Designs Contribution to Sustainable Development

Designs contribution to Sustainable Development comes with the reorganization of design world wide to promote producing products that look beyond the way it looks and performs, to consider what goes on when products are made and what happens when they are eventually disposed of. Working with governments, communities and industry, designers are working to prevent pollution and over-consumption from ruining the planet and natural resources we all rely upon. To support this there is a need for urgent development of industrial products and processes, to make them more sustainable, this is good for people, profits, and the planet. (Datschefski, 2001, p. 8-9)


The design brief has been seen as the most crucial part in the entire design process in terms of achieving environmental design strategies. By using the briefing stage to set out environmental criteria, allowing assessment throughout the various design process, and ensuring that environmental design strategies are not being compromised. This way of briefing is only a new consideration, many barriers need to be overcome including cost, lack of information, lack of education, inappropriate legislation, aesthetic and philosophical constraints. With inclusion of all parties involved in the design process, for example environmental scientists, engineers and designers and others, the barriers can be overcome and a greater range of issues covered and integral relationships between the environmental strategies established.

Greater emphasis on the environmental issues at the briefing stage can ensure greater levels of sustainability. During the generation of a design, it becomes increasable difficult and costly to added environmental considerations in later in the process, making decisions made at the briefing stage of least effort and placing importance on decisions made early and increasing the opportunities for greater level of sustainable design and less expensive.

The key design process in a sustainable design process include:

1. Education
• Briefing process
• Educating client of design possibilities
• Nature and the environment
• Lifestyle changes
• Relations to sustainability

2. Development of Functional Brief and Environmental
• Requirements
• Spatial relationships
• Budget
• Aesthetics
• Research
• Environmental strategies and goals

3. Resource Producing Strategies
• Strategies that involve generation of energy, water and food and the treatment and or reuse of waste.

4. Passive Design Strategies
• Strategic responses to climate, site, context, aimed at minimisng impact of the design

5. Material Selection Strategies
• Attempting to minimise impact of the design before its use.

6. Construction Strategies
• On site building practices aimed at minimising the impact of the construction of the building.

Primary Structure
• Minimising existing site disturbance
• Minimising waste during the construction process
• Ease of construction
• Speed of construction
• Maximises volumes to maximise potential air flow
• Adequately allow functional spatial requirements
• Minimise embodied energy
• Materials from renewable resources
• Utilisation of small waste to produce larger elements
• Low embodied energy

7. Cost Planning
• life-cycle costing
• Environmental cost-benefit analyses of the strategies were undertaken.
• Capital cost of the house.


The brief can be a very useful tool for the process of design. It will help the progress in not only the design of a product but help designers refine the way in which things are produced. Constant refinement of the design process will help designers contribute to reaching environmental goals and achieving a sustainable design future for generation to came.

Melissa Stewart