Play it seriously: Fostering innovative engagement with sustainability

© 2015 ACM.During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama quipped in a debate-preparation session: "Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f-ing changed lightbulbs in my house. It's because of something collective" [1]. This candid quote illustrates the discursive tension around environmental sustainability: Though there is a sense that each of us needs to be personally engaged with issues of energy use and climate change, isolated individual actions are insufficient to address challenges that exist on a global scale. In the Anthropocene Age, when it is impossible to deny that humans are having a significant effect on the Earth and its viability for life, we need strategies that draw on collaborative endeavors to address problems at the societal and policy levels. Against this backdrop, we and many others in the HCI community feel a sense of responsibility to design approaches to sustainability that bring together the individual and collective, the short-term and long-term, to innovatively engage with the difficult work of creating sustainable futures.

Interactions. 22. Issue 1. 68 - 70. ISSN 1072-5520. DOI 10.1145/2692208.

• School of Literature, Media, and Communication