EGO TO ECO: A SUSTAINABLE DAY TO DAY HABITS

In the words of Nelson Mandela, Education is the most powerful weapon which you can
use to change the world. Our world faces grave social and environmental problems, ones
that are only bound to exacerbate in coming years. Developing the creativity, critical thinking,
and problem solving skills of the todays youth is key to bringing about a positive change in
society and moving past a deadlock of economic, social and environmental crises.
The EGO to ECO theme empowers students to become lifelong ambassadors of sustainable
lifestyle in their college, families, and communities, cultivating commitment to care for
oneself, each other and the natural environment. The focus of this theme will be on
sustainable consumption, in other words, students, teachers and institutions will be
challenged to think of their consumption habits and find ways to consume less and consume
mindfully so that there is least impact to our own lives, to the society and to the environment.
What is care and why is it important?
What is care? Put simply, care is to display kindness and concern. Care can be divided into 3
parts:
1) Care for oneself;
2) Care for others; and
3) Care for the environment.
Care starts from caring for yourself, and then extends to caring for each other, and then
ultimately for the entire environment. Caring for ourselves can include many aspects such as
brushing, bathing, eating healthy, exercising or pursuing a hobby. Caring for other can be
offering food, helping to carry things, helping your parents and siblings at home, opening and
closing a door, tucking in a chair when you leave, rolling up a floor mat, saying "please" and
"thank you" and so on. Caring for the environment can be cleaning, sweeping, gardening,
putting away toys, taking care of our pets, planting flowers and trees, etc. It can then be
extended to thinking about how our actions cause harm to the environment and trying to
minimize our negative impact to the environment.
Care is also interconnected, from self to others to the environment. How is that so? Lets
take a simple example: say you care about your own health and want to eat organic food. Your
self-care could help your friends and family also become conscious about their food choices
and help them become healthier as well. The environment can benefit from your choice for
organic food as it will eliminate the use of harmful chemicals that are used to grow non-
organic food. Lets consider another example: if you care about the environment and ensure
your surroundings are clean and green, you are in fact caring for others and yourself in turn as
proper hygiene and clean air helps keep you and those around you safe and healthy.
Why is care important?
Care in important because our health, safety, and well-being all depend on the quality of
care that we are able to receive from others, develop for ourselves, and extend to those
around us. Think of how it feels to know that your parents, friends or teachers care for you.
Think of how it feels when you care for them. Caring provides us a deep sense of contentment
and gives us positive energy that in turn helps us live in harmony - with each other and with
the environment. In other words, caring keeps both people and the planet healthy and happy.
Understanding interconnectedness of the world The world is built of connections. It is
interconnected and interdependent - economically, socially, culturally, and environmentally.
There are countless ways in which the world is interconnected and these interconnections are
also constantly changing. A global issue impacts our local context (including ourselves and
our community) and impacts cultures or nations as a whole. Similarly, our individual actions
impact the world around us. For example, if we take care of our forest in Bhutan, we are
contributing to cleaning the air in our region, or if we pollute our rivers, we are contributing to
water pollution that would affect our neighbors in India or Bangladesh as our rivers flow to
their countries. Similarly, the industrial pollution created by our neighboring countries can
harm our environment and our health. We are of course interconnected and interdependent in
many ways other than just the environment. Think of where your food comes from. Where is
the rice you eat grown? What about the vegetables? What about the candies, chocolate and
chips? Think of where the clothes you wear comes from. Where were they made? Where did
the raw material (cotton, silk, polyester) come from? How and how far did your food and
clothes travel before it got to you? Thinking about these examples make us realize how we
are dependent on the earth and the people in it, even if we are thousands of kilometers apart
from them. By first seeing all the interconnections within our community, we can better
understand the complexity of the human and natural systems. When we understand the
interconnections and the complexity of human and natural systems, we will be able to
understand how our actions, however small or big, can help or hurt the people around us and
the planet we live in.
What is Sustainable Consumption?
Consumption
Why are products produced? Well, the simplest answer is so they can be consumed. Your
local canteen makes snacks so customers can buy them and eat them. A car manufacturer
builds cars for commuters to buy and use during their daily travels. And energy companies
generate power, so consumers can use electricity to turn on lights in their homes. When
people consume goods and services, the economy grows because there is more money
changing hands. However, the production of goods and services uses raw materials provided
by the environment, such as water, timbers and fossil fuels. Therefore, meeting the desires of
the consumer for more goods and services can lead to more industrial and manufacturing
processes, which can deplete resources and increase pollution. Let us look at how
consumption can be made sustainable, that is, how consumption can be handled in ways that
minimize damage to the environment, so products and services are available for future
generations to consume.
Sustainable Consumption
Sustainable consumption is the use of products and services in a way that minimizes the
impact on the environment, so that human needs can be met not only in the present but also
for future generations. When sustainable consumption is practiced, resources are used wisely
and waste products and pollution are minimized. The main way this is achieved is by doing
more and better with less. In other words, we can find ways to meet our needs and desires
without depleting our planet's finite natural resources. This might include carpooling, using
renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power, developing alternative fuel sources,
such as biofuels, for our transportation needs and using environmentally friendly cleaning
products. Practicing sustainable consumption can ensure that the environment has resources
available long into the future. However, in most industrialized and developed nations,
consumption patterns are not sustainable. Their products and services rely on too many
natural resources and create too many harmful emissions when consumed. For example, most
developed countries rely on non-renewable fossil fuels for their transportation needs. As more
drivers hit the roads and more fuel is consumed, fossil fuel reserves are depleted, and
because fossil fuels emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned, more
consumption means more pollution. This level of consumption cannot be sustained due to the
depletion of the non-renewable resource and the adverse effects to the environment. Of
course, unsustainable consumption patterns are not just a problem for developed countries,
but also for many developing countries. In developing nations, consumption patterns can be
unsustainable because citizens of these countries may need to exploit their natural resources
to meet their basic living needs. For example, subsistence farming, which is farming that
provides only for the farmer's needs without surplus for the market, requires the clearing of
woodlands to make room for farms and is one of the leading causes of deforestation. This can
lead to environmental damage, such as soil erosion, drier climates and higher levels of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere.
What is Sustainable Living?
At its most basic, sustainable living means living a lifestyle that uses as few resources as
possible and causes the least amount of environmental damage for future generations to deal
with. There are many different forms of sustainable living, since the concept can apply to
almost every part of daily life.
In terms of housing, sustainable homes are built in such a way that they use few
nonrenewable resources, do not require much energy to run, and cause little or no damage to
the surrounding environment. A sustainable home should be constructed from materials that
have been produced in an environmentally friendly manner. For example, a house might be
built from straw bales, adobe, or reclaimed stone or brick. Many homeowners pursue
sustainable living by making their homes as low energy as possible, either by making sure
that they have very high energy efficiency or by producing their own power from the sun or
wind. Sustainable living must include a reliance on sustainable energy. The energy sources
used must be renewable rather than limited in quantity. Energy sources such as fossil fuels
cannot readily be renewed, so instead of these, sustainable living requires using renewable
energy sources such as solar, wind, water, or geothermal energy. The energy must also be
captured and used in an environmentally friendly way that does not damage the environment
for future generations. For sustainable living, a person must leave as little impact on the world
as possible. The diet of someone who is focused on sustainable living should focus on foods
that are at the base of the food chain. A vegetarian lifestyle is best suited to sustainable living
because it requires the fewest resources to produce and causes the least amount of
environmental damage and degradation. The food should also be grown organically without
the use of chemicals such as pesticides or herbicides that can pollute the environment and
cause health problems for other animals or humans. It is best to eat food that has been grown
locally to reduce the problems caused by transporting food over long distances. Many people
try to grow their own produce in their yard or in a community garden near their home. Local
farmers markets can also be a good source for sustainably grown fruits and vegetables.
Essentially, sustainable living involves living as lightly on the Earth as possible. Someone who
succeeds at living a sustainable lifestyle will use very few resources and will leave the
environment as untouched as possible so that future generations will be able to enjoy the
same high quality of life that people do today.

Ar. Taha Padrawala

Assistant Professor