Sustainable Practices: Learning from Environmental Systems

30 Sep Sustainable Practices: Learning from Environmental Systems

Sustainable Practices: Learning from Environmental Systems

We live in a world full of fast environmental change and severe biodiversity loss. In a situation like this sustainable living is more than essential. Our society and the Earth is moving towards water and air pollution and climate change. Species biodiversity continues to decline daily. Communities, governments and people across the world are lining toward sustainability that are far away from the old linear model of economy. What we need is sustainability for our children and grand children – protection of the Earth for the sake of future generations and there is no room for unsustainable actions. Environmental systems show a natural way how to develop in the best way possible. They keep their balance, resilience and renew themselves.

In order to establish best environmental practices we have to study environmental systems deeply.

What is sustainability?

Sustainability refers to meeting the needs that we have today without compromising the ability of future generations to fulfil their own needs. It has 3 components:

1. Environment – taking care of ecosystems and biomes such as tropical rainforests and deserts.

2. Society – making sure that equity and justice are in place.

3. Economy – long term economic success is established without raising pollution levels.

If these three parameters are present, established and balanced, then we can say there is a true sustainability in some region.

What are Environmental systems?

System is an assemblage of parts working together and making a functional whole. The environmental systems are naturally sustainable and that is biodiversity or life on our planet. These environmental systems can easily adapt to changes, they are resilient and able to recycle nutrients. Environmental systems such as tropical rainforests, tundra, deserts or a soil system all function in balance and are very efficient. All ecosystems on Earth are open meaning that they exchange both energy and matter with its borders.

Sustainable practice

In nature, there is no waste. Products from one system are used in another system therefore no waste occurs.

We can compost organic and food waste and use it to make fertilizers. Then we will add this natural fertilizer into the soil and replace chemical fertilizers which cause eutrophication. Also, this way we can reduce the amount of methane emissions that come from agriculture.

All environmental systems are diverse. Having high biodiversity ensures that the system is more resiliant and therefore diseases or climate change can’t destroy it.

Sustainable example

In agriculture, we can implement polyculture- planting many different crops. That way we can use less fertilizers and pesticides and crops will become resilient.

In nature there are producers that make their food in a process of photosynthesis. In this process, green plants use solar energy and make it into chemical energy. It is an effective and sustainable natural practice.

Building of green buildings and homes ensures energy efficiency is establish via solar panel and other renewable energy sources.

Systems and sustainability

We must think of the environment as an integral system with its parts. All parts of the system serve the whole to have certain function. Therefore, we should be able to see the whole as economy, society and the environment that work together and complement each other.

This way, we can ensure that issues such as air pollution, deforestation and climate change are addressed and solved. Only when we know how the environmental system works we can make long lasting changes.

Circular economy

Old linear economic model is highly unsustainable. We used to make some products from resources and then just dump them on a landfill. On the other hand, circular economy helps us by recycling, reducing and reusing different products. Therefore, much less items in the end, ends up in a landfill making it a more sustainable solution.

We can see in the world now that many governments and companies are taking action towards circular economy.

Sustainable agriculture

In a world of more than 8.3 billion people, sustainable agriculture becomes a crucial step. Farmers should learn about the dangers of using pesticides and fertilizers. When using excessive chemicals, they end up in water bodies causing water pollution- eutrophication. There are many negative effects of eutrophication on the environmental systems. Those include unpleasant smell, dead fish, shorthening of the food webs and collapse of the ecosystem.

In contrast to modern agricultural practice, we can implement regenerative agriculture and permaculture. They are mild on the soil system and increase resilience of the system by the increase of species biodiversity. These methods should be implemented because of the fresh water increase and improvement of nutrient cycles.

Traditional agricultural systems such as traditional rice production system in Borneo are sustainable. They don’t use heavy machinery and fuel therefore there are no pollution outputs. There is no carbon emissions when it comes to traditional food production systems and therefore they lead to sustainability.