Sustainability

Abstract

Any current discussion of good design includes sustainability. In its most basic sense, sustainability refers to our ability to maintain and develop our lifestyle or civilization in the long term. In this sense, sustainability may be understood instructively as a progress problem of the type discussed in the previous chapter. That is, sustainability concerns a dilemma over permissive and precautionary strategies in our consumption of resources. The permissive strategy usually focuses on increasing efficiency in individual designs on the assumption that this measure will decrease resource consumption overall. However, Jevons’ Paradox tends to undermine this assumption. The precautionary strategy often focuses on biosynergism, that is, designs that emphasize both internal integrity and environmentalism. A challenge for this strategy is that it may require changes in consumer lifestyle that people generally will find difficult to accept.