Living Smart

II ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY 060 061 At HKUST, we believe this moral compass is rooted in sustainability thinking, which we define as “creating the conditions for human thriving over time within planetary boundaries.” We hope to frame our future research and innovation within this scope. To demonstrate this commitment, the university has formed the HKUST Sustainable Smart Campus as a Living Lab. Its goal is to enliven our campus by experimenting and advancing new sustainability ideas through the use of smart technologies and analytics. Putting words into action, the university is providing HK$50 million to be awarded over the next three years to students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners who develop and implement projects on campus. Being really smart all about sustained action Prof. Davis BOOKHART Adjunct Assistant Professor, Division of Environment and Sustainability, Head, HKUST Sustainability Unit W ith great alarm, many people are recognizing the Great Acceleration, a term used to describe the rapid rate of human impact on global systems from the second half of the 20th century. Wi th more robus t and re l i ab l e data , we can now clearly illustrate the skyrocketing levels of population and environmental stresses placed on the planet since the Industrial Revolution. It is scary and feels overwhelming. While data allows us to see the magnitude of the impact, it can also provide insights and pathways forward. This is one of the keystone building blocks of Hong Kong’ s Smart City Blueprint, where prioritizing “Open Data” for public evaluation is essential for innovation and progress. Hong Kong is heading in this direction of openness (too slowly for some, but progress nonetheless). The recent policy address recognized that “opening up government data can provide the ingredients needed for technology research.” But accessing data alone does not solve our mounting social and environmental issues; using data to “innovate” more disposable or wasteful products or find regulatory loopholes is not progress. There is a need to follow an observable glide path – a moral compass – that will keep the use of data focused on a larger goal of creating public benefits.