Sustainability without sacrifice: Rethinking the path to a greener future

I am not fond of cold showers, especially when it is cold outside. But I’ve become familiar with the art of taking a cold shower as a resident of the Duke Smart Home, an energy-efficient residence on Central Campus designed to be a living laboratory for sustainable technologies.

Hot water at the Smart Home is made by a heat pump that is powered by solar panels perched atop the home’s roof. This system is augmented by a gas water heater. Unfortunately, during cloudy stretches of the winter, the solar panels don’t provide enough electricity to power the system and the gas heater can’t keep up with demand by itself. You get the picture — no sun equals cold shower.

Does sustainability require sacrifice? This is the central question of my showering conundrum. I came to the realization that while sustainability may entail the responsible stewardship of resources, it cannot result in a lower quality of life. A fundamental part of the human psyche is to improve one’s lot in life, regardless of the consequences to the environment. Convincing people to abandon their modern lives and amenities in the name of sustainability is a losing strategy. Fortunately, choosing between sustainability and modernity is a false dichotomy.

Humans struggle to give up things that they enjoy. Think about how hard dieting is. 95% of people who go on diets fail. Why? Research points to evolution. As a species that has been deprived of calories for most of its existence, our instinct is to eat as much as we possibly can, as we may not know when our next meal will be. The same logic applies to pretty much everything else. Now that man has reached the zenith of his technological prowess, he does not simply have the willpower to put his new gadgets away and go back to a life of uncertainty.

Asking people to give up amenities and pay more for inferior products because they are sustainable will fail. In my showering example, I stopped taking cold showers. Instead, I went to Wilson Gym, where the showers are nice and hot. In less trivial terms, most people won’t stop flying out of sustainability concerns. Even though flying contributes to climate change, air travel massively benefits our society by providing unparalleled connectivity and mobility between distant places. Without the invention of the airplane, many Duke students would not have even considered attending this university. In this way, environmental degradation isn’t driven by corporate greed alone but also by millions of ordinary people going about their lives.

If building a sustainable future required substantial personal sacrifices, then we would be in trouble. But the energy transition does not require suffering. In his book “Cheaper, Faster, Better,” businessman and politician Tom Steyer argues that eliminating fossil fuels will propel, not hold back, our economy. Renewable technologies are well on their way to becoming cheaper, faster and better than their fossil fuel-based counterparts. Solar is now the “cheapest electricity in history,” according to the International Energy Agency. Batteries that can store energy for up to 100 hours are increasing the reliability of renewable energy, avoiding the cold shower problem. And this is only one out of many examples where sustainable alternatives are beating fossil fuels on price, speed and quality.

Decarbonization is not only about averting a climate crisis. Sustainability tracks with efficiency, allowing companies to lower their carbon footprint and save money at the same time. For electricity, grid enhancing technologies (GETs) can reduce electricity losses by up to 20%, resulting in the same proportion of emissions reductions. For buildings, energy-efficient aerogels that enhance window insulation improve home energy performance by 65%, reducing emissions and utility bills. Companies such as Kubik and Charah Solutions take trash and turn them into commodities, reducing waste and making a profit at the same time.

We must reframe the narrative surrounding sustainability and sacrifice. For too long, environmentalists have framed combatting climate change as a personal struggle, a victory that can be won through suffering and discipline alone. Though our individual actions do make a difference, we have limited pathways to live a low carbon lifestyle while also being a part of modern society. Instead, we must focus on creating systems that allow people to live a low carbon lifestyle without even noticing a change in their daily lives. This can range from building more walkable cities to developing sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). We can further this movement to a sustainable economy by purchasing lower carbon alternatives and investing in climate tech companies that are pioneering new breakthroughs.