Book Review: The Power of Sustainable Thinking by Bob Doppelt  

Bob Doppelt’s The Power of Sustainable Thinking proposes strategies to combat climate change from a psychological and systematic perspective. Doppelt describes ways our attitude to the environment is flawed. Consequently, he suggests strategies to develop systems and motivate organizations to change their thinking and actions towards sustainability.   

Here are the key points that resonated with me.  

What is Sustainability  

Doppelt describes a sustainable system not as one characterized by lifelessness and rigidity or one where its resources cannot be used. Instead, he describes it as one that is dynamic and fluid, yet balanced. He describes that a sustainable system is one with disturbances, inflows and outflows, yet at equilibrium. This is because, by Allah’s mercy, it has robust feedback, self-maintenance, and repair mechanisms (Doppelt 29, 32). He also notes that this balance is sustainable when the resources are extracted at an equal rate to their regeneration, leading to no net change or imbalance, inshā’ Allah (Doppelt 29).  

Nowadays, humans are disturbing the ecosystem’s balance through our contribution of waste, greenhouse gases, and pollutants. More precisely, we are producing and wasting them faster than it is taking to break them down, leading to an imbalance (Doppelt 29, 30)  

The Unsustainable Mindset of Companies 

Doppelt tackled the issue of problematic mindsets that contradict sustainable thinking.  

The first is a system in which many companies use, yet may not perceive the consequences: take, make, waste (Doppelt 17-18).  

1. Take: the company not only extracts natural resources but does so in a way unconcerned if the product or its byproducts can be safely returned into the environment once obsolete.  

2. Make: the company uses the resources to create the desired product, by Allah’s permission, without forethought as to its degradation at the end of its lifespan.  

3. Waste: toxic byproducts resulting from production (or even the defective product) is carelessly disposed of into the environment, perhaps in the same location as the resource.  

Instead of this wasteful and harmful system, the author proposes an alternative system: borrow, use, return (Doppelt 33). This alternative mindset means that, from the beginning, people think of production as a temporary endeavor, where each person is allowed to use what they need of a resource for a certain time before it is someone else’s turn. It is a mindset where people are selfless of resources, not thinking of resources as sole ownership but as a shared commodity. It is a mindset where people consider the consequences down the line and are making measures to allow for it to be used again in the future, inshā’ Allah.  

Unsustainable Mindsets of Consumers

In a different section, Doppelt highlights the widespread, unsustainable attitudes and delusions that consumers have, appropriately named the “Sustainability Thinking Blunders” (Doppelt 37-53). Of the ten “Sustainability Thinking Blunders,” I would argue the following are the most prevalent.  

Quick-fix thinking (Doppelt 39-41)  

Quick-fix thinking is only concerned with solving the problem in the short term. This commonly means addressing the symptoms while the root issue fester in the background.   

In simple terms, this refers to narrowing one’s thinking so much on the short-term that it neglects consideration of long-term consequences to our actions (Doppelt 39). While short-term thinking is not necessarily wrongful, it can become detrimental when we focus too much of our concern on short-term issues and completely ignore the long-term (Doppelt 39).  

Quick-fix thinking is a popular attitude because it is typically the easier, cheaper, and immediately gratifying solution right now.  For example, single-use plastics are arguably the quintessential example of this mindset. Consider the last time you went to the masjid; I will predict that you saw many plastic bottles. As I am typing this, it is Ramadan, and every day I go for taraweeḥ, the masjid becomes like a plastic bottle factory. You frequently hear the crinkle of the plastic or the pop of the cap. After saying “salām,” from finishing my prayer, people are quick to take sips from their plastic water bottle. This does not even mention the wasted water from unfinished bottles lying around, nor the littered plastic bottles on the ground.  

It is convenient that you can snap open a bottle whenever you feel thirsty; you can relax knowing you do not need to bring your own water bottle, nor have to deal with carrying it around. But this convenience comes with a long-term environmental cost, inshā’ Allah: how many of us are giving this long-term concern any weight?   

Quick-fix thinking only kicks the can a few feet away, before it approaches you once more. Perhaps it easily and cheaply solves a problem now, but it creates a new, difficult, expensive problem later. It is not a true solution, only a temporary one that may compound with time if Allah so wills. This reminds me when Allah says in the 216th Verse of Surat al-Baqarah, something in which you love may in fact be harmful to you while that which you dislike may in fact be beneficial.   These “solutions” may be cheaper to produce or purchase now, but may create greater burdens on people and the environment in the future, in effect having a greater true cost overall, inshā’ Allah (Doppelt 45-46). But when will we internalize this? When will humanity truly understand this and get their focus out of the here and now and step back at the greater picture?  

This preference for short-term over long-term reminds me of a repeated theme in the Quran: the idea of people preferring this life (short-term) over the Hereafter (long-term) (Surat al-Qiyamah 20-21; Surat Ghafir 39; Surat al-’Ankabūt 64).  

This worldly life is no more than play and amusement. But the Hereafter is indeed the real life, if only they knew.   

Away means gone (Doppelt 46-47)  

Many people subconsciously assume that once trash is placed in the bin or collected by the sanitation team, the problem has been solved. This type of mindset is a selfish mindset, causing people to be mindless about the products they use and therefore, dispose of. In fact, the trash is not gone. Rather, the burden has been transferred to someone else or on the environment. Do we think that we can get away with this injustice, thinking that our poor decisions will not have consequences? Do we think that simply erasing poor decisions from our minds allows us to be freed from their consequences?  

This reminds me of this ayah in the Quran.

All of our actions are recorded. And we will certainly face the rewards of our righteous actions and the punishment of our evil ones, as Allah does not wrong anyone, not even a little.  

Conclusion  

Everything good and bad occurs under Allah’s permission (Surat an-Nisa 78; Surat at-Taghabun 11, Surat Ali ‘Imran 26, Surat Yunus 107; Surat an-Nahl 53; Surat al-An’ ām 107, 111-112, 137).   

But, if not as a test from Allah for the righteous, whatever catastrophe that we face, such as the negative repercussions of neglecting the environment, is due to our own poor decisions (Surat ash-Shūrā 30, Surat an-Nisa 79).  

In the beginning of this book, Doppelt synthesizes a similar claim regarding the root issue of environmental protection:  

“So far, much attention on reducing greenhouse gas emissions has focused on power plants and large manufacturing facilities. Big energy producers and industrial plants, however, are not the sole problems. They generate energy and manufacture products for consumers. This means the problem is all of us” (Doppelt 6).  

We need to deeply reflect on our own attitude toward environmental protection and how it affects our purchasing decisions. Are we considering the environmental consequences of the products we buy, or are we solely focused on short-term convenience?   

Epilogue  

Before I end this post, I want to reflect on an idea. I feel that not only in this book, but the general discussion regarding climate change is the general idea that “We are doomed if we don’t do anything” or “We will cause our own extinction.” A lot of these ideas assume we live in a world without a Creator who is in control of the “strings” of the universe. In fact, we are dependent on Him for all our matters, big and small; He has and will continue to provide for our needs, guiding and attending to the concerns of those whom He wills (Surat ar-Rahman 29, Surat Taha 50).  

God is the One who has the power to resolve all these environmental issues in an instant. While, yes, as a Muslim, we are taught not only to put trust in God but also take action in the things we are in control of, I believe the rhetoric of inciting fear is blown out of proportion due to forgetting the Creator, the One who created the balance and who can restore it without exhaustion. And to think it is all on humanity to solve climate change without seeking the support of God is wrongful thinking. 

As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-raḥmatu llāhi wa-barakātuh,

Ameen Hanish

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