Spring 2012

 

Sustainability  Found in Everyday Life

When examining our everyday lives in Hong Kong today, it is apparent that our lifestyles and everyday activities in the urban environment are directly related to, and underpinned by, a linear economic and material system of finance and material resources. This way of life is characterized by a process of resource extraction, production, distribution, consumption and waste generation. Key questions that lie behind the idea of  sustainability” relate to upholding this existing system, or way of life, based upon a linear materials economy. And, as the argument follows, we cannot indefinitely support a material flow of resources on a finite planet. This is precisely where the question of sustainability comes into play. What is it about our everyday lives that needs to change? What is it about how we live that is “unsustainable”?