Sustainability is Not a New Concept for our Planet, just for Society
Posted on: July 12th, 2020
The word sustainability seems to be popping up in conversations everywhere today. It’s the new buzzword for a society growing more and more concerned about their negative impact on the environment.
But the concept of sustainability is not new, though many believe it to be a modern-day initiative spurred on by our low national recycling rate, overcrowded landfills and toxic pollution.
According to The World Energy Foundation, “The concept of sustainability is one that has been around for as long as humans have: a concern for the future of our resources. Food and water have to come from somewhere, and even the earliest cultures would have had to be thinking about what to do in the lean times, and what would happen if the animals or plants they depended upon were to disappear.”
But the most common definition of sustainability came to us in 1987 in a report by the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future (also called the Brundtland Report).
The report was commissioned in response to overwhelming concerns surrounding the depletion of the ozone layer, climate change and other environmental issues associated with the new standard of living in the world’s population.
In the report, “The WCED explored the causes of environmental degradation, attempted to understand the interconnections between social equity, economic growth and environmental problems and developed policy solutions that integrated all three areas.”
The report concluded that the definition of sustainability was: “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Paper is a timeless example of sustainability. Based on wood, it’s a natural and renewable material, with the benefit of young trees absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere.
Paper can be recycled about five to seven times depending on the process. After that, the paper fibers become too short and cannot be made into a paper product any longer. However, those fibers are the perfect ingredient for molded pulp products, which in turn are biodegradable and sustainable.