Now that 2020 is here, many are looking to the new year with optimism and initiative to face the world's pressing issue of climate change. Amid the constant reminders of the globe's current climate crisis, a December editorial piece and report from Nature.com elicits a reason to reflect on what can be done.

After reading through the piece, I'm reminded of the words "sustainability" and "sustainable development" and how their definition and usage have transitioned over the years. According to the Nature article, "The change in meaning can be traced to the 1987 report Our Common Future, chaired by Norway's then-prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland. The report involved social scientists, natural scientists, industrialists, environmentalists, and policymakers emerging from their silos to talk to each other to understand how humans alter the global environment. The report helped such collaborative processes to become mainstream, alongside the idea of treating the environment and development as one issue."

"Some fields quickly grasped that interdisciplinary work is essential to understanding environmental change, and to mitigating — or adapting to — its effects."

The architecture profession may have always been "aware" of its impending impact on the environment. However, in the wake of sustainability initiatives, alternative building systems, and even changes in academic curriculum, what is the profession missing? Apparently, it's behavioral science, cross-disciplinary work, and asking the question "Why?". 

A project formed by the journal (Nature Sustainability) and the University of Virginia's Convergent Behavioral Science Initiative had an international group of architects, designers, and engineers work with behavioral scientists for a year. Within the year, they explored and investigated how each discipline could better work together and WHY it needed to happen.

Behavioral science's relationship to the built environment is vital and apparent to its study. However, the group from the University of Virginia Charlottesville concluded that "when it comes to sustainability, there's room for closer working, and the report amounts to an agenda for joint research. Potential questions include: how do architects and designers make decisions? To what extent can behavioral science in other contexts be applied to sustainable design and architecture? Do architects feel a duty to promote responsible energy use?"

The article continues to illuminate the topic by highlighting the fact that each discipline has its own language and understanding of terms and case studies. But it's through these cross-disciplinary exchanges that will aide in newfound progress and stronger applications of continuous sustainable actions.