What Is Sustainability - Environmental Assessment for Sustainable Development - Assignment Example

Sustainability Executive Summary There has not been a simple and straight definition of sustainability. Several scholars have tried to define sustainability in different ways making the definition of the term to be so many around. Some of the common definitions of sustainability include: living within what the environment can provide, understanding the many interconnections between economy, society, and the environment, and sustainability as the equal distribution of resources and opportunities (NSW, 2014: pg. 1). Sustainability therefore is the ability to use up particular natural resources without the resources being destroyed, or involving the use of methods which do not use up or destroy the natural resources. Wood is a natural resource which can exist freely or by the influence of human activities. In Italy, there is a greater increasing demand for wood, which has seen the resource being sort for from other countries. Basically, wood is used in Italy for various purposes including electrical power generation, co-fire with coal, and heating in homes, commercial enterprises and institution. This project is aimed at ensuring that wood becomes a sustainable resource in Italy through good and ethical uses and business practices. It will also look at some of the corporate social responsibilities that the businesses and companies of Italy can involve in, in-order to make wood a sustainable resource for the future generations. The project will also touch on the effects of wood to the environment and how such can be controlled to enable the achievement of a sustainable wood condition in Italy. Key words: sustainability, corporate social responsibility, business ethics, natural resources, environment. Overview of the Topic Wood is a natural resource that grows naturally, but can also be domesticated. Wood grows to make a forest, where the forest is now formed by a group of wood. The natural resource is used for various purposes including the use as fuel as well as the use as a building material, electricity generation, heating up rooms and so many other uses. In Italy, wood has always been used for such purposes as mentioned above. The use of wood has been seen to be on a higher increase, beginning from the traditional uses of wood in Italy. Traditionally, wood was used to make furniture, construct structures such as houses and to make sculptors (Bob, 2011: pg. 1-4). During this period, there were a lot of trees that would provide the particular types of wood that were needed for such purposes. People never used to scramble for the resource due to its sufficient availability and occurrence in the land. Considering that the population was not so high and there was plenty of wood, there was no problem that was foreseen to might be brought about by its scarcity. By then, the climates were still very favorable such that, a lot of trees used to grow on their own, a part from the trees that people also used to grow. In the modern world, there are many uses of wood that have emerged such as the use of wood pellets to generate electricity, making of modern furniture, building and constructions, sculpting, heating homes and institution, producing core-fire with coal and carvings among other uses. Due to this increase in the uses of wood, there has been an alarming increase in the demand for wood as the wood deposits have been undergoing serious over-exploitation. This has made the forests of Italy to undergo serious human interferences which has very much affected the initial climate that used to be favorable for the growth of trees. The climate has recently changed largely such that certain indigenous tree species have undergone extinction, while others have undergone certain changes in order to adapt to the ever changing hostile climatic conditions. The increasing demand for wood brought about by the increase in the uses of wood lately, has seen traders in this commodity go as far as importing the product from other countries. For instance, Canada has been the leading country supplying Italy with wood and wood products like wood pellets (Corvallis, 2014). The export of wood from Canada to Italy has been in the rise, with the initial export being of 10,000 tones, and this increased to 40,000 tons in 2011. Given that currently, 48% of Italy’s energy is used for heat. The country aims at having 17% of that coming from renewable energy by 2020, up from 6.5% in 2010. In 2012, Italian pellet consumption was expected to hit 1.9billion tones, and continue to increase at a rate of 400,000 tones yearly, with just a very small percentage being produced domestically. This creates a huge gap in wood demand in Italy that needs to be filled up through trade. Key Findings It is evident that Italy consumes a lot of wood, yet it does not produce enough wood to sustain this consumption. There is a growing demand of wood in Italy which is highly escalating every year. As it has been noticed, Canada only exports about 40,000 tones of wood each year to Italy. This rate seems very low considering the country’s demand for the commodity. When combined with the quantity of wood produced domestically, there still exists a huge deficit of wood required in the country. There is therefore a need for the country to embark on projects that will ensure sufficient supply of wood for current use and even for the future, hence sustainability. Some areas that were initially covered with forests in Italy have been cleared up to allow industrialization. Several industries have been erected on forest land which has reduced the area under the trees. The industries also emit harmful gases which are considered to be Ozone gases which are responsible for global warming. Through global warming, there has been a tremendous change in the climatic conditions with harsh climatic conditions coming up to replace the original, friendly climatic conditions that promoted the growth of trees. The project When it comes to sustainability, Italy does not have any legal requirements, unlike the EU countries. However, there is the promotion of businesses and farmers to act responsibly in ways that protect the environment. The government of Italy provides financial incentives to businesses and farmers who wish to take up the sustainable practices that would improve the environmental standards (Dana, 2013). This is a good opportunity for the citizens of this country who would wish to take up thorough campaign measures against over-exploitation of the indigenous forests in the country. Through the support of the government, through funding and enacting legislations that would protect these forests, there are various projects that can be carried out in order to ensure there would be enough wood for use in this country for now, and for the future. The selected project here is an initiative program that would ensure that there would be 10 trees planted for every tree that would be cut down in any part of the country. This project would be made easier if parts of the legislation would be reviewed to make every citizen feel part and parcel of the project. The project would begin with raising enough seedlings in every part of the country that would be given out for free to all the stakeholders of the project. This will ensure that the increase in the population of trees is increased by 90%. This would be the first step to ensuring sustainability of wood in the country. Secondly, the government is expected to enact legislations that would be environmental friendly. Such legislations would be put forward to protect our environments from pollution by the mega industries put in place. As it is a fact, these industries are the major responsible for global worming through the gas ozone gasses emissions and the interference with the environmental activities through human activities in the search for the raw materials for these industries. These industries should be forced to use sources of power that are safe to the environment or are supposed to ensure that they make the gasses they release to the environment safe before they do so. There is also a need by the industries that rely on wood and wood products as their raw materials, to make it part of their Corporate Social Responsibility that, they promote the rejuvenation of the forests through active practice and involvement in order to ensure that their companies will not run out of the raw materials one time in the future. Just as one of the business ethics, it is also necessary that all the wood vendors should think of the best ways to keep their sources of raw material in existence for a continued period of time. In this way, there would be personal responsibility by the vendors to do what is right in order to save the forest, which are the sources of wood (Hetsch, 2013). A tree planting day would be announced by the government, when everyone would be expected to go out and plant at least 10 trees and this should be done after every 3 months. This initiative would ensure that the growth of trees increased immensely such that the cover under trees after a year is 50% more than the current area. This would be a good step to make the country become sufficient in trees which are the sources of wood. Reflective analysis The knowledge that I gained about providing insufficient commodities through trade were very fundamental in finding ways of sustainability of wood in Italy. It has also been necessary to learn the benefits of corporate social responsibility as part of the business ethics in every business either locally or internationally. This is very necessary in giving back to the society some of the benefits you get freely from the community, and the society at large. I also learn that environmental conservation is a key factor for any businessman since their raw materials, in one way or the other, is a product of the well keeping of the environment. Therefore, without proper conservation, the raw materials might not be available in the future, hence the fall of the business. Fin such a case, for the businessman to continue being in business, there would be a high cost involved to purchase the raw materials from where they are available and transported over a long channel to reach the destination. Therefore, if I were a businessman who uses wood as a resource for my business, there are a number of things I would recommend. One, I would recommend that I have my own source of wood which would be from various forests that the business would be in charge of. Again, I would recommend that my business be supportive of any measures put in place to enhance sustainability of wood. This would be through initiatives such as planting new trees, financial donations to aid conservation of forests and environmental at large (Claude & Delisle, 2004). Conclusion In conclusion, there has been an increasing demand of wood in Italy due to an increase the number of particular uses of wood in the country. Because of this, Canada has been exporting its wood to Italy since 2000. The rate of the amount of wood exported to Italy has been in the increase every year. However, the rate at which demand for wood is increasing has always been higher than the rate of export plus the amount produced domestically. This means that the country is in a big deficit for wood in order to meet its consumption demand. There is a concern to make the country sufficient in wood to be able to meet this escalating demand. It is therefore necessary for the country to embark on a serious tree planting session through the incentives provided by the government for raising tree nurseries. Businesses and persons who vend in wood in one way or the other, will be required to lead by embracing business ethics in order to ensure the continuity of the availability of the resource even for the future generation. With this initiative, and legislations to protect environment from pollution and global warming, Italy will become efficient in trees that will be producing wood for many generations to come. Bibliography Bob, S. (2011). How Venice Italy was Made of the Foundation of Wood. The Apprentice and the Journey Man , 1-4. Claude, E., & Delisle. (2004). Environmental Assessment for Sustainable Development. New York : Willey John & Sons. Corvallis, O. (2014). The Voice of Canadas Growing Pellet Center. Wood Pellet Association of Canada , 1-3. Dana, B. (2013). Italy and Sustainable Agriculture Overview. Recent Gain Publications , 1-6. Hetsch, S. (2013). Potential Wood Supply. United Nations Economic Commision for Europe , 1 3. NSW. (2014). What is Sustainability. 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