‘We need to teach our children and students the fundamental facts of life — that one species’ waste is another species’ food; that matter cycles continually through the web of life; that the energy driving the ecological cycles flows from the sun; that diversity assures resilience; and that life, from its beginning more than three billion years ago, did not take over the planet by combat but by networking.’ (Fritjof Capra, 2011).
The definition of sustainability is: the capacity to endure (Wikipedia, 2011) or in other words meeting the demands of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (University of Canterbury, 2011a). According to the Global Footprint Network (2011) humans currently use the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources they use and absorb their waste so resources are being used much faster than the earth can regenerate them. Change to how resources are used is required now otherwise these precious resources will run out and there will be nothing left.
The principles of sustainability are:
- Take what nature replaces — if oil is taken, for example, it is only taken at the speed that it can be replaced
- Make what nature can process — that is things that nature can breakdown and go back into the cycle
- Avoid breaking nature — maintain natural environments
- Be equitable — ensure resources are shared and people are treated fairly (Otago Polytechnic, 2011a).
Sustainability is a concept which encompasses climate change. One of the positive off shoots of increased sustainability is hopefully a reduction in the impacts of climate change. Whether or not a person believes in climate change is irrelevant when it comes to the subject of sustainability. No one can argue with the facts that resources are being used faster than they can be replenished. If action is not taken now, the consequences are likely to be serious for future generations.
When educating sustainable practitioners, sustainability should be integrated into the curriculum, rather than a stand alone topic within the curriculum. Educating sustainable practitioners is a fundamental change in philosophy — educators must be teaching their students to become not only sustainable practitioners in the field of veterinary nursing but also in life. Sustainability extends into all areas of life and is more than recycling and building greener buildings, but is about ensuring that life can be lived and enjoyed too. Sustainability, therefore, falls into four categories:
- Cultural well being
- Economic well being
- Social well being
- Environmental well being (Hauraki District Council, 2011).
True sustainability integrates all these four categories, and these four categories should be bench-marked against combined, rather than in isolation (Sustainable measures, 2011). For example, when making a purchasing decision in a veterinary clinic for a brand of pet food, the best price advantage (economic well being), and the best option for pets should not be the only factor taken into consideration, but also the social side — where is that pet food produced and how are the people that produced it treated, and the environmental aspects — what is the company doing to look after the environment and ensure they do not have a negative impact on it. Another example is fossil fuels. Coal mining is taking a highly concentrated form of fuel that is rich in carbon and has taken millions of years to form and selling it to be burned to produce power for example (coal-fired power stations). Coal mining is profitable for a local area and can produce a cheap power source. On the solid energy website (Solid Energy, 2011) it states: ‘Coal provides over a third of the world's energy. It is a major component in the manufacture of everyday goods, from steel to cement, golf clubs to mountain bikes, water and chemical filters to kidney dialysis machines and even cosmetics, shampoos and toothpaste’, however the costs on the environment are high. It is mined at a rate faster than it can be replenished, the burning of it releases large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Coal mining can also result in the destruction of natural environments, depending on how it is mined. Ideally people need to be working in a manner that provides economic stability without damaging (or better still enhancing) the environment or social and cultural well being.
What does education for sustainability involve?
Education for sustainability involves encouraging a fundamental change in the attitudes of all students. It is the future workers that have the most ability to be adaptable and really make some positive changes. Nowadays young children are being exposed to this right from a preschool age, but most of the students reaching the tertiary sector currently are still not that knowledgeable about sustainability (personal experience).
The website, Greenkiwi (2011), describes education for sustainability as requiring the development of:
- Knowledge and understanding of the key concepts, focusing on the underlying causes of unsustainable practices and understanding the requirement to redesign systems currently in place in society
- Attitudes and values that include a concern for the future — personal and of the environment
- Key competencies to promote active learning, thinking, communicating and so on that lead to a change in attitudes and the way things are done.
How do we ‘walk the talk’?
The first step in educating sustainable practitioners is to walk the talk. This requires cooperation from all staff involved in the education of the students. This is easier said than done. The role of sustainability champion in the Otago Polytechnic School of Veterinary Nursing, New Zealand, was given to the author, simply because she was prepared to embrace it. Responses from staff to the key performance indicator (KPI) relating to sustainability have varied wildly from the positive to some very defeatist comments such as:
‘It's too big, I can't do anything to make a diference’
‘I’m too busy’
‘I’m not trained in this topic therefore I can't teach it’
‘It's not in the course therefore we don't have to’.
These are attitudes which can be challenging to deal with. However one thing was clear — all the staff agreed in their own way that the world cannot go on like it is, which, is a good starting point.
Educators and providers of education must demonstrate what they preach and do it in a way that makes it attainable to everyone and widely acceptable. The image of a stereotypical greenie from the 1970s era does not help to normalize acts of sustainability nor do the people that decide to live off the land they own. Sustainability needs to be seen as being practised by people that are perceived as main stream.
The author's employer, Otago Polytechnic, has already made a pledge to being sustainable (Otago Polytechnic, 2011b). That in itself is a huge stepping stone to getting cooperation from staff. When one of the KPIs becomes sustainability the options are cooperate or change jobs. Prior to everything that is done the question is asked: ‘Is it sustainable’ — culturally, economically, environmentally and socially (Hauraki District Council, 2011).
Within the Otago Polytechnic School of Veterinary Nursing, New Zealand, members of staff talked as a group about what a sustainable practitioner is in terms of the veterinary profession — this helped staff members examine how they would deliver the sustainability message to their students who are studying to become veterinary nurses. The following statement was produced: ‘A sustainable practitioner in the field of animal care/veterinary nursing and rural animal technology is an animal advocate who provides excellence in animal and client care. They will promote to their clients and actively participate in sustainable practices that maximize job and life satisfaction and improve the quality of their practice, while minimizing the long-term negative impact on themselves, society and the environment.’ This was the first step in embracing the challenge.
Following that a study of current practice was carried out and a list of things that could be done that would make practitioners more sustainable both at work and at home was formed. The University of Canterbury (New Zealand) website offers some good simple tips to living more sustainably at home (University of Canterbury, 2011b).
The Otago Polytechnic looked at how much paper was generated, and how printing could be reduced. The Polytechnic programmes are largely distance based, how could it be possible engage students in quality education and outcomes without having so many contact courses, what products are being sourced and where do they come from, what is used for teaching and what reusable alternatives are there. Ways of significantly reducing a huge marking load were also investigated — these included increased use of multiple choice questions, clustering assessments, reducing over assessment (i.e. only testing the skill/knowledge once, rather than up to three times), using group work, using contributions to collaborative forums. These improved the lives of polytechnic staff, while improving the assessment options for students and maintaining the quality of the graduates. All this has been achieved, which has had a considerable positive impact on the school reducing costs, reducing workload, allowing staff to refocus on continuing to improve and develop the student programme and improving the quality of the education on offer to students. These were in addition to issues that affect all aspects of our lives such as reduction of waste volume and purchasing products with a better eco-footprint. This is an ongoing project in Otago Polytechnic.
It is possible for people to look at their own ecological foot print, as well as that of their workplace or industry using one of the many online calculators (Centre for sustainable economy, 2011; Ecological Footprint calculators, 2011; World Wildlife Fund, 2011). There are literally hundreds of these on the internet and each one will give quite different results, depending on the number of questions asked and the assumptions made, but the general trend will be the same. This brings awareness of the impact people are having on the environment. Awareness is the first step in improvement. The next step is to make and implement a plan to reduce it. Once a person's ecological footprint has been calculated, each of these websites provides tips on how to improve it. Many of the changes are simple and easy to implement, such as changing light bulbs to energy efficient ones, boiling only the water that is needed, recycling everything that can be recycled, composting and only washing full loads of washing. Doing this reduces the environmental impact, and this can be thought of as walking the talk.
Put it in the rubbish
A fundamental attitude change that has been most helpful for the author in becoming more engaged in this subject is that of waste. The author has always been really good at carefully separating rubbish and recycling even when kerbside recycling was not available. However, this attitude does nothing to actually reduce the waste volume being produced. The concept that must be understood is that nothing disappears. Just because someone comes and collects the rubbish, it is not gone, it has just become someone else's problem. For all the rubbish that goes to land-fill, it will be a major problem for the future generations or for incineration which produces toxic chemicals and increases carbon into the atmosphere, not to mention reducing the world's resources. Everything in the world needs to be cyclical, which is how it lives in balance, but the rubbish created by human kind is creating a dead end, as it cannot be reused.
It is possible to live in the western world and produce significantly less rubbish (Ecologist, 2011), and once the fundamental issue with rubbish is understood, product purchasing for home and work is viewed with new eyes.
Some things that appear sustainable may not be
Advertising is not always fact and common popular opinion is also not always fact. Independent research is required. Think about the plastic versus paper debate — an example that is familiar to most people. Although we all know that plastic bags take 100s or maybe 1000s of years to break down in the environment and biodegradable plastic bags take less but still a considerable time period to break down, it is not always immediately the best choice to have a paper bag over a plastic bag, because the costs of producing a paper bag on the environment are actually higher than those of using a plastic bag (Dummies.com, 2011; Biotech, 2011; Treehugger, 2011).
Of course the best choice is having quality reusable shopping bags, made from environmentally friendly materials, and not using either plastic or paper bags at all.
Another good example is computer-based over paper-based education. The aim nowadays is for a paper free, electronic-based education. This is also the trend in the workplace, but this in itself is not always a green approach (Greenbiz.com, 2011). Computers use a lot of electricity and not all electricity is produced using green energy production methods (Think ecological, 2011). They also require lots of plastic and metal, including some rare metals, which are mined causing their own sustainability issues and are only available on the earth in very small quantities, in their manufacture. They also then create a large amount of waste when they are past their use by date. While there is no doubt computers are not going to go away and that they are the future of the world around us, people need to make good choices about their purchases and also make an effort to ensure that waste products are fully recycled.
There are many other examples, so in the same way that ethical decisions about animal issues are made, it is important to research both sides of the debate when making changes to become more sustainable. This will help to ensure that any changes that are actually implemented are truly more sustainable than what was previously in place, and not made purely because of unjustified advertising hype.
Practice ethical consumerism
Practice ethical consumerism at work and at home. Do not make decisions based on the cheapest price and the best freeby. Ask the company where its product has been produced (components of the product), sourced from, what is its green policy and how they are implemented. For a product that wilI have a use by date, how is its disposal managed — think about the new television for example? Does the company leave it up to the buyer to dispose of the packaging/old TV? Do they provide ways of taking back their products once they are no longer useable? Do they have a contract with a waste service?
Table 1. Changes that could be made
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The author recently asked several internationally prominent companies that produce products for the veterinary industry about their green policies. They all had one, but none of the staff asked seemed well versed in it or knew a lot about it or how it was being implemented to make a difference.
Here is a chance to create pressure. Everyone needs to be walking the talk. Hold back on as many purchases as possible from companies without a well implemented green policy until they walk the talk, consider taking the practice's business elsewhere, or if it is not urgent continue to put pressure on them to improve their practices.
Encouraging change
It is human nature to be resistant to change, particularly if everything is comfortable and settled. It is hard then to examine the wider impact that is being made. Laziness is also a problem — change is hard so why bother, especially when the perceived impact is not personal. According to 1degree (2001) ‘if every Australian replaced just one incandescent light bulb with one 20-watt compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) it would be the equivalent of taking one million cars off the road for a whole year’. This is a great website for ideas of other practical changes.
Start small making only small changes — make them easy ones that are easy to implement. Show how everyone can make these changes without changing the way they live much (stop purchasing meat on polystyrene trays, increase the number of local purchases, change to fluorescent light bulbs etc). Engage people in what you are doing. Do things that actually have personal health benefits (e.g. eat things with fewer ingredients — challenge yourself to buy things that have fewer than five ingredients or that look as close as possible to the natural product). Take them along for the ride. Enthusiasm is catchy (Table 1).
Keep sustainability in everyone's mind
In the Otago Polytechnic School of Veterinary Nursing, one of the author's own initiatives has been to provide a weekly tip on improving sustainability — this is a small and attainable thing that people can do to improve their own sustainability, and that can be achieved in that week for great future gains. It is also hopefully a tip they will share with a wider circle of friends. The tip also serves as a reminder of the subject and gets the staff and students thinking further afield than that small tip. Other staff are now providing ideas of their own tips too, contributing to a team approach to sustainability.
The school and polytechnic receive lots of positive feedback from students that one of the great things about studying with us is our commitment to sustainability.
The ecological footprint of pets
Recently a book was published called Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living (Vale and Vale, 2011). In this book, they compare the environmental footprint of household pets to other things that people own. For example they say a German Shepherd consumes more resources than two Toyota SUVs and cats are a little less than a Volkswagen Golf. Even two hamsters are about the same as a plasma TV. They suggest that instead of keeping the usual household pets people should be keeping chickens, rabbits, and pigs, but only if they are to be eaten. What this highlights is that pets have an ecological foot print too. While some of the suggestions in the book may be unpalatable for pet owners and also for the veterinary industry that makes a living out of looking after these pets, it highlights the fact that pets do have an impact on the environment too and so all efforts to reduce that footprint are as important as reducing that of people (Table 2).
There are things that can be done to reduce the ecological footprint of pets (moderndog, 2011). Just as changes to purchasing decisions for people are pertinent, the same considerations need to be addressed when purchasing for pets. Some examples to consider include: the source of the pet food, both contents and where it came from (food miles) and parent companies’ sustainability policy, is it recyclable packaging and if not what alternatives could be considered with this option, choice of bedding — there are many options of recyclable or recycled bedding.
Sourcing ethical products in the veterinary industry
More pressure is required from the bottom up to improve the options for more sustainable products in the veterinary industry as well as options for recycling things like the numerous syringes use every day. Practitioners should start asking questions of the suppliers of veterinary products: what their green policies are, where their products are sourced, what are they doing to off set carbon emissions ad so on. If they cannot answer these questions, they should be asked ‘why not?’ Professionals can pressure them as individuals, a business and a profession to rethink this subject. They need to be more sustainable, and being more socially responsible is no longer a choice — if changes are not made resources will simply run out and people will no longer be able to sustain themselves (Wikipedia, 2011).
Tasman Bay Vets, based in Nelson New Zealand, is a leader in the field of sustainability in veterinary practices in New Zealand. This clinic has won numerous awards for its efforts towards a sustainable future. On their website they detail exactly what they are doing to improve sustainability (Tasman Bay Vets, 2011). Many of the things they have done are simple, for example changing energy supplier to one that gets its power from renewable sources only (i.e. wind and water), changing the light bulbs to eco bulbs, and changing the bedding so they use to polar fleece blanket. The reason behind the polar fleece blankets is that the fabric is made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, it is warm so good for the animals, it is light weight, so more can fit in the washing machine in one load therefore reducing the number of loads of washing, and it dries quickly and easily without the need to use a clothes dryer. These simple changes came at minimal costs, but with big benefits. They also replaced the clinic fleet of vehicles with vehicles that are more fuel efficient and have reduced carbon emissions. They are also building an online store delivering within New Zealand (check for suppliers in your country) to provide eco products for pets called Paw Print (Tasman Bay Vets, 2011b). They are researching each of the products to ensure they meet the criteria of being ‘Products that are good for your pet and good for the planet’. The site owner believes this is currently unique in the world.
Table 2. Reducing pets’ ‘footprints’
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Sustainability plan
Practitioners should make a plan to become more sustainable within their home and industry and encourage those they encounter become involved. This is how:
- Know the rules for sustainability (Otago Polytechnic, 2011a).
- Extract less, reuse, recycle, use renewable resources
- Make natural alternatives and recyclable materials
- Draw resources from sustainably managed ecosystems, restore nature and maintain biodiversity
- Ensure people are treated fairly and with respect — sharing the resources.
- Set a strategy. This should include:
- A vision of being carbon neutral and producing zero waste
- A plan and time frame of how to achieve the vision
- A process of measuring the success, evaluating and reviewing to ensure that everyone is on track to achieve the vision.
Conclusion
Sustainability can no longer be ignored. It must become a key competency of every person educated.
The stakes are high. It is no longer an option to choose whether to improve sustainability. The future of the planet and its inhabitants are at the mercy of what people do now.
Key Points
- The definition of sustainability is to live within the available resources, ensuring that everything made and used is able to continue in a cyclical fashion.
- Education for sustainability must be included in every course a student studies. It should not be a separate topic but one that is integrated.
- It is important to instil not only the principles of sustainability into students, but the ethics too.
- Improving one's own sustainability and that of one's pets is integral to ‘walking the talk’.
- Change must happen now to ensure that people begin to live within the ecosphere, and maintain the environment for their benefit and of the benefit of those who follow.