Student Project: Beluga School for Life
Student Project: Food System and Tourism Sustainability
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Beluga School for Life - Sustainability Education
Student Project: Beluga School for Life
Student Project: Food System and Tourism Sustainability
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Valerie Rose writes:
ReplyDeleteConsidering there is no further discussion on this topic, and my final project was based on the Beluga School for Life, I chose this to enhance.
The Beluga School for Life is not only a place of refuge for children, it is a place for tourists. For my final project, I looked into the sustainability of just the food system and tourism at the Beluga School.
Is the food system and tourism sustainable at the Beluga School? This cannot be answered in a few words, because there was a range of sustainability levels and many different factors that needed to be considered. In terms of the actual food itself, and how it is being grown, most of the produce was not sustainable due to the fact that it was not organic. And what was labeled organic from the organic farm, was either mislabeled, or the Thailand definition of organic is different. How far the food travels is important for measuring carbon footprint. The produce all came from the Thai Meaung market at least 26 km away, and all of the produce at the market came from all over Thailand. On a world view, to only import from within one country is impressive. But on a local level, there could be more effort to bring produce from even closer regions. Even if the food was grown locally, the middle man, in one instance found, was located in Phuket. So the food grown locally in Khao Lak had to be shipped to the middle man in Phuket, then shipped back to Khao Lak. Although the sustainability of the import of produce could be improved sustainably, the export of the waste was very sustainable. The excess food and waste was brought over to the gardener at the Beluga School and all of it was used for composting. No food waste is being exported outside of the Beluga School.
Although no food waste is being exported, there was a lot of other wastes going out. In the bungalows, where the tourists stay, there are two different waste baskets. One is for recycled and the other, is for other wastes, but the baskets are not labeled. This is cause to confusion, and sometimes can lead to material that should be recycled, being thrown out with the other waste. The only material that is recycled efficiently is plastic. Glass is not deemed valuable to Thais, so it is often thrown out as well.
The packaging of the foods in the bungalows are unsustainable. There is a lot of waste produced for one a one-person serving, one-time use. In terms of where the packages are made, all were from within Thailand, which was good. The coffee though, came in Nescafe packets, but coffee is grown locally as well. Although the sala served the locally grown coffee, the bungalows did not have a means of storing it, thus the nescafe packets were brought in. If better storing options were discovered, the sustainability level of the coffee in the bungalows would be high. The same is said of the fruit juices. The juice that is served in the sala and the bungalows comes from pre-packaging. The potential to make fresh fruit juice is available, but the effort is not there.
There are many more dimensions of sustainability that could be looked into at the Beluga School for life, besides the food and tourism industry.
The Beluga School for Life is a good example of the struggle between maintaining both environmental as well as social sustainability. While many members of the staff attempt to establish sustainable practices, they face difficulties coordinating everyone in the school to make it work. An example is the Beluga School for Life’s recycling program, which is described by staff as somewhat intermittent and unreliable, definitely not an integral component of the school’s functioning. In this case, as well as with many others at the Beluga School, the appeal of convenience for the human dimension overrides their desire to be environmentally sustainable. Examples like this make the Beluga School for Life’s sustainability border on ‘weak sustainability,’ which is considered more vulnerable and less stable, emphasizing the anthropocentric, or people, dimension of sustainability over the biocentric, or environmental, dimension of sustainability. The issue of convenience conflicting with environmental friendliness poses a major obstacle for the Beluga School for Life as well as for many others as they strive toward reaching a socio-ecological sustainability system, which maintains a good balance of sustainability for both the social and ecological dimensions.
ReplyDelete- Erika Murdoch