... because we humans can only work
for a future we can imagine.
DECLARATION OF INTERDEPENDENCE FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
UIA/AIA
World Congress of Architects
Chicago, 18-21 June 1993
Recognising that:
A sustainable society restores, preserves, and enhances nature and culture for the benefit of all life, present and future; a diverse and healthy environment is intrinsically valuable and essential to a healthy society; today's society is seriously degrading the environment and is not sustainable;
We are ecologically interdependent with the whole of the natural environment; we are socially, culturally, and economically interdependent with all of humanity; sustainability in the context of this interdependence, requires partnership, equity, and balance among all parties;
Buildings and the built environment play a major role in the human impact on the natural environment and on the quality of life; sustainable design integrates consideration of resource and energy efficiency, healthy buildings and materials, ecologically and socially sensitive land-use, and an aesthetic sensitivity that inspires, affirms, and ennobles; sustainable design can significantly reduce adverse human impacts on the natural environment while simultaneously improving quality of life and economic well being;
We commit ourselves,
as members of the world's architectural and building-design professions, individually and through our professional organisations, to:
Chicago, 18-21 June 1993
Recognising that:
A sustainable society restores, preserves, and enhances nature and culture for the benefit of all life, present and future; a diverse and healthy environment is intrinsically valuable and essential to a healthy society; today's society is seriously degrading the environment and is not sustainable;
We are ecologically interdependent with the whole of the natural environment; we are socially, culturally, and economically interdependent with all of humanity; sustainability in the context of this interdependence, requires partnership, equity, and balance among all parties;
Buildings and the built environment play a major role in the human impact on the natural environment and on the quality of life; sustainable design integrates consideration of resource and energy efficiency, healthy buildings and materials, ecologically and socially sensitive land-use, and an aesthetic sensitivity that inspires, affirms, and ennobles; sustainable design can significantly reduce adverse human impacts on the natural environment while simultaneously improving quality of life and economic well being;
We commit ourselves,
as members of the world's architectural and building-design professions, individually and through our professional organisations, to:
- Place environmental and
social sustainability at the core of our practices and professional
responsibilities;
- Develop and continually
improve practices, procedures, products, curricula, services, and
standards that will enable the implementation of sustainable design;
- Educate our fellow professionals,
the building industry, clients, students and the general public about
the critical importance and substantial opportunities of sustainable
design;
- Establish policies, regulations,
and practices in government and business that ensure sustainable design
becomes normal practice;
- Bring all existing and future elements of the built environment, their design, production and eventual reuse, up to sustainable design standards.
Susan A. Maxman, President, International Union of Architects
Olufemi Majekodunmi, President, American Institute of Architects
Chicago 1993
Republished with permission
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'Painting the future real' is an initiative of Imagine The Future Inc with the support of project partners.
For more information, contact Imagine The Future at
340 Gore Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065, Australia
phone: +61 3 9417 2033, fax: +61 3 9416 0767
email: imagine@peg.apc.org, or merrillf@dingo.vut.edu.au
[Page history: created and first published on www.ecoversity.org.au as part o f Painting the future real (1995-97), the prototype for Redreaming the plain (1998-2002); taken off-line in 1998 and re-posted in its original form in July 2004 as a web archive. For more information contact redreaming@rmit.edu.au.]