Environmental Conservation in Europe

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One of my deepest impressions in Europe Trip is to taste the strong sense of environmental protection there. Environmental conservation in Europe is not only a slogan that the governments advocate, but also a guideline that the public follow in their daily life.

To be honest, environmental protection in Europe is much more advanced than that in Canada. It is partly because the natural resource in Europe is limited, compared with that in Canada; it also because the progress of European civilization is more mature than that of Canada. The economy in Europe has undergone the period of rapid development. Now European governments have emphasized on how to keep economic development and environmental sustainability in concord as their priority.

Generally, it is easy to launch mandatory regulations to force corporations to meet environmental requirements; but it is very difficult, sometimes not realistic, to cultivate the public’s sense of environmental protection, for it is a very time-consuming process to change the public’s consumption preference. But in Europe, I excitedly found that the public were involved in the battle to fight against climate change and resource waste voluntarily and actively. Energy efficiency is a key idea to save natural resource in Europe. Public traffic systems are well developed and the public are encouraged to take trains as their main transportation. All the cars on the roads are economical size. Pick-ups, which are very common in Canada, can’t be seen in Europe. Bicycle is also a main mean of transportation. It is easy to rent a bike in Europe to ride around cities. Especially in Amsterdam, not only tourists from all over the world choose bicycles as their main tour tool, but also the local residents take bicycle as their daily transportation.

Energy conservation is implemented in every detail in Europe. When I went to washroom every time, I found lights were always off. Washroom Users remember to turn off lights after they leave washrooms. To switch off lights is just a very tiny habit and most people don’t form such habit, for they think it is not a big deal. But if everyone forms such small good habit, lots of energy waste will be avoided. Another example is garbage recycling. In Europe, the public consciously classify their garbage in different garbage bins.

When I looked around some supermarkets in Europe, I found lots of products were imprinted a green logo label, which indicates that the product is environmental-friendly. Even though the price is a little higher than any other competitors, the public are still willing to pay the price premium for environmental protection. Even though there is no explicit data to show how the green label drives the sales of product, the popularity of the green label has shown that the green label will have a very potential market in the future in Europe.