IGBC 2014 - Tai Lee Siang, WGBC

Single minded pursuit of SustainabilityTai Lee Siang Past President, SGBC Secretary, World Green Building Council

Left Hand Drive The right way to drive ?

Right Hand Drive The right way to drive ?

Countries driving on the left Countries driving on the right

Divided World There are many things that divide mankind

Today, the world is still divided based on systems developed in the past that cannot be easily reversed. This includes the

world of design. This has slowed the sustainability drive.

Renaissance The height human civilisation Convergence of art, science and technology

Industrial Revolution Great singular thrust and breakthrough in industrialisation and the beginning of environmental deterioration

Modernisation Post war modernisation sparks the creation of a new age for humanity but in fact greater self-actualisation

Digital Revolution Mankind given great power over self to learn, influence and be enlightened

Inconvenient Truth Mankind temporarily halted on the route to global destruction

Where are we heading ? Creating bigger cities leading to higher consumption

1500s 1760 1898 1970s 2006 2030

World of Divergence

Collapse of Atlantic Cod Stocks

In 1992 the Canadian government declared a moratorium on the Northern Cod fishery, which for the past 500 years had largely shaped the lives and communities of Canada's eastern coast. The interplay between fishing societies and the resources which they depend on is obvious to almost any observer: fisheries transform the ecosystem, which pushes the fishery and society to adapt.[2] In 1992 summer, when the Northern Cod biomass fell to 1% of its earlier level,[3] Canada's federal government saw that this relationship had been pushed to breaking point, and they declared a moratorium, ending the region's 500-year run with the Northern Cod. !Lessons leant: Technology - Introduction and proliferation of equipment and technology that increased volume of landed fish Ecological Uncertainty - Imperfect understanding of the ocean ecosystem led to incomplete data. Socioeconomic - Tragedy of the Commons : what is in the individual's best interest is not always in the best interest of a society at whole

Collapse of Atlantic Cod Stocks

Only way forward

The design community must learn from the New Found Land cod crisis and start negotiating on ways to work together before the entire system collapse because the environment is too deteriorated to salvage. Remember the Tragedy of the Commons: There should only be one interest i.e. the environment and individual discipline. Time for change!