I recently came across an academic paper by Geoffrey Glasby entitled, “Sustainable Development: The New Paradigm”. The paper was really interesting and I recommend anyone to read it, the summary started off:
“There is no doubt that the human population has been putting increasing loads on the ecosystems of the Earth, particularly since the beginning of the industrial revolution. We are presently using the earth’s resources at an unprecedented and, in many cases, unsustainable rate and there is no indication that this rate of use is slowing. Population increase and global warming are the most pressing primary problems that we face but many others are threatening. We live on a dynamic planet which presents many challenges, especially in an era of global warming when we are taxing the limits of ecosystem use in many parts of the world.”
This was written almost a decade ago. So how have we fared? We look ahead into 2012 against a desperate backdrop of uncertainty - the global economy hanging over nations like mist on a harbour. Having said that I am actually quietly optimistic about 2012; in the field of sustainable construction there are more projects, initiatives and reports in the ether than ever before. There are also some really interesting developments taking place relating to building materials assessment and we are developing the next stage of our sustainability journey.
2012 will be the year of vision, opportunity and delivery. Note: I never said easy.