For millennia, human beings have taken natural resources and utilized them as instruments for social advancement, raising living standards. In most countries, we have generally moved beyond poverty, widespread starvation, and lack of representation that characterized the lives of almost all in the pre-industrial era. In doing so, however, we have become increasingly disconnected from nature during our socioeconomic development and divorced from our historical reliance on nature for our well-being.

As a result, we need to undertake conscious, global efforts to improve our stewardship of natural capital - air, water, other natural resources and to elevate sustainability as a value just as fundamental to modern society as liberty, justice, and equality. These must be efforts to repair and renew our connection to the environment and redefine the search for real-world solutions to meet today's challenges.

The world is experiencing upheaval at an accelerated pace, new technologies,

the COVID-19 pandemic, and, behind them all, the climate crisis. These events have promoted a collective rethinking of conventional wisdom and brought about new communication and collaboration patterns. As the impacts of a changing climate become more apparent than before. As the impacts of a changing climate become more apparent than before, we have even less time to act.

The importance of building sustainability often goes unnoticed. They are responsible for nearly 40% of annual greenhouse gas emissions, a third of which is generated in the construction process or the generation of building materials, embodied energy.

Lastly, sustainability is a problem with an often-ignored human dimensions. Not only is climate change the result of human actions, but we can also have all the scientific and technological solutions we seek yet lack the political will to use them.

Dr. Michael M. Crow