What is sustainable living?
| Sustainable living is a lifestyle and philosophy that involves making choices and taking actions to promote responsible resource use and environmental stewardship for the benefit of current and future generations. It requires us to understand how our lifestyle choices impact the world around us and find ways to live better and lighter. This includes prioritizing the use of renewable resources and living within our means to ensure that future generations can meet their own needs. The concept of sustainability was first defined in 1987 by the Brundtland Report as a global principle that presents environmental issues in the context of political, social, and economic development. Today, the United Nationš Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize the central tenets of sustainability, including addressing climate change, energy use, land and water management, and consumption. Practitioners of sustainable living aim to reduce their carbon footprint by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption, food and water use. They conduct their lives in ways that are consistent with sustainability, in natural balance and respectful of humanity's symbiotic relationship with the Earth's natural ecology and cycles. |
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Can we eat sustainably?
It doesn’t have to be difficult to eat sustainably, but it does take some consideration of some aspects that might not normally be a priority.
By consuming food in a more conscious way, like verifying its origin, choosing seasonal products from the shelves and avoiding buying more than we eat, we can take a step toward sustainable living.
Sustainable nutrition consisting of wholesome, nutrient-dense foods are accessible and affordable in most places. They will help you preserve environmental resources and support local communities by choosing them, and in that way reduce your “Foodprint”.
By consuming food in a more conscious way, like verifying its origin, choosing seasonal products from the shelves and avoiding buying more than we eat, we can take a step toward sustainable living.
Sustainable nutrition consisting of wholesome, nutrient-dense foods are accessible and affordable in most places. They will help you preserve environmental resources and support local communities by choosing them, and in that way reduce your “Foodprint”.
Source: LINK
| Does the way we eat daily impact the environment? Definitely, yes. Diets high in animal protein and certain crops can increase water usage, contribute to soil depletion, and release methane and other fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere. Large-scale agriculture and livestock production rely on highly resource-intensive farming practices. However, eating sustainably can mitigate these impacts and help lessen the impact of agriculture on the environment. |  |
Food
| The more people adopt the principles of food sustainability, the greater the positive impact on the environment, and the better our chances of promoting good health and overall well-being. But what exactly do we mean by eating sustainably? It is all about choosing foods based on the impact of their production on soil, water consumption, pesticides, land clearing, greenhouse gases, and fossil fuel usage. People who try to eat sustainably opt for foods that are produced by farming practices that are the least harmful and the most beneficial to the environment. Choosing to eat sustainably does not just help the planet. It's also a really healthy way to go! Studies have shown that sustainable foods can be more nutritious than what you would get from a conventional diet. So, if you're someone who cares about the environment and wants to eat well, sustainable eating might be just what you're looking for! |
 Source: LINK |
Water
| As with food, water usage in households raises similar concerns due to limited supply and the growing demand for freshwater in some areas, especially in recent years. The European Union reports an average household consumption of approximately 144 litres of water per person per day, with only a small portion of this being used for drinking and cooking. Personal hygiene activities, such as washing, dishwashing, toilet flushing, watering of plants, filling up swimming pools and of course leaks, comprise over a third of this consumption. This quantity reflects solely the amount of water used directly by households and highlights their way of managing this often scarce resource. The increasing challenge of water scarcity, exacerbated by climate changes, has affected people worldwide, also in areas that have previously never encountered these issues. Addressing this problem will force people to make some difficult changes in their personal lives to reduce water consumption. In this module we focus on what we can do for a more sustainable future and how that process can be started in our households. |
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