Environmentally sustainable design (also called environmentally conscious design, eco-design and related terms) is an approach to designing products, buildings, landscapes, infrastructure and services so that they reduce environmental impacts while supporting human health, comfort and well-being.McLennan, J. F. (2004), The Philosophy of Sustainable Design It applies ecological sustainability to decisions about materials, energy, water, waste, land use, construction, production and user behaviour.Ji Yan and Plainiotis Stellios (2006): Design for Sustainability. Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press.
In the built environment, sustainable design seeks to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources, minimise waste, improve building performance and create healthy, productive indoor and outdoor environments. It is closely associated with sustainable architecture, sustainable engineering, ecological design, life-cycle assessment, renewable energy, circular economy principles and sustainability assessment systems such as LEED and BREEAM.
The scope of sustainable design extends from individual products and interiors to buildings, infrastructure, cities and landscapes. Contemporary practice increasingly considers not only operational efficiency, but also embodied carbon, resource circularity, biodiversity, climate resilience, social value and long-term economic performance.
Policy and frameworks Sustainable design concepts are increasingly reflected in policy, regulation and voluntary assessment frameworks. These instruments may address material selection, resource efficiency, environmental health, life-cycle impacts, circularity and the reduction of hazards across product and building life cycles.
For example, the Safe and Sustainable by Design framework has been developed in the context of the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. It defines protocols for assessing material and chemical properties, including toxicological and physicochemical characteristics, so that hazard and sustainability information can be considered throughout upstream and downstream product life-cycle processes.
Theory Sustainable design is often described as an attempt to "eliminate negative environmental impact through skilful, sensitive design". In practice, it seeks to reduce resource demand, use renewable resources where appropriate, consider whole-life impacts and connect people more directly with the natural environment.
Design decisions shape products, services, buildings, infrastructure, business models and innovation strategies. For that reason, design is closely linked to sustainable development and to the capacity of social, economic and ecological systems to continue over time.The End of Unsustainable Design, Jax Wechsler, December 17, 2014.
Conceptual problems
Diminishing returns The concept of diminishing returns, commonly illustrated by the 'S' curve in the technology life cycle, refers to the reduced incremental benefit gained from continued investment or effort. In fields such as industrial ecology and life cycle assessment, this concept is associated with the finite useful life of systems. Management literature suggests that when traditional approaches reach diminishing returns, it may prompt organisations to reassess their strategy and explore alternative opportunities.John Hagel, "Breaking Out of the Trap of Diminishing Returns," Marketing Journal, May 22, 2018.
Unsustainable investment A problem arises when the limits of a resource are hard to see, and increasing investment in the resources in response to diminishing returns may lead to a collapse. This problem of increasing investment in diminishing resources has been studied as a cause of civilization collapse by Joseph Tainter among others.JA Tainter 1988 The Collapse of Complex Societies Cambridge Univ. Press This natural error in investment policy contributed to the collapse of both the Romans and Mayans, among others. Relieving over-stressed resources requires reducing pressure on them, not continually increasing it whether more efficiently or not.Buzz Holling 1973 Resilience and Stability of Ecological Systems
Negative effects of waste
The designer is responsible for choices that place a demand on natural resources, produce waste, and potentially cause irreversible ecosystem damage.Acaroglu, L. (2014). Making change: Explorations into enacting a disruptive pro-sustainability design practice. [Doctoral dissertation, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology].
Waste generation is one indicator of the environmental burden created by production and consumption. In the United Kingdom, for example, total waste generation has been reported at about 80 million tonnes per year.Waste and recycling, DEFRA Between 1991–92 and 2007–08, each person in England generated an average of 1.35 pounds of household waste per day.Household waste, Office for National Statistics.
Waste disposal methods can create environmental and public-health impacts if they are poorly designed or managed. Landfills may contaminate soil or water, incinerators may release pollutants if emissions are not controlled, and wastewater-treatment systems can affect local ecology. Sustainable design therefore gives priority to preventing waste before it is generated, rather than relying only on downstream management.
The toxic components of household products pose serious health risks and aggravate the trash problem. In the US, about seven pounds in every ton of household garbage contains toxic materials, such as heavy metals like nickel, lead, cadmium, and mercury from batteries, and organic compounds found in pesticides and consumer products, such as air freshener sprays, nail polish, cleaners, and other products.US EPA, "" When burned or buried, toxic materials also pose a serious threat to public health and the environment.
Waste prevention focuses on changing products, processes and behaviours so that pollution is avoided at source. This does not necessarily require doing without a product or service; it may require delivering the same function differently, such as using refillable containers rather than disposable ones.
Industrial designer Victor Papanek has stated that when we design and plan things to be discarded, we exercise insufficient care in design.Victor Papanek (1972), "Design for the Real World: Human Ecological and Social Change", Chicago: Academy Edition, p87.
Waste prevention strategies Facility planning can include strategies for preventing the generation of solid waste. Improper waste disposal is associated with pollution, climate change and hazardous emissions that may affect human wellbeing. A waste-prevention strategy may therefore favour products that can be reused, repaired, composted, anaerobically digested, recycled or safely returned to biological cycles through biodegradation.
Any resource-related development is going to have two basic sources of solid waste: materials purchased and used by the facility and those brought into the facility by visitors. The following waste prevention strategies apply to both, although different approaches will be needed for implementation. use products that minimise waste and are non-toxic compost or anaerobically digest biodegradable wastes reuse materials on-site or collect suitable materials for offsite recycling consuming fewer resources means creating less waste, therefore it reduces the impact on the environment.
Climate change
Climate change is a major driver of environmentally conscious design. Buildings, products and infrastructure influence energy use, material consumption, transport patterns and emissions over long periods. Sustainable design therefore addresses both operational impacts, such as energy use during occupation or operation, and embodied impacts associated with materials, construction, manufacturing and end-of-life processes.
Loss of biodiversity
Design and planning decisions can affect biodiversity through land conversion, habitat fragmentation, pollution, hydrological change and disturbance to ecological processes. Examples include transport infrastructure that fragments wildlife habitat and dams or water-management systems that alter aquatic ecosystems.
Sustainable design principles
While the practical application varies among disciplines, some common principles are as follows: Low-impact materials: choose non-toxic, sustainably produced, or recycled materials that require little energy to process Energy efficiency: use manufacturing processes and produce products that require less energy Emotionally durable design: reducing consumption and waste of resources by increasing the durability of relationships between people and products, through design Design for reuse and recycling: "Products, processes, and systems should be designed for performance in a commercial 'afterlife'." Targeted durability, not immortality, should be a design goal. Material diversity in multicomponent products should be minimised to promote disassembly and value retention. Design impact measures, including carbon footprint assessment and life-cycle assessment, are increasingly used to evaluate the impacts of resource use.D. Vallero and C. Brasier (2008), Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, . Some methods estimate impacts by relating expenditure to average global energy use and associated carbon dioxide emissions.US DOE 20 yr Global Product & Energy Study . Biomimicry: "redesigning industrial systems on biological lines ... enabling the constant reuse of materials in continuous closed cycles..."Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins (1999). Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Little, Brown. Service substitution: shifting the mode of consumption from personal ownership of products to provision of services that provide similar functions, e.g., from a private automobile to a carsharing service. Such a system promotes minimal resource use per unit of consumption (e.g., per trip driven).Ryan, Chris (2006). "Dematerializing Consumption through Service Substitution is a Design Challenge". Journal of Industrial Ecology. 4(1). Renewable resource: materials should come from nearby (local or bioregional), sustainably managed renewable sources that can be composted when their usefulness has been exhausted. Sustainable design standards and project design guides are increasingly available in several design fields.
Bill of Rights for the Planet One frequently cited model is the "Bill of Rights for the Planet", also known as the "Hannover Principles", developed by William McDonough Architects for EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany. The Bill of Rights: Insist on the right of humanity and nature to co-exist in healthy, supportive, diverse, and sustainable conditions. Recognize Interdependence. The elements of human design interact with and depend on the natural world, with broad and diverse implications at every scale. Expand design considerations to recognize even distant effects. Respect relationships between spirit and matter. Consider all aspects of human settlement including community, dwelling, industry, and trade in terms of existing and evolving connections between spiritual and material consciousness. Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well-being, the viability of natural systems, and their right to co-exist. Create safe objects of long-term value. Do not burden future generations with requirements for maintenance or vigilant administration of potential danger due to the careless creation of products, processes, or standards. Eliminate the concept of waste. Evaluate and optimise the full life-cycle of products and processes, to approach the state of natural systems in which there is no waste.