Jen

=Week 4: Sustainable Economy =

===Sustainability is nothing new to us now. We've been learning about it in many ways for the past four to five weeks as it relates to biology and ecology. One way we have not learned about it- and an equally important way too- is a sustainable economy. ===

===Brambles is a global Pooling Solutions business. This business published an article on their website about what economic and business sustainability means to them and how they maintain a sustainable business through diversification and leadership to attain success. I thought this was interesting because in the bad economy, this is a time when a lot of large and small businesses are failing, so it is pretty unique that this business is succeeding. How did they succeed? Finding a sweet spot in success by maintaining sustainable practices. ===

http://www.bramblesreview.com/2012/sustainability/keysustainability.aspx

===The achieve their sustainability through four different areas: customers, the environment, people, and the community. By keeping customers happy through satisfaction an good product quality, conserving energy and environmental resources by not wasting and using organic materials, keeping their employees happy through good leadership, diversity, engagement and safety, and their community through investing and acquisitions, they maintain a successful and sustainable large business that is self-sufficient and very productive. ===



===In fact, their attack plan is fool proof! How can the business not succeed so long as everyone (customers and employees) are happy, and the business is making more money than it spends. This is an amazing and successful example of sustainability that we have been earning about in class, applied to meet real world challenges, such as "surviving" in the stock market and the world of business regulations. ===  media type="custom" key="23268310"  ===This TED Talk describes the ingenuity in business of the people in today's prisons and tell of the sustainably solutions they naturally make daily to survive and live comfortably while they serve their time in prison. This, too, is another example of economic and business sustainability at work in the real world, helping these people survive. ===

=Week 3: New Medical Technologies = ===New medical technologies are being invented daily that benefit human survival on the planet. Some of these technologies can help with current problems, like we saw in class with the LifeSupport water bottle, or else they can be preventative, like some previous posts I saw on this Wikispace about vaccines. As far as sustainability goes, these new medical devices are able to provide "cheaper, faster and more efficient patient care" that will be able to better serve the human population and increase its chances of living longer and more successfully. This article showed 2013 newly designed devices in medical technology waiting approval for use. ===

https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/bioengineering/top-5-medical-technology-innovations

===In this time of controversial health care reform, these companies are trying to cooperate with the FDA to shorten the review and approval processes for their products (an equally controversial feat), to get their products working in the world of medicine quicker and provide help to those that need their product.This lead to the creation of the Medical Device Innovation Consortium, which will streamline the process of getting these devices approved. ===

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===This TED Talk describes the abundance of technological medical data and some of the new medical innovations that have created it, as well as some of the creations that are reading all of it. ===

===New items in the process of being approved by the MDIC have the potential to reinvent medicine and technology as it applies to medicine on a whole. The amazing part of these emerging innovations is the lack of medication and invasiveness they require. These pioneer inventions in the field of new medical technologies will change medicine altogether. ===

[[image:Top-5-Medical-Technology-Innovations_02.jpg width="272" height="152" caption="ATI Neurostimulator from Autonomic Technologies"]]
===This device provides relief to migraine and other headache sufferers. This was interesting to me because I get migraines (although I am not sure if I would be 100% comfortable with the procedure...). This device gets implanted in the gum on the side of the head that receives the headache, and the tip is connected to the SPG bundle (the cause of the headaches with the sphenopalatine ganglion facial nerve bundle). At the first sign of a headache, the patient places a remote controller on the side of the face that has the implant, which stimulates the SPG bundle, blocking pain neurotransmitters. === <span style="color: #1100b3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> ===<span style="color: #1100b3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This device, meanwhile, provides needle free Diabetes care. Diabetes is a terrible epidemic in this country, so it would be amazing if there could be a better way to the symptoms of it for the people that suffer from Diabetes. This could also cut some of the risks that go along with using needles and pumps for Diabetes maintenance, such as infection, providing for a more sustainable solution for the human population. Echo Therapeutics, located in Philadelphia, devised a solution for the problem: a skin patch that reads blood samples through skin. A "toothbrush-like" device collects skin cells, then the patch reads and analyses them, sending data wirelessly to a monitor and setting off an alarms when the patient's blood glucose is out of the optimal range. ===

=<span style="background-color: #f700ff; color: #490085; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Week 2: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and Business Ethics = ===<span style="color: #460283; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">As it applies to sustainability the Exxon Valdez oil spill was a catastrophic disaster that occurred off the coast of Valdez, Alaska in the Prince William Sound by the oil company Exxon, drilling for oil. This terrible and negligent mistake on their part destroyed the oceans and natural habitats off of Alaska's coasts. This prevented them from surviving and sustaining their own populations and ecosystems. ===

===<span style="color: #460283; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean and surrounding coastline, eventually covering 11,000 square miles of coastline and 1,300 square miles of coastline. This disaster was second only to the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, where the BP Oil Company after a wellhead blowout dumped 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, similarly devastating the natural land and water, destroying 68,000 square miles. ===

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===<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #360085; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In light of these disasters, it should make all companies think about their ethics. Simply, whether the pros of what they are doing outweigh the cons of the actions. But it is not just as simple as that. The pros may be very large, like ton of revenue these companies would reap as return for their oil, however, the cost to the environment was so great. These types of debates come up often with legislation, such as currently, whether or not to consider fracking. In order to make these decisions, business should not only consider themselves and how much of a profit they could make, but look at the whole picture of everyone and everything that gets impacted, including the often unnoticed or forgotten about environment. This is where business ethics come into play. The environment needs advocates to speak for it as it cannot speak for itself, but when disasters like these oil spills happen, everyone often sides with the environment. But then it is unfortunately too late. The damage is already done. === <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #360085; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">media type="custom" key="23154034"

===<span style="color: #490099; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This TED Talk is by a man, Ray Anderson, who owns his own company that makes Flor carpeting. At the height of this business ethics and concern for the environment, his company does not waste with its industrial power, but instead only works with sustainability with the environment. With his petroleum based company, he uses only the pieces from the environment that can be recycled or reused, so as not to provide to the "take and waste" cycle of industry. In terms of beginning a business form scratch and becoming a success, he is a model to follow. As far as sustainability and business ethics in conjunction with ecology and the environment is concerned, he is a model to follow as well. If there were more people who would look to Ray Anderson as their guide, there would be a lot less waste and destruction of the environment and more creative and innovative solutions for everyday needs. ===

=<span style="background-color: #2ce82c; color: #419545; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Week 1: Sustainability Gardens!!! =

===<span style="color: #419545; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sustainability is a very important concept as it relates to the ecosystems of the planet and even our own environment in Upper Dublin. ===

===<span style="color: #419545; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sustainability, the ability to endure in an environment, remain diverse and productive and reproduce, is very important for all types of organisms in all types of ecosystems, however some do it better than others. Ecosystems, such as wetlands and marshes, provide the best sustainable biological environments for the organisms that live there (Picture 1). Humans, too, require sustainability, divided into four sectors: political, cultural, economical, and ecological (Picture 2). ===

===<span style="color: #419545; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 1.1em;">The Brundtland Commission, led by the former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem, defined sustainability development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." ===



===<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #148017; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We in Upper Dublin have learned sustainability's importance because of the courtyards we will soon be rehabilitating in our high school. When the court yards were first built, they were built with non- native plants that required very low maintenance and water. However, they quickly could not survive in the soil and with each other, died, then large weeds took over the garden beds. In our AP Biology class, we are going to revitalize these gardens by introducing "sustainability gardens": gardens that will be able to survive and be productive for long period of time. Because of this incentive of the AP Biology classes, I wanted to learn more about ways to make gardens more sustainable because I previously knew very little about this topic. I wanted to be able to contribute ideas and discussion so we would be sure to do a great job of revitalizing the courtyards! ===

===<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #148017; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Providing sustainable gardens is not a new concept, and there are many ways to achieve this, which is very fortunate for Upper Dublin!!! While only in the brainstorming phase, my class wants to add mostly grass to the flower beds (as this can survive and be productive for a long time with limited maintenance), but add a few native flowers on the perimeter, such as tulips and buttercups. These native plants would decrease the amount of work required to maintain the healthy landscape, as well as preserve the ecosystem. ===

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #148017; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This video from a Community Garden discusses sustainability and ways to create a sustainable garden.
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===<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #148017; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Additionally, The National Wildlife Federation allows schools to certify their wildlife habitats. It's easy too!!! UDHS has to provide examples of native plants used in the environment that also provide food (seeds, berries, etc.), a water source (such as a bird bath), shelter (such as trees), and places to raise young animals (such as shrub or vegetation). The NWF advocates certifying your land because it will help restore natural wildlife in residential areas, while providing teaching opportunities to children about the importances of preserving the natural environment. There is no minimum amount of land necessary and the endeavor promises positive community and media attention (which is always good)! === <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #148017; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">@http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Schoolyard-Habitats/Certify-Your-Schoolyard.aspx

===<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #148017; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Sustainability is very important because the decisions we make today regarding our environment will affect our future. By creating and preserving sustainable ecosystems, it will ensure that future generations will have a stable environment in which they can live, and reproduce and live sustainably themselves. Everything begins and ends with the environment, so it must be taken care of! ===