Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor

I’ll admit that I don’t know why things last or much about sustainability. Truth is many of us don’t. History notes that no matter how rigorous any one project or intervention may seem, even if it was published in the best of journals or by the best teams always eager to share their brilliant minds, in the end, most projects will not last and all we can end up with is the sentiment I began with, that I don’t know why things last.

I have read plenty papers on this subject, connected with fields as vast as engineering and business for this topic and almost all of them agree that you have to have the right champions from day 1 eager to work to ensure that the project remains. The first obligation we have with any project we begin is to ensure that we make it last. The second, is to understand why, what and how to last. We owe the people who connect with us, learn from us, believe in us and maybe even helped us to ensure that our projects will last. But that obligation doesn’t come from hoping that somehow your project will last. If it’s hope, then be rest assured that it may not last. Hoping that our projects will last, simply because we noted it or used some fancy tool to show it will is a thing of fallacy. No one truly knows why or how to last. No one owes us funding to do so to. The feeling of being owed or expecting things from others to last, is the beginning of our failure with lasting. You can’t sustain anything you don’t own or create yourself with your blood, sweat and tears plus funds. Funding too isn’t the problem. Expecting funds to sustain anything is a trap. The feeling of needing funds whether it’s from government or funders is also toxic. These days, my attention to sustainability begins with an acknowledgment that I don’t have the answers. None of us do. But at least we are trying and honestly that is all that matters and seeing deers who know how to last with humans all around!