What are sustainable technologies? These are types of technological innovations that aim to reduce the environmental impact of human activities. In contrast, sustainable development is a social and economic approach to enable long-term maintenance or improvement in quality of life without using up all-natural resources by ensuring sustainable distribution for this generation and those to come. There have been sustainable development projects in the past which have helped countries manage natural resources. As an example, sustainable development policies on forestry were put in place in about 70 countries by developing long-term management plans for their forests.
There are sustainable technologies that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve sustainable livelihoods like recycling plastic bags, solar power energy, sustainable living houses, sustainable transportation and sustainable farming.
Water Management
There are also sustainable technologies for water management like rainwater harvesting which is the collection of runoff water from roofs or land surfaces to be used for flushing toilets, watering gardens or other uses. This prevents the waste of water because it would otherwise flow back into rivers and can prevent flooding during storms by helping to control runoff.
Development
In sustainable development, technologies have been developed to help manage forests and biodiversity for sustainable forestry practices.
Transportation
In sustainable transportation, technologies have been developed as electric vehicles to replace non-sustainable ones that rely on petroleum or other fossil fuels which contribute to global warming.
Farming
In farming, sustainable technologies have been developed as sustainable agriculture to replace non-sustainable ones that rely on chemicals that harm the environment.
Construction
The technologies have been developed as sustainable buildings that require much less energy to maintain and reduces carbon dioxide emissions. They include sustainable architecture which determines how a building or community is designed, constructed, maintained or occupied and sustainable design which aims to reduce the negative environmental impact of the construction, manufacture and disposal of a building or product by using sustainable techniques that cause less pollution.
There are many ways to contribute to the development of sustainable technologies like recycling. If you want to contribute by recycling sustainable materials, you can participate in sustainable community projects that produce products from recycled materials. You can also volunteer your time to teach sustainable practices to others and have them join community projects such as developing sustainable technologies.
REFERENCES:
http://www.cbd.int/sustainable-development/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_technology
http://www.chooseclimate.com/sustainability-basics/what-is-sustainable-development.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisheries_management
http://web.extension.illinois.edu/lcrr5/publications/pdfs/sustainability.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/n2o.html
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=types+of+plastic+waste&*
http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Sustainable+Technology/Science-Briefs/The+importance+of+recycling
http://www.cieh.org/en/pages/default.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming
http://www.avantlink.com/link/jquery.php?mid=1001&mua=show
http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pubs/indoor.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greywater_reuse
http://www.chooseclimate.com/what-can-i-do/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_fertilizer