4 Sustainability Examples That Make Money and Solve Big Problems

For a very long time in our history, trade-offs have been made between profitability and health. Cleaner sources of operations were simply not as feasible, but this is slowly changing, as cleaner sources of energy like solar and wind are progressively becoming more profitable for companies to use.

We often believe that advancement in technology is the key to sustainability, but while advancing technology is extremely important, the solution is also present—and may be much more readily accessible— in nature itself.

Here are 4 mind-expanding sustainability examples that you have probably never heard of, but that we can use to help solve problems like climate change, pollution, flooding, and even mental health, while also making a profit.

Create a Nature-Based Solution

Modern infrastructure around the world has a life span, and it’s expensive to maintain. For example, the need for more agricultural land destroys the natural infrastructure of forests which leads to flooding.

One area considering expanding their agricultural land lies along the St. John’s River of New Brunswick. The area has also been experiencing increasingly intense flooding every year due to climate change. 

It was predicted that the storm-water management system required to divert rainfall from this new land would total 3 and a half million dollars. This bill could be as high as 4.1 million in the coming years if the annual rate of rainfall continues to rise. 

Expensive projects like these could be avoided if municipalities shifted their manpower away from traditional infrastructure and towards maintaining and restoring the existing natural infrastructure of forests and wetlands. Wetlands have the capacity to directly prevent the event of flooding.

Nature-Based Solutions Make Huge Profits

How many of us love spending time in nature? We often travel thousands of miles away from our cities because we long for something we don’t see as often anymore.

Howe Sound northwest of Vancouver is enjoying a healthy profit margin of 300,000 dollars per hectare of land (10,000 square meters) from tourism to their nature-based environment alone.

All sources of Howe Sound’s natural revenue combined total upwards of 4 and a half billion dollars – 1.7 billion more than the 3.3 billion generated from mining. Decades of work by the foundation have proven that a community’s profit is when nature is viewed as an asset to be protected rather than a commodity to be exploited.

Real estate also sees an increase in value as a result of developing natural infrastructure in surrounding areas. This was the case in Ranthambore, where a couple purchased farming land and allowed it to grow into a lush forest now home to endangered tigers.

Nature Based Solutions Help our Physical and Mental Health

All of the financial incentives provided by nature-based solutions have the added benefit of improving our emotional well-being. The healthier nature is; the healthier we live.

There has long been both scientific and cultural precedent to preserve the natural world. The act of “forest bathing” or mindfully immersing oneself in nature has been shown to significantly decrease cortisol levels in the brain. It comes as no surprise that spending time in nature can greatly boost our immune system.

Understand Your Unique Ecosystem, Then Create a Demand for It

Sustainability should occur on the level of municipal districts. This attention at the local level allows communities to benefit from what makes their locations unique.

Multi-million dollar innovative startup ZeroCircle, for example, has discovered a way to make tea bags, burger wrappers, gift wraps, and grocery store bags out of seaweed rather than plastic. As soon as the seaweed reaches the ocean, it bio-degrades, and these plastic alternatives can even be eaten. Any town that lies close to the ocean, or any place where food is scarce, can potentially benefit from this innovation.

Understanding the unique ecosystems of each country will also create supplies to meet the demands of larger communities across their respective nations. Locals can create a demand for their own products by investing in their own natural infrastructure.  

Reuse Old Equipment Instead of Recycling It

Truly sustainable communities must also find a way to reuse their old equipment rather than recycling it. Recycling has been in the mainstream for generations now; however, it is not as sustainable as many make it out to be.

Many of the products designated for recycling never make it to the recycling centre, but end up in a landfill instead. The persistence of microplastics in our water only adds to the problem with recycling.

look at what Repair Kopitiam is doing in Singapore. Once a month, members of the community get together to fix broken electronics and appliances to prevent more e-waste from being added to our landfills. Repair Kopitiam is run completely by volunteers, showing that if we want sustainable communities, we need to construct them ourselves.

Join Sustainable Communities

Whether it involves volunteering, working, or collaborating; meaningful experiences are necessary for happiness and well-being on all levels.

The future of our Earth looks a lot brighter when we consider that sustainable communities are both attainable, profitable, and will make us happier and more inspired human beings.

We need to be willing to create the sort of community that we want to live in.

Dedicating time to something that goes beyond ourselves is what makes us feel great to be ourselves.

If everyone made that their definition of sustainability, then there would be no doubt for a brighter future.

The David Suzuki Foundation

The David Suzuki Foundation is an organization that focuses on developing nature-based solutions to the problems of our deteriorating artificial infrastructure. 

The foundation operates on the premise that when we harm the planet, we harm ourselves, and conversely any attempt to preserve our natural infrastructure is an act of self-care.

What makes the David Suzuki Foundation so inspirational is its ability to prove the financial benefits of nature-based solutions. Historically one of the most significant roadblocks to climate initiatives has been a concern over the return on the necessary investment.

Aside from the David Suzuki Foundation, this has been true for businesses like BAR technologies—creator of WindWings— a wind propellant innovation that has reduced the fuel that cargo ships use on-route by 30%. These wings reduce massive amounts of carbon that heat up the earth’s atmosphere, but at the same time, widespread use is approached attentively, because usage should also be profitable.

Thankfully, the levelized cost of solar and wind energy is progressively becoming cheaper than fuel power, making profitability for using them possible for companies.

Who is David Suzuki?

David Suzuki is a geneticist, professor, and activist who, after the success of his radio and television shows, heralded a new era of environmentalism by exploring the economic benefits of sustainable living. 

He began his public career when he helped to create the Canadian science news program Quirks and Quarks for CBC Radio in 1975. In 1979, he took his expertise to television to host the longest-running documentary series in history, The Nature of Things.

While working as a broadcaster and television personality, he also taught in the genetics department of the University of British Columbia where he now acts as professor emeritus. He has also written over 50 books (so far) on the topic of sustainable living.

Both his academic and public work led to an advantageous meeting of concerned leaders and activists who in 1990 created, the David Suzuki Foundation to help local communities thrive by developing their own natural infrastructure.  

Sustainability is Where Nature Flourishes While Technology Progresses

Have you ever thought about the word nature? It’s a word in the English language that defines what something is and at the same time explains it’s function.

Take an animal for example. You can define what a puppy is by explaining what they do, and by explaining what they do, you can also define them.

So, we are how we function, and not only that but we are changed by how nature functions.

The reason why sustainability is where nature flourishes while technology progresses is because it is in the nature of nature to flourish, and it is the nature of technology to progress.

So, when we speak about sustainability, we are really speaking about flourishing while we progress.

Sustainability Examples Recap

To recap the sustainability examples that make money and solve big problems:

• Create a nature-based solution
• Understand your unique ecosystem; then create a demand for it
• Re-use old equipment instead of recycling it
• Become part of a sustainable community