I believe that global economic downturn will be a positive thing in terms of the sustainable development goals in that people will consume less, waste less and use less of our non renewable natural resources. However I think sustainable issues will be the least of peoples worries at the moment due to other factors such as employment and financial concerns. Although I think people will not be too concerned about "saving the environment" at a time like this. I think people will start to make an unconscious effort to be more sustainable such as buying second hand goods such as furniture and cars.If we look at the car industry we know that as a whole they are really struggling at the moment. This is quite good for sustainability in that the demand for raw goods in less, this has various implications. By not requiring as many raw goods we save energy or fossils fuels and require less lorries on the road transporting the goods to the car factories. Also with less cars coming onto the market there are less vehicles requiring fuel and emitting carbon emissions into the atmosphere. However this means that people are put out of work, have wages docked and businesses of any size go under.
Environmentalists and other campaigners fear that sustainability and wider
corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues are falling off the boardroom
agenda as businesses tighten their belts in the face of turbulent stockmarkets,
the credit crunch and a looming economic slowdown.
I think the main good thing to come out of this economic downturn is that as a whole people will consume less and waste less. This will ultimately cause people to make use of what they have and not consume goods or even services.
However sustainability issues should not be ignored at a time like this. Companies and the public should be thinking about the wider picture and thinking about how being sustainable can help them during this period.
But it’s not going to go away – awareness of climate change is
high, and if you look beyond the short-term economic downturn and the difficult
period it has brought, you’ll find the environment will once again become a
major public focus.
3 comments:
You raise some interesting issues here. Do you think that economic incentives are the most effective way to engage people in 'green' behaviours?
(Good to see use of different sources of information here. Are there any audio or video files you could include too?)
Faith
Definately agree with you that although it is an important issue at the moment people are going to be thinking more in the short term at like how they can put food on the table rather than the pros and cons of using natural resources for example unless this will make bills cheaper for them.
Hopefully the downturn will encourage people to re-use things and therefore reduce waste as you suggest. Some companies are helping with this by charging for plastic bags but we can also see this from adverts such as sainsbury's which gives you recipie ideas to make with leftovers.
Overall very good blog!! good use of sources as well :)
As ever not a clue this a very interesting addition
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