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My Love-Hate Relationship with Sustainability

Author: Dr Mélodie Herbas

We’re all familiar with the word sustainability, and most of us grasp the idea of it – meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own, by balancing environmental, social, and economic considerations. However, there are far fewer of us who understand how to apply the concept of sustainability effectively.

The first time I truly noticed sustainability was about ten years ago. I found myself taking more and more notice of the mountain of packaging waste piling up in my bin after every grocery run. It was getting out of hand. Fruits wrapped in plastic, vegetables in more plastic, cleaning products, single-use everything… it was overwhelming.

Like many of us do when we fit shopping around work and family life, I had been doing it without thinking. Supermarket shelves were convenient and colourful, but then suddenly all I could see was waste. I felt sick. It hit me: something had to change.

That moment sent me spiralling into a world I hadn’t explored before. Searching the internet for better ways to live, discovering new terms like zero waste, bulk buying, minimalism, and sustainability. But the more I read, the more confused I became. There were so many opinions, contradictions, and lifestyle “rules” that it was hard to know where to start. And when I brought it up with people around me? Most were just as unsure or disinterested. I was motivated, but I was also lost.

The First Steps

Slowly, things began to shift. I started to essentially audit my purchasing habits, one item at a time. Instead of shampoo in plastic bottles, I switched to solid bars wrapped in cardboard. I swapped foil for reusable beeswax wraps. Bamboo toothbrushes replaced plastic ones. Every decision was a conscious one, aimed at reducing waste and living lighter.

But here’s where the hate part of the story started to creep in.

I began to see the cracks in the so-called “sustainable” solutions. Take bamboo toothbrushes which seemed like a great idea, right? Bamboo is fast-growing and renewable. But most of these toothbrushes are made in China, the bristles are nylon (non-recyclable in the UK), and unless you separate the head from the handle and compost it properly, it ends up in landfill like everything else. It was my first personal lesson in greenwashing, when something looks eco-friendly on the surface but doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.

Sustainability at Work

At the same time, sustainability was entering my professional life too. Working in the nuclear industry, I began seeing “sustainability” show up more and more in project discussions, especially when assessing strategies and choosing design options. The word became a trendy buzzword often used, but rarely understood in its full complexity. I was intrigued and keen to deepen my understanding of sustainability.

In a personal context, sustainability often feels like a moral compass for protecting the environment, reducing waste, living simply. But in a professional setting, it’s a balancing act. You’re juggling environmental impact with social responsibility and economic viability. And in industries like ours, where safety, regulations, and technical challenges reign supreme, it gets very complicated, very quickly.

Take concrete, for example. We all know concrete has a massive environmental footprint. So how do we use it more sustainably? We could reduce the quantity used, but that might compromise operational safety. We could invest in eco-friendly formulations, but those might require costly R&D or rely on imported materials. We could reuse crushed concrete from demolition, but that creates regulatory, logistical, and quality concerns. Every “green” choice has a trade-off.

This is the paradox of sustainability. For every good intention, there’s a compromise. For every benefit, a cost. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer—only informed decisions shaped by values, goals, and practical limitations.

The Human Factor

One of the trickiest parts of sustainability, especially in a team or industry, is that it’s a normative concept. In other words, it’s built on values. What one person sees as the most sustainable choice, another might see as wasteful or impractical. That can cause tension, or worse, lead to sustainability being ignored altogether in decision-making.
And yet, here we are. The UK nuclear industry has pledged to support the Government’s Net Zero 2050 target. So:

• How do we, as individuals and professionals, rise to the challenge?
• How do we give people the tools, and confidence to make informed, sustainable choices?
• How do we navigate a world where the “right” answer is rarely clear, and where real change often feels slow, hard, or invisible?

Choosing Hope

I won’t pretend to have all the answers. The truth is, living and working sustainably can sometimes feel like swimming against the tide. You make thoughtful choices, challenge habits, ask the hard questions… and then face the weight of industrial systems, government policies, and global trade that often seem to push in the opposite direction. It’s frustrating. Demoralising, even.

But here’s the truth: your efforts are not in vain.

Every time we pause and ask, “Is there a better way?” we’re doing more than just making eco-conscious choices. We’re nudging the needle forward. We’re challenging the status quo. We’re becoming part of the solution, not just cogs in the system.

That’s exactly what drives our team every day.

We specialise in helping organisations embed sustainable thinking into some of the most complex environments, especially the nuclear industry. It’s a sector with unique challenges, but also powerful potential for transformation.

By taking a holistic approach, we support a wide range of clients to break down barriers and design sustainability strategies that don’t just tick boxes but make sense, they work, and they last.

Thanks to our deep understanding of the full waste management lifecycle, we’re uniquely placed to pinpoint where innovation can be introduced to drive more sustainable operations. We don’t just look inward either because collaboration is key.

We actively work with subject matter experts across industries and academia to ensure the solutions we propose are robust, balanced, and built for real-world impact. From shaping complex sustainability programmes in line with national goals to helping teams navigate technical challenges with forward-thinking strategies, our mission is clear: helping the nuclear industry move confidently toward a more sustainable future.

We’re proud to contribute to the NDA Sustainability Strategy and the UK’s broader NetZero ambitions—combining tools like Data Quality Objectives (DQO) and Behavioural Change Science to help organisations make informed, actionable change. And maybe that’s what sustainability really is:

Not perfection, but awareness.

Not grand gestures, but small, consistent steps.

Not having all the answers but asking the right questions. As Vincent van Gogh once said, “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

And that’s exactly how progress is made. So, here’s to all the small things.

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