Sustainability Opportunities

Below are some of the sectors where there are opportunities for positive actions that can be taken to help address the Sustainability Challenges that our generation and certainly the following generations will need to face.

Business: Businesses and national economies that more quickly adapt to green products and practices will have the opportunity to gain market share, which will then be difficult for followers to take. Being in early could provide a competitive advantage as late comers are unlikely to want to reinvent the wheel, rather than buying from established providers.
Computers: Computers are known to be significant users of electricity whilst running (plus some whilst on standby), and there are concerns about the proportion of materials that can be recycled. Manufacturers are working to improve in these areas compared to earlier models. There are also opportunities in how effectively we use computers as tools.
Construction: Construction is one of the heaviest users of energy and resources and one of the largest producers of waste that ends up in landfill. The good side is that provides a huge amount of potential for improvement from building purchasers, architects, builders, residents and the manufacturers of products.
Gardens: Our gardens are often something that we feel that we should get around to tending sometime when the urgent stuff has been taken care of. Yet by the time the urgent stuff is taken care of we often don't have the energy to get to them, even if we do think they are important. So it would be nice if everyone added more native and food plants purely to help the environment, but if you need some extra encouragement with more immediate benefits here are some thoughts.
Household: Many individuals and families recognise the challenges of climate change and feel the pinch when grocery and petrol prices climb. Sometimes they feel that they are powerless to effect change and that it is governments and major corporations that have all the control. However, individuals have considerable influence as the purchasers of products and services, as users of products and services and as influencers of others.
Science and Technology: The concerns that we are close to or beyond peak oil and the fears about climate change caused by carbon dioxide emissions from coal burning power plants, make it urgent for mankind to come up with alternatives. There is controversy over the role of nuclear power as most people are extremely uncomfortable about how safe it is, either from accidents or terrorist attacks. Yet there are environmental scientists who believe that we will not have a choice but to expand its use, if we are to control fossil fuel emissions and make up for dwindling fossil fuel supplies Whatever your view, it shows the need to apply human ingenuity to developing cleaner energy sources as fast as possible.
Transport: Most people do not realise that in the very early days of motoring, electric vehicles were as common as petrol ones. They certainly do not realise that in the late 1990s and early 2000s General Motors were manufacturing an all electric sportscar known as the EV1. So why not? How could something so revolutionary, and something that most people think we are waiting to develop, not be common knowledge?