Incomplete Manifesto for Sustainability

Forget Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The 3 keywords for sustainable design are Lifespan, Locality and Liability. Inspired by Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, here’s my Incomplete Manifesto for Sustainability.

1. Investing in green architecture is like changing a light bulb. A cheaper bulb will save you money now, but will cost you more over the longer term. The same goes for traditional construction methods. It might be cheaper now, but over the longer term the building will use more energy. Look at the lifespan, aka the Total Cost of Ownership.

2. Think global, act local. It’s an old one, but still valid. A focus on locality, or proximity, reduces the carbon footprint immediately. Working from home saves oil and time. Locally generated energy saves you money and prevents losses as a result of transmission over the energy grid.

3. Your suppliers are liable for their carbon footprints. You are the one that can demand responsibility in logistics, in certification, and in production. Alternatively, a leasing arrangement can guarantee your supplier’s commitment. Everything can be leased.

4. Use nature’s free energy. As we got carried away by the marvels of the machine age, we forgot about the clever design solutions of our ancestors. We can do with a lot less energy if we would use the sun, the wind and the rain the way they did. It’s called passive design.

5. Sustainability is not a checklist. BREEAM and LEED are useful as points of departure. But if they are used as objectives, they will replace innovation with a tickbox mentality.

6. Sustainability can only work when it is rewarding in terms of environment and revenue. Anyone with kids will tell you that reward is more effective than punishment. The prospect of making profits with sustainable investment will therefore work better than governmental sanctioning.

7. To be continued… More to follow. Suggestions are welcome.

Maurits, the author, is a Dutch architect currently working and living in the UK. As he has a daytime job and a family, most work on this blog is being done at night. More info here.