UNEP Perspectives Publication - Issue 13

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Publication Date: March 2014 

TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY: CHANGING OUR PERSPECTIVE

From the evidence of our senses to the evidence provided by our science, we know our 

current global society is unsustainable. We also know that technology is at least partly 

responsible for our predicament, just as it will be part of whatever future we face.

Neither denial nor despair is an appropriate response to the situation. At such a critical 

juncture, however, we cannot afford to make poor decisions about the technology we 

develop and use. If we do not understand what has gone wrong and why up to this 

point, we risk undermining the decisions we make in our attempt to create “the world 

we want.”

We know a sustainable future requires changes in how we all live, regardless of where 

we are or in whatever circumstance. To make the necessary changes, wisely and in 

time, however, first requires us to change our perspective on technology itself. 

This paper outlines that change in perspective and how technology, values and civil 

society are inevitably intertwined in shaping whatever world in which we will live 

beyond 2015.