Sustainability!
What’s it all about?
Simply put, sustainability means changing the way we live now to make sure that our grandchildren, and their grandchildren, inherit the kind of world we’d want to live in.
There are 6.6 billion people on Earth, with an expected increase to 9 billion by 2050, and collectively we’re making quite a mess of the planet. We need to start changing how we live to halt climate change, pollution and over-consumption.
Sustainability isn’t just for the dedicated few – we all need to change our ways. If not, our children’s children’s children will have to deal with the consequences. |
The Guilfoyle family from Lillington, Leamington Spa, took up last year's Sustainability Challenge of living sustainably for two weeks in the run up to Warwickshire County Council’s Sustainability Day 4 Schools (SD4S)on Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th May 2006. The event was held at Ryton Pool Country Park.
The Guilfoyles put their shopping, eating, recycling, energy use and travelling habits under the microscope in an attempt to see how much they could change over a two week period. The family were provided with a range of sustainable products to trial and are making their own video diary to chart their progress.
BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire's Moira Rawlings interviewed Liz and David about the challenge and it was aired live on 7th June. A recording of the interview is available here courtesy of BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire.
Radio broadcast.
Liz and David were also interviewed for Central News. You can view the interview by kind permission of Central News by following the link below.
Central News Interview.
The elder of the two boys in the family, 10-year-old David, attends Kingsway Community Primary School and enjoyed attending SD4S with the rest of his class.
The Guilfoyle family are already amazed at how much they have achieved in such a short space of time -
David: "The Challenge has changed our routine forever. I just want to be sustainable every day I wake up".
Liz: "When I go shopping I'm going to look out for Fair-trade tea and coffee .... we really like it. I'd recommend living sustainably to anyone as at the end of the day we'll all benefit."
We would like to thank not only the Guilfoyle family for being brave enough to take on the challenge, but also all our sponsors who kindly donated the environmental products trialled. |