(Wl-7927)-Beyond Lifestyle for Sustainable Development: Learnings from the Dayalbagh Model

The intensifying global environmental crisis—marked by climate change, biodiversity loss, and unsustainable resource consumption—poses significant threats, including heightened global conflicts, deepening inequalities, and more frequent natural disasters. Addressing these challenges requires a fundamental shift in societal functioning and the adoption of a lifestyle that prioritizes sustainable development. Recognizing this, India introduced the LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) initiative at COP26 in 2021, focusing on sustainable consumption, industry response, and policy influence. Under India’s G20 presidency in 2023, the LiFE initiative gained momentum and expanded to “Lifestyle for Sustainable Development,” leading to the adoption of the G20 High-Level Principles (HLPs) on Lifestyles for Sustainable Development. The principles aim to create a global movement towards sustainable lifestyles that contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement’s climate targets. The paper introduces a model extending beyond the concept of Lifestyle for Sustainable Development, termed “Lifestyle for Holistic Sustainable Development,” supported by a case study of Dayalbagh, Agra—a community that served as the inspiration for this model. Dayalbagh model, which is scientifically grounded and replicable, aligns with the G20 High level principles on Lifestyle for Sustainable Development and SDGs and demonstrates how localized, community-driven initiativescan align with and support global sustainability frameworks.