My Shrine

Responsible Consumption and Production: Why Should We Care?

One of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is responsible consumption and production. In this post, I’ll talk about why it matters, how it impacts our daily lives, and what small steps we can take to contribute to it.

Now of course this post doesn't just came out of the blue–my beloved university lecturer tasked his students to make a written form communication on one of the twelve SDG goals. Fortunately, I've been applying this goal in my life beforehand, so I have some capacity and integrity in writing this.

Now back to the main topic, why should we care? For a little bit of background, I was (and still) a member of an environmentalist organization in my high school (or more familiarly in Indonesia we call it "Pencinta Alam") so mainly because of my training in the organization, I understand the urgency in this goal.

"How about the others? Isn't the question is why should WE care, not YOU?" I heard you asking. Well if you're being semantic, then please understand that I am not here to convince you, not to make you do the action itself, I'll start with talking about my experience. In pencinta alam, before we become official members, we need to endure what is called "pendidikan dan latihan dasar" or in English "basic education and training" where we need to survive in the wild for a specified amount of days. I noticed how in desperate times, my friends are really unaware of their environment, they're just thinking about their survival. They litter after we made food, not thinking of the consequences it will do to the ecosystem around. They didn't obey the rule to not litter in nature as stated in the rulebook, and so we got disciplined and punished after :v So this opened my eyes on the importance of having a sustainable environment, which is through responsible consumption.

After the training, I became more conscious about my waste. I started researching about carbon footprint and such. From there, whenever I got the opportunity, I will bring my tumbler and own container when doing takeaways. Of course, it was awkward at first, I got looks on me judging and implying that I'm a dumdum for bringing my own container when there's a more convenient option. But let's see in the long run, I'm confident that my habits will come on top.

So now came university life, and yes, to fulfill this actually group assignment, why should we care?

The journey in doing this assignment is a bit funny. My classmates proclaimed me as their so-called leader, and so decisions are made by me. That's the background for why we chose this goal. After choosing the goal, Thia came with a thought to make a product on the SDG goal–which was not in my bingo card. So I improvised and thought "maybe this would be one of the real actions we can do to realize this goal, other than just communicating and doing the assignment without any real impact at all." So here we introduce to you, the water filter:

I know, I know, it is an edited picture of a plain water bottle, but this is because to quote Thia "gak buat langsung karena ntar kelas kotor," figure it out for you non -Indonesian readers ;) But that's besides the point, what I'm trying to tell you is that me individually and my group commited ourselves to this assignment and in the process, made an impact, and all of that comes to the core of giving a hoot about it. In other words, care.

Now I have no single clue whether me or my group persuaded you or not, but to summarize, caring doesn't always mean doing big things, changing the world, be a superhero for your neighborhood, etc. The single act of actually doing it, big or small, shows that you care, so keep that in mind. Right now I have class to do in 30 minutes and finishing my lunch simultaneously while writing this post, so that's all from me!