These are the essential challenges of sustainability you should know about
We are sure you have heard the word “Sustainability”.
This concept is getting attention among government projects and daily life.
But what is sustainability, and why is it so important?
We will find out in the dialogue we had with Kathy Young and Samuel Sellman.
Kathy Young Barker is an activist and speaker who has worked in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and several international organizations in Europe and Latin America.
And Samuel Sellman is the Co-founder and director of Alxedo.
So, let’s get to it.
It was the UN’s World Commission on Environment and Development that defined sustainable development in 1987 as:
“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
In this regard, Kathy emphasized that sustainability is a crucial concept not only for the future but also for our present.
Sustainable development allows economic growth and, at the same time, takes care of the environment and achieves greater social inclusion.
Sustainable development is a challenging practice that needs to be solved.
It is a mission that is up to us to comply with, and every nation must implement its action plan according to its needs and circumstances.
This means:
- Change of our habits
2. New regulation regarding this subject.
3. Taking responsability.
4. And the development of technology that reduces the environmental impact.
Meanwhile, Samuel mentioned that it was essential to stop climate change to achieve sustainable development.
How to do it?
Sam said the key was to work on the economical, environmental and social aspects, to bring solutions that contribute to diminishing the environmental impact.
But, there is a big problem: The lack of transparency in some industries, which claim to be ecological but aren’t.
Some companies are not concerned about the planet because they believe our world has unlimited resources.
But…
We know this is not the truth.
We are consuming 1.7 planets!
And for some minorities, it is hard to obtain essential resources.
One great example of the problems is the water crisis that several nations are facing now.
We are running out of water.
How is it possible if 70% of our planet earth is water?
Because 97.5% is salty water, so we can not consume it.
And desalinate the water is an expensive process, which not every country can afford.
So, we have only 2.5% of sweet water on the planet, of which:
2% is frozen.
0.5% are deep water.
And only 0.025% is available.
This percentage goes to agriculture, 70%, 20% to industry, and only 10% to consumption.
That is how drinking water gets distributed by the public infrastructure of each country. But the vast majority do not provide sufficient quality to be safe, much less healthy.
That’s why Samuel and Kathy agreed many people prefer to drink bottled water without realizing the environmental impact.
Every minute 1 million PET bottles of water are sold in the world.
Each bottle requires 450 years to decompose, causing 8 million tons of plastic to end up in the oceans annually.
Are you ready to take action? We hope you are.
Because this was only a part of the Sustainability Challenges dialogue; if you want to watch the full webinar click here.
And let us know which topic you would like to address in an upcoming meeting with Alxedo.
