Sustainability is a word that gets thrown around quite a bit these days. As America moved towards a “green” revolution a few years back, the word sustainable and green got tacked on to many things. Here where I live in Maryland, a local HV/AC provider started advertising that they offered a “green” way to heat or cool your home, tagging the slogan “sustainability you can count on” right to their service trucks. Nothing had changed, they still installed HV/AC systems based on whatever technology client’s selected. Clorox released a line of “green works” cleaners, the sustainable way to clean up your messes. Many other companies jumped on the bandwagon of green, and suddenly consumers were left wondering if these were truly sustainable products, or if it was all hype. Sustainability is a tough cookie to understand. It usually is the high road, the tougher way. It’s not easy to make sustainable products. I liken it to a roll of paper towels. You tear off a towel, use it and just throw it away, out of sight and out of mind. Yet behind our backs, trees are tumbling down to create those towels, and paper is filling up landfills across America. I’m surprised Bounty, or some other paper towel manufacture hasn’t snapped a green nameplate on one of their products. You can find something sustainable about nearly anything, but that doesn’t mean that it truly is. 
Merriam-Webster says this about the word sustainable: of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged. In the reef aquarium world, we are harvesting a resource, whether it be coral, fish or any other form of marine ecosystem. We aren’t harvesting it as food, or to provide shelter, or to better the natural environment. In essence, we are harvesting it for our own personal enjoyment and entertainment. I often make the argument that benefits of this harvest include learning more about what keeps marine life healthy, or fostering a love of marine life in those who are unexposed to coral reefs. While I think those arguments have merit, they exist in the eye of the beholder. So what is a sustainable reef aquarium, what is a green reef aquarium? Is it an aquarium that uses the least amount of electricity possible, or one that holds only captive bred livestock?… More:
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