Most people
will realise that there is a great need for the environment to be cared for.
This is part of an awareness that has come to the forefront in society since
the early 2000’s. This is particularly true of the developing
world where awareness did not take
root as it did in the developed world. So, most of the planet is in agreement
that something needs to be done.
There is a
tendency, however, for people to make a bit of a leap – and decry any and all
things that pollute or otherwise don’t work towards a shared goal. However,
this is not necessarily a reasonable approach.
The
assumption that is made is that we simply need to switch to the renewable ways
of doing things, however it is important to recognise that renewable
technologies aren’t quite sophisticated enough to take over at this point in
time. Not without stagnating the global economy at least.
The real
issue is finding a compromise, we need to continue to use the old ways of doing
things, whilst focussing on finding alternatives. It’s very much a work in
progress, and it will take some time. Australia is estimating it will achieve 100%
renewable power by 2030. So, until then we need to keep our heads together and
progress.
But how do
we do that?
Encouraging Renewable Technologies In Business
When people
think of renewable energy and sustainability, there is a inclination to think
about some kind of communal village
with a few solar panels and perhaps a composting toilet that is ‘off the grid’
as they say.
You may also
think of people living in residential property looking to cut-back on their
bills. With increasing
energy prices there is a big demand for this, but it’s easy to forget a
huge sector of our economy that isn’t currently embracing renewable
technologies at the same rate – the business world.
Many commercial
buildings are perfectly suited to technologies like solar panels, and there are
in fact a few specialist solar
panel contractors that install for businesses – but the trend needs to be
increased.
This may be
achieved in the following ways;
·
Incentives
– By providing incentives for small businesses to utilise renewable
technologies there will be an elevated level of use, this may consist of things
like tax breaks. There are many existing schemes for residential homes, but the
government needs to take action and expand these to business. The Renewable
Heat Incentive is an example of some of these incentives, but there needs
to be more.
·
Awareness
– A lot of small business owners are pretty busy, meaning they don’t have time
to research all the benefits. There needs to be an active promotion of what
renewable energy technologies can do to bring the benefits of this technology
to their attention.
·
Investment
– By investing in the renewable technologies themselves, their development
and efficiency will increase – in addition costs of manufacturing will decrease.
This will mean businesses are more able to afford such technologies and
ultimately that more will do it.
All in all,
business has a big role to play in achieving the goal of a sustainable
environment. Enhancing their contributions to sustainability is an important
way of doing that.
Utilising Non-Renewables In A Renewable Way
One aspect
of a compromise when thinking about the environment is making use of waste that
is non-recyclable. There are many ways to do this, for example Sweden has made
extensive use of energy
from waste facility technologies that incinerate waste that would otherwise
go into a landfill.
So frequent
is their use in Sweden that the country recently made headlines when it said it
had run
out of waste and began importing waste that other countries wished to
dispose of. There are so few governments
who take such an intelligent approach, energy from waste allows electricity to
be generated from non-recyclable waste and every country should be utilising
non-renewables this way.
This
approach makes financial sense too, a country that takes this initiative will
import waste for a fee from nearby regions. The waste is disposed of and
electricity is generated for the country. So, other countries essentially pay
Sweden to generate their own clean energy!
Keeping Current & Compromising In The Mission For Sustainability
It is
absolutely vital for humanity, and that’s not an overstatement, to find a
sustainable solution to maintaining our environment. We need to press on, so
that we can continue to grow as a species.
Utilising
non-renewables and increasing use of renewables across the board are an
excellent way to help make that happen.
Thanks for
reading. What do you think? Please do comment if you have any contributions.
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