JANE
HOUSHAM
greening of life
The
Welcome to the section of Futures devoted to the activities of University of Hertfordshire Press, the University’s publisher. We publish books in a number of different subject areas, including History, Romani Studies, Local History, Theatre History and Psychology. We have recently launched a Sustainable Communities list and our first book under this heading is Sustainable Communities: skills and learning for place-making.
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f you were asked to explain what ‘sustainability’ is, what would you say? It isn’t that easy to define.
I’ve heard many different definitions as well as complaints that it’s impossible to give a comprehensive definition and even exhortations to stop using the word altogether. If pressed, I’d say sustainability – or perhaps ‘sustainable living’ – is managing the impact of human existence so that it can continue for as long as possible. But ideally there should be an element of living well in sustainability too. Sustainability throws its net very wide and draws upon expertise in a great many disciplines including environmental studies, engineering, planning, business, architecture, even heritage and the arts. This has the knock-on effect of creating
a need for ‘hybrid professionals’ who can work across a number of disciplines. Increasingly, education is also a focus for sustainability issues, working on the principle of ‘catch them young’.
A very wide range of issues can take on a sustainability ‘angle’ as well, such as transport, urban regeneration, water
management,
and even less obviously ‘green’ issues such as sport or conflict resolution. And different social and cultural groups are starting to factor sustainability into their aims, so that there are, for instance, ‘Women in Green’ and groups who are ‘Out for Sustainability’. You can find ‘Christian Perspectives on sustainability’ and at least one
group studying ‘Sustainability and Contemporary Art’. I’ve even come across jugglers who teach ‘sustainability through circus’. So it seems sustainability is a
The idea of sustainability has to become more than just a buzzword
real buzzword which is tearing up a storm through every area of life. Certainly the desire to create places – housing developments, villages or areas of towns – which offer high quality of life and contribute to sustainable development principles has emerged over the last few decades as a focus for both government policy and community action. But is there a risk of overkill? A risk that we will all tire of the messages about reducing our carbon footprint, recycling and switching off our computers and ... switch off our minds instead? In order to get properly under our skin, the idea of sustainability has to
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