Society Has To Manage Multiple

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

WARNING: This Essay Has No Title!

Module Number: SD3221

Matriculation Number: 080004183

Total Words: 2,490

Reflective Essay

Name of Lecturer: Dr Louise Reid

I certify that I have read the University’s statement on Academic Misconduct; that the following work is my own work; and that significant academic debts and borrowings have been properly acknowledged and referenced. I also certify that all the submitted versions (hard copy and electronic) are identical.

Introduction

Agenda 21, the ‘blueprint for sustainable development’ created from the 1992 UNCED Rio conference, argues that the "practices and material goals of high-income countries are responsible for the majority of today’s global environmental stresses" (UNCED 1992). We must therefore assume that we must move our practical and material goals from a realm of non-sustainability to sustainability.

Agenda 21 calls on all social actors, to adopt more sustainable practices (WCED 1987; Dowdeswell 1997).The biggest challenge problem is changing the aims into policy approaches that change the actions of citizens. (Hobson 2003)

The government has created campaigns to stimulate Sustainable Development through changes in public behaviour. (Department of the Environment 1996; Going for Green 1996; Department of Environment Transport and the Regions 1999).

These campaigns are supposed to lay the groundwork of the ‘information deficit’ that exists in the social realm (Burgess et al 1998). The approach rests on the assumption that information will push the public to adopt sustainable lifestyles (Burgess et al 1998).

Sustainable Development is an extremely new way of perceived thinking and I believe a large amount of the general public either are not aware of these issues and/or do not know the large impact they have on the environment therefore education is the way forward.

However society has to manage multiple demands of modern life (Thompson 1996) myself included do not often have time to think of Sustainable thinking first this can lead to choices that are unsustainable.

I believe that education is needed to change public behaviour. Science needs to evolve in order for us to understand the way that individuals adopt certain behaviours. ‘More and better science’ is needed to overcome public ignorance and inertia (Dwyer et al 1993). "Practices change not through exposure to scientific knowledge per se but through individuals making connections between forms of knowledge that link their own, everyday and experiential environments to broader environmental concerns" (Bickerstaff & Walker, 2001), this enables people to see their actions in new ways and ultimately change behaviours. This leads us to the diary approach, which allows us to connect individually to our personal behaviour.

Diaries

Diaries are called documents of life’ (Plummer 2001), "diaries have been used quantitatively and qualitatively to gain information across a range of academic disciplines" (Elliot 1997). Diaries tell us something about events and the order of events they allow us to have a personal insight into actions, feelings or thoughts over time.

Through diaries the researcher can gather information about day-to-day activities of people allowing them to analyze the person and their actions (Elliott 1997)

Academics have also used diaries for the purpose of reflection on teaching and learning by faculty and students. (Ibarreta & McLeod 2004)

The diary format forces the user to focus on daily activities and reflections that he or she values. (Reid et al 2011)

The reflective diary for me was a pleasant experience and it quantified a wide range of ecological impacts . It was a process of innate personal learning for me.

The household provides an important ‘unit’ for understanding the environmental impact of consumption patterns (Lenzen et al 2004) Diaries allow us to understand our behaviour and environmental impact.

Environmental Impact and the Households Behaviour

As environmental impact is increasing due to households it’s very important for us to understand what pro-environmental behaviour is and what leads people to adopt these behaviours. (Spagenberg and Lorek 2002). Pro-environmental behaviour is define as a behaviour that has a reduced impact on the environment’ (Reid et al 2010)

A large amount still remains unknown about the processes through which such pro-environmental behaviors are adopted or changed despite a great deal of research.(Barr and Gilg 2005,Gatersleben et al 2002)

Information and learning have been central to the field of organisational learning, which is dominated by three related theories developed by Argyris and Schon (1978): single-loop learning, double-loop learning and triple-loop learning. The most exciting of these theories Is triple loop learning. "This is the most elusive of levels and is rarely attained" (Yuthas et al 2004) triple-loop learning is said to occur when ‘one starts to reconsider underlying values and beliefs, world views, if assumptions within a world view do not hold any more’ (Pahl-Wostl 2009). Triple-loop learning is related to transformational shifts in what individuals, groups and societies view as desirable ways of living and may be characterised as shifts in regime.

In order for the world to change triple loop learning has to occur, the diary itself causes double loop learning to occur, but in order for a full societarian change to occur about the environment I believe triple loop learning has to occur. Double-loop learning allows for reflection upon negative aspects of an individual’s behaviour behavioural change may occur from recognising and then correcting actions.

Diary keeping can itself be used as an intervention to change behaviour (Thiele et al 2002). Diary keeping can enhance learning about a topic and, as a result, improve awareness and practice (Hussein 2007) This was certainly the case with me and my family and quantising the impact we had as a family.

However "It may be rather too easy to assume that merely providing information, and therefore education, on environmental impact is sufficient of itself to promote lasting attitudinal and behavioural change" (De Young, 1996, Staats et al 2004).

After completing the diary I felt like no behaviour change had to occur but I could see that if the diary had different results more negative results then that would result in me definitely reflecting about my actions but I cannot see it immediately changing my behaviour. Incremental use of diaries I believe can be used to change behaviour.

Household Energy Behaviour

Household energy use can to divided into two sections. (Vringer & Blok 1995). Direct energy use is related to the use of gas, electricity and fuel. Indirect energy use is related to the production, transportation and disposal of consumer goods and use of services. (Abrahamse et al 2007)

Geller (1981) found that a workshop about energy conservation resulted in higher knowledge levels about conservation, but not in behavioural changes.

However ,home audits, in which energy experts give the public information about energy-saving measures based on their current situation result in significant energy savings through behavioural changes (Gonzales, Aronson, & Costanzo 1988) and increased knowledge about energy conservation (Winett et al 1985)

Energy consumption was one part of the diary that I couldn’t really complete because I didn’t have access to the data required as it’s sealed off in my house. But I think that a reflective diary would definitely help in reducing the consumption of energy. I believe a more in depth diary is needed as an ongoing process to reduce energy consumption, I really don’t think that a diary for one week will give an appropriate staple for a person, I believe that you have to analyse at least over a year. Tailored information from energy companies and better education is the way forward.

Household Food Behaviour

Food production, transport, and consumption contribute to environmental problems, such as greenhouse gas emissions, farmland erosion, and excess wastage. Overall, food consumption has been estimated to account for about 20–30% of the total environmental impact in the Western world (Tukker & Jansen, 2006). Food is a basic necessity thus cannot be removed or substituted. Dietary choices form an important part of overall sustainable consumption, and with daily food choices, consumers make important environmental decisions. (Tobler 2011)

It seems it terms of consumption to avoid products transported by air, to prefer organic products, and to reduce meat consumption (Jungbluth et al 2000). Food packaging is generally relatively less important in terms of environmental impact (Jungbluth et al 2000).

A large amount of the time when looking at food products, it does not say the type of travel the food product has undertaken so it is extremely hard for the consumer to avoid this without doing any research, the only thing that was imported in my food diary was the Corona beer which is imported from Mexico, I can make the switch from an imported beer to a non imported UK brewed beer but this is just a preference of mine. All products that are in my home currently are organic products due to the fact that personally I view organic produce as more environmentally friendly and better for me.

Consumers have different motives for behavior food selection. Past research indicates that sensory appeal, healthiness, convenience, and price generally tend to be important factors influencing food choice (Scheibehenne et al 2007), The eco-friendliness of a food product generally does not seem to have a major influence on consumers’ food choice.

Meat, especially red meat, is often associated with strength, power, and virility, and meat is considered an archetypical masculine food (Holm and Møhl 2000). Men therefore might find it more difficult to reduce this type of consumption.

Personally meat consumption is a personal choice, I always make sure meat comes from a source that regards animal welfare extremely highly, even down to the grassroots such as picking eggs that are not from farmed hens.

Household Waste and Recycling Behaviour

A key environmental objective of the UK government is to reduce the amount of waste produced and to raise the proportion of waste that is recycled. Recycling is deemed important since landfilled waste increases methane emissions, generates odour and noise pollution, and can result in groundwater contamination. (Abbott 2011)

A key non-monetary initiative to encourage is the use of curbside recycling schemes.(De Young 1990, Ferrera and Missios 2005, Vining and Ebreo 1992). Kerbside schemes are expected to improve the recycling rate since they reduce the overall time needed to recycle (Sidique et al 2010).

I believe this encourages a large amount of positive behavior in the community. Curbside recycling which happens in England especially to me reduces the amount of time that is needed on recycling. I believe a large part of sustainability is enabling the processes for the user. Making it easier for the user to create behavioral change."Furthermore, the opportunity cost of time spent on recycling activities is found to be of importance". (Jakus et al 1996)

I believe one of the massive problems at least for me and my family is the amount of time spent on activities due to recycling I think this is the biggest hurdle is actually fitting time into your schedule to do it as it’s a long and laborious process. Recycling has become a social norm due to the legal implications of recycling.

The waste handling itself of both food and packaging have an impact on the environment,. Food waste has an important ethical dimension since a large part of the world’s population is starving (FAO 2010).

Food wasted by the public has a higher accumulated environmental impact than food wasted in the distribution chain, and is therefore alot more important to reduce. The amount food wasted by consumers and food institutions in Europe and USA varies between 15% and 30% of the all purchased food (Kantor et al 1997, Engström and Carlsson-Kanyama 2004). The wastage of avoidable food waste in average households in UK is about 4 kg week. (Quested and Johnson 2009)

In our household the amount of litter we had at the end of the week was around 1.5kg so this is well under the national limit. Obviously we should be aiming to have no recyclable waste. In our home we compost food waste. We rarely have any food wastage or food going "off" as we generally plan our meals a week in advance. All the leftovers are then composted or thrown into the garden so the wildlife outside can eat them and the nutrients can be absorbed into the ground. I would however disagree that food packaging is less important in terms of environmental impact as the cumulative impact from the population is extremely large.

In the UK, between 75% and 90% of the consumers agreed that discarded packaging is a greater environmental issue than food that is wasted (Cox and Downing 2007). Consumers are not aware that packaging only represents a small value of environmental impact.(Hanssen 1998)

The general public's understanding of waste management issues is quite new, this involves cost, the potential of recycling waste, core knowledge of curbside collection and knowledge of bring sites. This does not equate however to a lack of interest. "This could perhaps be interpreted as a failing of the local authority (and the waste management industry in general) to communicate effectively to the ‘unconverted’"(Read 2001).

Personally recycling schemes have always eluded me until the late 2000’s when recycling came into the forefront of governmental schemes and was adopted. I believe that the general public including myself is not educated on recycling we are told what to do and how to do it (e.g. the days we put out bins and what to recycle in each one. However there is no broad general education about why we have to do this and the negative impacts of not recycling. Apathy can be avoided if there is fear involved. There is very little social stigma attached to not recycling. Barriers to participation in recycling involve lack of reason to recycle, apathy towards recycling andno awareness of recycling provision. (Read 2005)

For a recycling scheme to be successful it must involve large numbers of households and recycling of a wide range of materials accepted by a scheme on a regular basis. Household attributes play a large partt in the rate of recycling. Generally households appear more willing to put out recyclables for collection on a twice-weekly basis.

Personally my household gets up and goes to work before curbside recycling occurs so this allows at least one member of the household to get up and put out recycling on the curbside so it can occur. This could be a problem for other families do not spend a lot of time in their house or work irregular hours.

Greater use of bring sites may contribute to recycling and possibly and increase cost savings for the local authority through fuel reduction and carbon emissions.(Read 2001). There is wide ignorance regarding the location of bring sites, so this needs to be addressed urgently in future publicity and educational campaigns.

For us personally there is ignorance as a family as to where bring sites are located. However government incentive schemes do this job for us so we have very little need to go to sites to discard of waste and recycle.

Household Car Ownership Behaviour

Higher levels of car ownership present several problems, such as greater car dependency, increased carbon emissions and congestion. (Caulfield 2012)

Matas and Raymond (2008) found that car ownership was lower in areas with good quality public transport options. This was also shown in Cullinane (2002) where in a study in Hong Kong found that where individuals had access to good public transport, they were unlikely to purchase a car. Dissanayke and Morkawa (2010) examined the characteristics that influence car ownership in Thailand and found that distance travelled, age, and the number of children in the household all impacted upon car ownership decisions. 

My mother has to use her car to carry large amounts of shopping this is unfeasible and tiresome using public transport. My mother also needs her car for family emergencies as well as my father. My father has to travel the country for his work and cannot use public transport to this end. For some people public transport is not enough.

Conclusion

The reflective diary was a positive process. It is clear that people will ultimately educate themselves about their own behaviour that they may not have previously been aware of. The diary on it’s own however is useless if there is no proper education backing it. There must be standards and fundamental education on why standards are put in place. I believe a large amount of people lack the core understanding of why we should do all the things that the diary focuses on. If people were educated on Sustainability I believe the process of double loop learning would occur creating one instance of behaviour change. If society was education and participated, triple loop learning would occur leading to a Sustainable society.