Envisioning
Sustainable Futures: A Media/Arts Initiative
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Global
Urban Development is organizing Envisioning Sustainable Futures: a Media/Arts
initiative. Through the media and the
arts, we aim to identify new ways to create and present images of a future
society of Sustainable Economic Development that is in relative harmony and
balance with the cycles of nature based on conserving and reusing all natural
resources (not only fossil fuels, but water, land, materials, etc.), rather
than overusing and wasting them. In other words, people, places, and
organizations worldwide can “get richer by becoming greener”, earning and
saving more money by using fewer resources and reusing more. Everyone
will be better off economically and environmentally, with greater prosperity,
improved health, enhanced quality of life, and much more stable peace (because
people won't be engaging in violent conflict over increasingly scarce
resources).
There
are three ways that media/arts professionals can enlighten and entertain the
general public about this new paradigm of Sustainable Economic Development, and
"Be the Change" as Mahatma Gandhi famously said:
1)
Create futuristic stories and scenarios, especially with visual elements, which
portray people throughout the developed and developing world, living in
advanced technological sustainability. Regardless of what drama or
comedy, science fiction, documentary non-fiction, or video game content is in
the foreground, the background will be digital and other images of modern
sustainability. For example, there will still be Times Square in the
future, but it will be based on LED lighting powered by renewable energy, and
there will still be people driving cars to work and play, but they will be
driving plug-in electric vehicles powered by renewable energy. All businesses
and jobs will be "green" in the sense that their revenues are shaped
by technological innovation and resource efficiency based on Green Savings,
Green Opportunities, Green Talent, and Green Places.
2) Present interesting and
compelling images of current sustainability efforts, such as the amazing story
chronicled in the late Ray Anderson's 2009 book, Confessions of a Radical Industrialist, about how a corporate CEO
of a petroleum-based industrial carpeting manufacturer and installer that was a
wasteful polluter, decided to become a sustainable company and succeeded over
15 years in becoming far more environmentally friendly both in terms of the
production processes and the products, and along the way substantially
expanding market share, revenues, and profits. Ray Anderson's Interface
Corporation definitely got richer by becoming greener and earned more money by
using fewer resources and reusing more.
3)
Identify, document, and share experiences about the most resource efficient,
conserving, and recycling ways to produce media and arts events and products.
Media and arts professionals and businesses should also be getting richer
by becoming greener, and demonstrating that innovation, efficiency, and
conservation in the use and reuse of all natural and human resources is the
best way to increase jobs, incomes, productivity, and competitiveness. In
the Sustainable Economic Development paradigm, both the production process and
the media/arts/educational content are at peace and in harmony with Mother
Nature. Sustainability will be the guiding principle in theory and practice
to the mutual betterment of everyone and everywhere.
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