Sustainability

Over Christmas I have been busy thinking about when to put in all the trees that I have pledged to plant. Exactly when is what I am deciding, as I know it needs to be in the dormant winter months.

 I came across a really informative website http://tinyurl.com/yf5xsg9

 of which I am sharing a paragraph below. One of their core principals is sustainability; one of my core principals.

It is generally accepted that our environment has taken a battering due to the activities of humans, especially in the last few hundred years. We see and hear of the consequences of this everywhere.

Fortunately there is a growing number of people that realise that a change from the ‘old’ wasteful and destructive days is necessary, not only for our environment, but also for our own feelings of well-being.

This is certainly very evident in the tree industry.  There are articles on sustainable woodland management, using wood chips as a source of renewable fuel to heat homes, wood burning power stations supplied by locally coppiced woodlands, building more energy efficient timber framed houses, new developments in environmentally-friendly wood preservation, initiatives and grants to plant more woodland and so on and so on.

Sustainability

 An International definition of Sustainability often quoted is..

‘Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ *

It implies living with current natural resources, and using them prudently and efficiently and ensuring that their use is within a constant cycle of renewal. In other words, the rate of using them does not exceed the rate that the natural environment can regenerate them. At the same time, whilst respecting this cycle, we are also protecting the environment by reducing damaging practices and attitudes, and recycling, repairing and reusing as much as possible.

It is not going to be easy for all of us to make a change and live in a different way that more sustainable but if we all try to do something then the knock on effect will be very powerful.