Sustainability Education

I find myself revisiting the sustainability initiatives of Penrith City Council again this week after coming across their "What's On" section where it's clear that educating their residents on sustainability is a key goal for the local government area. Their May initiative involves "sustainable living workshops" held every weekend from the 15th May to the 4th June, providing free courses for locals to learn some fantastic opportunities for sustainable solutions in the home. Workshops being provided equip with home-owners with all the background knowledge to keep chooks in the backyard, install solar power on their roof, grow their own vegetables, fertilise their garden and control pests naturally, and pickle and preserve their own produce. All these courses present opportunities for reducing expenses and improving health and wellbeing within the home in addition to the greater environmental contributions and even promote socialisation in the community. 

Source: Penrith City Council 2016, Sustainable Living Workshops, accessed 23 May 2016, <https://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/What-s-On/EventCategory/Classes-and-workshops/Sustainable-living-workshops/>.

Penrith City Council's June initiative is a single event, a free festival held for families with live performances and displays and a central focus of promoting diversion of waste from landfill. This event is particularly clever as it integrates the fun, social activity of a festival with sustainability objectives, enabling the message to be delivered to a wider group of people and associating sustainable waste management with positivity. Sustainability education directed at families is a useful mode of delivery. People are most strongly influenced by the environment around them rather than their own will power so it takes the collective force of a family to create change in the household. Children are far more impressionable than adults and are a great source of encouragement and  a reminder for their parents, who can resort to habitual behaviours. 

Source: Penrith City Council 2016, Waste Not Free Family Festival, accessed 23 May 2016, <https://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/What-s-On/EventCategory/Family-events/Waste-Not-Free-Family-Festival/>.

People are the heart of sustainability. They are not only the source of the issue but the whole purpose of sustainable development - to improve the quality of life for now and the future. So bringing the responsibility back to the people has the most obvious potential for a sustainable future. Not by putting the blame on them but by educating them, enabling them, to make the best decisions possible for the future of their society, their economy, their environment.