The Power of Community

The other day over a drink I had a very though provoking conversation with someone I had meet for the first time about the role consumers and myself play on the level of sustainability that the corporations we support have. I started the conversation by saying that I wanted to make more environmentally sustainable choices, but I felt as if I could not afford to make those choices; I’m a student and don’t have a lot of money, it’s a lot cheaper to buy my goods such as produce from Cosco* or Wal-Mart* then it is to buy it from a local market. Although I know purchasing my goods from these stores is not environmentally sustainable as many of the products in the case of Wal-Mart* are made in other countries such a China, where environmental laws are not nearly as strict on industries as they are here in Canada. So what am I to do? Try to change my life style by buying less so I can afford to buy fewer better quality products from more sustainable corporations? But as I was saying before I already limit my purchases (mainly because of cash flow) and am not particularly willing to buy less of any of the products I currently use. My new buddy said to me, “if you can’t afford to make purchases from other corporations do to high costs why don’t you write them a letter about your concerns of the operations regarding environmental sustainability”. My first reaction to this comment was, “if I was the owner of a big corporation like Wal-Mart* and received a letter from someone voicing their concerns about my companies operations with regard to environmental sustainability, I wouldn’t care”, so why even bother. He then said to me “what if you’re not the only one who feels like this, and there are hundreds of other people who don’t agree with the way the corporation operates but they still don’t write the corporation a letter because they think the same way you do” a corporation might ignore one person but if its 10% of their customer base wrote them a letter they wouldn’t be able to ignore that. So at this point it all became clear to me, these types of corporations are not changing and to induce a change the communities which support these corporations would have to demand the change. As consumers we have to take responsibility for the type of corporations we buy products from because by buying their products we are supporting the corporations’ operations weather we agree with them or not. Environmental sustainability is based on community; as one person it is hard to induce change, but a community cannot be ignored...The only question I am left with now is, how do we get the community involved and keep them involved with regards to these types of issues?


A documentary I recently seen also relates quite well to this. The communities in the documentary come together to band unsustainable, environmentally unfriendly, corporations from their town, specifically Wal-Mart.

The following link is a web site based on the movie “Wal-Mart the High Cost of the Low Price”,
http://www.walmartmovie.com/


References

Greenwald, R. (Director). (2005). Walmart the High Price of the Low Cost [Motion Picture].

Image Source: http://www.champaignschools.org/science/images/foodweb.gif

What Is Community?

I recently joined a facebook group entitled “What community means to me!”. The concept behind this group is that community means different thing to different people and that a community’s sustainability is dependent on the resources available to that community. The group also poses an interesting question “do we define our communities or do they define us?”. There is a community sustainability survey available on the site as well that is being used for research purposes.

I believe that communities define us because as one person change usually cannot be made, but as a community change is more attainable. For example if 1% of a community are willing to take public transit but there is none available the municipality will not see it as a worthwhile investment, but if a large percentage of a community would like to use public transit then it is more likely to be established as it would then be a worthwhile investment. I feel like many communities are disconnected from each other because of their physical locations, different ethnic, cultural or religious characteristics, ownership, professions or goals and interests. I don’t think that very many communities are sustainable because of this, it seems that if one community is having a problem it is their problem and no one else’s although often one communities problem is another communities problem, which is another communities problem and so on. A good example of this are food webs, a fox community doesn’t depend directly on the herbivorous insect community but it does depend on the bird community which depends on those insects communities therefore if there is a problem in the herbivores insect community it becomes a problem for the bird community and the fox community.

I didn’t particularly like the survey as I felt the definition of community was narrow and only applied to the actual place you live in. I think of community as the groups you belong to not just the place you live, such as the mountain biker’s community.

Facebook “what community means to me!” group link:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8966689849

Survey Link:
http://www.crcresearch.org/survey.htm

Are Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs An Answer For Environmental Sustainability?

Compact fluorescent light bulbs have a longer life span and use much less energy than traditional incandescent light bulbs, which clearly makes them a more sustainable alternative or does it? Compact fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury, which is a great health hazard if the light bulbs are accidentally broken or disposed of inappropriately. Compact fluorescent light bulbs have also been linked to health effects, such as fatigue, migraines and eye strain caused by radiation which they emit. With this in mind compact fluorescent light bulbs don’t seem to be a very sustainable solution to our lighting requirements. In 2012 traditional incandescent light bulbs will be banned for sale in Canada in an attempt to become more environmentally sustainable. So what are the options, mercury containing and radiation causing compact fluorescent light bulbs? Candles? There is a more sustainable option for our lighting requirements which hasn’t received very much attention, light emitting diode (LED) lights. LED lights have a longer life span then compact fluorescent light bulbs and use less energy. They also do not contain mercury or emit high levels of radiation. So before running out and purchasing compact fluorescent light bulbs in an attempt to be environmentally sustainable, spend a little extra cash and get a LED light bulb which will last longer, use less energy and won’t cause any negative health effects.

The following link is a video from a news report which discusses the effects of the radiation emitted from compact fluorescent light bulbs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upmLJM2VTlM

References
http://ezinearticles.com/?LED-Light-Bulbs-vs-Compact-Fluorescent-Light-Bulbs&id=1140577
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/04/25/lunn-bulbs.html