Sustainable Development

Task 2. Write a blog post about the following themes:

1. The main points of my workplace's sustainable development program

2. How does it affect employees' day-to-day life or does it?

3. What are the challenges in sustainable development in my field of work?

4. How could I teach the principles of sustainable development in my own subject?

Send a link to your post on this FB page by 30.4. Make sure you visit at least two other blog posts. Remember to leave a constructive comment.

1. I worked in the development collaboration agency Fida International some years ago. The theme of sustainable development comes up at least in three different ways:

Development work and mainstreaming themes

Second-hand store concept and procedures

Office staff measures

The sustainable development program is based on EU and governmental best practices, including the millennium goals and cutting-through themes. Environment is on of the mainstreaming themes in Fida practices. Taking environmental issues into consideration is based on a Christian concept of balanced and sustainable relationship between the man and the nature. Respecting the environment contributes to motivation towards environmental protection and sustainable care and nurturing of the environment. Therefore the partners of all the Fida development cooperation projects and programmes are trained to apply the principles of sustainable development, while taking the environmental specifics into consideration. Understanding the climatic conditions and factors helps finding sustainable solutions and prevent environmental problems. The aim is to strengthen the models that support environmental diversity and balance in the projects.  (source: http://www.fida.info/tyomme/kehitysyhteistyo/kehitysyhteistyon-valtavirtaistamisteemat/) For example, there are projects e.g. which focus on planting mangrove forest on flood catastrophe areas  in India and Bangladesh. Those projects are lead by foreign environmental specialists, who work side by side with the local people.

The chain of Fida second-hand stores has the concept of receiving donated clothes and household items, selling them, and supporting the development cooperation projects with the acquired funds, so the operating principle is based on sustainable development. Fida has collaborated also with some movie projects (e.g. Joulutarina, Christmas Story, to which it donated clothes for the cast). Fida partners with IKEA by receiving used IKEA shopping bags, to be used further for its projects.

2. The office staff is aware of sustainable development in everyday practices. Organic waste, printing paper and other materials are recycled, as the local infrastructure allows it. The stationery used in the office (envelopes), as well as brochures, magazines are printed on recycled paper. The coffee and tea used in the office is fair trade industry and the tea bags are also organic.

3. My challenges for applying the principles of sustainable development is my current work are many. I work from home mainly, so I don’t have any organizational guidelines, and I cannot really do much in that respect, other than what I would do normally at home, which I do.  I consider myself somewhat environmentally friendly, even though not a freak, so I practice some principles. We recycle all printed paper at home, meaning that we use the empty side to print any unofficial stuff, like reading material, cooking recipes etc. I collect and recycle thick envelopes and packages, as well as organic waste. I try to bake and cook food from the scratch and avoid processed food. I use organic flour and sometimes make juice with a juicer from fresh fruit and vegetables. I pick my own raspberries and strawberries. Most of the other organic foodstuffs are so expensive that I don’t buy them. We don’t have sauna. We use the dishwasher once a week. I walk or cycle to a lot of places. I sell clothes and household items in flea markets and second-hand stores and also donate to them. We have installed led lamps in 2 rooms to save electricity. My teammates and I carpool to floorball training sessions and games. I don’t consider myself an environmental hero, but at least I do something. The thing is that there are other considerations, such as cost, other benefits to body etc. For example, I recently purchased an organic Mádara deep balance toner for skin, but the primary consideration was  to soothe my sensitive skin, because there are no preservatives, alcohol etc. The same goes with food: I can pay a bit more for a better taste and less harmful agents, but if something costs a lot more, I choose a normal product.

4. As I pointed out, I don’t really have a forum to advocate the principles of sustainable development at work. But if I imagine myself as a language teacher for young adults, we could study sustainable development as a topic, learning the vocabulary and at the same time how it relates to the vocational subject of students (e.g. if they are nurses-to-be.). Of course the vocational students have this topic already covered in general studies, so we could think of some new applications. In a classroom setting the practices could be lowering the room temperature for a few degrees centrally.

I want to turn the topic around and ask what are we doing to ourselves? In hundreds of schools, institutes and universities in Finland, people struggle with indoor air problems, simply meaning mould. This makes the learning environment environmentally dangerous for the students. When the constructors make the ready-to-be-installed concrete elements, some wool is placed between the concrete layers and the elements are let to dry outside in the mercies of the weather. The rain makes the wool soak, but no-one cares. Once the elements are erected in place, the water inside the elements may stay for decades, unless someone lucky happens to drill a hole in the right place. This may let loose dozens of litres of water, in the worst cases ruining the interior. I know several people who have long-term effect of either living or working in mould-infested place, causing long-term flu and asthma. This has been the hot topic lately in the Finnish teacher’s magazine Opettaja. You who are reading this blog post, what would we do to contribute?