After becoming a member of the Sustainability Committee for the Town of Chapel Hill, I began to dwell more on what sustainability really means to me.

Reflections on a lunchtime discussion with fellow scientists concerning the roots of the obesity epidemic offered insights into the limitations of the usual definitions of sustainability that invoke visions of green building, organic farms, bicycles and water and energy conservation. Perhaps sustainability may be more about creating a place where sociality is cherished, inevitably leading to deeper understanding of our interconnectedness and hence increased cooperation between community members.

Sitting at lunch were six scientists: one is Malaysian, one is Chinese, two are American, one is Indian and one is French. While enjoying a Chinese meal, one of Michael Pollan's theses from the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" was discussed. This thesis suggests that the obesity epidemic in America may be in part due to America's obsession with fad diets and an emphasis on the nutritional content of foods in lieu of traditional social constructs that put boundaries on how much, when and where to eat.

Pollan exemplifies this point by describing well-maintained traditions surrounding meals in French culture. One American responded by saying, "Don't tell me Americans don't have culture!" Yes, one could argue that indeed obsession with fad diets and nutritional content of food is part of an American culture.

While this may be a valid point, one cannot deny that there has been a loss of sociality surrounding food intake. Other cultures that do not have as significant a problem with obesity provide boundaries via social interactions surrounding meals, thereby defining with whom, for how long, how much, when and where one eats.

Conversely, today's American culture defines boundaries by what one should eat based largely on scientific analyses on the particular properties of food components, thereby bypassing social aspects of eating. Could this actually mean that social and behavioral aspects of a meal are as or more important than what you are actually eating when it comes to weight control? And if so, what does this have to do with sustainability?

After digesting this lunchtime conversation, I realized that being a scientist made this exchange particularly troubling to me. I believe wholeheartedly in the beauty of the scientific method, yet there are clear limitations to what current science can tell us, particularly in the social realm of human existence.

In current sustainability research, as in nutrition research, the focus has been on teasing apart individual physical components, while largely disregarding the integrative social aspects of both sustainability and obesity, respectively. Neuroscience has yet to tell us how social interactions control our choices, yet we intuitively know interactions with others are critical to almost every aspect of our lives.

One thing science can tell us is that we are social animals, we depend on cooperation for survival, and thus we have developed complex social relationships that require constant attention from us as individuals.

In today's society of online ordering of everything from solar panels to groceries, it has become much easier to bypass social interactions in daily life, and consequently there is less direct incentive for establishing and maintaining relationships beyond the nuclear family. When we become disconnected from our community members, do we lose sight of our individual roles in the larger community? Sustainability research rarely focuses on choices that can be made by an individual, but is focused on evaluation of choices made within a larger community, such as land use, energy alternatives, and food production. However, if we do not cultivate our social community, will we be able to implement sustainability policy requiring global action?

As my lunch was truly culturally diverse, so is my local and global community. Cultural misunderstandings that we use as an excuse for not implementing global policies break down when we have experiences with individuals, as an example from my lunch illustrates. "I am an environmentalist!" said the Chinese scientist after refusing to take the disposable chopsticks that were offered, much to the chagrin of the Frenchmen and Americans who had taken them. Can we hope to break down the barriers of cultural miscommunications necessary to implement sustainability policy by first establishing and maintaining understanding between people in our community?

This leads me to the conclusion that a sustainability policy must be evaluated not only for its ability to increase energy efficiency, but for its ability to foster social interactions between members of the community. Sustainability of a community is defined not only by the 'green' technology it installs, but by social mechanisms which enable individuals in that community to understand and value its place in the larger society. So although we are designing amazing technology to address important logistical components of sustainability, the collective wisdom of our ancestors, both immediate and distant, is social in nature....is this not a critical component of sustainability too?