Questions tagged [sustainability]

11 questions
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Is using "sleep mode" wasteful and harmful to a computer?

I have my home computer set to go into "sleep mode" when idle for a short time, and I assumed that by doing so I was saving lots of energy and that it was good for the computer by shutting down nearly every component while the computer is sleeping.…
Johnny
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Is buying organic vs. conventional products better for the environment?

From http://www.goldengatexpress.org/2013/04/07/true-organic-food-benefits-environment-sustainability/: Another reason to choose organic products is that the environmental footprint attached to organic food is smaller than that of conventionally…
Renee
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Does going vegan roughly save 600 gallons of water a day?

On average, a vegan, a person who doesn't eat meat or dairy, indirectly consumes nearly 600 gallons of water per day less than a person who eats the average American diet. "National Geographic" https://www.truthordrought.com/water I heard this…
adamaero
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Is the fertility rate of women who work over 2 children anywhere in the world?

Does women working outside the home automatically drive below the replacement threshold? In a developed country, to ensure at least the replacement of its population, the fertility rate needs to be a little over 2 (2.3 I thought; 2.1 according to…
konr
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Do polyester-cotton blends have lower CO2 footprint than 100% cotton?

The European Textile Services Association (ETSA), which seems to be a lobby group, has a (2012) brochure that claims (among other things) that Polyester/cotton blends have a lower CO2 footprint [than 100% cotton] When measuring the CO2 footprint…
Fizz
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Can Waterseer extract as much as 37 L per day from the air?

Treehugger.com article on Waterseer Wind-powered device can produce 11 gallons per day of clean drinking water from the air [...] The WaterSeer is relatively simple device, designed to be operated without an external power input, and without the…
GordonM
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Do a company's sustainability efforts impact employee retention?

It is common to seem claims that sustainable business practices help retain staff: A 2019 Fast Company article discussed an (unlinked) survey of 1,000 US employees: Nearly 70% of respondents said that if a company had a strong sustainability plan,…
Spamoni
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Feasibility of electric car production given current production levels of various elements and compounds

This infographic (source) shows the elements required for production of 20 million Tesla cars per year, and compares that with current production rates of those elements. Looks like this was in response to a Tweet by Musk stating a goal of…
Steven Gubkin
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Is animal agriculture the leading cause of species extinction?

The cause of species extinction interests me. Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret is a documentary that attacks the environmental damage caused by animal agriculture. Their facts page states (with references): Animal agriculture is the leading…
Looft
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Can 3D ocean farms provide food and biofuel far more sustainably than other sources?

This article in The Nation contains an excerpt from “Ecological Redemption: Ocean Farming in the Era of Climate Change,” a lecture by Bren Smith given at the Thirty-Fifth Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures on October 24, 2015.. The lecture reads like…
gerrit
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Have all sustainable cultures been illiterate (or not made a fetish of reading)?

I have been reading "What Is Education For" by David Orr and the author makes the following statement: It is a matter of no small consequence that the only people who have lived sustainably on the planet for any length of time could not read, or,…
user13432
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