Is Sustainability Sustainable?

Here's an excerpt from interesting letter from the FT:
"Sir, Let us all hope that Stefan Stern’s prediction of “sustainability” as the Next Big Thing in management comes to pass in 2008 (“Goodbye to corporate social responsibility?”, Comment & Analysis, December 31). The prospects for sustainable enterprise will be bleak indeed if the world is not able to tackle successfully issues such as climate change, collapsing ecosystems and endemic poverty and the social, political and economic consequences these imply."

While the need is clear and general public acceptance of the concept is coming, we still live in a society where the economy is driven by over-consumption. We've just finished the holiday season with its paper, ribbon, and bows wrapping so many gifts that will soon sit unused on closet shelves. Stores opening at 4 a.m. or, in the case of Macy's in New York staying open for four days around the clock, are just the latest in the drive to keep us all spending and acquiring.

We have to figure out how to slow this consumption down without sending the economy into a downward spiral. In the U.S. we are so dependent on consumer spending that it's hard to do -- especially when we are already on (or over) the precipice to a recession thanks to the excesses of the financial whiz kids and their zeal to peddle sub-prime mortgages and the related financial instruments.

The true test of the sustainability of sustainability will be whether it can last through a recession. I'm afraid we're about to find out if it can.