Journal of Sustainability

By editors, editors@JournalofSustainability.com

Sustainable design emphasizes alternatives to technological development. Whereas technologists seek to improve the gasoline engine, New Urbanists seek to render the engine unnecessary through such measures as building habitation that is adjacent to work centers, or lacing the suburbs with light rail. Whereas technologists seek to improve the science of energy production, some renewable energy engineers seek to render energy unnecessary through such means as using the sun for passive thermal controls and daylighting rather than in photo-voltaic conversion, and using the wind for ventilation rather than for the generation of electricity.

The distinction is a matter of degree, and the two are not mutually exclusive. Technology can be designed in part with sustainable design principles. The autonomous solar devices at Zomeworks are technological, but they typically use water and night-sky cooling rather than high-tech devices like photo-voltaics.

Sustainable design is not receiving attention from the state and federal governments, but it should be. There are few state or federal government agencies, programs or grants directly relating to sustainable design; and those programs that relate to sustainability generally do not emphasize or support sustainable design. The National Science Foundation for example offers grants to scientists who can improve energy technology, and offers no design grants. The Department of Energy has programs for making incremental improvements to the energy efficiency of conventional residential houses and commercial buildings, but it does not support the redesign of houses and buildings to include energy-free technologies (passive solar, daylighting, etc.). Your municipality may have a program to convert their official vehicles to propane, but most of their employees still have to commute from the suburbs in their own gasoline vehicles due to the lack of comprehensive public transit. In contrast one model agency is the Mid-Region Council of Governments in Albuquerque. In a previous issue the Journal of Sustainability interviewed their Transportation Planning Manager, who had much to say about light rail, changes in zoning codes to enable transit-oriented development, and more.

In previous issues of the Journal of Sustainability we offered you numerous suggestions on how you can implement sustainable design into your daily life. Here are some of them.

You can downsize: four people do not need a 2400 square foot house---or four vehicles.

You can go public: take the bus or commuter rail instead of your car.

You can economize: don't drive anywhere until you can run several errands in one trip.

You can simplify: buy a clothesline and a solar cooker—and use them.

You can slow down: your kids don't need to play on the soccer team, and you don't need to habitually speed.

copyright 2008 Journal of Sustainability all rights reserved

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