How Can Sustainability Affect Design - Book Report/Review Example

How can sustainability affect design? Summary of the book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things by McDonough William and Braungart Michael It is an imaginative and educative book aimed at scientists and designers makes for amazing reading. Cradle to cradle book tries to unify norms and values of technology, environmental protection, and business with new set of design tenets for sustainable design. McDonough William an architect and Braungart Michael a chemist from German concur that the current industrial practices and activities are flawed in that increased reforms and regulation aimed at decreasing consumption will not be able to address environmental damage and merely reduce its path. Against the principles of environmentalists and industrialists, the authors assert that the current flawed and poor design features of conventionally manufactured goods together with misdirected reform agendas lead to large wastes and inefficient recycling of waste products. However, the authors propose a new way to deal with the problems of design (McDonough and Braungart 25). They call for a system that promotes consumption and growth called cradle-to-cradle approach whereby even the disposal of a good is devised as an input into the next cycle. In addition, the authors hope that their proposed design tenets will establish a system where disposed products or waste equals food or usable products just like the flourish of a cherry tree. It is significant to note that this design system will depend on a strict division between technical and biological nutrients and a notion of goods as service. For instance, television sets can be upgraded or rented rather than being bought, discarded or consumed (McDonough and Braungart 25). From the book, it is easy to understand and recall the multidisciplinary nature of environment and the new scientific ideas and design tenets or principles that can change how products are manufactured. In sum, the authors argue that products or goods might be designed so that after their use or time, they offer nourishment for something new either as technical nutrients that works within certain industrial cycles without being downcycled into unsuitable or low-grade utilizations or as biological nutrients that re-enter the environment safely. Therefore, attaining the great economic change to more ecologically and equitable sustainable societies needs a revolution in design beyond modern fossilized industrialism (McDonough and Braungart 36). How sustainability affects design The use of sustainable design aims to decrease negative influence on the environment, and the comfort and health of building occupants in turn enhancing building performance. Sustainability aims to minimize waste, create productive and healthy environment and decrease consumption of non-renewable resources. As seen in the book, Cradle to Cradle, sustainable design tenets or principles include the potential to utilize environmental friendly products, conserve and protect water, and optimize maintenance and operational practices. Using sustainable design principles and ideals encourages and motivates decisions at each stage of the design process that will in turn reduce negative consequences on the environment and the health of the people without affecting the products. A holistic and integrated approach encourages tradeoffs and compromise (McDonough and Braungart 41). This implies that such a holistic and integrated approach influences positively all stages of building’s life cycle and other important products. The Cradle-to-Cradle approach reveals that the idea of cradle to grave can be forgotten because products have an entry and exit avenue in the consumption lifecycle. For example, a product is manufactured, consumed and then the waste is recycled for another use. Sustainable design encourages environmental sustainability, which is about finding ways in which organizations can maintain their basic operations while still minimizing the risk of negatively affecting the environment with any waste products. To be environmentally sustainable, organizations have to come up with more environmentally friendly ways of conducting business. At present, the environmental issues being discussed in most industries have to do with sustainability, waste management, the efficient use of energy, the clean-up practices used for waste products, and methods of recycling used goods. Sustainability has to do with using corporate assets in a way that lessens the possibility of them ruining the environment. For example, organizations can come up with ways of using less electricity or paper (McDonough and Braungart 57-63). There is a progress gaining momentum globally, which is redefining goals of industries, institutions, government and cooperate entities. Policies are re-evaluated, there is upgrading of infrastructure, and redesigning of programs occurs due to the movement. All the above are in effort to cope with environmental and development issues. The new social idea is a phenomenon that is multifaceted referred as sustainable development (McDonough and Braungart 48). Sustainability deals with availability of energy, management of resource, integrating policies, ecosystems of environment, urban programs and the concept that quality results are in collaborative ways with intensive effort. Sustainability has both global and local implications. This progress offers challenges and opportunities for experts in management, engineering, architecture, and planning (McDonough and Braungart 78). For example, in order to reduce environmental degradation, airline manufacturers can modernize their airline fleets by purchasing more fuel-efficient airplanes. The designers of commercial airplanes have to face the challenge of balancing several factors to attain the most favorable airplane design. This would result in less fuel usage while also improving the discharge of emissions, maintaining cruise speed, and reducing the level of noise factors that the designers have to consider include range, operating cost, reliability, payload, takeoff field length, maintainability, landing speed, and initial cruise altitude. In most suggestions for fuel efficiency, the improvements run counter to constraints affected by the prevailing market forces or aircraft manufacturers. In sum, the paper gives people an insight concept of the importance of environment as our natural recourse. The environment plays a major role in the future and economy globally. Measures of protecting and sustain environment need to be given priority since they are crucial for both flora and fauna survival. Industrialists need to adopt sustainability principles so that every wasteful material is turned into food. Agriculture and businesses also have roles to play in the development of sustainable environment. Work Cited McDonough William and Braungart Michael. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the way we make things. New York, NY: North Point Press, 2002. Print. Read More