WHAT CAN WE DO?

We’ve already acknowledged that there is problem in our world considering over consumption and natural resources. Now it is time to discuss what can we do to in order to help our environment.

Jane Benyus wrote an article Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature, and in the article she discusses a number of principles she felt would be very efficient. One concept I found interesting was Optimize rather than maximize. This spoke about how the United States produces waste so quickly and people no longer value quality. The world is all about quantity over quality, which the situation should be reverse. If companies took the extra time and effort to produce a quality product, consumption would be slowed down. However, we are seeing some changes, consumers are slowly starting to accept and purchase “factory refurbished” products such as computers or stereos. I think that this is a huge step for the world. I know that I go through cell phones at least one every two years and I always try to recycle them to proper locations but even doing that doesn’t mean that the cell phone is refurbished and put back on the market.

Another concept that really interested me was Shop Locally. This idea spoke about how our market strives to be global and a borderless economy. And this is so true, I mean when is the last time you have looked at a product and seen “Made in America”, I know I haven’t seen that in years. This competitive market doesn’t encourage us to adapt to our own environments. We need to be utilizing the resources that surround us instead of having to have something out of our reach. Fletcher in Sustainable Fashion and Textiles wrote about how the transportation process leaves a lot of harm to that country. For instance, the country that produces the product draws upon local resources and therefore results in local pollution.

These concepts are very vital in heading towards a sustainable ecosystem and need to considered for the future.