Part 1: Visioneering Project

Do the stories you tell yourself contribute to the optimism or pessimism?  What might you need to change to enable you to envision a sustainable future?

Before taking this course I thought I was fully aware of what being eco-friendly truly meant.  However, I have learned more through these seven weeks by reading the articles and doing a little extra research to find out that we are the ones causing the harm to our environment.  Of course I have always been pessimistic and never really thought that I could make a difference in our environment.  I have always felt that I needed to do more in order to make a difference. However because of being pessimistic I never realized that I could make a difference as an individual.  It only takes one person to make an impact on a group of people to make them see your views and how we can make a change in our environment.   Mahatma Gandhi saying, “Be the change you want to see in the world” is exactly what we all need to be doing.  If we want things to change we have to learn as individuals to change and adapt to new circumstances. 

In order to envision a sustainable future, I need to be able to change the way I live and they way I think about our environment. 

What are the key tenets or characteristics that define your vision?

• ·      Education on a sustainable environment
• ·      Limiting consumption
• ·      Utilizing local product
• ·      Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

What are the mental modes, which will be required to create that future? What would one have to believe to bring about your vision?

• ·      I feel like everyone should be required to take a sustainable course in order to be educated on the environment and the impact we have on it.
• ·      I feel that in today’s society people value having more than what is necessary but over consumption isn’t doing anything for their well-being or for our environment. 
• ·      People don’t realize how much domestic products have an impact on our environment.  By using domestic products, results in air pollution emissions from the transportation of imported goods can be reduced.
• ·      By reducing, reusing and recycling products we can meet the needs that we require to live and more towards a sustainable environment.

What are some habitual beliefs, which may present barriers to your vision?

In order to bring my vision of the future people must give up the way they think it is expectable to live in today’s society.  In other words people need to learn how to live their lives with only utilizing what they need to survive.  Educating people about the environmental impact we have on it, is were we need to start. If we want to see a change in our environment we need to educate people.   As mention by Kim and Oki, authors of Visioneering: An Essential Framework in Sustainability, “visioneering requires the synergy of inspiration, conviction, action, determination and completion”.  We need to be able to believe that we can make a difference in our environment and take action towards become a more sustainable environment. 

How might you communicate and engage other in your vision that will compel them to follow?

In order to engage my vision to others I would have to educate them in a simple matter.  When I read something for the first time I always read the bullet point first.  People don’t have time to sit and research everything they consume, so in order to compel people to follow my vision they must be educated in simple matter in order to help them understand how they can become an impact to our environment.