From the course: The Employee's Guide to Sustainability

What is sustainability and why should you care?

From the course: The Employee's Guide to Sustainability

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What is sustainability and why should you care?

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- During college, I had the incredible opportunity to study in Kenya, where I monitored sea turtle nesting sites, transplanted coral reefs, and taught science to seventh graders. One day, the students and I noticed that the ocean water was really murky, that it was filled with more dirt than we'd ever seen. The fish harvest and the families who were light on those harvest were suffering. I realized that the sentiments were coming all the way from the slopes of Mount Kenya, cutting down trees meant that when a monsoon rains came, the mountain soil washed off into the river, which flow to the ocean. The upstream actions of people meeting their needs were directly impacting the well-being of the people living downstream. If we don't think about the ways in which our actions impact others within these interconnected systems, we are going to have a hard time addressing the complex ecological challenges that shape all of our lives. Now I recognize this is a lot, and it might be a different way of thinking for many of us. But it's important to understand that we're all starting at different places on our sustainability journeys, and I'm here to encourage you to keep taking steps along that journey. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Bagley, and since the shores of the Indian Ocean, I've been thinking about the most impactful actions that we can all take to live more sustainably. Sustainability has different interpretations, but for this course, sustainability means healthy people, communities, and environments, now and in the future. The content of the course is based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals framework. We're going to explore actions we can take as individuals and as employees in companies around the world to tackle some of the biggest environmental challenges of our lifetime. I'm talking about tackling climate change, ecosystem decline on land and in the ocean, and overconsumption. Scary, big stuff, but thankfully, there are solutions to help both people and the planet thrive. So let's work together as a global community as employees and in our individual lives to improve humanity and protect the environment. I invite you to join me as we take the next step on our sustainability journeys. Let's get started.

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