Why Sustainability?
Scientific data, common sense and intuition have told us for long that more needsto be done in order to achieve sustainable consumption and production patterns.Governments, business, researchers and civil society are taking action.
While theyare making their plans, running their projects and discussing the results achieved,they all know that they need to do better. The call of the street and the call of theWorld Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, are beingheard in the board and meeting rooms. Sustainable solutions are slowly making theirway up to enter mainstream decision making processes of business, governmentsand individuals.
Everybody has the power to act. Sustainable consumption isabout the power of individuals. The choices of everyone determine consumptionpatterns, production patterns, the degradation of natural resources, pollution andsocial progress.
The sum total of trillions of individual choices in millions of lifecycles of products and services is what we are talking about when reflecting onsustainable development.
People are surely doing their bit. Many want to make a difference, be it only bybuying organic apples or fair trade coffee in the supermarket. People join wasterecycling and energy saving schemes. Others take to the street or organize massgatherings in an effort to wake up society.
Some individuals are starting to explore new systems to work and live together.They organize their own lives differently. They act. They show by doing that thereare other ways to live a good life without at the same time threatening nature, otherpeople or their own inner peace.
