Unit 1 Assignment – Sustainability
In a five-paragraph essay, define the concept of “sustainability” and be sure to address the following questions:
- What is sustainability?
- Is sustainability purely an environmental concept?
- How do ideas like life cycle assessment and systems thinking relate to sustainability?
- Do you think the society in which you live can be classified as sustainable? Why or Why not?
Unit 1 Assignment- Sustainability
The term sustainability is the wide discipline through which students and professors gain knowledge about the human world from business, and technology, to the environment, and social sciences (Environmental Science, 2022). With sustainability, the students learn about reducing carbon emissions and discovering, and developing future technologies. It is crucial for politics, philosophy, economics, and other social sciences and hard sciences. Sustainability is also concerned with protecting the planet, haltering climatic changes, and promoting social development through protecting life on Earth.
Sustainability is not purely an environmental concept, rather it is one pillar of sustainability. The three pillars of sustainability, there comes environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and societal sustainability (Mcgill, 2022). As a result, calling sustainability purely the concept associated with the environment is wrong because it is a kind of sustainability. In this concept, ecological integrity is highly maintained and the earth’s environment is kept in balance. Meanwhile, the natural resources will be consumed by human beings, however only at the rate where they can replenish themselves.
The life cycle assessments and the system thinking are related to sustainability as it is one of the interdisciplinary frameworks that helps in integrating different models of sustainability hence there are high opportunities and scope for the integration of the tools and methods in order to boost the applicability of the life cycle assessment sustainability (Onat, Kicukvar, Halog & Cloutier, 2017). However, till now the use of life cycle assessment sustainability and system thinking in the field of science engineering is very limited and it is believed that it will continue to grow in the scientific community itself.
In my opinion, human society could not be classified as a sustainable one because, from the perspective of society, sustainability means that there will be no damage to the environment as a whole, and no overusing of human resources, and therefore, the human environment will be left beautiful, bountiful, peaceful for the future generation. As a result, calling human society a sustainable one would be completely wrong. However, the world is struggling and trying hard to become a sustainable society (Bennese Action on Sustainability, 2022). However, the task is not as easy as it seems to be because there are a lot of problems such as global warming, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, etc.
In the last, it can be concluded that sustainability is something where the people are not damaging the society, economy, and country as a whole. However, still progressing and achieving their personal goals. The concept is beyond the food, energy, and drink people across the world consume. Therefore, living a sustainable life might not be possible now, but with individual efforts, it will be possible.
References
Environmental Science (2022). What Is Sustainability and Why Is It Important? Retrieved on 8th November 2022, from: https://www.environmentalscience.org/sustainability
Mcgill (2022). What is sustainability? Retrieved on 8th November 2022, from: https://www.mcgill.ca/sustainability/files/sustainability/what-is-sustainability.pdf
Onat, N. C., Kucukvar, M., Halog, A., & Cloutier, S. (2017). Systems thinking for life cycle sustainability assessment: A review of recent developments, applications, and future perspectives. Sustainability, 9(5), 706. Retrieved on 8th November 2022, from: https://www.mdpi.com/194394
Benesse action on sustainability (2022). What is sustainability? Retrieved on 8th November 2022, from:https://www.benesse.co.jp/brand/en/about/about_sustainability/
