Since I am launching my website around Earth Day 2021, I thought it would be a nice opportunity to draft a blog post around sustainability, as this is one of our key areas of focus at Minodiaire.
The actual word “sustainable” means that “it replenishes itself”. The typical example is that of an investment. If you have $100 invested, and you earn interest of $15 per year, you will still be sustainable if you only deduct $15 per year. Your capital remains, it is not wasted or used. The same is true of our planet. If our activities do not reduce or deduct our planet’s capital, then the activity is said to be sustainable.
The topic of sustainability is vast and all encompassing, pertaining to everything and everyone. And because we have many forms of capital on the planet, we have divided sustainability into four pillars:
Human sustainability aims to maintain and improve the human capital in society.
Social sustainability aims to preserve social capital by investing and creating services that constitute the framework of our society
If social sustainability focuses on improving social equality, economic sustainability aims to improve the standard of living.
Environmental sustainability aims to improve human welfare through the protection of natural resources such as land, air, water, minerals etc.
Unfortunately, we have not been very good at maintaining our own resources on the planet. As such, the topic of sustainability is becoming more and more urgent. There are some very upsetting numbers attached to our current state of sustainability.
The use of pesticides in agriculture is a major contributor to the current loss of biodiversity (commonly called the 6th mass extinction)
The average beef hamburger takes 2400 liters of water to produce.
At least 8 million hectares of tropical rainforest are currently cleared annually, mainly for crop cultivation and cattle ranching
With the current climate change scenario, between 24 million and 700 million people will be displaced by 2030 due to water scarcity.
5.0 tons of waste were generated per EU inhabitant in 2016.
Globally only 9% of plastic ever produced has been recycled, whilst 79% can now be found in landfills, dumps or the environment and 12% has been incinerated.
The plastic industry will account for 20% of the world’s total oil consumption by 2050.
From 2008 to 2018, natural disasters have cost the agricultural sectors of developing economies more than $108 billion in damaged crop and livestock production.
Let’s use Earth Day as a reason for better awareness
Thankfully, there are also positive changes happening everyday….
95% of consumers believe that their personal actions can help to reduce unsustainable waste, tackle climate change, and protect wildlife and biodiversity
In 2016, the share of energy from renewable sources reached 17% in the European Union, double the share in 2004 (8.5%),
Globally, the world produced approximately 5.9 TWh of modern renewable energy in 2016, showing a 5 to 6-fold increase since the 1960s.
The United Nations have developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals - “SDG’s” – that are used as KPI’s to measure our future well-being. You can consult them here:
In the meantime, consider what you can do to improve our sustainability.
We like Impaakt’s guide here
Bank Responsibly – watch your pennies.
Energy Usage – get energetic about energy.
Be an Engaged Citizen - get involved.
Travel Smart - be in the driving seat of your emissions.
Eat Local – regional produce for the win.
Vote – make your voice heard.
Advocate - be a brand ambassador for the good guys.
Live with Less – let’s talk consumerism.
Sustainability at Work – be the office hero.
Share knowledge – knowledge really is power.
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