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Keeping the Peace with Green

Fabric Conditioner,Laundry PowderSometimes, staying green is not just about saving our beautiful earth, but also about facilitating peace, tranquility, communication and understanding between different groups and different programs for improving our sustainability.

An educational program geared toward improving both peace and eco friendliness, Art of Living, has designed a newspaper bag competition where volunteers help schools and teachers to train students on how to make cheap, easily accessible, biodegradable paper bags for shopping, carrying items, in school, as purses, and in gift giving. Rather than the teacher assigning a paper about a project, students are given instruction and materials and they learn in the real world a practical approach for turning simple everyday objects into reusable items which are sustainable and biodegradable after they are thrown away. Students are thrilled with how easy these are to make and one mother reports that her son worked on seven at one time for a period of twenty minutes. Both teachers and parents are excited about this hands-on approach to learning about protecting our environment, and many schools reported that, once the students were given the idea, they worked together and learned about peaceful creativity and community while they were working on their eco friendly bags.

Architects for Peace is an environmentally aware and socially responsible non-profit organization that is designed to help architects, landscape architects, engineers, environmentalists and urban landscape designers to build aesthetically pleasing, socially responsible cityscapes in our urban areas. Architects for Peace facilitates professionals from a wide variety of origins coming together to meet urban needs in a peaceful, cooperative environment. Originally based in Australia to potentially prevent Australia’s involvement in Iraq 2003, it is now a peace-based, global operation with professionals, volunteers and environmentalists from all parts of the world.

While being eco friendly is not synonymous with peace, the two have one thing in common: a desire to protect and flourish the efforts of the greater good. This is why Envirosafe Solution is dedicated to bringing you eco friendly applicators, pumps, hand cleaners and lubricants, as well as many other eco friendly products. We want to contribute to the greater good, and we want to help you do it, too. Call us today: (+61) 1300 88 90 70.

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfKv5JtXiP8

http://www.architectsforpeace.org/us.php

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What is Social Justice?

Dishwashing Liquid, Toilet Bowl Cleaner, Glue RemoverWhat is social justice? Today, social justice has a non-religious adaptation of the formerly religious beginnings of this concept. In 1840, Jesuit Luigi Taparelli coined the term based upon the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Social justice essentially refers to a society in which solidarity, equality, and value for human life are the main and most oft used principles of an ideal society. How important is social justice really, how can it be applied to an eco friendly lifestyle, and how can it be applied directly to all of our personal lives, whether or not we feel the urge to save the earth?

1. The importance of social justice is entirely subjective.

Different people see social justice in different ways. Things like redistribution of wealth or property to achieve greater equality can be seen positively by the oppressed, negatively by those who rightfully earned their position of wealth and status, and both positively and negatively by people who are learning how to individuate themselves and become self sustaining. Redistribution, while helping them, may also rob them of accomplishing their own goals by their own sweat and hard work and responsible thinking.

There is no fully positive way to go about thinking of social justice, since it is a concept that is seen in starkly different ways by different people, even individuals who are in the same socio-economic position as each other. However, not everyone has an opinion about social justice. Therefore, it might be prudent to say that social justice is most likely to be perceived, either positively or negatively, strongly by the people which it directly affects.

2. “Green” lifestyles change, and are changed by, social justice.

A study by Lee Anne Bell describes how conforming social justice to systems which are in existence today can be tricky, because it is an ever changing process. Whether or not the target system is especially oppressive, dominant systems are likely to be the most adaptable to change and therefore the most likely to remain stubborn toward suggested social improvements, such as eco friendly initiatives.

According to Bell, both dominant and subordinate systems are ever changing, so things like green initiatives and helping to bring equality through the use of environmental protection must also be adaptable and change according to their circumstances…if they are to consistently succeed.

3. Social dynamics must be allowed to compete to bring about social justice.

While there are many different viewpoints on the best way to implement social justice and equality in a group, organization or area, one theme remains constant: the strong, cunning and innovative groups or systems will always usurp the weak, out-dated and immovable groups or systems. This is outlined in a study by Shawn Ginwright and Julio Cammarota. Their study depicts the rising youth of any area or city as being a direct and ever-present threat to the authorities and government laws. Their paper focuses on the fact that urban youth cannot be studied with any type of accuracy, since they are living very complex social and economical lives which may only partly touch any ground covered by law or law enforcement. As with any sub-culture of youth, the fresh innovative strong young minds pose a potential block to steady and consistent placements of authority. One of the main things which all of these studies have in common is the belief that, while social justice wishes to bring equality and solidarity, competition is ever present and cannot be destroyed. Perhaps a form of social justice which implements competition, since it is such marked human trait?

Things like social justice and politics and government rule and human rights are all highly subjective, so not conclusive opinions can be had on the subject…only further study and better understanding. It is what you might call a progressive study. Envirosafe Solutions supports bettering our planet for the good of everyone, using eco friendly products like our kitchen products, laundry products, and toilet treatments. Visit our website more fully or call us today: (+61) 1300 88 90 70.

Sources:

http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/1998-07091-030

http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2007-13915-001

http://www.jstor.org/pss/29768150