This week is the European Week for Sustainable Development. It was created last year and it takes place every year between the 30th of May and the 5th of June. This event was created this week to put together the initiatives from all around Europe concerning sustainable development. This event is also promoting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN for the period 2015-2030. You can find them here: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs

The final event of this week will be held in Vienna, Austria on the 3rd of June 2016 a, the topic will be: "Sustainable Development Goals for a Green Future: Investing for future generations."

This final event is linked with another event of the European Commission which is the Green Week: http://www.greenweek2016.eu/home. The Green Week is taking place at the same time as the European Week for Sustainable Development but its central location is Brussels. There are discussions about the European environmental policy and this year's theme is "Investing for a Greener Future".

What is sustainable development exactly? The definition of the Brundtland report is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"[1]. In a more concrete way, it is about how we use the resources of the Earth in a way that they can renew themselves and not disappear, because we only have a limited amount and we consume them too fast. Can we do this forever? Of course we cannot. And this is what sustainable development is about. In facts, it touches every sector of our life: food, housing and construction, water, clothes, work, travelling, leisure...Many of our society's habits should be more sustainable.

But what can we do? Surely you are facing some sustainability dilemmas everyday. For example, you want to buy new clothes but you know how they are produced and that it is not good for the environment. So you ask yourself, "do I really need these clothes?". If yes, are there other options? Where? The promotion of sustainable habits and solutions applicable to our life are not always easy ot find. Maybe you already read about how to adopt a sustainable lifestyle (if not, you can search on the internet and get lost in all the tips) and be trapped by all the things you must do to act responsible, thinking of how you can do all of this without missing one and still keeping your usual activities. You can find long lists of actions, from really easy to more complicated. But the real answer may just be the adaptation of our lifestyle to more sustainables options.

The European Week for Sustainable Development is a good opportunity because it shows some bottom-up initiatives, you can get informed and find concrete actions and solutions at the same time. It reminds us that, even if we need governments and companies to take engagments about sustainability, we can still act at our level. The most important thing is to understand what you can change or improve, begin with simple gestures and focus on what you want to change. And remember, small changes matter. As Leo Tolstoy wrote, "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

Check out what is happening around your place in the website: http://www.esdw.eu/.

Amelys Erard