The Sustainability Class: How to Take Back Our Future from Lifestyle Environmentalists

by Vijay Kolinjivadi, Aaron Vansintjan

An original argument that environmental sustainability has been co-opted by the urban elite, along with examples from around the world of ways we can save our planet

With more urban residents interested in living sustainably, we have seen the emergence of a green-tech service economy premised around a kind of “lifestyle environmentalism.” Concerns over sustainability have been co-opted to sell a high-tech urban lifestyle, causing cities to become more unequal and unsustainable, cementing the elite’s status, and excluding the working class, racial minorities, and women. Focusing on what they term the “sustainability class”—a woke and wealthy set of urbanites convinced that sustainability can be achieved through individual actions, green and “smart” development, and technological efficiency—authors Vijay Kolinjivadi and Aaron Vansintjan challenge many of the popular ideas about saving the planet. It is actually the approach of the sustainability class itself, the authors argue, that is unsustainable; improving eco-efficiency within a capitalist, growth-oriented system will neither save us nor lead to true sustainability. Vivid and conversational but also challenging, The Sustainability Class explores how, from Los Angeles to Hanoi, and from Google’s “smart city” in Toronto to Abu Dhabi, investors all over the world are rushing to capitalize on going green. By contrast, using real-world examples of housing and energy strategies, food production, transport, tourism, and waste management, they show how ordinary people around the world are truly building a more ecological future through collective organization in their everyday lives. In doing so, they reclaim ecology and true sustainability for everyone, so it is no longer just the domain of an elite who seek to devise more sophisticated ways to shift the costs of their “greener than thou” lifestyles onto the rest of us.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

Published December 10, 2024

Reviews

[Elizabeth OH · Rating 5 out of 5]

What does unfettered capitalism and liberal ideology create in the quest for feel-good saving the world from capitalism? The sustainability class. Vijay and Aaron follow the absurdist, rational and creative actors who perpetuate and profit off a “sustainable" lifestyle based on green consumerism. With a little bit of snark, they lead us to realize there is no savior in those who seek to sell or buy our way out of despair. Only through collective action that disrupts extractivism and builds alternatives towards the public and common good can we build a truly sustainable lifestyle for us all.

[Geert Vansintjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A neccessary book.

[Jenny Lincoln · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found that this well-written and interesting book mostly accurately captures and explains my impressions of the changed and divided society in the U.S - especially in New Orleans, Louisiana - after spending the past 15 years (and most of the past 25 years) abroad teaching English in Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and other Asian countries. It is one of several new books at the New Orleans Public Library addressing current social issues that I have been able to check out recently. It accurately captures our Mid-City neighborhood, with the expensive Whole Foods Market - full of high-class and educated people - located right next to the Dollar General and near the Family Dollar, two Latino markets, and small Vietnamese shops, in an ethnically mixed neighborhood full of crime and homeless and crazy people. As well as the "environmental" and "energy-efficient" measures in New Orleans and Louisiana - such as public taps that give off hardly enough water for anyone to wash their face after a bus ride; air-con so unnecessarily cool that you need a jacket in summer; "auto-flush" toilets that result unclean bathrooms everywhere, scared kids, and careless people; and "terminator" biodegradable plastic bags that can hardly be re-used, because they get holes in them; and harsh LED street and other lights that give me headaches. I would contrast these circumstances to the far more effective and socially sensitive environmental measures in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where I lived for the past 10 years, such as ceiling fans rather than air-con in most places in traditional, open, ventilated buildings that are environmentally sustainable and also the main tourist attraction for the area; one-baht drinking water machines and free drinking water everywhere; and low-cost, healthy food in stalls run by small businesses everywhere and places such as the Royal Project Markets. In Thailand, organic and healthy food is no more expensive than regular food, due to the fact that it is sponsored by the King (especially the Late King Bhumibol Adulyadej) and is available even free in places like the Vegetarian Society, which also sponsors a sustainable secondhand shop and so many other excellent markets. I would qualify the critique, however, with the fact that, in our community, the Whole Foods market sponsors many useful organizations and a good vegetable garden; sells some inexpensive items like healthy sodas for 99 cents and has a water machine similar to the ones in Thailand; and is a good place to use Wi Fi both in the cafe and the nearby community library. As far as this book, I also like the descriptions, in the second part of the book, of movements that combine environmental sustainability with helping low-income people. One of them, the one to save the forest in some parts of Atlanta, reminded me of the movement I took part in the Druid Hills neighborhood - along with my grandmother - in the summer of 1993, when our neighbors' father died, and his children sold his land, which had some of the last virgin forest left, to create a housing development that was not in harmony with the architectural style in our Druid Hills neighborhood at all. We protested and tried to create a Druid Hills Nature Preserve; however, sadly, our efforts did not succeed, and the other side won the court case.

[Danyul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is one of the best books on ecological urgency in a really long time. They attempt to be a little snarky which may or my not be helpful. They start off explaining what exactly they mean when they say 'the sustainability class.' Ultimately, they are referring to the sort of people who think we can capitalism our way out of climate catastrophe. There are many different ways people attempt to justify this whether in good faith or not. They use the example of a community in California that people moved to in the 1970's as rebellious hippies for the place over time to become a greenwashed hellscape full of organic stores and free trade shops where houses are millions of dollars and nothing is free and there are surveillance cameras everywhere to make sure the wrong kind of people aren't about. There are also the sorts of people that think we can invest our way out of the climate crisis by investing in 'green' companies as if there were such a thing.

The authors explain very well how there isn't a question of how to best manipulate capitalism in a way that we can keep it and the earth. We can't. They detail very well why we can't and the ways non-profits and multinationals try to convince us and force us to stay in this system.

Two problems arise in the book. I'll probably edit this later but for now I'll only type one. They briefly bring up the issue of nuclear energy. While they acknowledge the urgent need to stop burning fossil fuels they are not convinced that a switch to nuclear energy in the interim period of switching to renewables is a good idea. And this is the reason they give.

"These examples should make us think twice about relying about relying on a technology that so greatly depends on secure supply chains, large bodies of water that don't run out during periods of drought, political stability, long-term centralized planning, and the capacity to store nuclear waste for millennia..."

Now, ignoring the last one because it is specific to nuclear energy the first four criteria they give are quite literally criteria for almost any human institution ever. A disruption in any one of those things is inherently negative for anything humans do. That is not unique to nuclear power.

[Jim Gallen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on my reading of this book, the “Sustainability Class” consists of wealthy progressive urbanites who, having despaired of prevailing in the political arenas, seek to save the environment through individual action, green finance and technological innovation. Their commitment is demonstrated by their willingness to fly their private jets to swank conference centers in which they compare their zero emission homes and cars while sipping tropical drinks cooled by ice flown in from icebergs, all satisfied that they “are doing something”.

The authors cite many examples of purported net zero communities, financed by highly polluting societies, two being the proposed Neom in Saudi Arabia, a leading hydrocarbon exporter, and Ecopark in Hanoi.

The underlying principles of this book are that the wealthier the individual, the larger its pollution and carbon footprint and that management of wild and agricultural lands are better left in the hands of the indigenous peoples who have managed them in an ecologically balanced, but probably economically underproductive manner over the ages The ultimate recommendation seems to be to take factors of production, such as housing, plant growth and others out of the market and let it be run by the areas’ current inhabitants.

This may be of interest to readers searching for radical reorganization of approaches to environmental challenges, or those wanting to hear the other side. I remain unpersuaded.

[Christine Convery · Rating 3 out of 5]

The central critique of this book hit close to home, so I'm still sorting through my feelings about the book itself vs my own sense of guilt for trying to shop my way to a green planet. I loved their examples for the most part and would have appreciated even more, as well as the few graphs and data mixed in. I certainly do feel inspired to engage more with my neighbors and take direct action. A personal (but also factual) frustration was how often "vegan" is used as a derogatory, lumping vegans in with all the wrong kinds of yuppie consumers. Veganism is in fact a boycott, and in my experience practiced by politically e gaged leftists. I also found myself frustrated with critiques of "urbanists", and with both of these simply did not recognize the caricatures presented. I'm not sure who I'll recommend this book to as it feels a bit scathing and in the end does not try to propose any specific alternatives to the sustainability class it criticizes.

[Jillian Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book with excellent ideas and a novel take on what it means to be an ecologically-minded person in these times. The writing was good, just very long-winded and overly fluffy quite often. Lots of repetition and even copy-paste sentence reuse. But overall, I think it was a great book for those who this book would consider the core audience; the “lifestyle environmentalists” and the “sustainability class”. Humbling yourself is something we can all stand a dose of these day.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for everyone who claims to be 'eco-conscious' or a leftist (though, frankly a must read for everyone in the West).

[Mark Danowsky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ideas are presented in an obnoxious fashion.

Many approaches suggested are unrealistic and not grounded in reality.

There are judgments/observations/commentary made that are biased.

[Grits Helme · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Ecology without social justice is just gardening"

This book was excellent, and made me look at my own "green" habits in ways that made me uncomfortable, which is always needed.