Photo by: Freder / iStock
If we look at the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, we see that energy and resource efficiency can be classified under several of them at once. But much more importantly, rational consumption of resources, including energy, is a prerequisite for the coexistence of man and nature. We can say that energy and resource efficiency is the main way of civilizational development, the principle of evolution, if we want the human species to continue to exist on the planet and enjoy its benefits in the long term.
If we understand the term 'sustainable development', it is development not to the detriment of future generations. But over the past decades, humanity has depleted too much of the planet's biosystems and squandered too much of its biological capital. This is reflected in the depletion of a number of resources, the enormous accumulated ecological damage in the soil, water and air, and global climate change, which is commonly regarded as a result of anthropogenic activity. It will inevitably lead to changes in the planet's climate, settlement and economic patterns.
Without humans, all life on Earth exists perfectly and harmoniously in endless cycles, where the waste products of some processes are raw materials, food for others and as a result globally all cycles are closed. Human activity is organised differently, it is linear: we extract resources, produce material goods and consume them. The result is an enormous amount of waste, waste, emissions and rubbish that is not disposed of by anyone, but rather accumulates in biosystems, putting them at risk and dredging up resources.
At the same time, technologies and management models make it possible to achieve so-called decoupling of economic growth trends from resource consumption, which can then be reduced. It is sustainable resource consumption that is at the heart of an environmentally responsible way of doing things.
Cover photo: MriyaWildlife / iStock
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