designing for sustainability

California architect Sym van der Ryn calls the environmental crisis a design crisis:

"It is a consequence of how things are made, buildings are constructed and landscapes are used." Sustainable Design finds new ways to design our built environment so that the earth can be restored and healed and the human spirit strengthened. If poor design is a major part of the problem, good design is certainly a key part of the solution.

Which is not to say that I, as a consumer, am absolved of responsibility for the choices I make. I can choose good design or bad design. There are more efficient lightbulbs, fridges, cars and a whole range of products that have reduced impact on the environment than the standard fare. If we all made better choices, if we insisted on buying products that were low-impact, and if we altogether reduced consumption of products that use energy and water in their manufacture and operation, the environment would thank us.

Some choices have obvious impacts. A 4x4 uses more fuel and contributes more to greenhouse gases than a Toyota Prius. But to expect consumers to understand the implications of all their choices is asking a bit much. Improved labeling of products will raise awareness, but in many cases the manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers themselves don't understand enough to adequately guide consumer decisions.

It's partly because of the complexity of the issues that it's not enough to rely on market forces to get us out of the environmental crisis. Intervention is needed on a number of levels to ensure that design decisions are carbonsmart. At its most basic level, this is the purpose of the gathering of scientists right now in Bali. The politicians and their negotiators are there to make sure that geopolitical interests are taken into account, but the process would otherwise be a reasonably technical debate about how to guide design decisions so that they consider the impacts of carbon on the environment.

If Bali COP 13 and the next two years of negotiations manage to produce a workable solution, then it will be down to individual countries to meet agreed climate change targets. Countries will establish incentives and other mechanisms to guide consumers and businesses and designers, who - the theory goes - will make low-carbon choices or pay more dearly for choices that exact a heavy ecological cost.

South Africa has established a very positive national policy framework for moving towards more sustainable design practice with regard to urban planning. What is missing, aside from specific emissions targets, is education of local government authorities who are responsible for approving planning applications. Design professionals, after educating themselves through efforts like those of Dendrite Studios, need to motivate sustainable designs to government authorities. Although national policy supports sustainable design, local guidelines and standards often contradict this, and need to be amended. This can be a challenge, but is an important step in reordering urban life to be environmentally sustainable.