Food... How are we eating?

Does the mention of sambal stingray, fish and chips or chili crab make you start salivating? Ever hear before of eating sustainably? Before you rush off to satisfy your hunger, carry on reading before you make your decision on what to eat!

Seafood

Looking at the way we have been all along producing and consuming our food, there are many ways we can make our food production and consumption more sustainable. In the past, we are not aware that the species that we are eating maybe overfished or captured by methods that are harmful to the marine environment. Many of Singapore seafood imports come from places which have been overfished for many years. So what can we do about it, you may ask. It requires effort from the various stakeholders like consumers, the government, corporations and the farmers.

Focusing on consumers which are us, it is important for us to reduce our wastage. Buy what you can eat and do not waste! Especially in Singapore where over 600 000 tonnes of food waste is generated in 2014 (National Environment Agency [NEA], n.d.), much can be done to reduce it! One simple way would be to place food that will spoil or rot quickly nearer to the door or shelf te remind us to eat them first before they spoil or the expiry date has pass that leaves us no options but to throw them away. Other than that, another way would be to think twice before buying too much food that we can't finish eating. Many of a time, the leftover food would get thrown away at the end of a meal. In 2014, only 13 percent of the food waste was recycled (National Environment Agency [NEA], n.d.).

We can also make the choice to buy sustainable food. This is a powerful tool and incentive for fisheries to improve the way fisheries are managed by demanding for sustainable sources. We can choose to buy our seafood like fishes from places that are certified that their fishes come from sustainable fisheries by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). They can be identified by the blue tick which their MSC logo. Isn't this a simple way for you to 

identify and purchase fish from well-managed sources? Some places in Singapore that you can find fishes from sustainable sources would be Fish 4 Ever at some Cold Storage outlets and Fish Wives a Bukit Timah Road. If you are craving for seafood, you may consider restaurants like Absinthe and Mezza9 where their seafood comes from sustainable sources. You can try out Loving Hut for tasty vegan food where it promotes a sustainable lifestyle. If you are cooking, you may try out these recipes provided by World Wildlife (WWF) Singapore like Oyster Omelette (Or Luak) or a simpler dish would be a grilled fish sandwich. One very interesting recipe that looks really interesting is the salmon fish cake! I would love to try it out.

Here are the links for the recipes:
Oyster Omelette (Or Luak):
http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/or_luak__oyster_omelette__recipe.pdf
Grilled Fish Sanwich: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/grilled_fish_sandwich_recipe.pdf
Salmon Fish Cake: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/salmon_fish_cakes_recipe.pdf
For more recipes:  http://www.wwf.sg/what_we_do/save_our_seas/celebrate_our_world_s_oceans/sustainable_seafood_recipes/

That's all for now! Think twice before selecting your ingredients/food place to eat!

References:

National Environment Agency. (n.d.). Waste Statistics and Overall Recycling. Retrieved from http://www.nea.gov.sg/energy-waste/waste-management/waste-statistics-and-overall-recycling

Unilever

Did you hear before of  the brand Sunsilk? What about Lipton? Or Rexona? Ben & Jerry's? Persil? Dove? Vaseline? These are all brands owned by one of the world's leading consumer goods companies, Unilever with more than 400 brands, operations in over 100 countries and sales in 190. Consumers buy 170 billion Unilever packs around the world every year, and their products are used over two billion times a day (CSRWire 2015; Unilever, 2015). Unknowingly, we may be using one of these products by Unilever everyday!

Having won the 2011 Green International Awards, they have set sustainability as one of their goals since 1996 and has the Plan to achieve the targets they set by 2020.

In this video, Unilever has introduced their rational for working towards being a more sustainable company and as mentioned in the video, with more concentrated laundry detergent, it will reduce the transportation needed etc and thus, reducing the energy required. For consumers like us, we are unknowingly living more sustainably when we use their products as we reduce the amount of water and electricity which together, we can reduce 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission in a year. Thus, making the choice to buy brands that are doing their part to produce using more sustainable methods is a decision that we as consumers can make although it may cost a little more. If we can afford it, why not just do a little bit more and make a wise choice?

Diagram 1: Unilever's Business Model

Their business model is different from the traditional business model as they believe that sustainability does not deter growth but on the contrary, sustainability promotes growth and helps to increase profits. Diagram 1 shows their current business model which focuses on sustainable living. They aim to increase their business size while decreasing their carbon footprint. Apparently, they are doing a great job and are constantly having breakthroughs through Research & Development (R&D). One good example would be their newly developed MuCell® Technology that they announced in 2014 (Unilever, 2014). It uses 15% less plastic in Dove Body Wash bottles that are sold in Europe and can reduce up to 275 tonnes of plastic a year (CSRWire, 2014; Unilever2015)! Isn't that absolutely fantastic? An even better news is that other manufacturers are able to follow and make use of this technology for their brands and products as Unilever waived specific exclusivity rights in January earlier this year (Unilever, 2015). Thus, it will definitely have positive changes to the entire industry and therefore, has a significant reduction in the overall environmental impact by the market. This definitely helps Unilever to build their corporate identity and fulfills their social responsibility.

Unilever has moved many steps forward to bring about changes in the way they produce their goods and it is a great step ahead to encourage their users to do so as well.

References:

CSRwire, 2014. Unilever Launches Breakthrough Packaging Technology That Uses 15% Less Plastic. Available at: <http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/36962-Unilever-Launches-Breakthrough-Packaging-Technology-That-Uses-15-Less-Plastic>. [Accessed 19 September 2015]

CSRWire, 2015. Unilever - Corporate Social Responsibility News, Reports and Events – CSRwire.com.Available at: <http://www.csrwire.com/members/16348-Unilever>. [Accessed 19 Sep. 2015].

Unilever Global Company, 2015. Unilever Annual Report and Accounts 2014. Available at:  <https://www.unilever.com/Images/ir_Strategic_Report_AR14_tcm244-421555.pdf>. [Accessed 19 September 2015].

Unilever Global Company, 2015. About Unilever. Available at: <https://www.unilever.com/about/who-we-are/about-Unilever/>. [Accessed 19 September 2015].

Sustainability

Taken from: smallbiztrends.com 

What does sustainability exactly means? Just as the author of this journal article, Sustainability: Living with Imperfections says, this word sustainability in itself is a very big and broad word that does not have very definite meaning thus it can be interpreted differently by everyone. In the gist, the author mainly takes the view that sustainability in itself is an imperfect word that gets different definition with the fact that it is an idea that is too broad and vague. He also explored all the different definitions that ecologists, biologists and environmentalists came up with like linking it to energy, putting an economic value to sustainability and such.

Personally, I am in line with Browne as mentioned in the article on the view that sustainability means to use our existing resources more efficiently and use them wisely to prevent wastage and at the same time carrying out our lives in a way such that there is minimal negative impact on the environment and our future generations to bear.

In conclusion, sustainability and narrowing down to sustainable living, are complex and broad concepts that does not have a definite meaning which we at the 21st century are aiming and moving towards. However, even with slight differences in meaning we are moving in a similar direction which is for the betterment of humankind as well as the non-humankind biodiversity.

References:

• Ehrenfeld, D. (2005). Sustainability: Living with the imperfections. Conservation Biology, 19(1), 33-35. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.0456a.x 

Changing Living Habits

During GEM1917 Understanding and Critiquing lecture this week, we were encouraged to take up a pledge that was offered by the Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES) to commit to one or more action(s) when we are in campus.

Using this chance, I'll publicly promise to commit to make these changes to my lifestyle:

- Walk short distances between faculties/ canteens/ sport facilities on campus

- Always opt for the stairs instead of the lifts

-Use the internal shuttle bus for longer distance journeys around campus

-Plan journeys well so that you do not have to travel unnecessarily 

-Limit your air travel as much as possible - this form of transport has the greatest carbon footprint

I shall add one more personalised action that I am determined to change and that would be to reducing my bathing time by 5 minutes. It is quite a challenge for me but I'll try my best!

All in all, we can lead a more sustainable lifestyle by adhering to the 3 Rs-Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, live efficiently as well as to use energy and resources only when necessary. 

Oh! Before I forget, there's an event on e-waste collection coming up at utown next week and it's a great chance to clear old and spoilt electronic stuff! Hope you will participate along with me and more details can be found here, e-Waste • we-Recycle 2015 . Thank you for reading and till next time!