1 What does sustainable living mean to you?

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P r i m a r y F i n a l i s t s – T o p 5

TSL 2014 International Schools Essay Competition

PRIMARY CATEGORY - TOP 5

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What does sustainable living mean to you?

Saint George’s School Uruguay

My name is Ismael. I am a nine year old boy from Uruguay, and I will become ten years old next February 3rd.

Allow me to explain what I mean by sustainability by describing how one day I would celebrate the 10th anniversary of my son/daughter.

First, all my child’s friends would arrive by bike or by a clean public transportation. I imagine that cities in the future will have bike-paths everywhere. Biking is good for many reasons: it is healthy and good for developing strong legs, it does not pollute the environment, and it is very nice and funny!

All gifts would be wrapped in recycled paper. And no one would bring a gun toy, because arms are not toys and have nothing to do with sustainability! Books printed on recycled paper would be very welcome as well as electronic books.

The party would be celebrated in a sustainable building. By “sustainable building” I mean one that deals responsibly with energy, water, and garbage.

The building's energy system would be based upon solar panels and wind mills. The lightning system would be efficient, so lights would be turned on only when needed. I know that electricity costs much more at night, because everybody is at home using electric appliances, so the party would be celebrated at daylight.

Water management is also a big issue for a party to be sustainable. We must save water because it is a scarce resource. We cannot live without water. We need water for drinking, cleaning the building, irrigating the plants, toilets and dish washing. The building would have a system to recycle water, so when rains are scarce plants would be irrigated with recycled water. This water would also be used for cleaning the building and toilets!

Garbage produced during the party would be classified in organic, plastic, glass, batteries, tin and paper. The organic garbage would be recycled in order to produce compost. We must learn how to produce less garbage.

The cake would be made with ingredients obtained by sustainable agriculture and baked in a solar powered oven.

I know that one day the sun will stop shining. When this moment comes, I hope we will have already learned to live on other planets in sustainable ways so that my great great great great great great great great grandchild can also have a nice birthday party.

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P r i m a r y F i n a l i s t s – T o p 5

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What Sustainable Living Means to Me

Port Ellen Primary United Kingdom

Our magnificent, abundant planet is being destroyed by its greediest inhabitants…us. We are also endangering all that live alongside us. By making sustainable choices on our use of energy, our everyday lifestyle and our consumption of food we can make a positive change.

Every day we carelessly use more energy, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Electricity is something we believe we cannot live without. The bulk of the world’s energy consumption comes from non-renewable sources such as coal and oil, which is unsustainable. I believe that if the world had more renewable sources of energy, carbon release would be decreased greatly. Here on Islay we have many renewable energy sources; wind turbines and offshore wind farms, small hydroelectric dams, the world’s first wave power device the Limpet, and an array of tidal turbines that are going to be the first in Europe. To me, sustainable living means using these types of renewable sources of energy production. We can also make sustainable lifestyle choices. That apple with millions of food miles, not separating rubbish from recycling, taking the car and not walking, leaving the lights on; every single last action, no matter how small, adds up to a new carbon crust on the atmosphere. 60% of rubbish thrown away could be recycled. Here on Islay we have a recycling organisation called Rejig that sells our second hand furniture and clothes. On Islay instead of 5,000 people driving to a movie, the movie drives to us; we have a visiting mobile cinema called the Screen Machine. My school has 4 green flags and we strive to follow the eco code, saving energy, walking to school, growing our own food and applying reduce, reuse, recycle as our motto.

Here on Islay one way we produce food sustainably is crofting. Crofts are small farms where as much as possible is produced from the land for the crofter to live off. They don’t use a lot of machinery or chemicals and everything is recycled and reused. We can also buy seasonal food from the Islay Community Garden and even have a croft garden in school, living sustainably from the land. I believe the next 60 years could be our last chance to set things straight. If we applied some of the sustainable choices we have here on Islay then sustainable living would literally mean the world to me.

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P r i m a r y F i n a l i s t s – T o p 5

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What ‘sustainable living’ is?

Wladyslaw Szafers Primary School No 4 Poland

I am walking from school and I'm starting to wonder what ‘sustainable living’ is? Many people talk about it and I think that it starts to be ‘fashionable’. But what does it mean? I’m passing children who are eating candies and instead of throwing the papers to the rubbish bin, they are throwing them on the lawn. At this moment they do not think about how much time the paper need to decompose. On the way home I go to the store to buy some bread and the shopkeeper pack it in a plastic bag. I thank her and say that I do not need the plastic bag because I know how much time it needs to decompose. I am entering the staircase in the block, I’m turning off the light, because there is no need to waste electricity during a day. At home mum is cooking dinner and my younger sister is playing with dolls. After the dinner I’m putting the dishes into the dishwasher and thus we do not waste much water and do not use large amounts of detergents. I’m playing with my sister, I’m explaining her that instead of playing the computer and wasting electricity it is better to play a board game. I’m telling her to do not waste papers for aimless drawings but to draw beautiful pictures and draw them on both sides. Dad comes home and I’m looking into the bags. My dad bought a lot of vegetables but it is good to see that the bag is made of cloth. When it is warm my dad takes us for a ride. We ride bicycles instead of a car because dad knows that car fumes destroy our nature. During our trip we stop for a healthy dessert - apples. We're going home tired but joyful. I’m taking a shower, because taking a bath is water consuming. I am glad that my family cares about the environment. Tomorrow at school, I am going to ask my friends if their families do the same. I will also talk with my teacher, to encourage students to collect waste paper and other things that we collect in our school. I have a lot of questions about outdated medications which are very dangerous. And what to do with them?

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P r i m a r y F i n a l i s t s – T o p 5

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‘Sustainable living; and what it means to

me’

By Fatima Abbas

Pakturk International Schools & Colleges Pakistan

Sustainable living has different definition for different people, some might take it as a simple case of not littering, some might think of it as driving a hybrid, some might even argue that sustainable living means living out on the countryside away from all the hubbub of the city. I looked into a number of dictionaries and found the most general and accepted definition as sustainable living refers to living in such a way that your living does not harm the environment or that your carbon footprint is non-existent or that it is kept at a minimum.

Though I agree to most definitions I came across but to me sustainable living is living the ‘green’ life. By that I mean that my actions should not affect the environment in a negative way. The example of a tree best justifies my definition and approach; Imagine a cherry tree in full bloom, as its flowers begin to emerge, there will no doubt be tons of wasted petals and seeds on the ground. You might say that all this is waste, and at first glance you might not be wrong, but over time the seeds and petals provide nutrients for the soil, and who knows? These nutrients might be food for another cherry tree due next spring!

Just like the cherry tree I believe if we live our lives looking out for the environment then the

environment will do the same for us! And to accomplish this we need to set ourselves some goals, not the kind of goals and promises that are impossible and out of our abilities, not the type of goals the government sets itself! but small goals such as taking out the trash on a daily basis, segregating the waste in accordance with their type, recycling whatever is possible in our respective houses, giving the rest of the segregated waste to the recycling agencies, not littering, taking record of our water

consumption and cut its unnecessary use etc. etc…….

I have understood the meaning of green living and would like others to understand that this

environment is not our inheritance but a loan from our future generation and we have to return it as it is so we better be careful with it.

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P r i m a r y F i n a l i s t s – T o p 5

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What does sustainable living mean to you?

Garodia International Centre for Learning India

Coming across the term sustainable living, I kept wondering, what it exactly meant? Is it about people or culture? Is it about environment, our jobs and our money or is it about our actions and their consequences.

For many people sustainable living means being able to provide the basic necessities of life for themselves and their family. At an individual level or micro level probably it is true. At global level, sustainable living means creating a living balance amongst our natural system, our economic system and our social system.

For me sustainable living is a personal journey down a path full of constant learning and adjustments. It does not mean living without comforts or having any less fulfilling existence. It simply means to use only what is necessary and being fully aware of the implications of our daily actions.

We must clearly understand that we have not inherited the earth from our ancestors but have borrowed it for our children. It is sad to know that we human beings are using thirty percent more natural

resources than can be replenished. We must understand that without sustainable living any form of life in our ecosystem (including humans) will either die off completely or die off to the point where the remaining population becomes sustainable. After all sustainable means continuing to exist.

Now the million dollar question that arises is how to live within earth’s limit? How to reduce our impact on our earth’s resources and how to replenish what we have lost due to human greed? I think for any endeavour to succeed, no matter what its purpose, there must be a balance in various factors that contribute to it.

At individual level understanding a delicate balance between demand and supply is crucial. You only consume what can be replenished by nature and you use it again. In order to achieve it, residents must create healthy community, socially, physically, economically and environmentally.

At national level, we must engage government and regulators to formulate policies, projects and laws on environment protection, nature conservation, reuse and recycling of resources, encouragement of agricultural commodities. Overall it should be strategic sustainable development.

At global level non-profit organisations should raise awareness, track environment threats and design solutions. All the above is possible bearing in mind the prerequisite for sustainable living: