Helping the Environment and Our Resources

Sustainability relates to the ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life, which means developing ways to ensure that all resources on Earth are used and managed responsibly so they can be maintained for future generations.

The concept of sustainability is about the capacity of the environment to continue to support our lives and the lives of other living creatures into the future. There are a number of programs to restore the river to maintain communities, fisheries and navigation, to ensure long-term sustainability.

Sustainability is a concern, which has only been arising from the impact we humans have done in the past couple of decades. The word sustainability means how long you can continue doing what you are doing without coming to an end (Sustainability 2015).

So what is sustainability? It is the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance.

While being too focused on new, bright and shiny technological innovations, a lot of people don’t think about where their old obsolete technology goes or how it affects the environment. Electronic waste (E-waste) “...comprises electrical appliances such as fridges, air conditioners, washing machines, microwave ovens, and fluorescent light bulbs; and electronic products such as computers and accessories, mobile phones, television sets and stereo equipment” (Lundgren). Recycling electronic waste is expensive, so many developing countries receive E-waste from other countries (often times illegally) to extract valuable materials from the electronics to be used for the country’s benefit. Although the country recycling this waste benefits from an economical standpoint, the environmental and health standpoint isn’t so lucky. “...rudimentary recycling techniques coupled with the amounts of e-waste processed have already resulted in adverse environmental and human health impacts, including contaminated soil and surface water” (Lundgren). With an extreme lack in any sort of safety regulations, poor workers are taken advantage of and suffer the most because “...workers and communities are exposed to many highly toxic chemicals" (Marko) and it’s all because Americans don’t want to spend the money or take the time to properly recycle these products. The

The term sustainability is one that been conceptualized since the early civilizations of humans inhabited the earth. During those primative times, everything that allowed civilizations to thrive came from the earth. Humans during those times were more more in touch with their reliance on the environment. In today's society, the reliance on our natural environment seems much further away due to our insulation from modern conveniences. Nevertheless, this conception could not be further from the truth; we are more reliant now on the world's renewable resources than ever before.

Sustainability is important because it stems back to the Earth, which is home to humans and its living counterparts. Earth houses the resources that we need to successfully function, however, it is limited, and we are depleting it at an escalating rate using a variety of sources like, pollution. Not thinking only about our lives, but for future generations, and life itself, sustainability will play an important role in preserving our planet for the future.

Interesting question, I would like to start by saying that sustainability is a complete cycle that can be used to achieve a goal, whether it regards supplying products or operating an organization. Sustainability also touches on the very important issue of interacting with customers with the target of optimizing the benefits accruing from social, economic and environmental outcomes.

Sustainability to me is a systems ability to continue to operate using its own resources. Most often this word seems to be used when discussing the environment. For example, soil sustainability. Modern farming techniques are literally sucking the nutrients out of our soil. The second law of thermodynamic states energy is neither created or destroyed in a system. Specifically, an isolated system such as our planet. There is and was a certain amount of energy in every field. When that energy is gone its gone until replenished. This can happen by organic matter decomposing on it, rain can bring nutrients, etc. The point I’m getting at is or planet cannot be abused. The things we have are limited. (I just wanted to add nothing in this paragraph was taken from any citable sources. This information has been learned during my time in science courses. I only added this so there was no confusion about plagiarism).

I hear the word sustainability almost every day, what does it mean? Is it about people, our environment, or jobs and money? Sustainability is about all of these things and more. Sustainability could be defined as an ability or capacity to reduce the foot print, reuse resources of something without jeopardizing the quality of what you are trying to accomplish. We all have been at food establishment from fast food, take out to table cloth dining. And many times we scratch our head and wonder if they know what they are doing, from why is my food taking forever to I do not need to ask for my water to be refilled three times, and we all say to ourselves, I can run this place better than this.

Sustainability is a topic that has become very important in recent years. Sustainability is defined as, “the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.” ("Finding and Resolving the Root Causes of the Sustainability Problem", 2014)

Sustainability is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations” (Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future 1987). The concept of sustainability comprises of four pillars: environmental; economic; political and social; as can be seen in the image below. Environmental sustainability is the use and management of the environment in a way that it does not deplete our finite resources. Economic sustainability is a long term sustainable economy that supports its community and political sustainability is the collaboration of different bodies of government to achieve a sustainable future. Now social sustainability is hard to define as it encapsulates many different factors; however to be very broad it is to achieve social justice. The real objective for sustainability is that all four pillars work together equally in a precautionary principle;

Every living being are directly or indirectly depend on natural environment. Sustainability helps to balance financial, social, and environmental factors to facilitate responsible business decision making over the immediate and long term. . Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Oxford University press 1987, p.43). Sustainability is also being protective and aware of use of natural resources and development that meets the need of present and everything that is need for our survival and well being depends, directly or indirectly on our natural environment. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sustainability is

For thousand’s of years, humans have been working to evolve technology to what it is today, but little do they realize the effects it has on our Earth. Most of these technological advancements require fossil fuels, and thus these advancements reduce the amount of fossil fuels we have left. This greatly endangers the Earth, as carbon dioxide is released into the air when the fossil fuels are burned(1). This ultimately harms the environment. Technological advancements, like industrialization, have contributed greatly to the surplus amount of greenhouse gases being omitted(3 ). A study by a National Geographic researcher proves that as the technological advancements made become greater, so do the negative

Businesses face environmental issues such as pollution, renewable resources and harvesting. Environmental sustainability is an economic growth and sustainability is the ability to continue a defined behaviour indefinitely.