What does sustainability smell like?

How exactly does sustainability smell like fresh cut grass? It's a clean smell, yes (never mind the gas fumes). I admit the smell conjures up thoughts of summer days and BBQs in the backyard; however, I doubt there is much of anything about a mowed lawn that is sustainable --

- energy is used perhaps wastefully to maintain artificial landscape
- many lawns have invasive/ non-native grasses that interfere with the native flora & fauna
- fertilizer & pesticides (used to keep the grass green and free of "weeds") make their way into our water supply and ground water having implications on human health and the environment on a local scale -- not to mention what happens when those nutrients eventually end-up in the ocean and cause DEAD zones (you like to eat fish? not fertilizing your lawn will at least in a small part help keep fisheries healthy)

Yep, I like the smell as well, but I like clean water and the idea of REAL sustainability better. :)

Not sure about sustainability, but environmentalism smells like the spray on the front of a 35' sailing yacht in the middle of the clear blue Pacific. Nice site -- kudos yall.

Forget fresh cut grass. I say sustainability smells like rowantree. You're way too smart. :)

Funny, I was arguing with my husband about our lawn mower this weekend. It's broken and the grass is long, natural, beautiful, but an eye sore to the neighborhood. I recommended we find an old push mower for the time being. We have an acre of land so my husband sensed a heart attack coming on at just the thought of pushing those old machines from our youth. Still - far better than all that wasted energy on a gas-powered mower!

Sustainability smells like oceans and rivers. Rivers are the veins and arteries and oceans are the place to which all water, and thus life, flows, and from which it returns to the land.

Interasting comments and I agree that sustainability can probably smell like many things we find that occur in the natural world. I think we can all safely say that it does not smell like gasoline or for that matter many other things such as Smog, car exhaust etc.....

Yeah, I wish the ocean after a hurricane was an option. Although, if you have ever been behind a veggi converted car it does smell a lot like french fries.

Sustainability smells like so much. I tend to think of sustainability in business terms: stability, growth, profitability. Somehow, this translates into operating in harmony with the environment. Coincidence? We must begin to embrace our environment, conserve our resources and align our business missions with long-term goals.