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Living a green friendly life can be as easy as buying locally produced products. Whether its an organic jacket sewn by a local tailor or lettuce grown by a local farmer, buying these products has many advantages for yourself and those around you...
Goods made by local artists often have higher quality and individuality than those manufactured abroad in factories. Foods grown by local farmers haven’t lost their nutritional value and taste on the journey from the farm to your table. By cutting out transportation and packaging our society’s carbon footprint is drastically reduced. When you purchase local goods you are supporting the local economy by pouring money back into community and keeping those jobs alive. By supporting local producers and craftspeople you’ll enhance the economy of your local community, support sustainable production and transportation practices, and live a greener lifestyle. |
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There are some impressive developments in the science of manufacturing various products from agriculturally produced natural raw materials such as rice or corn. For instance, there are those developing single use disposable items, such as plates and cups (traditionally made of paper) from rice husks, mushrooms, and agar (also called agar agar, which is a gelatinous food substance made from a red algae). This is much less harmful to the environment than pulp paper processes and degrades into practically nothing, with no harmful chemical remnants.
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Perhaps you have heard about the LEED green building certification program. If not, it is worth your while to learn about this program, especially if you are building a house, involved in a substantial rehab or addition project. The LEED certification program is designed to encourage adoption of sustainable green building and development practices (this is a global program). The certification comes through training and testing on various sustainable initiatives and practices related to the building and architectural trade, most based on minimizing waste, utilizing recycled products, and energy efficiency. There is a rating system involved and the U.S. Green Building Council, which created and administers the program, also recognizes projects that implement design and building strategies/ which create better environmental and health performance.
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After the first Smart Bike program implementation in Rennes in 1998 many other cities have jumped on board. These government funded programs allow city goers to navigate the streets with bikes. The bike renting stations are conveniently located throughout the city so one can rent at one station and return at another. Over the first decade only European cities were incorporating Smart Bike. However, in 2008 Washington DC’s government introduced this program as the proud first American city to do so. |
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This definition or explanation of sustainable practice is courtesy of Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand. Sustainable practice is a dynamic process which enables all people to realize their organizational potential and improve their quality of life in ways which simultaneously build resilient communities and protect and enhance nature’s support systems.
Sustainable practice requires a number of components for organizations to walk the talk.
Firstly an understanding of the ‘what we are talking about and why bother’ – clarifying what sustainable practice is; what we are currently doing that is unsustainable; and the challenges we are experiencing with regard to social, environmental and fiscal pressures.
Secondly ‘the how’ – identifying the opportunities that following a strategic sustainable approach presents and that the greatest potential will evolve as we work together within and between organizations with a common understanding of what we are trying to achieve and process for getting there.
Sustainable practice is having a strategic plan in place that allows your organization or project to see the long term goal of sustainability whilst having short term actions moving you in the right direction. The Guidelines for Sustainable Practice in the ‘petal diagram’ above help us to make decisions that lead us in that direction. |
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