This is the simplest, but most effective, way to reduce our use of resources.
Governments are also encouraging the use of smart meters to raise awareness about energy use as a way to encourage people to save energy. This may be, for example, by better insulation of buildings to prevent heat loss, not leaving gadgets on stand-by or even just switching off lights. Energy Saving (Leaner)Įnergy saving, at the top of the pyramid, is about reducing our use of energy. The five levels of the energy hierarchy are: 1. One of the most important natural resources is energy. In particular, we need to reduce our use of natural resources to ensure that there is enough to go round. Change is necessary to ensure the long-term survival of the planet. It allows us to meet our present needs-up to a point-but it damages our potential to meet our needs in the future. In other words, this model is not sustainable. It has therefore become clear that if we do not make changes to how we live and work, on a global scale, future generations-and not necessarily that far into the future-will probably be unable to cope. Science suggests that these changes are now accelerating and, if unchecked, could rapidly lead to global disaster. This, in turn, has increased demand for resources.
At the same time, advances in medicine have extended life expectancy, and the world’s population has expanded exponentially. Large-scale use of fossil fuels, and industrial production methods, have both depleted the world’s finite resources, and also damaged the environment through pollution and over-use of natural resources. However, following the Industrial Revolution, this changed. Historical economic and social models were largely focused on present needs: people used what they needed at the time, with little concern for the future impact of their consumption.īack in the Middle Ages, this was not a major problem, because nobody was able to use up large amounts of resources. This page explains why this matters, and how you can reduce energy consumption either individually or as a business.Ī number of factors have come together in the early twenty-first century that have brought sustainability to the forefront of political and societal attention. Sustainability goes far beyond simple ‘eco-friendliness’ or ‘environmental friendliness’, but use of natural resources is an important element. This page covers one element of that: use of energy and other natural resources. This is a very complex subject, but is generally broken down into the concepts of economic, environmental and social activity, or ‘ profits, planet and people’. It therefore covers nothing less than the survival of both people and the planet. Sustainability means being able to meet our present needs, without compromising either our own ability to meet future needs, or the ability of future generations.