Philosophy and sustainable design

Sustainable design has many names: green, eco-friendly, holistic, and many other names under the sun. But is there any weight to this term? Sustainable design is still such a young concept and not able to be solidly defined as we cannot see physical, measurable factors to this name. The term "sustainable" is merely "capable of being maintained." That term alone is a vague concept, but what is the philosophy behind this term?

Sustainable design seeks to work towards zero negative impact on the environment, such as using renewable resources such as solar energy versus the nonrenewable gas, coal or fossil fuels. This helps instill a sense of responsibility from designers, clients, companies and so fourth.

Many textiles are now made from renewable resources.

Karl Popper, a well-known influential philosopher in the 20th century, stated that we should look at scientific theories as provisional. This means that we should look at a theory as

functional until a better theory replaces it. He believes that scientific observations are shaped wholly by the observer who has their own predispositions and biases. For instance, many people shifting towards the technological age might have been appalled by the idea of not printing and keeping physical copies of everything in stead of storing all documents and data on a computer. For the time, the widely accepted standard was postal mail communication, physical phone calls, binders of information, and lots of printed items to be stored. At one time, it was sensible to have skepticism about such a topic, but now it is widely accepted to send an e-mail instead of physical mail. You can store information on the cloud and still have a physical document printed out if you so wish. This creates less need for paper and ink, saving much more production of paper products for other uses.

As we take a shift to the next topic, let's talk about paradigms. A “paradigm” is a scientific achievement that is widely adopted and redefines scientific communities and even practices of the commercial industry and consumers. If a company hears of a new scientific breakthrough regarding using more biodegradable materials for their goods, the company (if they have the resources to make the complete change) will use this opportunity not only to move towards sustainability, but also to market themselves as more responsible and sensitive to the ecological impact that its company has. This paradigm will only be invalid once an alternate candidate is able to take its place.

Vegan leather is being produced to replace traditional leather.

A paradigm is usually replaced in whole or part by an incompatible new one. The existing paradigm will cease to function adequately. During a paradigm shift, there are competitions and animosity from people who previously adopted the now-incompatible paradigm. Older generations of people will usually not take this new paradigm shift as gracefully as the previous generations, especially because the older generations themselves have taken to many shifts over the course of their lives. Why would you change something that is not

broken or has been proven to work better than any other paradigms before it?

Sustainable design may be hard to define due to its philosophical take, as not everyone may agree, but it is meant to give individual designers responsibility for their designs. You are no longer simply providing a product for your client, but you are also providing a service to the entire community and generations that come later. The decisions we make today will affect the future of humanity and earth.