Sustainability What does it mean?

Sustainable? What does it mean to be Sustainable? Give an example of something that is sustainable? What factors do we struggle with that create situations that are not sustainable?

What does it mean to be Sustainable? Definition: hj0 hj0 Example of Sustainable Business Model: aAM aAM

Give an example of something that is sustainable? Solar power (solar panel construction, energy it takes to store the energy…..?) Farming (weather dependant, dependant on soil health, pesticides and the actual pests) Wind power (what it takes to build the windmills, frequency given off affects humans and birds)

What factors do we struggle with that create situations that are not sustainable? The challenges with being sustainable is it is difficult to meet the needs of Society, the Environment and the Economy all at once.

Sustainability Notes From Class: We will always be looking through the lens of the following three parts: Society – the health of human structures such as social/political/spiritual structures Environment – the need to keep the planet healthy (providing all living things with clean water, clean air and food) Ecomony - $ (the human created drive for $ to buy the things we need to live)

Ecological Footprint What is it? Method of calculating how much productive land is necessary to sustain the lifestyle of an average person.

Human life is tightly interwoven with nature because people depend on Earth to fulfill the requirements necessary for life: Examples: -Energy is needed for heat, lights and transportation -Construction materials such as wood are needed for housing

Food and clean water are needed for healthy living. Nature absorbs our waste products and provides “life-support services” such as climate stability and protection from ultraviolet radiation. Nature is a source of joy, inspiration and spirituality

Watch “Oneness Project” Footprint Explained

The steady supply of nature’s services to society can be maintained only if resources are harvested more slowly than they can re-grow or regenerate, and if waste is discharged less rapidly than nature can absorb it. Currently, this is not the case. We consume more resources faster than nature’s rate of productivity, and we produce waste faster than nature can absorb it. Simply put, ecological and energy sustainability require the preservation of nature’s productivity. We need to keep consumption of all resources at a sustainable level.

Giving a value on consumption levels and their effect on the environment Example: This is the “environmental equivalent” of land necessary to support transportation can be calculated for a bicycle, care or public transit. For one person, traveling twice a day (5 km each way = 10 km), the footprints are as follows: Bicycle – 125 m₂ of land Bus – 380 m₂ of land Car – 1870 m₂ of land

Watch “Oneness Project” Calculating the Footprint

Your Ecological Footprint is a measurement of Ecological Capital Economic Theory: Supply vs. Demand (as demand increases we increase supply until we can not increase supply, then price goes up because the desired item is rare) Ecological Economic Theory: Natural Capacity vs. Human use of a resource (the amount of a resource the earth can safely supply vs. the reliance and demand humans put on that resource) On average we are using 25% more of the earth’s resources than can be supplied by the earth.