Sustainability

Possibly one of the best known references to sustainability was in the Brundtland Report of 1987, where sustainability broadly, and Sustainable Development specifically, was defined as "… Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the future generations to meet their own needs." Sustainability (by Oxford Dictionary definition) is the ability to continue a defined behaviour indefinitely. A more comprehensive view would contemplate environmental, economic and social sustainability, but our focus is mainly on the environmental aspects, by which we imply the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources and pollution via fossil fuel use, and a move towards renewable energy as well as behavioural changes that could improve our present ecological state.

Renewable Energy

Dictionary.com defines Renewable Energy as: "Any naturally occurring, theoretically inexhaustible source of energy, such as biomass, solar, wind, tidal, wave and hydro-electric power that is not derived from fossil or nuclear fuel." Wikipedia adds: "Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale."

Considering the trajectory that the world is on ecologically, there is a very real and urgent need for a change - away from fossil fuel-based energy systems, to renewable ones. South Africa is blessed with exceptional levels of solar and many other renewable resources, and we need to start utilizing them effectively. I believe that those who can, must. The clock is ticking…