannot believe how reliant I have become on that car.  I have now fit my life around the convenience of jumping in and getting somewhere in 5 minutes.
So this month I had to say to myself - ENOUGH - you are becoming so lazy, I was driving to my Yoga class that was 1.5 miles away.  Riding my bike would add 10 more minutes to the commute and burn about 50 calories. So no more convenient driving - I have to ask myself, do I NEED to drive?  If I planned better could I walk, bike or carpool?  90% of the time the answer is yes. So that is the new plan.

The other area of expansion is in my home.  When we moved to Encinitas we found a home larger than the one we were living in Ventura.  Once everything was moved in we have two completely empty rooms.  Well 18 months later - we have a full house.  I will say most of the new furniture has come from Andy's woodworking projects.  Regardless I did have a hand in filling up the space - Parkinson was right, I could not let that empty space sit there empty for long before I added a plant, a chair, whatever the space needed.
Now I look around at all of the stuff and think - how did I get here?

Are we just destined to grow into habits or is there some way of steering clear?  Well at least now I see my behavior and maybe I can try and change it?