Submitted by online@up.education
on Mon, 01/29/2024 - 15:34
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Most of us spend a huge number of hours working for our living, which contributes to our feelings of purpose and fulfilment. However, it can also lead to stress and helplessness if there isn't alignment between the behaviours and practices of the business to your core values.
Taking active steps to combat climate change and other issues of grave importance to our environment provides you with increased wellbeing, an increased sense of purpose, and builds personal connections based on common goals. So, you'll need some tools in your belt to manage up — help the people leading your business to see why they should care, and ensure the business is using sustainably responsible practices.
Sustainability is smart business
Think of sustainability as the long-term goal and environmental responsibility as a collection of thoughts, actions, and operational processes developed by an organisation to serve that long-term goal.
Sustainable development supports the present needs of the business and its employees without compromising the needs of future generations.
As well as being environmentally responsible, you can feel confident that your efforts in this space are mutually beneficial for you and your organisation.
Select the labels below to learn a bit about each one.
Reduces cost by minimising usage of energy, water, waste management, and materials
Customers and other stakeholders are eager to see and use businesses that support environmentally responsible practices and may be more likely to support your business when you work sustainably.
Reducing, reusing and recycling can be economically more profitable and is also an important element for economic and environmental sustainability.
Workplaces can see improved health, wellness, and safety by reducing the use of chemicals and minimising waste
The business is working towards meeting environmental protection laws.
The pillars of sustainability
Many pillars or interchangeable terms are used to describe the paradigms of sustainability — typically, we see social, environmental, and economic as supportive efforts towards sustainability.
The following video (4:29) provides an explanation of how these three pillars overlap and impact each other.
Let’s take a closer look.
Society or Social
To make a change in society, a large number of people need to want it. Your work with colleagues, supervisors, clients, partners, stakeholders, human resources, etc., is where change happens, and each of the areas of interaction with people is an opportunity for sustained practices to be identified and championed.
Opportunities to establish these connections happen within conversations around:
human rights
fair work
living conditions
health, safety and wellbeing
inclusion, diversity, and equity
work/life balance.
According to the UN Global Compact, aiming for social sustainability can help businesses in a number of ways such as:
unlocking new markets
helping retain and attract business partners
becoming the source of innovation for new product or service lines
raising internal morale and employee engagement
improving risk management
improving company-community conflicts.
Reading
Nobel prize-winning economist Laureate Amartya Sen describes social sustainability as having four dimensions. This article from ADEC Innovations explains these dimensions: ‘What is Social Sustainability?’
After reading the article, complete this activity to see if you are able to describe social sustainability by putting the sentence together correctly.
Economic
Economic sustainability refers to practices that support economic growth for the long term without having negative impacts on the community socially, environmentally and culturally. Some business models take an economic-only view of sustaining the business financially; while others take a green approach that includes cultural, social, and environmental elements.
The intertwined dimensions can also include a fourth element, culture.
Cultural
The aim is to ensure that the existence of different cultures and their unique set of beliefs, morals, methods, and collection of human knowledge will exist in the context of future planning.
Learning about the threats our changing environment poses is the first step to managing them.
If you thought our environmental issues were limited to rising temperatures, some of these threats might surprise you. Each represents a sustainability problem, and environmentally responsible practices are the solution.
Global Warming and Climate Change
Global warming is the releasing of heat-trapping gases, called greenhouse gases, causing changes to climate and weather patterns that change from place to place. Climate change, however, is the complex shifts that occur to the planet by these shifts. Largely considered the most urgent and impactful contemporary environmental crises by scientists and other experts, climate change is the world's most high-profile challenge today. Read: BBC's What is climate change? A really simple guide
Overpopulation and Natural Resource Use
The continual overpopulation levels on our planet are reaching an unsustainable level, where populations are experiencing shortages of natural resources due to the high number of needs, including water, fuel and food. This is especially the case in demographics with fewer resources to offer their growing population. While agriculture is used to meet the needs of the community, it also pollutes by utilising fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides, causing further damage to the planet. Many environmental activists decry not only the rapid exploitation of various inputs, but also the growing gulf between the wealthy and the less advantaged. For instance, the use of water by one community can threaten the existence of another and even permanently alter nature itself. Read: Saving Earth, Encyclopedia Britannica's Water Crisis report Watch: Author Alan Weisman Talks Population and Sustainability with the Center for Biological Diversity
Waste Production and Disposal
Waste production is at catastrophic levels, with overconsumption creating a huge threat to the environment, as non-biodegradable waste ends up in landfill and reaches waterways and polluting further. There are many schemes in place to minimise waste, especially hazardous waste to minimise pollution. A recent study (Geyer, Jambeck and Law, 2017) found that of the 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste that has been produced, only 9% of that plastic waste had been recycled. Watch: ABC iView's The War on Waste Watch: The city of Melbourne's fight against single-use plastic in Helping Melburnians #ChoosetoRefuse Watch: Busting workplace myth's in What You Didn't Know About Recycling Read: See how the City of Melbourne is supporting and funding businesses to be more sustainable regarding their waste management. Read: The City of Melbourne’s services for waste and recycling for businesses.
Pollution
In 2019, Jiajia Zheng wrote a paper on how to reduce the global carbon footprint in plastics and informed us that: ‘By 2050, plastic production is expected to make up 15% of global carbon emissions’. The seven key types of pollution are:
air
water
soil
noise
radioactive
light
thermal
These are interlinked and influence each other, causing many of the effects on our environment today and taking millions of years to recoup. The worst pollutants are industry and motor exhaust, and water pollution, which are made up of oil spills, urban waste runoff, and acid rain. Read: About pollution from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Soil pollution is caused by the repercussions of industrial waste. Watch:Soil Pollution, a hidden reality by the US's Food and Agriculture Organization
Acid Rain occurs when pollutants such as fossil fuels, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide enter the atmosphere. They are released from the atmosphere in wet and dry forms, which can include Acid Rain. Acid rain enters the community, including its water supply, which can cause harmful effects to the population, wildlife and aquatics species. Watch: Watch this animated video from Kinetic School about acid rain
Water pollution occurs when harmful substances—often chemicals or microorganisms—contaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer or other body of water, degrading water quality and rendering it toxic to humans or the environment. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2017 found that “globally, it is likely that over 80% of wastewater is released to the environment without adequate treatment." Watch: NRDCflix's video to learn about the impact of seismic testing on marine life: Seismic Testing is Torturing Marine Life Read: Another article by Melissa Denchak to learn more about the various types of water pollution in Water Pollution: Everything You Need to Know
Air pollution, as defined by The World Health Organization (WHO), is “fine particles in polluted air that penetrate deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system, causing diseases including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory infections. Industry, transportation, coal power plants and household solid fuel usage are major contributors to air pollution.” Watch: National Geographic's video to learn more about air pollution.
Deforestation
The continual overpopulation levels on our planet are reaching an unsustainable level, where populations are experiencing shortages of natural resources due to the high number of needs, including water, fuel and food. This is especially the case in demographics with fewer resources to offer their growing population. While agriculture is used to meet the needs of the community, it also pollutes by utilising fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides, causing further damage to the planet. Developing nations too often resort to practices such as slash-and-burn clearing and failing to care for the soil afterwards, which perpetuates a vicious cycle requiring the clearing of yet more trees. Watch: WWF's video to learn about deforestation fronts: Deforestation Fronts
Overfishing
A deficit develops when more fish are harvested than current populations can produce. If such deficits continue unabated, fisheries can become economically unviable, endangered, and even extinct.
Ocean Acidification
As a direct impact of excessive production of carbon dioxide (it is estimated that around 25% of atmospheric Co2 is caused by humans), ocean acidity has increased and by 2100, it may have increased by as much as 150%, impacting on all sea life, but predominately shellfish and plankton. Studies have linked reef bleaching, reef death, mollusc death, and ecosystem disturbance to increasing acidification of the oceans due to absorbing increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and altering the pH balance of our seas. Watch: The US National Ocean Service's video, What is Ocean Acidification? Read: This article by Melissa Denchak from NRDC to learn more about water pollution: Ocean Pollution:The Dirty Facts
Water Scarcity
The availability of fresh water is rapidly declining, putting millions of people at risk. Aquatic ecosystems, vital for biodiversity, are also suffering as water sources dry up.
Sustainable Food Production and Demand
As the global population continues to grow, the need for food escalates, putting strain on agricultural systems and the natural environment. Sustainable farming practices are vital to the sustainability of our food resources. This is also impacted by Food Waste.
Decreasing Biodiversity
Extinction of species and habitats leads to destroyed ecosystems and threats to many more species. Biodiversity can be seen through such examples as the lack of bees available to pollenate food, coffee and other plants that can provide nutrients for animals, including humans.
Human activities, such as habitat destruction, pollution, climate change, invasive species, and overexploitation, contribute to the decline of biodiversity. As species disappear, ecosystems suffer, losing crucial functions like pollination and nutrient cycling. The consequences of decreasing biodiversity affect both ecosystems and humanity. Watch: What on Earth is Biodiversity?
Explore
When the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development launched, an Organisation called The Global Goals developed the following 3m video that highlights the scope and scale of the threat to the world using famous people to help audiences appreciate the gravity of the problem. The problems are big, but helping starts small...
Environmental sustainability is reliant on action — talking about it doesn't actually build a healthier, more sustainable world, but it does engage awareness.
Sustainability involves small steps that build to big steps. Exploring our perceptions and treatment of the environment, and observing how they have altered and threatened the very survival of humanity demonstrates the need for our workplaces and future generations to embed responsible behaviours as soon as possible!
When you first start working to make your office more sustainable, it can feel like you’ll never make a meaningful difference. But over time, you’ll be amazed at how simple changes add up. So choose a starting place that works for you and celebrate your small victories.
The following video (42m) looks at the rise of the concept of sustainability as it has gone from the fringes to the mainstream within just a few short decades, driven by an environmental crisis on a global scale. In this documentary film, Systems Innovation explores a new environmental context of the Anthropocene and some key changes in our economy required to achieve sustainability in the age of globalisation.
Were you aware of the length of time humans have been impacting Earth's systems?
What are your thoughts about socio-ecological system changes and how they have been impacted by the rise of farming, industrial activity, travel, and globalisation?
To consolidate your thoughts about this, write a short paragraph in your journal describing how you feel about human activity's impact on our environment.
Get to know UNESCO
UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It seeks to build peace through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture. UNESCO’s programmes contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals defined in Agenda 2030, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015
UNESCO website, 2020
Watch the following video to find out more about UNESCO and how they are working to bring people and nations together through education, culture, and science.
After watching the video, answer the following question about it.
An approach to managing waste
One approach to managing waste is green purchasing strategies. These are guidelines and procedures that direct the purchasing of products and services that minimise negative environmental impacts by looking at the life cycle of manufacturing, transportation, use, and recycling or disposal.
This includes products and services that:
promote long-lasting, high quality, reusable products
conserve energy and water
minimise the generation of waste and release of pollutants
decrease greenhouse gas emissions
take up less room in landfill.
Are you ready to get stuck into change? See if there are any of these things you can do today. If not, set a timeframe for what seems reasonable to make some changes and influence others to jump in with both feet and protect the planet.
As you navigate these eight flip cards, add the ideas that resonate with you to your notebook. Use those notes to craft an action plan when you are ready to participate in or increase your sustainability practices.
Download a simple version of these actions to keep at hand. If they will inspire you to make real change you can print the PDF to post up at your desk. You may even be inspired to share it or put one on a noticeboard — it's worth the paper if you make real change. It's all about balance.
Great work! You have now learned some of the basics of what you can do and why you may want to increase your sustainability practices at work. Feel free to stop here, or better yet, push on, learn more and earn a digital pin for taking this course!
Digital pin?
By earning and displaying your Sustainability in the Workplace course completion Pin, you're not just making positive changes, you're also inspiring others to join in, which amplifies the impact of your efforts. As you wrap up the third module, 'Continuous Improvement in Sustainability,' you'll have a chance to take a 15-question quiz. Once you ace it, you'll unlock image tools that allow you to display your commitment online proudly.
Move on to the next module to go into deeper depths about Australian Sustainable Practices in the workplace.
