1 What does sustainable living mean to you?

1 What does sustainable living mean to you?

TSL 2014 International Schools Essay Competition
PRIMARY CATEGORY - TOP 5
1
What does sustainable living mean to you?
By Ismael Costa
Saint George’s School
Uruguay
My name is Ismael. I am a nine year old boy from Uruguay, and I will become ten years old next
February 3rd.
Allow me to explain what I mean by sustainability by describing how one day I would celebrate the 10th
anniversary of my son/daughter.
First, all my child’s friends would arrive by bike or by a clean public transportation. I imagine that cities
in the future will have bike-paths everywhere. Biking is good for many reasons: it is healthy and good
for developing strong legs, it does not pollute the environment, and it is very nice and funny!
All gifts would be wrapped in recycled paper. And no one would bring a gun toy, because arms are not
toys and have nothing to do with sustainability! Books printed on recycled paper would be very welcome
as well as electronic books.
The party would be celebrated in a sustainable building. By “sustainable building” I mean one that deals
responsibly with energy, water, and garbage.
The building's energy system would be based upon solar panels and wind mills. The lightning system
would be efficient, so lights would be turned on only when needed. I know that electricity costs much
more at night, because everybody is at home using electric appliances, so the party would be celebrated
at daylight.
Water management is also a big issue for a party to be sustainable. We must save water because it is a
scarce resource. We cannot live without water. We need water for drinking, cleaning the building,
irrigating the plants, toilets and dish washing. The building would have a system to recycle water, so
when rains are scarce plants would be irrigated with recycled water. This water would also be used for
cleaning the building and toilets!
Garbage produced during the party would be classified in organic, plastic, glass, batteries, tin and paper.
The organic garbage would be recycled in order to produce compost. We must learn how to produce less
garbage.
The cake would be made with ingredients obtained by sustainable agriculture and baked in a solar
powered oven.
I know that one day the sun will stop shining. When this moment comes, I hope we will have already
learned to live on other planets in sustainable ways so that my great great great great great great great
great grandchild can also have a nice birthday party.
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Primary Finalists – Top 5
2
What Sustainable Living Means to Me
By Asher Borthwick
Port Ellen Primary
United Kingdom
Our magnificent, abundant planet is being destroyed by its greediest inhabitants…us. We are also
endangering all that live alongside us. By making sustainable choices on our use of energy, our
everyday lifestyle and our consumption of food we can make a positive change.
Every day we carelessly use more energy, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Electricity is
something we believe we cannot live without. The bulk of the world’s energy consumption comes from
non-renewable sources such as coal and oil, which is unsustainable. I believe that if the world had more
renewable sources of energy, carbon release would be decreased greatly. Here on Islay we have many
renewable energy sources; wind turbines and offshore wind farms, small hydroelectric dams, the world’s
first wave power device the Limpet, and an array of tidal turbines that are going to be the first in
Europe. To me, sustainable living means using these types of renewable sources of energy production.
We can also make sustainable lifestyle choices. That apple with millions of food miles, not separating
rubbish from recycling, taking the car and not walking, leaving the lights on; every single last action, no
matter how small, adds up to a new carbon crust on the atmosphere. 60% of rubbish thrown away could
be recycled. Here on Islay we have a recycling organisation called Rejig that sells our second hand
furniture and clothes. On Islay instead of 5,000 people driving to a movie, the movie drives to us; we
have a visiting mobile cinema called the Screen Machine. My school has 4 green flags and we strive to
follow the eco code, saving energy, walking to school, growing our own food and applying reduce, reuse,
recycle as our motto.
Here on Islay one way we produce food sustainably is crofting. Crofts are small farms where as much as
possible is produced from the land for the crofter to live off. They don’t use a lot of machinery or
chemicals and everything is recycled and reused. We can also buy seasonal food from the Islay
Community Garden and even have a croft garden in school, living sustainably from the land.
I believe the next 60 years could be our last chance to set things straight. If we applied some of the
sustainable choices we have here on Islay then sustainable living would literally mean the world to me.
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Primary Finalists – Top 5
3
What ‘sustainable living’ is?
By Katarzyna Pilecka
Wladyslaw Szafers Primary School No 4
Poland
I am walking from school and I'm starting to wonder what ‘sustainable living’ is? Many people talk about
it and I think that it starts to be ‘fashionable’. But what does it mean? I’m passing children who are
eating candies and instead of throwing the papers to the rubbish bin, they are throwing them on the
lawn. At this moment they do not think about how much time the paper need to decompose. On the way
home I go to the store to buy some bread and the shopkeeper pack it in a plastic bag. I thank her and
say that I do not need the plastic bag because I know how much time it needs to decompose. I am
entering the staircase in the block, I’m turning off the light, because there is no need to waste electricity
during a day. At home mum is cooking dinner and my younger sister is playing with dolls. After the
dinner I’m putting the dishes into the dishwasher and thus we do not waste much water and do not use
large amounts of detergents. I’m playing with my sister, I’m explaining her that instead of playing the
computer and wasting electricity it is better to play a board game. I’m telling her to do not waste papers
for aimless drawings but to draw beautiful pictures and draw them on both sides. Dad comes home and
I’m looking into the bags. My dad bought a lot of vegetables but it is good to see that the bag is made of
cloth. When it is warm my dad takes us for a ride. We ride bicycles instead of a car because dad knows
that car fumes destroy our nature. During our trip we stop for a healthy dessert - apples. We're going
home tired but joyful. I’m taking a shower, because taking a bath is water consuming. I am glad that
my family cares about the environment. Tomorrow at school, I am going to ask my friends if their
families do the same. I will also talk with my teacher, to encourage students to collect waste paper and
other things that we collect in our school. I have a lot of questions about outdated medications which
are very dangerous. And what to do with them?
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Primary Finalists – Top 5
4
‘Sustainable living; and what it means to
me’
By Fatima Abbas
Pakturk International Schools & Colleges
Pakistan
Sustainable living has different definition for different people, some might take it as a simple case of not
littering, some might think of it as driving a hybrid, some might even argue that sustainable living
means living out on the countryside away from all the hubbub of the city. I looked into a number of
dictionaries and found the most general and accepted definition as sustainable living refers to living in
such a way that your living does not harm the environment or that your carbon footprint is non-existent
or that it is kept at a minimum.
Though I agree to most definitions I came across but to me sustainable living is living the ‘green’ life. By
that I mean that my actions should not affect the environment in a negative way. The example of a tree
best justifies my definition and approach; Imagine a cherry tree in full bloom, as its flowers begin to
emerge, there will no doubt be tons of wasted petals and seeds on the ground. You might say that all
this is waste, and at first glance you might not be wrong, but over time the seeds and petals provide
nutrients for the soil, and who knows? These nutrients might be food for another cherry tree due next
spring!
Just like the cherry tree I believe if we live our lives looking out for the environment then the
environment will do the same for us! And to accomplish this we need to set ourselves some goals, not
the kind of goals and promises that are impossible and out of our abilities, not the type of goals the
government sets itself! but small goals such as taking out the trash on a daily basis, segregating the
waste in accordance with their type, recycling whatever is possible in our respective houses, giving the
rest of the segregated waste to the recycling agencies, not littering, taking record of our water
consumption and cut its unnecessary use etc. etc…….
I have understood the meaning of green living and would like others to understand that this
environment is not our inheritance but a loan from our future generation and we have to return it as it is
so we better be careful with it.
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Primary Finalists – Top 5
5
What does sustainable living mean to you?
By Rheas Panda
Garodia International Centre for Learning
India
Coming across the term sustainable living, I kept wondering, what it exactly meant? Is it about people
or culture? Is it about environment, our jobs and our money or is it about our actions and their
consequences.
For many people sustainable living means being able to provide the basic necessities of life for
themselves and their family. At an individual level or micro level probably it is true. At global level,
sustainable living means creating a living balance amongst our natural system, our economic system
and our social system.
For me sustainable living is a personal journey down a path full of constant learning and adjustments. It
does not mean living without comforts or having any less fulfilling existence. It simply means to use only
what is necessary and being fully aware of the implications of our daily actions.
We must clearly understand that we have not inherited the earth from our ancestors but have borrowed
it for our children. It is sad to know that we human beings are using thirty percent more natural
resources than can be replenished. We must understand that without sustainable living any form of life
in our ecosystem (including humans) will either die off completely or die off to the point where the
remaining population becomes sustainable. After all sustainable means continuing to exist.
Now the million dollar question that arises is how to live within earth’s limit? How to reduce our impact
on our earth’s resources and how to replenish what we have lost due to human greed? I think for any
endeavour to succeed, no matter what its purpose, there must be a balance in various factors that
contribute to it.
At individual level understanding a delicate balance between demand and supply is crucial. You only
consume what can be replenished by nature and you use it again. In order to achieve it, residents must
create healthy community, socially, physically, economically and environmentally.
At national level, we must engage government and regulators to formulate policies, projects and laws on
environment protection, nature conservation, reuse and recycling of resources, encouragement of
agricultural commodities. Overall it should be strategic sustainable development.
At global level non-profit organisations should raise awareness, track environment threats and design
solutions. All the above is possible bearing in mind the prerequisite for sustainable living:
There is enough for everybody’s need but not for anybody’s greed.
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Primary Finalists – Top 5