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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Environmental Protection Agency (n.d.).
- 2.
Ball (2009).
- 3.
Mehlman et al. (1996).
- 4.
Gelber (1997).
- 5.
Botsman and Rogers (2010).
- 6.
Botsman and Rogers (2010).
- 7.
Ferenstein (2011).
- 8.
- 9.
Diamond (2005).
- 10.
Bregha (2006).
- 11.
Heinberg (2007), pp. 88–95.
- 12.
Jevons (1865/1965).
- 13.
Hallett and Wright (2011), pp. 43–54.
- 14.
Mokhtarian (2009).
- 15.
Mokhtarian (2009).
- 16.
Hallett and Wright (2011).
- 17.
Cf. Alcott (2005).
- 18.
Nordhaus (1996).
- 19.
Tsao (2010).
- 20.
Mims (2013).
- 21.
The Economist (2007).
- 22.
Shelley (2016).
- 23.
Busby et al. (2011).
- 24.
Flint (2015).
- 25.
Wolfe (2015).
- 26.
Lyle (1994).
References
Alcott, B. (2005). Jevons’ paradox. Ecological economics, 54(1), 9–21.
Assadourian, E. (2012). The path to degrowth in overdeveloped countries. Moving toward sustainable prosperity (pp. 22–37). Washington: Island Press.
Ball, J. (2009, November 13). Under pressure: Bathers duck weak shower heads. Retrieved July 11, 2016, from Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125807041772846273
Botsman, R., & Rogers, R. (2010). What’s mine is yours: The rise of collaborative consumption. New York: Harper Business.
Bregha, F. (2006, July 2). National Energy Program. Retrieved July 11, 2016, from The Canadian Encyclopedia: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/national-energy-program/
Busby, P., Richter, M., & Driedger, M. (2011). Towards a new relationship with nature: Research and regenerative design in architecture. Architectural Design, 81(6), 92–99.
Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Viking Press.
Environmental Protection Agency. (n.d.). Showerheads. Retrieved July 11, 2016, from United States Environmental Protection Agency: https://www3.epa.gov/watersense/products/showerheads.html
Ferenstein, G. (2011, June 2). NeighborGoods aims to be a prettier, more social, community-generating Craigslist. Retrieved June 5, 2011, from FastCompany: http://www.fastcompany.com/1742262/neighborgoods-aims-be-prettier-more-social-community-generating-craigslist
Flint, A. (2015, May 19). Can regenerative design save the planet? Retrieved May 23, 2015, from The Atlantic Citylab: http://www.citylab.com/design/2015/05/can-regenerative-design-save-the-planet/393626/
Gelber, S. M. (1997). Do-it-yourself: Repairing and maintaining domestic masculinity. American Quarterly, 49(1), 66–104.
Hallett, S., & Wright, J. (2011). Life without oil: Why we must shift to a new energy future. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
Heinberg, R. (2007). Peak everything: Waking up to the century of decline in Earth’s resources. Forest Row, U.K.: Clairview Books.
Jackson, T. (2009). Prosperity without growth. London: Earthscan.
Jevons, W. S. (1865/1965). The coal question; an inquiry concerning the progress of the Nation, and the probable exhaustion of our coal-mines (reprint, 3rd revised edition ed.). (A.W. Flux, Ed.,) New York: A.M. Kelly.
Lyle, J. T. (1994). Regenerative design for sustainable development. New York: Wiley.
Mehlman, P., (Writers) Gross, M., & (Director) Ackerman, A. (1996). Seinfeld: The shower head [Television series episode]. In Seinfeld (by L. David). New York: Castle Rock Entertainment.
Mims, C. (2013, November 13). Forget LED bulbs—the future of interior lighting is lasers. Retrieved Nov 18, 2013, from Quartz: http://qz.com/146761/forget-led-bulbs-the-future-of-interior-lighting-is-lasers/
Mokhtarian, P. (2009). If telecommunication is such a good substitute for travel, why does congestion continue to get worse? Transportation Letters, 1, 1–17.
Nordhaus, W. D. (1996). Do real-output and real-wage measures capture reality? The history of lighting suggests not. In T. F. Bresnahan & R. J. Gordon (Eds.), The economics of new good (pp. 27–70). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Shelley, C. (2016). Ideology in bio-inspired design. In L. Magnani & C. Casadio (Eds.), Model-based reasoning in science and technology: Logical, epistemological, and cognitive issues (Vol. 27, pp. 43–56). Berlin: Springer.
The Economist. (2007, June 18). Burning bodies better. Retrieved July 11, 2016, from The Economist: http://www.economist.com/node/9354014
Tsao, J. Y. (2010). Solid-state lighting: An energy-economics perspective. Journal of Physics. D. Applied Physics, 43(35), 345001.
Wolfe, A. (2015, November 20). How washing machines could use a lot less water. Retrieved November 23, 2015, from The Atlantic Citylab: http://www.citylab.com/tech/2015/11/how-washing-machines-could-use-a-lot-less-water/416961/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shelley, C. (2017). Sustainability. In: Design and Society: Social Issues in Technological Design. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 36. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52515-0_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52515-0_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52514-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52515-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)