Is Economic Sustainability Important?

In our opinion economic sustainability is indeed very important. We believe it is important because it helps protect the ozone by lowering the amount of toxins going into it. It also allows less use of non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels and more use of renewable resources such as oxygen, timber, biofuels, and sunlight to name a few.

Not only is economic sustainability important to us but it is also important some of the federal government. There is a federal program called, The Federal Facilities Environmental Stewardship and Compliance Assistance Center (Please reference National Strategy on in link list). They came up with a strategy called, National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship. This strategy states: "This strategy, released on July 20, 2011, specifies Federal actions for ensuring electronic stewardship in the US. An interagency task force co-chaired by CEQ, EPA and GSA developed recommendations that focus on incentivizing design of greener electronics, ensuring the Federal government leads by example in acquiring, managing, reusing and recycling its electronics, increasing domestic recycling efforts, and reducing harm from US exports of electronic waste and improving safe handling of used electronics to developing countries." By recycling electronics and asking for "greener" electronics this will help with economic sustainability immensely because it will aide in lowering fossil fuels from entering the earths atmosphere.

My name is Jennifer and I am a student at Salem State University. The topic about economic sustainability is interesting to me not only because I am a geography double major but because I never knew how something so useful as technology could be so harmful to the environment. I was asked to watch the "Story of Stuff" in a geography class last semester. This video was very intriguing. It made me realize that there are man people including myself in the world who purchase items and do not use them for more than a year if that. Companies are making items that are not meant to last or items that change styles quickly. This allows for people to toss the “old” items and upgrade to something newer and better.

My name is Chris and I am a student at Salem State University. Economic Sustainability is a great topic to research because it affects all of us, in some way, and we can all do more to help better the environment that we live in. Like Jen mentioned, its amazing to think that something like a smartphone or tablet, that does so much to help us, could be so detrimental to our environment. We could all do more and hopefully reading through this blog will give you some ideas about how you can help protect and preserve our world.

My name is Alana and I am a student at Salem State University. The topic of economic sustainability is very interesting and important to me. In this blog I hope to educate both the readers of this blog and myself about sustainability and the currents events surrounding it. I believe that we are currently living in a consumer society that praises planned obsolescence. I think that many factors in our society contribute to this, including big business monopolies, societal ignorance and a lack of caring all around. I believe that the fact that we are living in an era of technology greatly contributes to our rapid waste production, especially the waste created by outdated electronics and ineffective recycling practices. Technology is moving at such a speed that once a new product hits the stores, a newer product is already in production. Because of the hype and feigned necessity built around the “next big thing,” people have allowed themselves to be swept away at the drop of a hat, regardless of need or practicality. According to the Global Footprint Network, today our planet uses 1.5 times more resources than it can actually produce in one year. “This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year” (World Footprint). Obviously this serious problem is creating issues for our planet not only now, but for the future of our planet as well. In this blog I hope to explore some of the legislation surrounding economic and environmental sustainability. I also hope to discover some of the solutions that companies and individuals have proposed to the issues we face, and I hope to find daily changes I can make in my own life that will help me lead a more sustainable lifestyle.

            We hope you enjoy our blog. Feel free to check out our sites we have listed. You will find “The Story of Stuff “ there as well!

"World Footprint." Global Footprint Network. N.p., 03 Nov. 2010. Web. 22 Oct. 2013. <http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/gfn/page/world_footprint/>.