We all know that there are issues that the world needs to fix right? They are most likely caused by humans in that case. We can all do our part to be more sustainable and help our environment. I have learned more about sustainability within the last few weeks to get more of an idea of what needs to happen before we can change the world or at least make a change. More and more people need to become more mindful and really figure out what they need in life to be sustainable. That is just one part of the journey. I learned that if one is to be more mindful and think about what they actually need in life it will lead to less waste and a more healthy environment. Not only will it lead to a better environment, it will be beneficial to one’s self as well. I kind of think of it as a self care type of thing. You do not need lots of items to make you happy. Material items will not make one happy and it will only lead to more waste in the future. For example if you are to continuously buy the latest item that is hot right, so to speak, you will most likely throw away that old item. What makes you think that you would even think about recycling or donating that item if you just bought a new one to replace the probably not even a month old item. Especially with clothing, all the old clothes will eventually end up in a landfill somewhere and they will be worthless. So why don’t you donate or even upcycle the clothing? This will help out with the clothing in landfills and you will be contributing to sustainability. Back to the being mindful thing, you will also realize that you don’t need much to be happy so you will not buy as much as you would before. Take the poor for example, I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but if you are ever in their position you know what it’s like to only need to buy what’s important for your survival. They don’t dwell on what the new hip thing is. There’s a likelihood that most countries, cities, or neighborhoods have these low income households and they are more likely to contribute to sustainability than higher paid households. 

We talk about being sustainable and what we actually need to do, but why does it seem like not everyone is at least doing the bare minimum to help contribute to sustainability. Recycling is a great way to start. You can recycle anything, well not anything, but it would be a great place to start. If you have old clothing you can donate it, like I do to friends or relatives, and that is another way to be more sustainable. You can even upcycle the clothing as well. There’s a multitude of things you can do to help with sustainability. There should not be a saying that you can not think of a way to help out. Even if you do not have someone to give your old clothes to, you can bring them to a donation box, Goodwill, or perhaps a thrift store. I used to shop at thrift stores when I was younger, mainly for doll clothes and such, but for the lower income side of people they surely help out a lot. Since they probably can’t afford to go somewhere and buy an expensive pair of jeans, let’s say,they can go to the thrift store and get a pair for half or most likely a quarter of what the regular price would be. By shopping at thrift stores and such they are contributing to a more sustainable lifestyle. This is one of the easiest ways I can think of that can be more sustainable when shopping for clothing items or even donating them as well. 

There is a lot to say about what you can and can’t particularly do by yourself to be more sustainable or if something is a wicked problem. I honestly had no idea what a wicked problem actually was until I enrolled in the course this spring. Within the past few classes I have concluded that wicked problems affect us all in our daily lives. It can affect our health, living situations, and even our environment. If we are not careful and do not take care of ourselves that can affect our health and our living conditions. One will not really care about what is going on around them and only care for themselves. In some cases that is a good thing, but not always. If you are not taking care of yourself you will notice or someone else will, that your environment is going to degrade. This can be on a small level or a global level with hundreds if not thousands of people. We do not realize when we are going about our daily lives that the planet we live on is a luxury and there are not many like it, or at least the only one that can carry life. We need to be more aware of certain situations that will have a huge impact later on. Mindfulness will always pop up when I think of wicked problems or even sustainability. I have learned from this class that not everything is black and white when talking about certain problems. You can not just come up with a solution to one problem and hope it works for another person or situation. Each situation is unique and one needs to respect that. 

Culture can play a part in it as well. With each situation being unique some cultural things can have an impact on how one is being mindful and sustainable as well. I remember one example of a cultural thing was that tea leaves can be used for many purposes other than just making tea. You can use them for fertilizing other plants as well. Everything just ties into each other at the end of it all. I could also just be rambling, but so far this class is not that bad.

#WP animals DHM1101 DHM4573 earth empathic design Empathy go green Interesting ideas interior design meditation mindfulness My Sustainabily Journey Problem Solving recycling center SAIM SIAM sustainability vegetarianism wd Wicked Problems WickedProblems WP WP+Sustainability