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Before I joined the certificate program, I thought I knew what sustainability was, but I was wrong. Yes, I knew what sustainability \u201cwas\u201d but, I only had scraped the surface. Now I compare sustainability to progress. Not the technological advancements type of progress, but instead, every aspect of life that is always changing. Sustainability is like an ocean because it is deep, and there are so many directions to choose from. Oceans can be deep and daunting, but through my certificate community and all the classes I have taken, I have been able to dive right into sustainability.<\/p>\n
With sustainability, like an ocean, you must look at every layer and process to be able to understand it as a whole. Right now, we as humans do not do this. Instead, we put a lot of pressure on \u201ceconomic\u201d development. In order for us to be successful in understanding and practicing sustainability, I believe we need to change society\u2019s view of the word \u201cprogress\u201d. Instead of associating progress with technology and economic development, we should associate it with the natural world. Generally, when people think of sustainability, they think of the environment, but there are so many more layers such as quality education, gender equality, zero hunger, and good health. These are a few of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, which I have come to think about in every class I have taken, not just my \u201cenvironmental\u201d classes.<\/p>\n
Throughout my courses for the sustainability certificate, I have changed my view of progress from development to moving toward a sustainable future. Right now, we measure progress as GDP. This feels so wrong to me, because I have learned how much more there is to progress. We need to move towards a future where we measure progress by looking at education, health, or the environment. I have learned that in order to do this we need to address social, environmental, and economic challenges around the world.<\/p>\n
When it comes to the social sphere of the sustainability, change starts with our society as a whole. If we can educate people at a young age about sustainability, then eventually we would have educated, motivated people who know how to progress our society towards a sustainable future. I have learned that education leads to habits and habits lead to progress. I have discovered that many people want to try different things to be sustainable, like composting, but simply do not know how to get started. This problem has inspired me to get involved in environmental education such as working at the Sandy Creek Nature Center as an environmental education camp counselor, or simply teaching my mom how to compost. To improve our social sphere, we need to educate people not only on the importance of living sustainably but also how <\/em>to live sustainably.<\/p>\n The most important part of improving the economic sphere of sustainability, is getting businesses on board with sustainability. Some sustainability practices could even save businesses money, such as reusing some of their materials. It is important to have consults who are able to communicate with these businesses. As an Environmental Economics & Management major, I have gained a lot of knowledge in the economic sphere of sustainability. I have learned that I can work for businesses such as Coca-Cola in their sustainability department, I can work for a government agency, or even a national park. No matter which career I choose, I have learned that in our society, economics will always play a part in progress whether we want it to our not, and I am glad I have the tools to manage it.<\/p>\n The final sphere of the sustainability is the environment. Overall, we cannot achieve the progress we want to see without considering this sphere. Through this we can practice sustainable development and conservation not only in national parks, but in our everyday life. The environmental sphere covers many things, and in my opinion, is overarching, since everything is part of the environment. There are many different measures we need to pay attention to and track in the environment to ensure we live a sustainable life and keep the environment healthy. Some of these include biodiversity, carbon dioxide, pollutants, fossil fuels, and land use. Each of these effects our economy and our society more than we have taken into account in the past.<\/p>\n Overall, sustainability is progress, and like an ocean has many different layers that need to be considered for us to improve. I have learned that while we are improving, we still have a long way to go, especially in educating people on the importance of sustainability and what actions they can take to help guide us towards a sustainable future. I have changed and improved many of my sustainability practices throughout this certificate program, and I did not realize how far I had come until now. Before I joined this program, I thought I was living a sustainable lifestyle but there are so many more issues I have become aware of, such as fast fashion or food waste that I would like to improve in my life. The sustainability certificate has been the perfect complement to my undergraduate education at the University of Georgia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Journey of Discovering Sustainability Before I joined the certificate program, I thought I knew what sustainability was, but I was wrong. Yes, I knew what sustainability \u201cwas\u201d but, I only had scraped the surface. Now I compare sustainability to progress. Not the technological advancements type of progress, but instead, every aspect of life that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2872,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sustainability-samanthasiragusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sustainability-samanthasiragusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sustainability-samanthasiragusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sustainability-samanthasiragusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2872"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sustainability-samanthasiragusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sustainability-samanthasiragusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sustainability-samanthasiragusa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}