Reduce, Reuse, and Redistribute

In this term in Economics, we jumped into our course by looking at Kate Raworths, Doughnut Economics. In the book, Raworth talks about the seven ways you can think like a 21st-century economist. During group work, we read chapter 4, Getting Savvy with Systems, which described the difference between simple systems that are bound to change, and the new adaptive-complex system that in turn should be used. Kate goes on saying the markets should be evolving over time at a constant. For this Ap, we had to basically make up the next chapter of Doughnut Economics using our economic principle. The principle should connect to the book or an SDG to impact the world’s economic outlook and make it better than it is.

Economic principle: Reduce, Reuse & Redistribution
Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

SDG goal 12 is about how we as a community can reduce the number of waste and still be able to produce to the world using items again. I think that the world is heading towards bad times. Up to ⅓ of the world’s food produce ends up being trash because of poor transitional processes and harvesting practices. We can avoid that by consuming seasonal and local products when they are available in stores. This way we are able to dispose of food in a manner that is safe and healthier for the environment, rather than having many different types of food go bad in stores or have already gone bad when trying to purchase an item. Another way we could contribute to SDG goal 12 is by using LED or low-consuming light bulbs to cut down our electrical consumption rate in this matter by 50%-80%. We could save $120 billion by using energy-efficient bulbs yearly. Purchasing second-hand products can also be a good way to prevent or slow down good items from being thrown away that still have a good use. Thrift shopping, garage sales, shopping on online businesses that sell used goods like Poshmark, or food pantries can be examples of second-hand buying. 

Wasting essential products is really harming our environment. The amount of waste that we are producing, it would take up to three earth’s to maintain it all. It would be better for us and for the earth if we could be thoughtful to learn more about it and what one person could do themselves. I believe that it only takes one person to make a huge change. 

Richard Adams is an example of how to transport goods while still looking out for the earth. He created a movement of fair trade and set up a business towards food imports in India. This way, people would not be overcharged from intermediate agents attempting to charge more than what a reasonable price should be. As oil prices increased, which made transporting foods close to impossible, Adams used wood and euka as alternatives to this. Here in the U.S. we too can find other ways to benefit our surroundings. We don’t want to repeat living in a “Take, Make, Use, Lose” society, but rather “Reducing, Reusing, and Redistributing” in an effective way. 

“...‘doing our fair share’ can too easily slip into ‘taking our fair share’. When many businesses look at the Doughnut they seem to look at its outer ring of planetary boundaries as if it were a cake to be sliced up and handed out.  Every business wants a fair share. Still being stuck in an old fashion mindset, linear industry, the first question that many ask is: how big a slice of that ecological cake is ours? How many tons of carbon dioxide can we emit? How much groundwater can we withdraw?. But ‘taking your fair share’ reinforces the view that the ‘right to pollute’ is a resource worth competing for. And when competing over limited resources, we humans too easily start to jostle for space, lobbying policymakers..ers and gaming the system, significantly raising the risk of transgressing the boundaries in the process…”(Raworth 179-180). We have to be careful about how we are choosing to consume and how much of it we are consuming; this varies from food, to clothes, to other necessities as well. If we could invest our money towards cutting down non-efficient sources of electricity, we could cut down finances on spending to produce such that could be harmful vs other environment-friendly ways.

A Sustainable Circular Economy Approach

A quote from the text that I found from Get Savvy says, "It is out of these interactions of stocks, flows, feedbacks and delays,” writes Raworth, “that complex adaptive systems arise: complex due to their unpredictable emergent behavior, and adaptive because they keep evolving over time.” So with these continuing ideas, we make use of then throw away we are drifting far from our SDG goals. Not only are we endangering other life here, but our own life is on the line. These short and odd systems that don't define true character and integrity are driving the sustainable economy to a plummet.

Works Cited

Globalvia, director. Sustainable Development Goal 12 - Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns. Youtube, 2 July 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgNet-a8TFs.

“Noun Project Search.” Noun Project, thenounproject.com/search/?q=+earth.

“Sustainable Consumption and Production – United Nations Sustainable Development.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-consumption-production/. 

“Chapter 6.” Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21st-Century Economist, by Kate Raworth, Random House Business Books, 2017.