what is sustainability?

For something to be sustainable it must continue indefinitely. Currently, human civilisation is not sustainable: we are on a hiding to nothing, and quickly.

The growing awareness of global warming, climate change, and widespread water crises show that most people now realise that we must change the way we do things, or we will all suffer: there is no possibility of ‘lifeboat Australia’ (or anywhere else) in the new global community.

Buildings account for about 40% of all the world’s consumption of energy, water, and materials. They spew out about 40% of all the world’s wastes. So they are 40% of the sustainability problem.

They are also 40% of the solution.

This means your project can be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. Such buildings (and their instigators) will be one of the heroes of the age: history will say “they should have all been like this!”

Click here for a brief discussion of what sustainability is, and how we can measure it. 

Click here if you are interested in a deeper discussion on the broader topic of what it takes to make a sustainable civilisation, and how such a thing might be measured. This is an excerpt of a Masters Thesis by Dick Clarke (Director of Envirotecture).

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