With September comes a realization that the end of summer is near. For some of us, it may mean returning to school and learning, though a bit of education can be extended to absolutely everyone.  Perhaps known to some of you already, is the quote “We talk so much about leaving a better planet to our kids that we forget to leave better kids to our planet”. Let’s reflect on this briefly.

If you have any kids in your family, young or young-at-heart, it is worth pausing on what that phrase entails to us and them. For my family, it relates to awareness and education on how we utilize our resources, though I appreciate the word sustainability may not mean the same thing to every person. There are interesting  education websites out there that have computed what a human will need over their lifetime in terms of minerals, metals, and fuels like 2022 Mineral World and what does the Energy Use Per Person Around the World look like. (Canada did land in the Top 10). With the shift to greener economies, it is worth reading about Green Uses of Minerals and also taking a peak at a great graphic of minerals in our daily lives.

For those of you that may have had a chance to camp out this summer, did you perhaps pause to think about what resources were used? How many litres of water did it take to sustain ourselves in a day, and how did we charge our electronic devices? And could we learn to live on less while at home? How do we communicate to our kids to use resources in a mindful manner? Can we lead by example by walking the talk?

BCSEA’s Cool-it! Program online resources  include amongst others, the Global Footprint Calculator. I hope you will find some time to pause, reflect, and learn along with the kids!  Wishing everyone a happy educational journey!