Green Insights E Magazine
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Item Sustainable buildings and construction(Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Gunathilake, AnukiWith the onset of a resource crisis, the modern world tries to make wrongs right. As a result, they have shifted attention towards sustainable development. Sustainable development is de¬fined as accomplishing our needs while preserving the environment for the future. A crucial aspect of this stance is sustainability in buildings and construction. This centers around the environment, society and economy. Our approach to achieving sustainability in this manner can be divided into the changes we do during the construction process and in maintenance and upgrading. The careful use of resources, preference for environment-friendly resources while gladly welcoming recycling of resources are the key strategies of this concept. Not to forget that waste management is also a challenge. In a nutshell, we preserve our environment while trying cost-effective methods during the site project. The green building concept is not a new trend. Though it can be acknowledged that vast advances in technology and the changes made in the approach to such fields that so strongly is bound to the environment have made this format a popular choice. Under this topic, the steps that are taken to bring about sustainability into construction’ is as follows: the selection of eco-friendly material, the management of the utilization of energy, proper waste manage¬ment.Item The role of international environmental law in achieving Sustainable development Goals(Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Martin, AroshThe environmental factor lays the foundation for the sustainable development goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted at the 70th session of United Nations General Assembly in 2015. This is a 15-year plan in achieving areas of critical importance to humanity consisting of 17 goals. This consist of 169 quantitative and qualitative targets to be achieved nationally and internationally over the span of 15 years. International Envi¬ronmental Law in the other hand is a branch of international law which concerns mainly in controlling pollution and depletion of natural resources with the framework of sustainable development. It covers areas such as population, climate change, biodiversity, toxic and haz¬ardous substances, ozone depletion, sea and transboundary water pollution, conservation of marine resources, etc. The article emphasises the importance of International Environmental Law in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030. Environmental law establishes rights and duties of individuals, communities, and indus¬tries in the use of environmental resources, including the sets of mandatory quality standards, and assigns powers, responsibilities, and liabilities in respect of environmental management. Its main concern is to govern the relationship of man and his environment. Historically, what was originally labeled as natural resources laws are “use-oriented” or designed for the maximum exploitation and development of natural resources as compared to the new envi¬ronmental legislation, which is “resource-oriented” or designed for the rational management and conservation of natural resources to prevent their depletion or degradation.Item Management of E-waste, an Emerging Contaminant in the Environment(Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Wijesooriya, M.M.; Amitha, W.A.K.Transforming the world from the industrial era to the technological era, the generation of electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) has become a major environmental concern in the world (Saldaña-Durán et al., 2020). e-waste includes all the assemblies, subassemblies, con¬sumables of waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) (Ranasinghe & Athapattu, 2020). The advancement of technology, introduction of “smart concepts and designs”, mar¬keting strategies, changing lifestyle, compatibility issues, and end-of-life have caused rapid obsolescence of many electrical and electronic devices (Forti et al., 2020; Kiddee et al., 2013). Thus, the annual generation of E-waste keeps growing, and according to the United Nations Global E-waste Monitor 2020, approximately 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste was gen¬erated worldwide by 2019 (Forti et al., 2020). Further, the report predicts that this annual generation will be doubled and will reach 74 million metric tons by 2030 (Forti et al., 2020). However, an extensive generation of e-waste in developing countries compared to developed countries is due to the importation of discarded electronic devices or used devices from the developed countries (Hicks et al., 2005). Statistics show that a massive quantity of e-waste is generated in Asian countries (China, India) followed by America and Europe (Abalansa et al., 2021). Recycling, incineration, and landfill disposal are the widely practised treatment techniques in the world and improper disposal of waste can have adverse effects. Therefore, recycling and manage-ment policies and regulations are formulated at country, regional and global scale. However, due to the lack of awareness on the toxicity of e-waste and lack of e-waste collection infrastructure, improper handling and disposal of domestic and industrial WEEE are still practised globally (Saldaña-Durán et al., 2020). This accounts for the unregulated re¬lease of E-waste and its associated hazardous ma¬terial, which can cause contamination of the envi¬ronment (air, water, soil). Once released, they can be transported from the terrestrial environment to the aquatic environment and atmosphere. Since E-waste consists of both inorganic and organic haz¬ardous pollutants, it will cause adverse effects on all the ecological receptors. Many research findings have highlighted the environmental and human health risks associated with the improper handling of E-waste.Item Implementing Black Soldier Fly Larvae (Hermetia illucens) Based Sustainable Waste Management Method in Sri Lanka(Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Ellawidana, E.W.D.M.; Prof, Manjula P Sumith MagamageThe world population is expected to rise nearly 9 billion by 2050 (Schiavone et al., 2017). The balance between food production systems, food sovereignty, and environmental sustainability has become the top argument among scientists and policymakers worldwide. Organic farming concepts have become popular in many parts of the world. Today organic fertilizer availability is a hot topic in Sri Lanka where all the farmers struggle to save their livelihood under mono fertilizer systems in Sri Lanka (Cordell et al., 2021). Shifting towards greener crop production through organic fertilizer is a positive economic, environmental, and health perspective. Producing quality organic fertilizer to meet the crops’ nutrition¬al requirements and acquiring sufficient amounts of nutritional factors through proposed models are challenging and competitive. Local soil has been extensively used for inorganic fertilizer in the last five decades (Upekshani et al., 2021). Therefore, the rapid transition of soil with rich organic amendments with readily available plants nutrients is challenging but not impossible. It is evident that nutritionally rich organic supplementations to soil are timely needed intervention. On the other hand, managing generated waste is quite challenging for local governments in Sri Lanka where only 20-80% of the collected waste is managed (Eheliyagoda., 2016). Approximately 90% of the generated waste is open dumped (Menikpura et al., 2012). Fur¬thermore, 53% of the waste is composed of food and green waste (Vidanarachchci et al., 2006). With the rapid urbanization, waste management is becoming challenging but con¬trollable with necessary interventions; However, due to administrative weaknesses, inade¬quate financial and technical support, and people’s poor willingness and attitudes towards waste management had created an unsatisfactory situation (Kuruppuge and Karunarathna, 2013). Local governments are unable to guarantee a promising solution due to improper organization and lack of financial resources (Sivanantharaja, A., 2018). Therefore, it must be urged to seek more reliable, effective, and hands-on waste management practices sus¬tainably to ensure the nation’s well-being.Item Revitalizing the Green mindset: Environmental Sustainability approach towards Community Resilience(Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Janadari, M.P.N.; Tennakoon, W.D.N.S.M.Global communities are increasingly becoming more vulnerable to natural disasters. Be¬sides the massive loss of invaluable human lives, the economic loss caused by natural disas¬ters is mounting day by day (Brikmann, 2016). The nearest experience was the COVID-19 pandemic which paralyzed the entire world both economically and socially. In the period 2000 -2019, 7,348 major recorded disaster events were claiming 1.23 million lives, affecting 4.2 billion people (many on more than one occasion) and resulting in approximately US$ 2.97 trillion in global economic losses (UNDRR, 2020). In face of the challenges posed by natural disasters, the concept of “resilience” started gaining much attention from individuals, organizations, and global communities at large. The term resilience simply means the ability to “bounce back”. It is rooted in the Latin term “resiliere” which gives the similar meaning of “jumping back” (Paton & Johnston, 2006). Despite the appearance of the term being noted in general use for decades, ecology was the first scientific discipline to adopt the term in building its theoretical construction. Holling (1973) pioneered the use of the resilience concept in the field of ecology. Resilience is a multidimensional, socio technical phenomenon about how individuals or groups manage uncertainty. The term community resilience, a branch of the resilience knowledge domain, is regard¬ed as a way of protecting and empowering communities while enabling them to reduce the negative impacts of both environmental and socio-political challenges in their lives, liveli¬hoods and dignity (Amul & Shrestha, 2015). Thus, building community resilience should primarily arise at individual, household and community levels (Silva, 2016). Community resilience relies on services and employment provided by the organizations to plan for, respond to, and recover from emergencies and crises (Lee, Vargo & Seville, 2013). Hence, the disaster preparedness, disaster response, and disaster recovery of organizations predict community resilience. Simply, more the organizations are resilient the more resilient the community will be. The ecological component, the biosphere of sustainability, is perhaps the widely discussed dimension of sustainability. The eye-opening report of “Our Common Future” (Brundtland, 1987) paved many governments, institutional bodies, and individuals to have a second look at their activities through the ecological lens. However, when it comes to defining and mea¬suring, this component of sustainability was found to be the most challenging among the three of them (Husgafvel et al., 2017). As the environmental challenges mushroomed since conventions, and policy frameworks (e.g., Vienna Convention of 1985, Espoo Convention 1991, Kyoto Protocol of 1992, Paris Agreement of 2015, Hyogo Framework for 2005_2015, Sendai Framework for 2015-2030 etc.) have been staged from time to time in ensuring eco¬logical sustainability. From a theoretical perspective, a gigantic number of scholarly works have generated an ample number of definitions and measures to assess environmental sus¬tainability. The common aim of almost all these models is to provide relevant information for decision-makers. There, the environmental impact of each decision is expected to be assessed within the frame of organizational performance. Next, they are evaluated against their im¬pact on the surrounding environment, society and economics. In such a way environmental sustainability plays a central role in the overall decision-making cycle of the large communi¬ty; thus, can look upon a tenable approach towards community resilience (Okvat & Zautra, 2011; Rivera-Muñoz, 2021; Shenk et al., 2019). In congruence with discernible interrelated¬ness between lead constructs, the authors of the present work are motivated in offering their insights on an enduring path towards community resilience: environmental sustainability.Item New Era of Waste Management: Transforming E-waste into Innovative Creations through Upcycling(Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Edirisingha, E.A.N.C.; Jayalath, B.S.M.; Himasha, Hiruni; Ariyarathna, B.Hiruni Maleesha; Udalagama, D.C.Globalization, technical advancements, the development of the Internet, and closer access to smart devices have contributed to the growth of the electrical and electron¬ics industries. The wide availability and the use of electronic items have led to a rap¬id increment in global electronic waste (e-waste) volumes, because markets have not paid adequate attention to electronic device post-consumption behavior, prop¬er disposal and management. There are significant environmental problems con¬nected with e-waste at both the local and global levels that demand more attention from governments, businesses, institutions and society. Everyone is familiar with waste recycling but there is an emerging trend, called upcycling. Upcycling electronics is an effective and viable procedure for con¬verting end-of-life devices into new ones. The procedure refers to the modification of old waste materials, to recreate and give them a new life or purpose without having to spend a lot of money on new resources. This approach is used not only to improve living quality; but also, to provide the de¬veloped items with a sense of higher envi¬ronmental worth. It will also improve the artistic value of the creation. This article aims to provide a solution to problems that arise because of e-waste.Item Impact of Food Insecurity on Sustainable Development: The Case of Sri Lanka(Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Rathnayaka, R.M. Kalindu; Rathnayaka, R.M AuchithyaFood insecurity can be identified as a factor hindering development not only within the least developed coun¬tries but also in developing countries. Food can be identified as a basic hu¬man need, which is essential for the ex¬istence of any living being in the world. However, when considering the food and nourishment status, it is estimated that nearly one billion people are to be undernourished in today’s world (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN). Thus, the international institu¬tions around the world have put a great commitment and effort to achieve the goal of reducing the number of peo¬ple who are suffering from hunger and food insecurity within the year 2015 even though it still represents one of the biggest challenges for a big part of the world population which must be treat¬ed with the utmost urgency. It is gener¬ally recognized that food insecurity is a multidimensional phenomenon. Thus, this article examines the impact of food insecurity on sustainable development in Sri Lanka.