QU01_Environmental ManagementUnit 4. Towards Sustainability

We can make positive change in many habits of our daily lives as rubbish, waster or energy for example. In this unit we are going to learn some of these aspects and see what we can do to move ourselves towards an eco-friendly world.In this unit you are going to work on eight different tasks (task 8 is optional) in order to achieve the learning objectives.

1. Raising AwarenessWe have to move to a sustainable way of living. If we want to achieve that goal we have to make people notice things and thus making them commit to something, make people understand that they need to stand up for something.Knowledge is not the same thing as Awareness. Awareness is the next step, it's what makes you take action, because you can relate it to the situation, it is significant to you.

Image Source: www.why.do

TASK 1: Tap water or bottled water?Work in pairs.Think about the next questions and tick the answer that best fits you. Then compare the answers with your partner. Keep a record of your partner’s answer.1. Do you normally drink tap or bottled water? Your answer: Yes No Sometimes Your partner’s answer: Yes No Sometimes

2. Is there a difference in quality between tap water and bottled water?Your answer: Yes No Sometimes

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HIGHLIGHTSNo matter the diversity of beliefs, we all know we live in a world full of problems. Yet, one of the biggest problems is that not enough of us realize that we also live in a world full of solutions - and then live our lives as these solutions in action.May you know that every thought, word, and action make a difference. Each and every one of us does make a difference. It is actually impossible to not make a difference. So the question we need to ask ourselves is, “What kind of difference do I want to make?”

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Your partner’s answer: Yes No Sometimes

3. Do you think bottled water is a real or an artificial need?Your answer: Yes No Your partner’s answer: Yes No

Why? Justify your answer.

Your answer:

Your partner’s answer:

In the following video you can see “The Story of Bottled Water”, which tells us about the business on bottled water, an unnecessary product that has a high impact on the environment. This business shows us how our materials economy works through a concept called “manufactured demand”, that’s to say, marketing strategies based on scaring people about tap water.

The story of bottled water

TASK 2: Multiple-choice quiz about the story of bottled waterAfter watching the video of “The story of bottled water” answer the following questions. Circle the correct answer (A, B or C) for each question.

1. City of Cleveland did some tests on water. They found that …A) a glass of Fiji water is lower quality, it loses taste tests against Cleveland tap and costs

thousands of times more.B) a glass of Fiji water is higher quality, but less tasty than Cleveland water.C) Fiji water is the best one and has nothing to do with Cleveland water.

2. Bottled water costs about 2000 times more than tap water.A) No, it’s impossible!B) Yes, it’s true. I can’t believe it!C) They both have the same price.

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3. People in the U.S. buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week. That’s enough to circle the globe.

A) More than 2 timesB) More than 5 timesC) More than 10 times

4. Have you ever noticed how bottled water tries to seduce us with pictures of mountains streams and pristine nature? But did you know that a third of all bottled water in the U.S. actually comes from …?

A) the tapB) directly from the riverC) from mountain spring water

5. All these plastic bottles, after being used, end up in landfills in the following percentage:A) 25% B) 50%C) 80%

6. Some bottles are selected to be “downcycled”, which means turning them…A) into higher quality products that would be reused in the futureB) down into the valley where they can be recycled.C) into lower quality products that would just be chucked later.

7. We could start with making a personal commitment to not buy or drink bottled water unless the water in your community is truly unhealthy.

A) No wayB) MaybeC) Yes, I’d think about it

2. The Ecological FootprintThe ecological footprint measures human consumption of natural resources in comparison to Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate them. Calculation of the footprint takes into account just about everything we do; from the food we eat, to the house we live in, to the car we drive and the other consumption habits we practice each day. It's a very complex calculation that answers a straightforward question: how much of the Earth's resources do our lifestyles require?The expression of the size of our individual or collective footprint is usually expressed in the number of planets we'd need to support our current lifestyles.

TASK 3: Calculate your ecological footprint!You are going to take this quiz to find out your Ecological Footprint, discover your biggest areas of resource consumption, and know what you can do to tread more lightly on the Earth!

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Click on the link below, select one of the locations in the maps and then answer the questionnaire.

Footprint Calculator

Now that you know your ecological footprint, discuss your results with the rest of the class. Ask your partner about his/her result. Keep a record of his/her answer.

My footprint is __________My partner’s footprint is ______________

Then with your partner, answer the following question. Do you think it might be possible to reduce your ecological footprint? How? In the link below you have an example of how your shopping affects the environment and it gives you some ideas on how to reduce it.

How does my shopping affect the environment?

3. How does my shopping affect the environment?If we focus on the food we buy and consume, we’ll see it has an impact on our economy as well as on our environment. Let’s see some examples of this issue: To buy plastic bottles instead of buying a water filter. To buy plastic bags every time we go to the grocery store instead of using reusable bags as

paper bags, plastic bags “for life”, cotton and jute bags or biodegradable plastic bags. Not to buy or eat local and seasonal products, which causes food to be transported across

the country or from other countries, which involves major CO2 emissions and increases the ecological footprint.

How does my shopping affect the environment?

In the link below we can see more examples of how your shopping affects the environment, and we can also see which alternatives we have to become more sustainable with our environment.

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TASK 4: Protecting the environment while shoppingIn the previous link there are five sections:

The sections are: 1. How does my shopping affect the environment?2. How can I buy energy-efficient products?3. How do I find the most fuel-efficient vehicle? 4. How do I find products and services that save water?5. How can I buy safer detergents and household cleaners?

Choose the one you like the most and read it. Then, write down in your notebook the actions you can take to improve your shopping habits related to the section you’ve already read.Keep a record of all the new vocabulary and expressions.

Section selected____My proposed actions:

New words and expressions:

TO KNOW MOREIf you want to learn more about what you can do to protect the environment at home, at your workplace, and in your community, you can visit the following websites.

Protecting the environment in your community

Learn about environmental issues (air, chemicals and toxics, pesticides...)

TO KNOW MOREGreen vehicles are a reality nowadays. Let’s see them!

European Commission Research and Innovation

Green vehicles

European green vehicles initiative

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TASK 5: How green are you? Here you have an eco-questionnaire. There are fifteen questions that ask you how you would act in different situations that you may already have experienced. Choose the response that you feel is closest to how you would act in each situation.

Eco-questionnaire

At the end of the questionnaire remember to note down how many a, b, c, and d you’ve got, and then calculate your score.Share your results with other students! Ask them about their answers and keep a record of your score.

ECO-QUESTIONNAIRE SCOREMe Partner 1 Partner 2 Partner 3 Partner 4

TASK 6: Let’s get environmental involved!In the following task you have a list of some personal actions that you would commit to doing for a better future. Read each one and then mark the actions …

you will do with a * and give your reasons. you will not do with an X and give your reasons.

Complete the table with your actions and reasons.

Think globally, act personally

Actions that I will do Why?--

Actions that I won’t do Why?---

Then make a list with the rest of the students of the most voted actions and let’s see what’s going on!

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The most voted actions are …..

TO KNOW MOREThe Changemakers community convenes and connects high-potential changemakers, and their ideas and resources, through the power of collaborative competitions and partner networks. Connect with other social innovators, entrepreneurs, funders, connectors, thought leaders, communicators, citizen sector organizations, and citizens to accelerate lasting social change

Changemakers

3. Time to recycle

Recycling is the process of separating, collecting and remanufacturing or converting used or waste products into new materials. The recycling process involves a series of steps to produce new products.Recycling helps extend the life and usefulness of something that has already served its initial purpose by producing something that is useable. Recycling has a lot of benefits and importance not only to us, humans but especially to our planet.Almost everything we see around us can be recycled. Different materials require different techniques when recycled. Recyclable materials commonly include batteries, biodegradable waste, clothing, electronics, garments, glass, metals, paper, plastics and a lot more.

TO KNOW MOREWhat really happens to the bottles, cans and paper that we set out for recycling? In the link below you will find the answer to all these questions in a power point presentation.

It’s time to recycle

TASK 7: Recycling habitsRead these questions about recycling habits and talk about them in groups of two people. Keep a record of your answers:

1. Do you recycle at home?2. Which part of the garbage do you recycle?3. Do you know everything about how to separate different parts of rubbish?

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Now listen to the basic advice about recycling in the following video. Then, check if you answered correctly the previous questions of this task. Keep a record of the new things that you have learnt after watching the video.

Recycling recommendations

New things that we have learnt about recycling:

HIGHLIGHTSThis links to a guide that attempts to cover everything an informed consumer should know about the most common recyclable materials in plain no-nonsense terms. Special attention is given to materials that are poorly understood or hard to recycle, like motor oil or rechargeable batteries.

Recycling Guide: Common Materials

TO KNOW MORE"When you say you're going to throw something away - where's 'away?' There is no away."Julia Butterfly Hill, an environmental and social activist. According to her, we've forgotten how to co-exist with nature, and are now content living in a mindset of wastefulness. She calls this phenomenon the "disposability consciousness".

Disposability Consciousness

Leyla Acaroglu is the founder and director of Eco Innovators a multidisciplinary creative practice focused on pioneering social and environmental sustainability through design. She is a proponent of systemic and life-cycle-based thinking in sustainability decision making.

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Systemic and life-cycle-based thinking in sustainability decision making

Task 8: Working at the Rocky Mountain Institute

This is an Optional Task.

Make groups of 2 students. Choose one of the four following situations based on the working areas at Rocky Mountain Institute: buildings, electricity, transportation and industry.

Each group will play two roles: the technician assessor at Rocky Mountain Institute and the customer who wants to solve a problem based on one of 4 topics you’ve already chosen.

The challenges we propose you to work on are the following:

1. Transportation.“My name is Peter Harris, my father built a big company in trucking sector transporting cereals across the country transportation over 50 years ago. Now it’s my turn, I want to make some changes in the company thinking about the future. Can you help me? What would be the future of trucking?”

2. Buildings. We are Linda and John Woods. We have been living in Norway for five years, we are environmental activists and we want to live with nature, not against it. So, we want to settle down in Ohio and build a passive house. We checked the RMI web and we saw you work on passive house in a section called “tools and resources” in the building area. Can you help us to make our dream come true?

3. Electricity.“My name is Carol Harper, I work at MIT (Technological Institute of Massachusetts) as a physicist. My department wants to collaborate with RMI ELAB to develop a new electric car. Do you think this would be possible? Which kind of facilities do you have at your institute?”

4. Industry.“We are Ben Morrison and Dennis Reyes, we are both engineers. We want to open an engineering consultancy, but we have no idea of “industry principles” you talked about in your website. Could you teach us about that?”

Now write a scheme about the meeting between the technician and the customer and the problem you want to solve. Then you will perform the meeting. You can check the Institute’s brochure and also the web. Let’s start!

Rocky Mountain Institute brochure

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Rocky Mountain Institute Web

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