Sustainability trends in our daily lives: How we are taking on the challenge!

When it comes to environmental issues and man's impact on the planet, it feels like an overwhelming problem with no solution in sight.  But an overarching solution which will fix all these problems is not available and could be near impossible considering the high complexity of the situation we are in.  However, small incremental changes and solving local problems can have a large impact on helping to stem the ongoing damage.  I have recently read a short article on how the world is moving towards creating more awareness on environmental issues and addressing the many challenges.  Then on the news this month, Paris, France is experiencing extremely high air pollution levels.  This has prompted the police to stop all cars entering and driving around the city and monitor their carbon emissions.  All cars above a certain capacity are then stopped, drivers fined and then they have to take public transport into the city.   http://motherboard.vice.com/read/today-pariss-air-pollution-is-worse-than-beijing.  These stories are becoming more common and reaching the man in the street, which in turn raises awareness and eventual change.  I hope this will become a snow ball effect.

Other trends wordwide when it comes to waste management:

• Climbers on Mount Everest must return to base camp with 8kg of trash under new rules aimed at removal of rubbish around the mountain. 
• Japanese scientists have built robotic trash cans that detect rubbish discarded in the near vicinity and then prompt passers by to dispose of the litter.
• The Waste Free Oceans project in the EU which was launched in 2011 pays fisherman to use special trawl nets to collect waste floating in the sea.  This initiative reminded me of the Ocean Cleanup Array which is not operational as yet, but once it is will be able to clean up the oceans of plastic debris in a 5 year time period.  Up until now the Pacific garbage patch has been an insurmountable and growing environmental problem.  There is also a solution to clean up our rivers which are the biggest contributors to plastic pollution in the ocean.  James Dyson, the chief engineer at Dyson Ltd proposes the concept of the MV Recyclone.  This water vehicle was featured in the Time Ideas Issue March 24 2014.  The trawling mechanism would gather all plastic waste and process before off loading to a moving vehicle on land.  Looking at the entire waste life cycle we can find solutions like these.
• Social media has also become a value add in the fight against trash.  California based Litterati uses Instagram users to record litter in their communities, with the aim of using location and other data from the images to improve waste management.  http://instagram.com/litterati .  A brilliant local solution to get everyone in communities empowered to be part of the solution to the waste problem.
• One of the quickest ways to change behaviour in people is to reward and create incentives.  Plastic Bank in Canada will set up a plastic recycling centre in Lima, Peru this April.  The poor in the capital will then be able to trade plastic waste for food and clothing.  This model could really work well in South Africa.  Setting up recycling centres close to townships and slums could provide much needed employment opportunities and possible bartering for basic items.  Maybe this could be an add on to the social grant system currently in practice and communities will be empowered to improve their own living standards?  A possible business opportunity someone can take and fly with......with the assistance of government and NGO's?
• Pigs are very efficient waste processors.  Egypt recognized this when in 2009 a mass culling of pigs took place due to a swine flu scare.  Waste has since been piling up all around Cairo.  And now the resumption of feeding organic waste to the growing pig population has lead to a decrease in waste levels.  This can be rolled out globally as one way of processing organic waste and also keep meat on the menu (well pork that is) as a sustainable food source.

On the capitalism front.  I wrote an article in my blog at the beginning of this month about the move to natural capitalism.  Another way to transform the current capitalism practices from purely focussing on bottom line profits and disregarding all else is through.....DIVERSITY.  I know that I harp on about gender equality in the workplace but it has been proven to have major social and economic benefits.  The economic engagement of women in particular is a driver of economic growth.  The statement speaks for itself when you look at countries in the Middle East (Yemen, Afganistan etc), South East Asia and Northern Africa where widespread poverty and high birthrates predominate.  Companies with diverse management teams consistently outperform those with less diverse teams.  Greater diversity can power greater innovation and the questioning of conventional wisdom.  If there were more women or even more diverse management teams (instead of the reckless, high flying traders and investment bankers) in Wall Street, would we have had the global economic meltdown in 2008? And that's why especially in the banks, corporates and large multinational organizations which have large influence and impact on numerous societies, the management teams and boards need to be more diverse.  

Then lastly, the food and nutrition front.  With the ballooning population we are struggling to find sustainable methods to feed all the mouths.  Our long term health, confronting world hunger and environmental well being requires a totally new angle of approaching agriculture.  Our current farm to table cooking is not sustainable. Our current expectations for dinner is what chef and author Dan Barber refers to as the First Plate: an enormous protein centric entree with a smattering of vegetables.  Farm to table, or second plate which champions sustainably raised meat and vegetables but relies on the same architecture (think of local farms and restaurants who promote this: Spier, etc.).  Both models lead to farmers over producing soil depleting crops like tomatoes and raising animals like lambs just to sell the chops.  What Dan is advising is that our tastes will have to change....through the adoption of the concept of The Third Plate.  This turns the current status quo of assembling a dish, writing a menu and sourcing ingredients on it's head.  It encourages the following:

• changing your tastes to the health of the environment producing them instead of convention.
• to cook with the whole farm in mind, recognizing what we eat is part of an integrated system.
• to promote entire classes of crops and cuts of meat that have gone unrecognised.
• right kind of demand for what a farm can supply.

This new concept of cuisine can steer us into a pattern of eating that adds rather than subtracts, replenishes rather than drains. #TheThirdPlate

Quite a great deal to digest!  In conclusion, we are making great strides in changing our behaviours and finding solutions to everyday life problems we have created.  Sustainability is moving forward and seeping into our consciousness.