Sustainability: How Our Actions Affect the Environment

Background Information for Teachers

Sustainability has become an increasingly important topic over the last century, especially when considering the projected worldwide population growth as shown in Figure 1. But what is sustainability? The United Nations (UN) defines sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." To achieve sustainability, the UN advises thinking about three main factors: the economic, social, and environmental impact of our lives. How can we create an economically, socially and environmentally balanced system for our planet and the people on it? This requires a smarter use and fair distribution of natural resources; equal opportunities for education, safety, food, and medicine; and the protection of our environment to maintain functional ecosystems. While all three factors are important, this lesson will focus on the environmental aspect of sustainability.

Image Credit: Wikimedia, user Bdm25 / CC BY-SA 4.0

A graph of the world population between 1800 and 2100 shows projections that the human population can grow anywhere from 7.5 billion at the low end to 16.5 billion at the high end.

Figure 1. Projected world population in billions (data from UN).
["World population v3" by Bdm25 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons]

Humans inevitably change their environment through their activities. These activities can have impacts on the environment on a large scale, such as using up limited natural resources, creating lots of waste, or causing air and water pollution. The biggest impacts humans have on our planet are related to the production and consumption of our food, water, energy, and consumer stuff such as clothing, plastic products, or electronic devices (Figure 2).

Image Credit: Svenja Lohner, Science Buddies / Science Buddies
Figure 2. Human activities associated with food, water, stuff, and energy production and consumption have the greatest impact on the environment.

In this lesson, students explore how our personal impact on the environment starts with the everyday activities related to our individual food, water, energy, or stuff consumption. Do we attempt to conserve resources when we consume, or do we tend to waste them? Based on the actions we as individuals choose to take, our ecological footprint can be small or large.

Students will use an interactive online tool called Your Plan, Your Planet to learn about the impacts some of their everyday actions can have on the environment. Your Plan, Your Planet will walk students through typical everyday activities, such as showering, washing dishes and laundry, or throwing out spoiled or leftover food. While interacting with the tool, students will reflect on such questions as: Does it make a difference if I use a dishwasher or clean my dishes by hand? How much energy does it take to keep the lights on for a certain period of time? Does it make sense to throw out clothes that I do not wear regularly? How can freezing food leftovers reduce my ecological footprint? What are some simple ways to conserve water or energy at home?

Based on their findings, students will learn that simple behavioral changes on an individual or community level such as recycling stuff, using more energy efficient devices, or wasting less water can help counteract the negative effects we have on the environment and create a more sustainable future for us all.

Additional Background Links

• About the Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations
• Eat less meat: CO2 emission of our food, Time for Change
• Energy Efficiency and Conservation, U.S. Energy Information Administration
• Water Conservation at EPA, United States Environmental Protection Agency
• From linear to circular - Accelerating a proven concept, World Economic Forum

Prep Work (15 minutes)

• Make sure you navigate through each of the four areas (water, energy, food, and stuff) in Your Plan, Your Planet before you show it to your students. This will help you feel more comfortable presenting this tool to your students.
• Print out a student worksheet for each student or share the pdf with all your students in Google Drive.
• Print out the provided reading materials for each of the four topics (food, water, energy, stuff). Make sure you have enough copies, so that you can hand out one set of materials to each group.

Engage (30 minutes)

1. Start by telling students that this lesson will be about sustainability and the question of how we can live more sustainable lives. Probe students on their existing knowledge about sustainability. Ask them to write down in their worksheets what they think sustainability means. Then start discussing their definitions.

   What do you think sustainability means? Can anybody share their definition of sustainability with the rest of the class?

   There are many different definitions of sustainability. Acknowledge each of the definitions shared by students. Focus on answers that mention environmental, economic, or social aspects of our lives.

2. Show a video to your students that discusses sustainability and sustainable development. Some examples are given below.
   

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WODX8fyRHA

   Create Assignment

   Embed Link

   

   Google Classroom

   

   Microsoft Teams

   

   Canvas

   

   Schoology

   

   Other

   

   Link copied to clipboard.
   

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V8oFI4GYMY
   

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEis6O9m0Ow
3. Based on the video, redefine the term "sustainability" as a class until you come to a collective class definition. Ask students to write this definition down on their worksheet.
4. Mention to students that although many factors play a role in sustainability (such as economic, social and environmental), in the following they will focus on the environmental aspect of sustainability.

Explore (120 minutes)

1. Point out to your students that the greatest impacts we have on our planet comes from how we produce and use food, water, energy, and other stuff such as clothing, plastics, or electronics. Their task is to find out how we affect the environment in each of these four areas, how we can measure this impact, and what we can do to be more environmentally friendly. They will get reading materials and use a tool called Your Plan, Your Planet to learn more about our impacts in each of the four areas.

   Form groups of four students. Each student within a group is assigned to a different area (water, energy, food, or stuff). Hand out the reading materials for each topic to the respective students. Make sure students only have access to the information about their assigned topic. If you can, provide each student with an electronic device. Otherwise have each group share a device.

2. Give students time to read over their materials and explore the Your Plan, Your Planet tool. Encourage them to consult the resources referenced in the tool or their materials and do their own research to learn more about their assigned topic.
3. Once all students are ready, have all students assigned to the same area join to form a temporary expert group on their topic. Let students share their thoughts and discuss the following questions based on their findings from the Your Plan, Your Planet tool and their reading materials. Instruct them to make notes on their student worksheet.

   Which everyday actions related to your topic have a negative effect on the environment?

   How do these actions impact the environment? Can you measure their impact?

   How can you change your actions to reduce your impact on the environment?

4. Bring students back into their original groups and ask each student to present her or his findings to the group. Encourage students to ask questions and to engage in discussions. Check in with each group to ensure that all group members participate equally. If necessary make an appropriate intervention.
5. Ask each group to use their newly gained joint expertise to create a flyer or graphic for social media that raises awareness about what others can do to reduce their environmental impact. On their flyer, students can for example summarize all their findings from the Your Plan, Your Planet exploration.
6. Alternatively, have each group create a short presentation for the class. More details on the presentation are on their worksheets. In the presentation, students should include all their observations and findings from the Your Plan, Your Planet exploration. If your students have difficulties creating their slides, you can refer them to this resource, which teaches them the digital skills to make a presentation on their own.

Reflect (60 minutes)

1. If you chose to make a flyer or graphic for social media, have each group present their designs to the rest of the class. Question them about the main points that they want to communicate with their flyer or graphics and ask them why they selected these.
2. If you asked your students to prepare a presentation instead, have each group deliver their presentation to the rest of the class. After each presentation, have a very short question and answer session for each group.
3. Once all groups have finished presenting, discuss their findings as a class.

   What did you learn from your materials and using Your Plan, Your Planet?

   Were you surprised by any findings, such as specific activities or tips mentioned by the tool?

   What behavior changes did the tool mention that you have not thought of before?

   Make students aware that the activities and solutions provided within Your Plan, Your Planet are just a subset of possible actions. There are many more activities not mentioned in the tool that have negative impacts on the environment. At the same time, there are many more ways to conserve water and energy or to reduce your ecological footprint.
4. Have students restate what they found each individual can do to reduce their impact on the environment, then ask your students to think on a larger scale.

   Now that you know what each individual can do to reduce their ecological footprint, what do you think are things that families can do? What are things that a whole community (such as the school) could do to create a more sustainable future?

   Which changes do you think have the greatest impact?

5. End the lesson with telling your students that it is now time for their actions. Help them to distribute their flyers in their school or community, and challenge them to make the pledges within the Your Plan, Your Planet tool.

Assess

You can use this quiz to assess student learning after the activity:

• Online quiz, assignable in any LMS
• Quiz (pdf) and answer key (pdf)

Make Career Connections

Discussing or reading about these careers can help students make important connections between the in-class lesson and STEM job opportunities in the real world.

Sustainability Specialist

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Career Profile

Sustainability Specialists support and implement programs that focus on improving the environment. They often work on a variety of projects with many different clients. For example, they could help companies find ways to reduce their carbon footprint, or they could support factories to develop new processes that reduce their water and electricity consumption. Read more

Environmental Scientist

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Career Profile

Environmental Scientists use their knowledge of natural sciences to protect the environment. They study the environment to find out how human activities such as food, water, or energy consumption affect human, plant, and animal life. One of their goals is to find solutions that minimize the negative impacts on the environment. This often requires measuring the quality of air, food, water, and soil to determine ways to clean the environment. Read more

Soil and Water Conservationist

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Career Profile

A Soil and Water Conservationist is part scientist, part educator, and part environmentalist. They manage, improve, and protect the Earth's natural resources. For example, they help farmers, ranchers, and forest managers to make the most productive and sustainable use of water and soil. Read more

Lesson Plan Variations

• Ask students to investigate how an individual's ecological footprint might vary depending on the country, the culture, or the economic situation of the individual. How does the impact of a wealthy person compare to that of someone living in poverty? Does it make a difference which country you live in?
• Add a practical component to this lesson and have students actually measure their environmental impact. Let each student pick one specific behavior that they want to change in order to reduce their environmental impact. Then ask students to quantify their environmental impact before and after implementing their behavioral changes. How much water, food, energy, or stuff can they save?
• Have students identify additional activities with a negative or positive effect on the environment that are not included in the Your Plan, Your Planet tool. Then ask them to do research to quantify the impact of these activities. They can use similar measures as in the tool (CO₂e or water value), or come up with their own units of measurement. There are several carbon footprint calculators or ecological footprint calculators available online for free. For example, they could find out how much water it saves to install a grey water system, or the CO₂e emissions of a plane ride.