The Relationship between Sustainability and Creativity

Abstract

To achieve long-term sustainability, it is necessary to strive for a green economy and come up with solutions to address limitations to resource footprints. This will require innovations across the board and creativity in all fields. Creativity and sustainability are closely linked. The UN’s Agenda 2030 with its 17 SDGs sets out the economic, social and environmental dimensions of a sustainable world. This requires concerted efforts towards building an inclusive and resilient future for the planet. Innovation, the business of ideas, is increasingly seen as the key to future societal prosperity and business success. Innovation includes not only ingenuity and imagination, but even more so new processes, new technologies, and new ways of using existing technology. Innovations need to overcome the hurdles of affordability, adaptability, scalability, replicability and sustainability. Any new technology or process that does not create a positive change in the lives of people does not really qualify as innovation. The Industrial Revolution 4.0 will open up new avenues for science-driven creativity and innovation. The world must resort to the ultimate renewable resource: human ingenuity and creativity. Creativity is at the heart of sustainability, rooted in sustainable social, economic, environmental and cultural practices. It is a special kind of renewable resource and human talent. Creativity and sustainability can be approached from different disciplinary and thematic perspectives as well as from trans-disciplinary and intercultural perspectives. The soft power elements of creativity, ingenuity, innovation and imagination are playing an important role in the development process at all levels. Creative intelligence has become a new form of cultural literacy which harnesses the power to create, connect and inspire. Creativity and artistic expressions provide energy and inspiration as well as empowerment. Design is a key dimension of creativity and a major component of culture. Increasingly, design has become a channel to achieve transformation and integration of scientific and technological achievements, including infrastructure development and digitised manufacturing and production. Cities have become platforms and architects for positive change. The creative industries have become one of the world economy’s most dynamic growth poles. The creative economy is the most modern phase of economic development. Cultural and creative industries have produced and distributed cultural goods, services or activities with cultural content that convey ideas, symbols and ways of life. Increasingly, knowledge, culture and creativity have become new keywords in understanding the speedy urban transformations, coinciding also with the emergence of knowledge societies. Rising inequality and migration make cities the focal points for new social cleavages, exclusion and discrimination. Cities have the capacity to magnify creativity and accelerate innovations. The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) is seeking to leverage the ability of cities to bring creative people together, to spark economic growth, to foster a sense of community and to preserve urban identities and heritage. UCCN cities have chosen creativity as a strategic factor for their sustainable development. They also subscribe to the recognition that culture is both an enabler and a driver of development. Network cities exchange experiences and knowledge, draw on best practices and inspiration from other urban centers, and promote cross-fertilization. The International Center for Creativity and Sustainable Development (ICCSD) in Beijing is a new international think tank for creativity development. It has launched CREATIVITY 2030 (C2030), a new global initiative which seeks to stimulate, mobilise and exchange creative solutions, tools and approaches in all walks of life. Today, the pace of technological change continues to accelerate. Creativity and sustainable development will henceforth be influenced by the dominant drivers and enablers of our age—globalization, urbanization and megacities, the internet and the internet of things (IoT), digitization, artificial intelligence, robotics and big data.