Sustainability

The Brundtland Report released in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) introduced the core concept of Sustainability as being of three components: Economic, Environmental, and Human. To achieve Sustainability, society would have to address all three components. The goals of sustainability are to provide for the present without sacrificing the ability for future generations to provide for themselves, and as designers, a significant position of responsibility falls on us.

How do we design in sustainable ways? Contemporary Sustainable Design focuses on point systems and certifications, like LEED and others, which do a good job creating Environmental Sustainability. The free market works within economic policies to create solutions, but the more elusive aspect of sustainability is the human dimension. How do designers create places that have a positive impact on society as a whole?

This can be seen in the inequalities that are present in current sustainable development practices. For example, the adoption of solar panels in American cities is concentrated in more affluent neighborhoods. Or LEED certification is associated with large corporations as opposed to smaller businesses. This is due to the added costs for sustainability. Asking people and organizations to sacrifice for sustainability is not an option.

A better approach to sustainability is for designers to create a more attractive option that beats the non-sustainable option. This can be seen in Georgetown, Texas, the largest city that is 100% powered by wind energy. The conservative city in central Texas did not go green with sacrifice — they went green because wind energy was cheaper than natural gas. That makes the green choice easy, and the path forward for true sustainability.

As designers, we need to create these solutions, to make sustainability the default option. Then we will achieve what Brundtland envisioned in 1987 for our common future.

Projects

• NexusHaus
• RISE

Papers