Principles of Green Design

By Nathaniel Rhine

While the practical application varies among disciplines, some common principles are as follows:

1. Low-impact materials. Choose non-toxic, sustainably-produced or recycled materials which require little energy to process.

2. Energy efficiency: Use manufacturing processes and produce products which require less energy.

3. Quality and durability: Longer-lasting and better functioning products will have to be replaced less frequently, reducing the impacts of producing replacements.

4. Design fro reuse and recycling: Products, processes, and systems should be designed for performance in a commercial “afterlife.”

5. Sustainable design standards and project design guides are also increasingly available and are vigorously being developed by a wide array of private organizations and individuals. There is also a large body of new methods emerging from the rapid development of what has become known as “sustainability science” promoted by a wide variety of educational and governmental institutions.

6. Biomimicry: Redesigning industrial systems on biological lines enabling the constant reuse of materials in continuous closed cycles.

7. Healthy buildings: Sustainable building design aims to create buildings that are not harmful to their occupants or to the larger environment. An important emphasis is on indoor environmental quality, especially indoor air quality.

In the future postings, I intend to write more about this subject matter for it is something that is being talked about as of late. Many people think that it is a fad or a phase that the world is going trough, however, many, including myself believe that it is the beginning of a relatively new philosophy that will bear fruits, worldwide. Once those fruits have been harvested, no longer will green design be a fad or a phase. Rather, it will become a way of life.