Environmental and Sustainable Design

As we hear the word 'environment' first that comes to our mind is the reduction of waste. Infact environmental design is concerned with minimising waste and reducing consumption of energy and materials. Richard Buckminster Fuller was the pioneer back in the 1920s. His designs were often related to space and science.

Geodesic Dome, 1958

Environemtal design takes into consideratin the products' whole life cycle and the extraction of raw materials. By recycling, energy is still required for the process to end the lifetime of the product and produce it into another one. Sometimes this may question whether it is better to recycle certain things or reuse them. This may occur in the case of plastic bottles versus the glass ones.

By increasing the product durability this minimises waste and energy consumption. Doubling the product life can minimise the environmental impact by half.

On the other hand, sustainable design is a philosophy that values the natural environment as an integral factor in creating new products or modifying old ones. A good example of being sustainable is by converting a landfill gas into energy. This system was pioneered by Emanuel Falzon in 1982 in Australia where he founded his company LMS Energy which reduces gas emissions and provides a local renewable energy source for the community.

References:

Anon, n.d. Buckminster Fuller. [image online] Available at: http://www.spatialagency.net/database/where/knowledge/buckminster.fuller [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Garrison Dale, 2012. Bagpipe. [image online] Available at: http://bagpipeonline.com/?p=8866 [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Anon, n.d. Powering a more sustainable future. [online] Available at: http://www.lms.com.au/ [Accessed 20th January 2014]

Anon, 2010. LMS Energy. [image online] Available at: http://www.climate-connect.co.uk/Home/?q=node/2629 [Accessed 20th January 2014]