It is such a simple principle – and yet if it is extended to include all living beings, which is the essential component of sustainability, it requires a complete shift in how we live our lives.

Through the clothes we buy, the energy we use, the food we eat, even the toothpaste we brush our teeth with. Every choice we make impacts others through its creation, its distribution, its use and its disposal.

Most likely we'll never know, or even see, who we are impacting. But they are out there, nonetheless, suffering or thriving, based on our choices.

Because we live in such a global, profit-at-all-costs world, the number impacted is astounding.

One detailed life cycle analysis of aluminum cans, for example, documents the steps required to manufacture, sell and dispose of an aluminum can and the impact as a result:

Extraction: bauxite ore, the primary raw material source for aluminum production, is extracted from open pit mines primarily in Brazil, Guinea, Jamaica, Guyana and Australia.

Transportation: bauxite is shipped to multiple countries to complete processing.

Processing: processing bauxite ore into aluminum cans requires several energy-intensive steps including alumina refining, smelting, ingot casting, can sheet fabrication, can making and can‐filling. Recycled aluminum is also incorporated into the final product, the processing of which has its own (reduced) impacts (the recycled content of a beverage can in the U.S. in 2007 was 67.8%).

Packaging and Distribution: aluminum cans are packaged and transported to individual stores and from there to homes and businesses.

End of Life: While some cans are transported to recycling centres and re-processed (about half in the U.S.), far too many still end up in landfills.

At every stage in the life cycle of this product, humans and other animals and plants are negatively impacted – through destruction of habitat; exposure to land, air and water pollutants and, for humans, potentially low wages and unsafe working conditions.