{"id":8402,"date":"2020-03-05T10:12:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T15:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/?p=8402"},"modified":"2020-03-05T10:12:55","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T15:12:55","slug":"how-eachforequal-aligns-with-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/how-eachforequal-aligns-with-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"How #EachforEqual Aligns with Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

In celebration of International Women\u2019s Day on March 8, and this year\u2019s theme, #EachforEqual, we are featuring stories from our leaders and employees throughout the week of March 2, across editorial themes ranging from the importance of inclusivity to the power of allyship. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Humans have taken steps to transcend our planet\u2019s boundaries, but for the majority of the 7.7 billion people on Earth, this is it. Anything humans consume or discard is limited to our earthly home.<\/p>\n

My parents were raised in the 1930s and in our house growing up, behaviors reflected being raised in a time of scarcity. Many people have joked about Depression-era folks saving short pieces of string. Indeed, growing up we had a closet and drawer with string, rubber bands, short pencils, yarn, paper sacks, computer punch cards and various odds and ends that came in handy for home or arts and crafts projects. Very little was wasted and creative reuse was encouraged.<\/p>\n

This sort of behavior \u2014 which goes back centuries \u2014 is what I consider the original sustainability initiative. Having limited resources drives conservation and the mantra of \u201creduce, reuse, recycle\u201d (or the 3-Rs) contributes to grassroots (or household) conservation. In my home, like that of my parents and grandparents, wecompost food waste, reuse packaging and are generally more conscientious about consumption, also known as ethical consumerism.<\/p>\n

To achieve the goal of sustainability, or the balanced coexistence of the Earth\u2019s resources with human civilization, it\u2019s not going to be as simple as saving bits of string, but it is rooted in the same sensibility on a larger scale. As we celebrate this year\u2019s theme for International Women\u2019s Day, #EachforEqual, I\u2019m interested in how the ideology of collective individualism informs the need for a balanced coexistence with resources. I\u2019ve always been told and strongly believe that maximizing opportunities for each person to contribute \u2014 irrespective of gender, age, race, ethnicity \u2014 benefits all people. #EachForEqual is meant to encourage individual actions that collectively support equality, which I feel is intertwined with sustaining our planet and resources.<\/p>\n

At the intersection of my two interests \u2014 sustainability and gender equity \u2014 I am encouraged by the empowerment of every individual to contribute to a better planet. I have been inspired by recent developments to that end, such as improved small loan availability globally to women entrepreneurs, a group historically and culturally limited by access to capital and business networks. Who better to solve the world\u2019s problems than those most affected by them? Consequently, we may see the greatest improvements coming from those who feel the greatest need for change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In celebration of International Women\u2019s Day on March 8, and this year\u2019s theme, #EachforEqual, we are featuring stories from our leaders and employees throughout the week of March 2, across editorial themes ranging from the importance of inclusivity to the power of allyship. Humans have taken steps to transcend our planet\u2019s boundaries, but for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":545,"featured_media":8400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4040,83,1,171],"tags":[4629,4628,1984,3224,87],"yst_prominent_words":[4719,4726,4718,4727,4725,3284,4723,1290,4721,545,385,549,4722,367,993,3516,4414,4724,4720,1872],"class_list":["post-8402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-womens-day","category-sustainability-and-resiliency","category-uncategorized","category-water","tag-eachforequal","tag-iwd2020","tag-environment","tag-international-womens-day","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/545"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8402"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8408,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8402\/revisions\/8408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8402"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=8402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}