The need to incorporate sustainability in design projects is evident. However, going from ambition to impact is a challenging process. Improving the sustainability of a design involves a myriad of tradeoffs; making a positive change in one area could inadvertently create problems in another. Consumer perceptions of what makes a sustainable product may be at odds with the real-world data, and you and your client need to know how to create a truly sustainable message without ‘greenwashing’. When done correctly, however, design with sustainability at its core is a force for innovation. Most of what you read here is discussed every day at design schools and companies. Use these tips, principles, strategies, and guidelines to inform your design process and to help you underpin your presentations and design reports.

By now, you must have received a zillion warning messages that human life on earth needs to quickly become more sustainable, or else. No more of that. Each page of this book provides short and well-illustrated opportunities to help you participate in design for sustainability projects. These themes are currently part of ongoing discussions at design schools, government institutions, and companies. The cluster of challenges seems overwhelming, but there’s a shimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. You’re lucky, because you’re now able to better participate in a pleasurable and rewarding activity: reducing humanity’s planetary harm.

This book is not a call for action. You’ve already started.

The only way to effectively approach sustainability is from a systems perspective. You need to consider a wide perspective before diving into details.

There are no ready-made design approaches that guide you through all that is important about sustainability. Instead, you must learn to patch together a series of different approaches, frameworks, and visions in order to build a sustainable solution. These are presented here as benchmarks. Use these to better understand and shape your own sustainable design process.

Some benchmarks clearly indicate what should be done and how to go about it, others are more ambiguous; they’ll help you reflect on your norms and values as a designer. Sustainability is going to become more important as time passes. Work with these benchmarks. Choose the ones you like best and use them to improve your sustainable design skills. It will make you a better designer, if nothing else.

The first law of thermo-dynamics states that energy can be converted in form, but it can neither be created nor destroyed. The unit of energy is the Joule, the amount of work needed to move an object over a distance of one meter with a force of one Newton. Human civilization requires loads of energy to function which it gets from energy resources such as fossil fuels, nuclear fuel, or renewables. The processes of Earth’s climate and ecosystem are driven by the radiant energy Earth receives from the Sun and the geothermal energy contained within the earth.

Implicit use of the notion of time is standard procedure. Time deserves more and better. It’s about the length of time products and services are taken care of; the time they’re expected to last, as well as what happens afterwards. Things are used for a certain time, which is part of the time they exist. Nibble on time for a while and taste where it takes you.

Sustainable business risks are different. They manifest themselves over a longer period. Energy availability, legislation, material flows, new responsibilities: these risks affect businesses on many dimensions. Largely they are outside the organization’s estimated control. Some things you can foresee, such as demographics and climate change. Other things you can specifically prepare for: pandemics, floods. But don’t neglect the unexpected. Stay alert. By the way, not all change is disastrous.

The sheer amount of data that our systems process is far larger than humanity can ever come to terms with. Energy consumption is soaring, and this is only gradually getting noticed. Data centers are a silent bunch. Interrelationship between hardware and software power is driving an upward running spiral of increasing deceptive perfection. It’s not that complicated to dampen these effects, all it needs is care.