On December 9th, we had the first event for our Third Place for Thinking. The discussion topic was "What is the true sustainability? - To step further beyond good and evel".

Although “sustainability” is a big topic, I wanted to discuss this as one of my biggest questions, from the “unsustainable” life that I used to have. To be honest, I was quite concerned about that I would be annoyed if I talked about such thing as sustainability, but it proved unfounded, having many people with different background and perspective.

What I learnt from this event was that there are multiple levels and perspectives for sustainability. In my case, I have been struggling to find a way out from capitalistic mindsets, and therefore I had assumed this was one of the issues of interest. Some of the participants were approaching to the issue from different points of view, which was an eye-opening opportunity for me.

Global environment, for instance, is too huge as an issue to address, which makes us feel powerless. But I found many people are moving to the next step, rather than overwhelmed, thinking “What can we do from the point we stand now?”

One of the participants said, “There is a huge difference between staying in powerlessness by saying ‘it’s too big as a problem to tackle with’ and bearing it in one’s mind even if there is no immediate solution to commit. Just keeping it in mind, we unconsciously take small actions, and through accumulation of these small actions, we can make a big difference, which would lead to a major solution. I would like the Third Place for Thinking to be an opportunity for such small actions.

In the following, I summarize the talk by Mr. Tomoya Fukui, the guest speaker for the event. First of all, I met him at a seminar on a local currency. While working as a member of CSR team at a pharmaceutical company, he works for a recruitment consulting firm that focuses on the companies and non-profit organizations engaging in social issues, although he had a long career in the field of sales. The reason I resonated with his thoughts on sustainability that it was neither an ideal theory or an experience-based know-hows, but a deep insight he developed through his earlier live with competitions and quotas.

In his talk, he pointed out that we have been deeply entangled in a “system”, where we tend to ignore our values or beliefs, due to which we keep failing to make constructive discussions.

“We should protect the environment”, for instance, is a judgement that indicates an evaluation, good or bad. “I want to live in a green and clean environment”, on the other hand, is a mere emotion or preference, based on which, however, we might be able to start a better discussion. For him, “emotions” mean what one values in their unconscious level, something they feel truly important for themselves. And NVC (Nonviolent Communication) is a method for him to delve into our unconscious level. What we should do is “observations” rather than “evaluations”. Making observations helps us become aware of our own emotions and what our heart desires. By going through the process of observations, we become independent from the good-or-bad dichotomy, enabling us to have our own perspective.

He thinks that negative emotions such as anger, or selfishness and ego, are not a bad thing at all. By suppressing them, ironically, we end up with the burst of negative emotions, in the disguise of justice. Ego or selfishness is also an important part of ourselves, and we have to take care of them. By accepting and embracing the negative emotions, we can develop care for others.

Selfishness based on one’s emotions, rather than self-sacrifice for obligation, is the key for sustainability. His conclusion was very thought provoking.

As we continued our discussion at an izakaya bar after the event, he said that for NCV they are not just learning nonviolent communication methods but also making occasions to let angers out. It is very interesting that the acceptance of negativities is also a part of their practice to be nonviolent.