Sustainability is a concept that embraces activities that can be implemented or created in the present thus ensuring that people in future will have to look for other ways of meeting their needs. This is so because using resources is done sparingly as they are believed to be scarce and should be saved and invested in for the future. Sustainability has emerged as a critical global concern due to issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, and others including water resource depletion, pollution, and the likes that are potentially disastrous to human kind.
“On the basis of the idea of sustainability there are three important pillars: environmental, economic and social.”
Environmental Protection
Environmental sustainability means that natural resources including water, soil, plants and animals are utilized in the most efficient way possible without worrying about future demand. It entails minimising man interference with earth by changing the manufacturing and use styles to help mitigate pollution levels, retain wildlife, prevent extinction of species and allow nature to balance itself. This includes:
- From using fossil fuels as their main source of energy to shift to solar and wind energy in order to reduce the effects of global warming.
- Consciously adopting the regenerative agriculture to improve the soils in farmland and produce foods that are sustainable.
- Preserving the forest that hosts species and also play a role in reducing green house gases.
- The human’s part to address in relation to this ocean value is the responsible stewardship of fishing and the ocean harvesting not to be depleted.
- The principle of waste management such as the three R’s of waste management such as reduction, reuse, and recycling.
Economic Development
Therefore, economic sustainable development need to ensure the optimum level of human satisfaction and quality of life without over exploiting the characteristics of the natural environment in a manner that is ethical, transparent, accountable and through the utilization of resources most efficiently in a manner that does not so much deplete the ecological capacities. Businesses and corporations can incorporate sustainability by:Businesses and corporations can incorporate sustainability by:
- Depositing profits in sustainable assets and products
- Ensuring all personnel work under fair wages and decent work conditions.
- Excluding planned destruction of products to try and fix the problem of overconsumption.
- Replacing the traditional linear models of use of resources which can be described as “take-make-dispose”.
- The challenge of integrating environmental and social costs into market prices
Social Equality
Social sustainability focuses on human rights, including gender, race, class, and educational and economic opportunities for individuals and communities to gain access to proper medical care, protection, and justice. In the simplest definition, it means removing barriers for equal opportunities so that no one is held back by their circumstances. Tenets include:
- Eradicating poverty and meeting the basic needs which are fundamental to the existence of human beings
- This can be done through the implementation and formulation of polices that are equally fair to all gender identity and demographical representations.
- To sum up, that the economic and natural resources are distributed fairly.
- Promoting and supporting the principles of human rights, diversity and inclusion
- Organizing debate/forums where members have a say in decision making
- Developing giving areas of cultural practice and passing on of knowledge across generations
The Three Pillars Interconnect
Although it is made up of three separate limbs, sustainability has to be viewed as a single entity since the ecological, economic and the social structure are so closely intertwined. For instance, the emission of carbon is catastrophic to the climate but at the same time friendly to the atmosphere, human health, and pocket since it leads to low healthcare bills. Eradicating poverty generates better standards of living as it leads to improved production and economic stability.
Sustainability In Action
International, national and local governments, companies and individuals are striving and making small but significant changes in their policies as well as actions to ensure sustainable development as people realize the importance of collective action to alter the current unsustainable path, which can lead to the collapse of critical Earth processes and human wellbeing. Examples include:
- Some of the policies include the carbon pricing schemes that are designed to put pressure on organizations to reduce emissions.
- Organizational pledges to improve supply chain disclosure, energy consumption and supply chain responsibility
- They include community renewal programs related to urban agriculture, appropriate technologies and resilient infrastructure.
- Grants for research into sustainability and technological advancement
- Mentalities such as slow fashion, reducing waste through living with less and the sharing economy.
Though the challenge is global and complex, systematic implementation of sustainability with the cooperation of different institutions and also by getting each individual and communities on board is the way forward to guaranteeing the sustainability of human society and wellbeing of the earth’s natural systems. Sustainability is a plan to help take development into the future.
