The Power of Sustainable Design

In looking at sustainable design, its implications on the world beyond innovative architecture, aesthetically trendy products, and positive environmental influence carry with them the possibility to reduce and even eradicate poverty. Though poverty is present in every major city, every growing suburb, and even tiny towns, it primarily exists in some of the most remote areas of the world. In these places, systems, governments, and organizations may be unable to successfully act as a catalyst to a better life for the impoverished due to an infinite number of problems that arise when poverty is an inherent result of societal and political structures. 

Around the world, an astounding majority of the world’s poor are unable to afford homes of their own. Likewise, their access to clean sources of water and energy are virtually nonexistent - creating an endless cycle of worsening health and inability to escape from the seemingly endless bubble of poverty. Sustainable design, given its nature, holds one of many keys to solving the problems faced by today’s less-fortunate.

Systems that can create clean, reusable, and sustainable sources of water and clean energy can potentially revolutionize the world. Imagine a tiny village of shanty towns that could suddenly create their own source of water, their own source of energy, and their own way to a better future. They cannot do it alone.

Sustainable design must first emerge from its current state into a wider and more open paradigm that can be applied to all situations: architectural, design, societal, and environmental. From there, it can continue to evolve and be applied to many of the world’s problems, in effect creating a better and cleaner tomorrow.