Ecological Intelligence: A solution towards building a Greener World

by : Piyush Sharma , Krishna Kanth ,National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE),Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Safety and Environmental Management

It’s a human tendency to go out for shopping every once in a while, so after shopping the things we require, we carry them back to home. Now the issue is how to carry them? Generally, we use plastic bags for this purpose. But due to the issues of pollution caused by the plastic bags, there is uproar of banning their use. The alternate solution proposed is to use paper bags as they are quoted as eco-friendly. But does the use of paper bags really cause less harm to the environment?

The answer is No. Though this may sound wrong, it’s the truth. So let’s look into some facts which support the argument.

• EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) estimates that it takes more energy and pollutes more water to make paper bags than plastic bags which are 100% recyclable.
• Making the paper cup consumes 36 times more electricity and produces 580 times the volume of wastewater, which contain some levels of contaminants and making a plastic cup produces pentane (high Ozone Depletion Potential and Global Warming Potential).

So after seeing the facts one would be confused which bag to use. The smart way would be to carry one’s own bag from home and reuse it to the extent possible. This helps in reducing the impact on the environment.

https://www.google.co.in/search?q=plastic+vs+paper+bags

The below examples illustrates how our lack of awareness causes damage to the environment:

• We dive down to see coral reefs, not realizing that an ingredient in our sunscreen feeds a virus that kills the reef.
• We wear organic cotton t-shirts, but don’t know that its dyes may put factory workers at risk for leukemia.

By knowing the hidden impacts of what we buy, we can change the environmental impact caused. This concept is termed Ecological Intelligence.

It refers to an understanding of organisms and their ecosystems, lends the capacity to learn from experience and to effectively deal with our environment.  It lets us apply what we learn about how human activity impinges on ecosystems, so as to do less harm and to live sustainably in our niche.

What we don’t know     

The 4 rules of attention, which govern our ratio of information to ignorance:

• Here’s what we notice: bottom line for company and price & value for consumer.
• Here’s what we call it: competitive advantage for company and bargain for consumer.
• Here’s what we don’t know: hidden costs to our planet and its people.
• Here’s how we talk about that: what we say to keep the blind spot hidden- “only price matters & little else count”

 

How market forces can build a greener world

Economic theory applied to ecological metrics offers two fundamental economic principles that might just accelerate the trend toward a more sustainable planet:

i.            Marketplace transparency about the ecological impacts of consumer goods and their supply chains.

ii.            Lowering the cost of the information to zero.

Marketplace transparency is not just knowing the basics of cost and quality there are myriad other considerations. They are: Does it contain harmful chemicals? Is it organic? Was it produced locally? Is it ethically traded? Is it cruelty-free? Has it been sustainably sourced? The answers to these questions can help in assessing the environmental impacts and then take buying decision.

Also the overuse and abuse of words such as ‘organic’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘carbon-neutral’ means it’s tricky to gauge the ethical merit of one product versus another. Where can we get the assurance that the products we buy are safe, for ourselves, our families and the planet?
Yes, we can be guided by eco labels such as the Soil Association logo, the Fair-trade mark and the European Energy Savings symbol, but while these are helpful indicators of how a product has been produced and its impact on the planet.

An example of a global firm working on providing the information on ecological consequence of the things we buy is Wal-Mart. It developed a credible rating of the ecological impacts of its products and named as “sustainability index,” that helps shoppers to compare Brand A and Brand B.

Several global companies are forming a “Group of Ten” to develop a supply chain transparency system called “E2 Turbo”. Rather than go to the expense of a full life-cycle analysis (which is expensive and take months), it asks for data only on the 20 percent or so of a product’s life cycle that accounts for around 80 percent of environmental impacts.

http://blog.vistage.com/business-strategy-and-management/green-business/sustainability-and-your-suppliers-5-tips-on-how-to-manage/

So, what we should do:

A collective distributed intelligence can help spread awareness. This shared intelligence can grow through the contributions of individuals who advance their understanding and spread it among the rest of us.

In this regard our main goals can be broken down in to 3 collective ecological goals:

• Know your impacts
• Favor improvements
• Share what you learn

“We have to stop speaking about the Earth being in need of healing. The Earth does not need healing, we do.”   – Ian McCallum, a South African physician and naturalist.

 

http://danielgoleman.info/how-market-forces-can-build-a-greener-world/