Knowra Sustainable design Sustainable design Sustainable design shapes products, buildings, and systems to reduce environmental harm and support social and economic well-being across their life cycles.
Life-cycle assessment : A method for estimating the environmental impacts of a product or system across its life cycle. It reveals impacts from extraction through production, use, and disposal.
Passive house : A building standard emphasizing very low energy demand through insulation, airtightness, ventilation, and careful design. It shows how form and envelope design can reduce operational energy.
Planned obsolescence : A strategy of limiting a product's useful life or desirability to encourage replacement. It conflicts with designing for durability, repair, and reduced material throughput.
Environmental justice : The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in environmental policies and decisions. It asks whose health and communities bear the costs of materials and production.
Strong sustainability : The view that some forms of natural capital cannot be replaced by human-made capital. It questions whether design efficiencies can compensate for ecological losses.
Circular economy : An economic model that keeps products and materials in use through reuse, repair, remanufacture, and recycling. It replaces the linear take-make-waste pattern with regenerative material flows.
Biophilic design : An approach to design that incorporates connections to nature in buildings and other environments. It links human well-being to the design of inhabited spaces.
Ecological modernization : The view that economic growth and environmental protection can advance together through technological and institutional change. It frames sustainability as reform within existing production systems.
Social life-cycle assessment : A method for assessing social impacts and risks associated with a product's life cycle. It extends evaluation beyond ecological impacts to workers and communities.
Weak sustainability : The view that losses in natural capital can be offset by increases in other forms of capital. It permits substitutions that strong sustainability rejects.
Show all 27