learn & engage
Sustainability
Magma Geopark and UN Sustainable Development Goals
On September 25th 2015, countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years.
For the goals to be reached, everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society and people like you.
Do you want to get involved? You can start by telling everyone about them. We’ve also put together a list of actions that you can take in your everyday life to contribute to a sustainable future.
Magma Geopark is working in particular on the following goals:
4 Quality Education
5 Gender equality
8 Decent work and economic work
11 Sustainable cities and communities
12 Responsible consumption and production
13 Climate action
17 Partnership for the goal
Magma Geopark is developing the following actions:
- Reduce use of printing documents at office.
- Drink tap water at the office.
- Promote green transports within the tourist offers.
- Promote the Geopark heritage within new technologies.
- Develop project to improve the education methodologies in the Geopark.
- Support the access to education for everyone.
- Promote well being practices within hiking and biking free access activities.
- Promote local producers and km0 products.
- Develop internship programme for migrants and refugees.
- Increase the awareness about the local ecosystem.
- Promote the respect for the environment.
Magma Geopark AS is an Eco-Lighthouse company
Sustainability is one of the key areas in Magma Geopark’s work, which is why we chose to initiate the process to get an Eco- Lighthouse certification. This means that we have gone through our business routines and have taken the necessary steps to become a more sustainable, profitable and efficient company. We are pleased to announce that Magma Geopark has received the Eco- Lighthouse certification!
This means that we will be more aware of how we select our partners and suppliers, set higher requirements for the products we choose and, not least, revise internal procedures for more efficient operation. This is to be a continuous process, where we will periodically evaluate the effectiveness of our routines and make sure to apply environmental tips that are relevant to us.
It is also worth mentioning that the Eco- Lighthouse certification complies with several of the UN’s sustainability goals, which are central to all activities in Magma Geopark. Eco- lighthouse certification provides specific tools for making effective and profitable environmental improvements in areas such as work environment, waste management, energy use, procurement and transport, where relevant topics such as food waste and plastic are included. Figures from the Eco- Lighthouse Customer Survey 2018 among private companies show that it pays to incorporate sustainability into business strategy and daily operations.
Magma Geopark and local food strategies
The food industry is a key sector for the deep changes required by the society in order to fulfill the SDGs by 2030. The agricultural sector plays a fundamental role in facing the World’s challenges linked with climate change, biodiversity loss, food scarcity and growing population. Representing some 500 Million, or 88% of the 570 Million farms globally, family generates about 80% of the Earth’s food.
Food production and cotton farming, biofuels, and other non-food products from agriculture and forestry are the most significant drivers of environmental degradation in developed and developing countries. Half of the world’s tropical forests have been cleared, and we continue to lose about 18 million hectares per year – an area the size of England and Wales. Biodiversity loss now occurs at 1000 times the normal background rate, and populations of major species have fallen by some 60 percent since 1970 .Rising per capita demand for meat and dairy products increases human demand for land further, yet as the world population increases from 7.6 billion to an estimated 11 billion by the end of the century, there is little room to expand agriculture further without undermining critical environmental and climate objectives.
Intensive farming methods, including the growing reliance on chemicals, are key drivers of the loss of roughly 80 percent of insects in Germany since the late 1980s . Similar trends have been reported around the World.
Agriculture, food processing, and the resulting land-use change are responsible for just under a third of global greenhouse emissions.
Humans also catch unsustainable volumes of wild fish, with a third of commercial fisheries classified as over-fished. In little over half a century, humans have wiped out 90 percent of the populations of top predator fish, such as tuna, swordfish, and sharks. Moreover, destructive fishing techniques, such as bottom trawling, cause massive damage to coastal and marine ecosystems