What is sustainability?

Last summer the three of us (including our son who was 5 years old at the time) traveled Europe. In our 18 day journey, we travelled to 7 cities in 4 countries, learned about sustainable living and lifestyle through the people who live there as well as sustainable items.

What we want to share today is that the word "sustainability" has a very broad but also deep meaning. Just as life and lifestyle differs between cities and rural towns, so do the ideas and meaning of the term differ.

For instance in Stockholm, Sweden, we saw that everything from clothing to food to lifestyle was thought through with sustainability in mind. In Rimini, Italy we were able to experience sustainable living through slow-life, organic and local consumption food culture.

*ロンドンのコール・ドロップス・ヤードにあるスローライフな風景 / Slow-life at London's Coal Drops Yard

*ロンドンの本屋さんで見つけた子供向けの絵本 /  Children's book we found in London

*ストックホルムで見つけたオーガニック、エシカル専門のセレクトショップ / Ethical shop we found in Stockholm

*ストックホルムで見つけた、再生資源を使って作られたインテリアたち / Products made out of recycled resources at Stockholm

*ストックホルムで食べたヴィーガンサラダ / Vegan restaurant in Stockholm

*フィレンツェのフェラガモ本社で開催された展示会 / Sustainability exhibition at Ferragamo in Florence

*イタリアのリミニにあるビオキッチン / Bio restaurant in Rimini

*リミニのビーチで見つけたブラウンシュガー / Brown sugar found at the beach in Rimini

Sustainability is not a one size fits all idea or mindset; it can vary between countries, regions and even people. It's definitely a concept we wouldn't have been able to understand with experiencing it all through our journey.

The goal of our website is not about just selling sustainable products; we want to introduce and share different hints and tips for a sustainable lifestyle from different people living in different countries through our City Diaries. We hope we can create a platform where people can share ideas and thoughts because we believe it's important that we are all informed in order to be inspired to make changes.

The word "sustainable" that we use has these meanings behind it; we think it is important to understand this especially because the word is used so frequently and sometimes not in the correct context.  Sustainability shouldn't be used just as a buzz word.