20 Sustainability Facts That May Surprise You

The environment has so many variations, So it’s very difficult to understand it from every angle, we look at 20 fun environmental and sustainability facts.

Our top Sustainability facts

• Seaweed maybe the food of the future. The farming of seaweed is becoming more and more popular. Seaweed is versatile and highly nutritious and can grow quickly when compared with on land crops. Some forms of seaweeds can be harvested in as little as six weeks. With an ever-increasing worldwide population, Seaweed really looks like an amazing way forward for food production.

• The circular economy is a really useful way for products to be reused and have longer product lifecycle. Also In doing so, save thousands to the yearly budget for the average household. Would you like to learn more about the circular economy and potentially save your family a lot of money and help the environment at the same time check out our article on the Circular economy. 

• The indigenous population only accounts for 5 per cent of the global population but is responsible for the protection of 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity. Maybe we should be looking towards the indigenous people as a trend setters and learn from their methods.

Sustainabilty facts part 2- The future of electricity

• Electric cars do actually produce carbon, 17 metric tons to be exact. It is a much smaller amount when compared with a normal combustion engine car that produces around 45 metric tons. Long-term production methods can be advanced to reduce the amount of carbon electric cars produce in production.  

• An Ambitious project by the name of the Sahara solar breeding project aims to build solar panels by extracting silica from the desert sands. The goal is to not only produce solar panels but build solar power stations. This ambitious plan will use the electricity from previously built solar power stations to power the manufacturing of solar panels. The overall aim of the project is to build enough solar power plants to fullfill 50 per cent of the worlds energy needs. The future looks bright.

• Global energy production is the world’s biggest emitter contributing to 60 per cent of all greenhouse gases. To put this into context to power the entire world with solar we would an area of 500,000 square kilometers. In context this would only use up 1/18^th of the Sahara desert. That’s just Solar alone, adding wind and hydroelectric and any other methods into the mix it looks possible that we could power the world sustainably.  

If you are interested in technology and the environment check out our article on sustainable technology of the future.

Trees, trees, trees

• Planting trees is the cheapest way to reduce emissions over expensive and high tech methods like carbon capture. The cheapest and best way forward is by simply planting trees. Seems obvious, now time to get on with the job ahead, we as informed customers should demand sustainably manufactured goods.

• Paper from trees can be recycled up to 6 times, seems like a lot except when compared with aluminum. Aluminum can be recycled an unlimited number of times. Aluminum is a very versatile metal. It does not rust or corrode and is said to be the most abundant metal on earth.   

• A global initiative launched by the world-famous ethologist Jane Goodall aims to plant 1 billion trees in the next decade, which seems like a great initiative if ever there was one. Worldwide there are over 3 trillion trees.

• China and India some the world’s biggest pollution emitters, plant more trees by a significant margin than any other country. With 80 per cent of all wildlife living in forests and 20 per cent of global emissions coming from forest destruction. We need to look after our forests 

Now, ten more sustainability facts

Sustainabilty facts part 3- What about in your household?

• Biodegradable plastic doesn’t necessarily mean it will easily degrade, there are a number of factors, even though some plastics may say they are biodegradable they maybe only able to be recycled in a few special recycling centres. Some biodegradable plastics only degrade under very specific conditions, which could mean they end up in landfill and degrade at the same level as regular old plastics. Around 30 to 50 percent of the world’s plastic is biodegradable. Be sure you are getting easily degradable plastics when purchasing.

• Running a tap for 2 minutes uses around 3.5 gallons of water, taking a shower uses around 25 gallons of water and taking a bath uses approximately 60 gallons of water. Daily tasks tend to use up a lot of water. It may make you think when running the tap and a shower is definitely a better use of water than a bath.

• LED’s or energy efficient bulbs could reduce the amount of energy needed by up to 75 percent when compared with the standard incandescent bulb. Added to this these types of bulbs last up to 25 times longer than standard bulbs. Time to replace those old bulbs.

• Rainwater harvesting is a great way to collect otherwise wasted water for future uses. Rainwater harvesting is more and more becoming a building requirement in warmer countries. In wetter counties the chance of collecting and potentially being partially self sufficient in water usage seems like a great way to save money and the environment.

• A water faucet that leaks one drop of water per second, adds up to 165 gallons of water a month. With temperatures set to increase and demand for clean water at an all time high, making sure your leaky tap is sorted is more important than you may have thought.  

The most surprising sustanability facts

• Changing your font from Arial to Times new roman can save up to 30 percent of your ink usage. 30 per cent is a big number especially with the high cost of printer cartridges. Save money use Times new roman.

• Laptops use much fewer resources to produce than desktops and use around 50 per cent less energy. Who would have thought laptops are so much more energy-efficient.

• Wave power is a lesser talked about source of energy that could be an easier way to produce energy. Wave power is consistent and creates per meter around 30kw to 40kw of energy. With Solar and wind power being very much dependent on the weather conditions. Wave power may well be the future first choice for energy.

• Plastic bags and Styrofoam take around 1,000 years to decompose, so be careful this up and coming Christmas and ensure your packaging is sustainable.

What country is the most eco friendly?

Denmark is the most ecofriendly country on the planet, followed by Luxembourg, Switzerland and then the UK. Sustainability in Denmark is built into their culture and has been part of their culture for hundreds of years. They also have a world-class green energy system.  

So, That’s a wrap, so what sustainability facts are the most surprising and what sustainability facts should be common knowledge?

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