As you may have noticed, since you’re reading this, provocative titles drive readership. Why? Because words matter, and people pay attention to words when those words don’t melt into the same ol’ same ol’ drone of technocratic chatter.

In our work, we constantly struggle to use language as a tool to communicate, rather than simply as an artifact to convey that work of some sort has happened. Often this means that we must struggle to define a grammar and vocabulary for our clients that is effective but not foreign. And, occasionally, we find that only once you’ve spent a significant amount of time and energy around a concept embodied in a particular word do you realize you no longer believe in the power of that word to express what is really going on. “Sustainability” is one such word.