>Concepts are wonderful, but it is all in the implementation and who does
>the implementing.

I hope you're not suggesting that because people have abused and confused 
noble concepts in the past that we should turn our backs on noble causes 
and live strictly for profit and self.  Sustainability is nothing if it 
isn't implemented, and the absolute best place to implement every noble 
cause is at home.

Here are some of my New Year's resolutions for sustainability:

* To manage my bees so as to better conserve stores (especially in late 
summer), reducing my dependence on sugar.

* To spend less time driving, both by situating more of my bees closer to 
home and by making more of the trips I do make.

* To control varroa strictly through management practices, so as to 
eliminate my need for purchased treatments.  (I'm hopeful that I'm almost 
there.)

* To sell more honey to my nearer neighbors.

* To find a way to share breeding stock with peer beekeepers in order to 
maintain a stronger, more diverse gene pool.

* To invite more neighboring beekeepers into my bee yards (especially my 
nuc yard) over the course of the year and to visit them in theirs.  

* To refine and expand my use of nucs year-round.  (Beginning to develop a 
smart use of nucs was the most radical and profitable step up in my 
beekeeping in 2007 -- thanks to Chuck Norton and especially Mike Palmer.)

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