Sustainability Design

In my last post, I mentioned industrialization and how modern technology allows us to create more sustainable buildings / technology. Today, I read the chapter called sustainable design. Sustainable design is building and designing products and architecture to benefit the environment. This is important for the environment because buildings are a large percentage of energy use, material use, and portable water use. Sustainable design also benefits the economy and society because they lower future costs and it has many health benefits. Portland, Oregon has started a program to reduce emissions from transportation. Portland is has the largest percent of bicycling commuters in the country and enacted the Climate Change Action Plan.

“The focus of design has been on creating a building that is affordable, serves the purpose for which it was intended, lasts a long time, and is comfortable for its residents. Green building considers these factors in addition to the building’s environmental footprint.” This quote shows that finally many people are altering the focus of the design to help the environment and not just accommodate low costs and other purposes. In many buildings, sustainability has become a key part in the design process.

I think it’s interesting how sustainable design has financial benefits because it seems many people avoid this for that reason. However, it the long run it lowers utility costs extremely.

In the “What can you do” section of the chapter it mentioned going to town meetings to talk about transportation policies and action plans. I think it would be very interested to attend a meeting similar to that in Portland.