PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY IN LIFE AND BUSINESS

The concept of sustainability is based on the premise that people and their communities are made up of social, economic, and environmental systems that are in constant interaction and that must be kept in harmony or balance if the community is to continue to function to the benefit of its inhabitants— now and in the future. Inspirational, isn't it?

Statistics Projects that by 2020, west Africa Population will be close to One Billion while the population of the youth (0-40years) by then would have hit 600 million. This increasing Population should register something into our minds, yes, the earths resources are gradually depleting to such an extent that some resources will extinct from the face of the earth if they are continually consumed without plans for their sustainability.

The Rules of Sustainability Popularly referred to as the 3Rs, if adhered to strictly can save the earth of impending disaster.

Everyone knows that the 3 R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – are the cornerstone of reducing your impact on the environment both at home and in your business. They are an essential part of any corporate sustainability solution. But did you know that incorporating the 3 R’s in to your corporate sustainability management system can save your business time and money? Many companies have adopted corporate sustainability as an essential aspect of their business plans and even made it a core value.

Here are just a few ways that the 3 R's can help your business increase its profit while decreasing your environmental impact:

Reduce

Waste reduction and waste prevention is all about reducing waste at the source. In terms of waste management, it is always the best option.

Waste is often due to the inefficient use of resources or bad planning. For example, buying food we don’t need on impulse or because there’s a special offer and then wasting it.

Reducing your business’ waste, commonly referred to as waste minimization, doesn’t just reduce your impact on the environment, but also makes your business and manufacturing process more efficient. This often leads to huge savings.

Reuse

Reuse means using a product more than once, either for the same purpose (for example returnable soft drinks bottles) or for a different purpose (such as old jam jars for food storage). Repairing products, selling them on or donating them to charity/community groups is also reusing!

It is preferable to recycling because the item does not need to be re-processed before it can be used again which saves both money and reduces the environmental impact.

It is straight forward understanding that if you reuse materials and products, rather than purchasing new amounts, you stand to make financial gains.

Often the most challenging aspect of this for companies is determining what can and cannot be reused. There is often need for lateral thinking, but some surprising reuse has been a boom for some businesses.

Reusing offers small and large businesses an effective method for coping with limited means and resources. Investing in reusable materials could allow your business to save money by replacing many single use products with a single reusable one. Overall, a single reusable product costs less than the total cost of all the single use ones you’d have to buy. 

Recycle

Recycling is a way to manage waste materials once they have been generated if they can’t be reused. It prevents waste from being sent to landfill and makes waste into new goods or products.

Recycling involves breaking down your used items into their base raw materials and creating new items from them. Recycling reduces your consumption of fresh raw materials and your energy usage. Most importantly, recycling reduces the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutant emissions, and water pollution released by your business.

Effective recycling requires us to separate waste according to different materials so that they can be recycled efficiently.

This can involve turning the old material into a new version of the same thing or into something completely different. For example, used glass bottles can be recycled into new bottles or they can be recycled into road materials for use in construction projects. Through Recycling Pencils have been made out of Old newspapers, tires and even Jean trousers. Key holders have been made from cartons, while Car Dashboard made out of Plastic Bottled water.

Furthermore through Recycling, Energy/Light can be produced from Methane gotten from decomposed foods like tomatoes; this is called bio-waste

Recycling is so beneficial because you can recycle a particular product up to ten times continuously  for use and you actually spend lesser hours and energy in recycling this product compared to its initial Production.

In Conclusion, the Rule and Principles Of Sustainability if studied and imbibed is one that can surely equip individuals, managers, supervisors, entrepreneurs etc with the necessary knowledge and ideas to identify areas within their private life and organization's  operations that needs to be enhanced through sustainable practices. See you at the Top!

Yours Inspirationally,

Tundegold