AES Solutions both groups

AES Inhibitor solutions (both groups)

To do for next week : Please remind yourselves of the solutions we have already developed and work your way through the rest of the list, ‘flipping’ the negatives into positives and coming up with creative, workable and actionable solutions.  This involves thinking what should be done, how it might be achieved and who might be best placed to lead the action. NB. I WILL BE ASSESSING YOUR BRAINSTORMING CONTRIBUTIONS IN OUR NEXT CLASS – THERE WILL BE MARKS GIVEN !   Your active participation is essential therefore!  So, please, be prepared !   Once we have produced our lists of solutions, we will look at those which are perhaps THE most important and establish teams to fully develop the solutions, with a view to presenting these to ‘Key Players’ like the Dean of the FSESJ, the President of the UHA, local, regional and national government etc.  This will involve a written report AND a live presentation.

TIME & EFFORT- RELATED 

• Takes too long to be sustainable – too long for the ‘I want it now‘ generation
• Requires too much effort – too much effort is not relaxing

SOLUTION : Incredible Edible the University / Mulhouse (also helps with ‘I can’t afford organic food’)…. It would bring FREE, fresh organic veg to the campus where you work every day – just pick it en route between the Fac and the bus/tram….

COSTS (Too high)

• Prices of bio/sustainable goods are really too high (see Incredible Edible solution above)
• I believe the prices of bio/sustainable goods are too high (but I haven’t actually done any thorough research) SOLUTION : organise a research programme to identify which bio/eco/organic products are the salme price as mass produced stuff – or cheaper !  We can do this !  Then circulate, promote and update it.
• The difference between low-cost, mass production of unsustainable goods and the high-cost sustainable option is too great.  Solutions : Tax mass production / financially assist organic production or a combination of both.  Outlaw unacceptable / non-compliant mass production practices and impose heavy fines (Bonus / Malus) to fund subventions & tax reductions.  Perhaps even force retailers to accept lower profit margins on non DD produce. Government action.

SALARY (Too low)

• I’m a student on a low income: low cost is not a choice.  Solution : Incredible Edible and reduction of costs of organics via the taxation system.
• When I do have a salary I might well chose to do unsustainable things things I haven’t done before rather than use the extra income on consuming more expensive sustainable products.  Solution : WILLPOWER !

INFORMATION (Lacking)

• Where to start?  SOLUTION. Local government engaging in DD and listening to and informing their citizens (Brunstatt 5th March public meeting for example) … Prefectures ….etc
• No ‘one-stop shop‘ for sustainability accessible locally to individuals and businesses to provide free access to information and advice  SOLUTION : ‘Sell’ the idea of a one-stop –shop for DD to the Prefectures / Departments & Regions…. And pilot it (with funding and technical support).
• Not ‘joined up’ with advice and public sector financial support etc.  SOLUTION : incorporate in the one-stop shop services and functions)

EDUCATION (Too little / too late … if any)

• Nothing much at nursery/ Primary school level – the point at which children can be positively influenced
• No specific Sustainability focus across Secondary school: Ed Nat seems to accord it almost no importance.
• No requirement at Universiy level for all students to leave with a modicum of Sustainability knowledge no matter what their programme of study.

SOLUTIONS : creative designs of new compulsory curricula at ALL levels from Kindergarten , through Primary and Secondary to University. Noone should be able to leave the education system without a grounding in sustainability and planetary citizenship. Pressure upon the Ed Nat to respond appropriately.  Design a pilot project for schools in Alsace and UHA & FSESJ.

HELP & ADVICE (Not available)

• Doesn’t exist, does it ?
• If it does, where can we get it ?
• Is it free ?

 SOLUTION as above : One Stop Shop

INTEREST & MOTIVATION (Not enough)

• Others aren’t doing anything – my contribution would be just a drop in the ocean
• Fatalism – the issue is too big and moving too fast for me to have any impact. The solution is beyond us: we are out of time.

SOLUTIONS : Education through school, university and thereafter (lifelong learning)

• Key players like Government and local government seem to be paying lip service to the issue – big events internationally, but what is actually changing at ‘groundroots level’?

CARROTS (Non-existent / insufficient)

•  Some (i.e. electric car subventions) but not nearly enough related to common daily needs (the rest of this list!).
• Reluctance by politicians to make use of Bonus/Malus (giving to those doing the ‘right’ thing by taking from those who are doing the ‘wrong’ things. [Seems too much like a business tax].
• Lack of a really dramatic set of fines for non-conformity with sustainability requirements in order to generate the resources for ‘carrots’.

STICKS (Non-existent / not enforced)

• Need sticks to force me to change – I won’t act voluntarily otherwise
• Governments seem reluctant to use stick and solutions like Bonus/Malus
• Lack of punitive fines or of factory inspectors to apply them rigorously.
• Consumers understand the price mechanism: if we put the prices of the bad things way up, people will switch to sustainable goods and services.  Has government the political nerve to use this mechanism?  Seems not.

IMAGE (Poor, uncool)

• Peer group does not buy into it .. so I can’t – I’m frightened of being seen as the ‘odd man out’
• I can’t break out of conformity – society and peers expect it
• Sustainability brings in images of the Baba-Cools … which is in itself uncool – an important issue for the young
• Tired of the ‘blame culture’ and the horrific implications that it’s all my fault.

ROLE MODELS and AMBASSADORS (too few)

• Lack of numbers of positive role models (mass media coverage of the ‘greed is good’ / ‘you can have it all’ message)
• lack of visibility of role models in the media
• Particular lack of high-profile role models for the very young / young in society
• Parents not necessarily role models (they were largely born before the arrival of the sustainability issue)

LEADERSHIP (too little – words yes, actions no)

• Public policy (mostly words not actions)- Sustainability seems not to be a priority in practice. (In word, yes…. but in deed…?)
• Lack of people in positions of power and with the resources to drive the sustainability agenda.
• Other ‘more pressing’ political priorities – almost inevitably economic… which Always seem to take precedence

CONSUMERISM

• Fashion & fast fashion seem desireable and unstopable
• Marketing is all-powerful: it makes us Believe we ‘need’ what we only really ‘want’. [Sustainability is about the former, not the latter).  We don’t want ‘sustainability’ to the degree we seem to want to consume incessantly.
• New Techs enable massive over-production and waste
• Endemic over-packaging
• Little in the way of ‘loose’ goods sales
• Stop retailers selling out of season products all year long
• Still not enough NON-MASS products in supermarkets
• Not enough sustainable consumers to produce the volume of demand necessary to reduce the unit price (econs of scale)
• Lots of solutions are already available …. but are not being taken up.  Why?

LIFE CONSTRAINTS

• Forcing me to travel ( to visit family) – I have no choice
• Parents constraints have to be accepted/obeyed

HABITS & TRADITIONS

• Parents didn’t know – so didn’t teach me – other things were considered more important then
• Comfort
• Choice
• Individualism
• Bad habits are the norm.
• Strong resistance  (fear) of change