Sustainability BY: mAYANK AND JACK

The years 2017 and 2016 is where many communities and countries in the world have started to think of sustainability. The thought that we may not have fresh water and many natural resources in the future, is coming closer and closer to reality. Our only solution now is to create sustainability in our communities. Grow both environmentally and economically as a community. But for us to really create sustainable communities we must first understand what makes a community sustainable. Communities that are economically, environmentally, and socially healthy and resilient are the ones that are sustainable.

The first step to becoming sustainable as a community is to become Eco friendly. For a community to be considered Eco friendly, they must limit the use of resources and emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. This could include creating either a solar energy law, which states that at least 50% of the energy that a home/building uses should be solar. Or even as simple as a community coming together to make a change. A community of people came together in California’s to create the first solar-powered apartment community, the Solera residential complex in Poway, San Diego County is a great example of how a motivated communities collaboration can deliver green housing and lifestyles that not only minimize resource use and waste, but provide healthy, comfortable, convenient and affordable living. This is not the only way people can take initiative an go green. Some small ideas that can make big changes, include encouraging your community to pick up garbage, follow the 3 R’s which are reduce, reuse and recycle and carpool with friends to lessen air pollution. But being Eco friendly is not what a sustainable community is all about.
A good economy is needed for a community to be sustainable. In order for a community to be sustainable, it must have a government to make laws and keep order, business and infrastructure, enough jobs for the people in the community and should be able to allow money flow to continue to grow. Without all of these things a community like yours and mine would never be able to sustain itself after a period of time. A good economy is what every community is looking for. Economies are important for the growth and development of a community.
For a community to be sustainable is not only having a clean and healthy environment and good economy, social sustainability is the least understood and defined of the different ways of approaching sustainability. Socially sustainable communities are diverse, have human rights and labor rights and provide a good quality of life. A socially sustainable community should promote well being, by understanding what people need from the places they live and work. Social sustainability has had considerably less attention in public dialogue than economic and environmental sustainability but that doesn't mean that it is less important.
All countries and communities around the world are trying their best to reach the point where they can be considered sustainable. There are countries that have almost reached that point and there are countries that are still trying. We questioned two different but very similar families. One of which are the Millers who live in a beautiful community where people are putting in effort to try and build a safe an clean society. Going to their home we noticed a few things. Almost every home had a solar panel on it, there were garbage bins on every corner, and we also noticed a sign that said park clean every other Friday. This community choose to make small changes to get rid of large problems in the area. For example because of the park clean ups and garbage every where the community is able to get rid of a large amount of garbage on the streets. Soon after meeting the Millers we got to understand why it was important for the community to be sustainable.
They told us that “It not only allows the community to come together and work on one goal but it also benefits our communities economy. Before our community started to care you could go to the lake by our house and you would always see dead animals and large amounts of garbage. Now if you go look at this same lake after one year you can see the bottom of the lake. This really did affect our communities economy because that lake was used for fishing and fishing is the largest industry in our area. Many people weren't able to support themselves, and it really affected our community as a whole”
A sustainable community is very important in many ways. A sustainable community means a community that is economically, environmentally, and socially healthy and resilient. In a sustainable community the use of resources and emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants are going down not up. A sustainable community should be a safe and healthy place for people and animals to live. Why is it important that a community is sustainable? Well living in a sustainable community benefits everyone and everything. If a community is not sustainable the community would become more poor which would lead to the people of the community to become more poor, animals habitats would be affected, the watershed would become polluted and continue to get dirtier and the air would become more polluted as well which can make it harder to breath and could lead to illnesses. So in conclusion, a sustainable community is very important and benefits a community in many ways, but in order to do so the community must be sustainable economically, socially and environmentally.

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