Why are people concerned about sustainability?

There are many people who want to make the world a better place to live. In order to do this, people are realising that they must join together to take action. It is a fact that the human population is rapidly increasing, which puts pressure on the environment that we live in. Now, people and all living things are being threatened with lack of space to build houses, grow food, or even have fun at the park. We are also being threatened by natural hazards, such as changing weather patterns and other earth processes. If we do not act now, these problems will only grow bigger. We need to act now, so that future generations do not take on these problems.

What do we need to do?

We need to change our mindset. We need to realise that each time we buy something new, the resources that go into producing and supplying that particular product uses energy, which for reasons that will be explained later, can be harmful to our planet. Simply put, if we can look beyond using items only once, but create new things from old then we can change the energy that goes into making that item into more beneficial activities. This is a values change in our thinking.

In order to help change our mindsets, the United Nations developed 17 sustainability goals. These goals are aimed to be completed by 2030. These goals will be looked at in the next step.