This idea came across my mind intensively after I watched the documentary on Netflix called Seaspiracy. Having spent more than 22 months at sea as a seafarer, I can see these realities first hand; armed with the experience, it gave me the ability to connect the dots by watching it and it really opened my eyes.

This will be a 6 minutes read. The goal here is not to tell you what to do, but to give several options on what we can do as individuals to make an atomic impact if we do it together as a community.

Understanding the idea of Sustainability.

Over the course of several years in DotDesign, we've worked with several, if not many, sustainable brands. Supported by the fact that we were based in Bali previously, it is not a surprise where the word "sustainable" is one of the most effective marketing bullet points to be put in each and every brand you can touch on in the island of gods.

The dictionary definition of sustainable (adjective):

able to be maintained at a certain rate or level. "sustainable economic growth"
able to be upheld or defended. "sustainable definitions of good educational practice"

After really trying to understand what sustainability is, in a short conclusion for us it really means a process that can let us do what we're doing as long as possible without deteriorating its main source.

Question what you've learned in your life; it takes intelligence to unlearn what a human has absorbed over the course of life, and re-align with today's situation.

Have a critical thinking system.

Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to do or what to believe. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. — Joe Lau & Jonathan Chan, University of Hong Kong

Having to question a lot of the knowledge you have is another skill and ability. Because in the era where information is literally one touch away, being selective and taking one step further to validate is one way for you to have a better source, better opinion, better understanding in pretty much everything. And I promise you, you'd be surprised how much we thought we know by the greatly marketed information that turned out to be just bogus.

Learn about your source of everything.

Source is everything. This might sound like another "unimportant task in addition to your daily tasks." But really, if we don't care about our source, we really need to care that there's no planet B. No point of doing what you're doing if it does no good to the future. Imagine that what you've worked on will be doomed by 2048, because we particularly like to consume one thing, and it's in a mass scale.

Armed with the two points above, we are trying to encourage people to ask questions to themselves: if there's one thing you can do to contribute to the planet, what would that be?

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7 pillars of brand strategy →

How to become a slightly better human being by contributing to our planet.

Understanding the idea of Sustainability.

Have a critical thinking system.

Learn about your source of everything.

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