Kid: “Hey, mum, guess what we learned at school today?”
Me: “Uh, what, honey?…can you please take off your muddy boots?”
Kid: “Sustainability… Environmental sustainability! We did all these fun activities today to learn about it!”
Me: “Wow? Really?…Sounds complicated.”
Kid: “No, not really, it just means that we need to take care of our planet. We can reduce our energy use by turning off the lights and electronics, we can save water by turning off the tap when we brush our teeth and by having shorter showers, we can reduce our waste by recycling plastics and tins and composting our vegetable peelings, we can plant wildflowers for bees!…We can do all these things and more, mum. Can we try to be more sustainable, mum?”
Me: “Uh…of course…where should we start?”
This is the conversation I had last Friday after school, and it made me think. Living sustainably starts at home and depends on families making small changes in their own routines and choices. There is no question that changing how we do things is really difficult but one day our kids will inherit this planet. What kind of world will it be? Surely, I can turn off the tap when I brush my teeth or turn off some lights or plant a few flowers to make a more sustainable future for my kids…I am in…are you?
Here are a couple of websites with ideas for becoming more sustainable:
North Pennines AONB Partnership: Nectarworks Project
