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Sustainability and Design
Ethics
Sustainability and Design
Ethics
Second Edition

Jean Russ
CRC Press
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For my good friend Thomas G. Mudra

and always to Karla

Contents

Preface ......................................................................................................................ix
Preface to the Second Edition ............................................................................ xiii
Acknowledgments ................................................................................................xv
Acknowledgments for the Second Edition ..................................................... xvii
Author ................................................................................................................... xix

1. Why Does Prometheus Suffer?....................................................................1

Sustainability and Design ..............................................................................2
Unsustainable ..............................................................................................2
What Is Sustainability?............................................................................... 3
Why Sustainability Is Needed?......................................................................9
Selling Sustainability................................................................................ 12
Endnotes.......................................................................................................... 16

2. Professional Ethics ....................................................................................... 19

What Is a Profession?..................................................................................... 19
“Due Diligence” in Codes of Ethics ....................................................... 23
Assessing Due Diligence ......................................................................... 23
Evaluating Codes of Ethics ........................................................................... 30
Sustainability and the Ethical Challenges for Designers.........................34
Bibliography....................................................................................................44
Endnotes.......................................................................................................... 45

3. Is There an Ethical Obligation to Act Sustainably? .............................. 49

Theories of Ethics ........................................................................................... 49
What Obligations Do We Have to Other Living Things? ...................54
Utilitarian Views of Nature ..................................................................... 55
Speciesism .................................................................................................. 57
Who Owns the Environment? ..................................................................... 60
Nature as Property ...................................................................................63
The Value of Property and Nature .........................................................64
Reconciling Private Property and Sustainability .................................65
Do No Harm .............................................................................................. 67
Role of Professional Standards .................................................................... 68
Endnotes.......................................................................................................... 69
viii Contents

4. The Design Professional and Organizations.......................................... 73

Balancing Obligation and Opportunity ..................................................... 73
Can There Be Deeds Without Doers? ..................................................... 76
Ethical Agency ...........................................................................................77
The Descent of Corporate Obligation ......................................................... 79
Business and Sustainability .....................................................................83
Growth in Sustainable Business Practices............................................. 85
Why Should Corporations Be Viewed as Having Moral
Responsibility? .......................................................................................... 88
The Duty of the Corporation to Professional Employees.................... 89
Justification for a Whistle-blower ................................................................ 96
Endnotes........................................................................................................ 100

5. The Choice for Sustainability .................................................................. 107

The Design Professional as Leader ........................................................... 108
Standards Cannot Produce a Sustainable World .................................... 110
Sustainability and Obligation .................................................................... 116
Science and Design ...................................................................................... 118
Sustainability and Design Ethics............................................................... 122
Endnotes........................................................................................................ 125

6. The Precautionary Principle and Design .............................................. 127

Moral Underpinnings of the Precautionary Principle ........................... 129
Precautionary Principle and Design ......................................................... 135
What Do We Owe the Future? .............................................................. 137
Duty to Prevent Harm ............................................................................ 138
Precaution and Design ................................................................................ 140
Endnotes........................................................................................................ 141

7. Flourishing................................................................................................... 145
What Ought We Do? .................................................................................... 147
Designer as Teacher ..................................................................................... 149
Design Values ............................................................................................... 151
Designer as Student ..................................................................................... 157
Endnotes........................................................................................................ 159

Appendix A ......................................................................................................... 161

Appendix B.......................................................................................................... 171
Index ..................................................................................................................... 175
Preface

If you have picked up this book based on the title, you are probably interested
in or involved with design in some capacity. Most people of my acquaintance
who are so involved have thought about what sustainability means in terms
of their work and whether and how to embrace it. There is some reticence
to being on the “bleeding edge” of new approaches and thinking when you
are in the business of design. So many designers and design practices wait
and plan to arrive with sustainable design services when there is market
demand. That time may be upon us. The growth in interest and demand for
energy efficiency in homes and commercial buildings has grown dramati-
cally in only the last few years, and the number of “green buildings” has fol-
lowed suit. Still, these buildings represent a very small portion of the actual
buildings completed each year. The demand for “green” products has also
increased, so that, in many cases, it is difficult to determine what green actu-
ally means. These may be signals of the shift in marketplace, or they may be
moments of popularity that will fade with the next great idea. I believe they
are the former.
It is not that as a society we will have gained some sort of transcendent
wisdom when it comes to the environment, although there is clearly some
awakening in terms of our environmental consciousness. Rather, we will
embrace “green” because it makes economic sense to do so and because the
market will respond to the economic demand. Faced with increases in cli-
mate uncertainty, rising energy costs, and the pressures on food, water, and
services from ever-greater world and national populations, we will adapt. I
believe many of those adaptations will be centered around what we call sus-
tainable design, because the sustainable argument simply makes more sense
when all of the costs and benefits are tallied up.
When work on this project started, I focused on design processes with
which I was familiar. I am a landscape architect, and so, I am more familiar with
site design and landscape restoration processes. As I worked through writ-
ing the book, however, I realized that the reasoning applies to any design
process and any design profession. At the heart of design is a core or foun-
dational set of desires and values. This book is concerned with a particu-
lar aspect of professional design—the ethical obligations that sustainability
will create for designers. In my view, it is part of a conversation between
design professionals that constitutes an important part of the evolution of
professional standards of care. It is my intention that this book contributes
something to the long line of books about design ethics but particularly
to that part of it written by designers themselves, such as Raymond Spier,
Edwin Layton Jr., Samuel C. Florman, Tom Spector, Victor Papanek, Thomas
Fisher, William McDonough, and Michael Braungart, and others. The nature
x Preface

of professional ethics is necessarily dynamic, reflecting changes in science,

society, materials, and methods, as well as changes in designers themselves.
It is the premise of this book that we are in a period of significant challenges
and changes that are compelling changes in how we think about design and
what our expectations of outcomes will be. The ethical component of those
changes and challenges has elements of being both cause and effect.
I believe one must approach the subject of ethics carefully. There is a sense
that ethical questions and issues occur in two spaces: in a personal space
and on a professional stage. The latter is subject to discussion and criticism,
but the former tends to be off limits. This book is concerned with the ethical
challenges for the professional acting in the marketplace, on the pubic stage.
There is, however, a sense that the professional is not divorced from his per-
sonal ethics and values. So, in that sense, it is concerned with the values we
bring to our work and how these are expressed in our professional conduct.
Professional and personal ethics are rooted in moral reasoning—whether
or not we engage in them, they are subject to rational analysis. When we
analyze our ethics, we look at the moral reasoning on which they are based
and the rationality of that reasoning. Since this is true, it is possible to have a
rational discussion of how a change in our understanding of the world will
result in a change in our ethical obligations and behavior.
The need for sustainable outcomes from design is apparent in the myriad
of examples we see every day: from food that is unhealthy to eat, to unsafe
children’s toys, to containers that leach toxins into what we eat and drink,
and from products and systems that waste energy and pollute the environ-
ment, to community design that leads to increases in poor health, and so
on. If the process of design is to make manifest the ideas of human creativ-
ity and desire, what do these outcomes say about designers? What values
underlie these designs? The growing demand for sustainable outcomes will
require us to rethink the outcomes expected from our work, and that, in
turn, requires us to rethink the values and ethics that guide our designs.
This book is an attempt to conduct this value analysis and to make a rea-
soned argument for new design values and ethics.
Chapter 1 makes an argument for sustainability and links sustainability
to the design professions, both as an obligation and as an opportunity. The
idea of sustainability is explored in terms of just what it means in general but
more particularly what it means to a designer. Some of the various underly-
ing ideas of how to define sustainability are discussed. The chapter includes
some discussion on what unsustainability is, by considering the results and
impacts of current approaches to design in various fields. It includes the
introduction of several ideas and concerns, which are the subject of subse-
quent chapters.
Chapter 2 is a fairly broad exposition of codes of professional ethics. Codes
of ethics of selected professional groups are reviewed in the context of how
they have evolved to include issues of environmental concern and whether
they might meet some tests of due diligence. The chapter explores the idea of
Preface xi

a profession as distinct from other forms of work and career. The nature and
context of professional obligations are considered. The review of the vari-
ous codes of ethics considered reveals some important information. There
is some consistency across the organizations reviewed, but it is the differ-
ences where interesting facts emerge. Some professions have moved down
the path toward including sustainability within the scope of their code of
ethics, while others are silent on the issue. This suggests that progress is
being made but that we are still in the early stages of adopting a sustainabil-
ity ethos. This discussion leads to a more defined discussion in Chapter 3 as
to whether sustainable design is an ethical obligation for professionals. Can
sustainability be considered an issue of public health, safety, and welfare? If
it can be, what obligations does that create? How are elements of nature and
the environment to be evaluated in the design process? Would an obligation
to design for sustainable outcomes create an obligation to nonhuman life,
to other species? Chapter 3 attempts to provide rational and moral reason-
ing for including sustainable outcomes within the ethical considerations of
design professionals.
Recognizing that most design professionals conduct their work within orga-
nizations as employees, Chapter 4 considers how this might influence the indi-
vidual designer’s ethics and obligations in general. The chapter is concerned
with the professional as an employee and as a supervisor of other profession-
als. Since within organizations and on large projects an individual designer
may only be involved with a small portion of the total project, how does one
make ethical decisions? Where does the obligation exist, and where are there
limits on ethical duty? A fair portion of the chapter is concerned with the ethical
obligation of the professional corporation or the corporation providing design
services. Can a corporation have ethical obligations? What obligations does
a supervisor or corporation have to the professional employee? In the end, if
faced with intractable circumstances, what considerations should the profes-
sional make before making a decision to “blow the whistle” on an employer.
Chapter 5 is concerned with focusing on the arguments made in preceding
chapters on the choice the individual professional and organization makes
to pursue sustainable outcomes. It is concerned with how this might work
in the real world of multiple stakeholders, often with competing interests,
of regulations and design standards that are often decidedly unsustainable.
As the leader of a design process, the design accepts particular obligations,
but as an actor in the real world, where clients can choose from many pro-
fessionals offering services, where there is reluctance to change by those
charged with regulating activities, and where the design synthesis for a sus-
tainable outcome may represent significant departure from past practices,
balancing such obligations can be a challenge.
Since there will always be some degree of uncertainty in even the simplest
design, how can a design professional meet the test of designing for a sustain-
able outcome? The manufactured and built environment is rich with exam-
ples of unintended consequences. It is certain that there will be unintended
xii Preface

consequences in the future that will reduce or mitigate the designer’s intent.
How the individual designer can be certain that she conducted her work
with the appropriate degree of diligence, the precautionary principle, and its
application for designers are all explored in Chapter 6.
The final chapter of the book attempts to summarize the preceding chap-
ters and suggest ways in which the various design professions might meet
the ethical challenges to provide for sustainable outcomes in their work. In
the end, all design is hopeful, and all designers are, at heart, optimists. In
periods of change lie the greatest opportunities for individuals to distin-
guish themselves and for professions to demonstrate why they deserve the
trust of the public. A key component of design is the underlying philoso-
phy or values of the designer. Chapter 7 introduces the idea of what sorts
of design values might facilitate sustainable design and result in desirable
sustainable outcomes.
The purpose of this book is to contribute something to the deliberations
that take place among designers and within organizations, as this period of
adaptation proceeds. I am mindful that no one opinion on these matters can
provide all of the answers. In one sense, the book is meant to raise as many
questions as answers. It will hopefully provoke thoughtful consideration
and discussion as we find our way into the new design paradigms that will
lead to a sustainable future and successful design practices.
Preface to the Second Edition

This second edition is an update of many of the statements and claims

made in the first edition. Some aspects of sustainability as a practice
changed a good deal in the time between the first and second editions. As
a concept, it remains as challenging and as important as ever, perhaps even
more so. Items referenced in the text such as codes of ethics are necessarily
dynamic, and so, references to them require periodic updates. The worlds
of commerce and politics are also dynamic, and, to put it simply, things
change. In the nearly 10 years that have passed since I worked on the first
edition, major changes have occurred in the awareness and commitment of
businesses and governments. The number of organizations with real, measur-
able commitments to sustainability remains small, but there has been real
and meaningful growth in the number and influence of those businesses.
Many national and local governments have set out to become sustainable as
well. Unfortunately, there are still organizations for whom sustainability is
a marketing effort and little more, and the leadership of the federal govern-
ment of the United States has a decidedly backward approach to the idea of
sustainability.
Besides updating some of the references and so on, this edition expands
the discussion of the role of business in sustainability and its relationship to
designers. The consideration of peak organizations has also been expanded
to have a more international scope, including a look at peak organization in
Asia, the European Union, and other parts of the world.
Acknowledgments

It is important to first thank and acknowledge Dr. Albert Anderson of Agora

Press and the author of the paper “Why Prometheus Suffers: Technology
and the Ecological Crises.” Dr. Anderson’s paper was among the things that
helped the ideas that became this book take shape in my mind. His thought-
ful emails in the first days of preparing the manuscript were helpful and
encouraging. This book was prepared with the generous assistance of Robert
B. Ludgate Sr., PE, PLS, Keith Seddon, PhD, Niall Kirkwood, and Zolna
Russell, RLA. I very much appreciated the time and assistance provided
by Mary Hanson from the American Society of Landscape Architects, Tera
Hoke from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Arthur Schwartz
from the National Society of Professional Engineers.
Every author owes a debt of gratitude to those people who listen to the
ideas and arguments as they are born half-baked and incomplete through
the process of preparing a manuscript. Keith Seddon, PhD, provided valu-
able instruction, feedback, and criticism in my first serious reading in the
field of ethics. I am grateful to Robert Ludgate Sr., PE, PLS, for his valuable
mentorship years ago and his comments on the first draft material. I am also
thankful to my colleagues at the College of Southern Maryland, Professor
William Montgomery, Professor Richard Bilsker, and Professor Lee Vines,
for their feedback and input. Without the opportunity provided by Taylor &
Francis Group, this project would not have gone forward; my thanks to
Irma Shagla for her confidence in the project and Jennifer Ahringer for her
able direction and oversight in the production of this book. My friend Tom
Mudra deserves particular appreciation for his challenging questions and
advice, willingness to listen, and no-nonsense critiques. Finally, as always,
I rely on my friend and insightful critic Karla Russ for her advice, compan-
ionship, and love.
This book was the product of many conversations, readings, and lessons
over the years as I sought my own sense of the questions of professional
responsibility and environmental integrity. In the end, it is a distillation of
the work and ideas of many people, as processed in my notes and thinking.
As such, while there is much credit to be given, the responsibility for any
errors in the facts or arguments as presented is my own.
Acknowledgments for the Second Edition

This second edition builds directly on the work and the contributions of oth-
ers that went into the first edition, and so, I must acknowledge their con-
tributions once again. In this second edition, I must also acknowledge the
assistance from Dr. Patrick Allen, Richard Bilsker, Robert Ludgate Sr., PE,
George Gibson, and Xu Chunmei. Irma Shagla provided the opportunity
and encouragement along the way, and without her and the staff at Taylor &
Francis Group, this book would not have been possible. Thank you to James
Gavacs and Stephen Russ for their work on the cover image for this edition.
And as always, I appreciate the love and support of Karla, my family, and
my friend Tom Mudra.

Jean Russ
Author

Jean Russ is a graduate of the State University of New York, having com-
pleted the bachelor of science degree in environmental studies. She com-
pleted a master’s degree from Kutztown University, Pennsylvania, after
which she studied ethics in a doctoral program for some time. She is a regis-
tered landscape architect and the author of five books, including Brownfield
Redevelopment, The Site Planning and Design Handbook, and the first edition of
this book. As a design professional, Ms. Russ was a principal in several firms
and acted as project manager in numerous development and brownfield proj-
ects. Ms. Russ currently serves as the chair of the Science and Engineering
Division at the College of Southern Maryland.
1
Why Does Prometheus Suffer?

Art is simply a right method of doing things. The test of the artist does not
lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work
he produces.

Thomas Aquinas

In Greek mythology, Prometheus plays the important role of bringing the

technical arts to humans in the form of fire. Dr. Albert Anderson revisits this
story from Plato’s Protagoras in a paper entitled “Why Prometheus Suffers:
Technology and the Ecological Crises”1 and finds important parallels from
the story of Prometheus and our contemporary concerns with ecological cri-
ses and sustainability. In the myth, the Titans, Epimetheus, and Prometheus
(Epimetheus means “afterthought” and Prometheus means “forethought”)
are given the task of distributing the means of survival to each living crea-
ture. Epimetheus asks Prometheus that he be allowed to do it, and with
Prometheus’ agreement, he proceeds. Under Epimetheus, some creatures
are given speed, some strength or cunning, and others flight, etc. When
Prometheus returns to see how it is going, he discovers that Epimetheus has
finished his task but there is nothing left to give to humans. He observes
humans’ discomfort: hungry, cold, and defenseless, and he pities them.
So, Prometheus steals fire from Olympus and with it the technical arts for
humans. With these gifts, so Plato tell us, we acquired the ability to know
things, to build, to engineer, and to use letters that allow us to “hold all
things in memory.” However, these gifts are not distributed equally among
all people and therefore some are good with trade work, others are good
with smithing, others are skilled at war, and so on.
Zeus observes humans with their new capabilities and finds them to still be
wanting; they are unorganized and without virtue. Hermes is directed by Zeus
to go to Earth and to give people the civic arts “to bring respect and right among
men, to the end that there should be regulation of cities and friendly ties to draw
them together.” Hermes inquires if these civic arts should be distributed as were
the arts stolen by Prometheus (one given the medical arts, another carpentry, a
third farming, and so on). Zeus says, no, “Let them all have their share; for cities
cannot be formed if only a few have a share of these as of other arts.”
Zeus punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a rock at the top of a mountain.
Each day, Prometheus is visited by Zeus in the form of an eagle, who proceeds
to tear at and devour his liver. Each night, he is restored, only to be tormented
2 Sustainability and Design Ethics

again the following day. Why does Zeus punish Prometheus? Prometheus suf-
fers because of the problem created by giving men fire and technology but not
the civic virtue to complement them. Zeus understood that if there is to be bal-
ance and good in society, then the civic arts must accompany the technical arts.
Prometheus is punished because, as having the gift of forethought, he should
have known that by stealing only the technical gifts, humans would become
“A menace to themselves, to other creatures and to the earth itself.”
Professor Anderson asserts in his paper and in a new translation of the
Protagoras dialogue2 that our crisis is not one of technology but rather one of
philosophy. Prometheus suffers because he had the capability to know better
but did not act on it. We have tended to see and respond to ecological crises
and environmental imbalance with an Epimethean philosophy, that is, as an
afterthought rather than with forethought. What is required, perhaps, is a
Promethean Philosophy of looking forward.

Sustainability and Design

Our society is in the process of recognizing that our relationship with nature
and the environment must change. For some, it seems as if this recognition is
terribly slow in coming, if indeed it is even coming along quick enough. For oth-
ers, the pace and concerns driving it seem to be rushing forward, even threat-
ening to the familiar old ways of our experience. Whether the rate of change is
too slow or fast is probably best judged from some future perspective, but that
significant change is underway, necessary, and widely acknowledged. Truly,
some are in a position to better see the need and observe the pace of change.
Many indigenous people and those with the training and interest to measure
the losses to the diversity and quality of the environment have spoken out for
decades, perhaps longer. As the data has accumulated and the observations
have become more obvious and easier to detect, more of us have acknowledged
that, indeed, our decisions and actions have significant and detrimental impli-
cations on the environment. The scope and scale of the problems are so large
and daunting, many are uncertain about what they might do in the face of this
knowledge. Design professionals of all stripes are among those best suited by
education and profession to provide answers to the questions and solutions for
the problems. However, defining just what sustainability is can be problematic.
In some ways, it may be like quality, hard to define, but you tend to know it
when you see it. Still, an alternative to business as usual is called for.

Unsustainable
“Sustainable America—A New Consensus for Prosperity, Opportunity and
a Healthy Environment for the Future” was published by the President’s
Council on sustainable development in 1996.3 The report identified 10 goals
Why Does Prometheus Suffer? 3

of sustainable development, but the first three could be viewed as the most
important: (1) health and the environment, (2) economic prosperity, and
(3) equity. In this context, equity refers to social equity (equal opportunity)
and intergenerational equity (equity for future generations). It is widely recog-
nized that to meet these goals, we must change the way we behave. In a very
real sense, economic prosperity has been pursued with less than commen-
surate attention to social equity and environmental sustainability. Indeed, at
times, there is an outright antagonism between those advocating “progress”
and those voices speaking for social equity and environmental sustainability.
Adopting paradigms of sustainability will require us to reconcile our eco-
nomic interests with our environmental interests and social inequities.
Unfortunately, since the start of the President’s Council on Sustainable
Development (PCSD) in 1996, results have been uneven at best. President
Obama tried to lift the council from its fairly moribund state in 2012 by
committing the US federal government to various goals and initiatives, which
resulted in some successes, but the actual results of that effort were spotty.
Among the most important and visible steps toward sustainability has been
the growth in wind and solar power generation, which resulted from federal
and state support as well as from changes in the cost of solar equipment.
From the beginning, the Trump administration has worked against sus-
tainability on most fronts. Appointees to the Environmental Protection
Agency and Departments of Energy and Interior proudly and aggressively
pursue an anti-environment and anti-sustainability mission requiring busi-
ness and public interest groups to go to court again and again to protect
gains made in the recent past. If there is good news in current events, it is
in the pale hope for better days. A more substantive hope might be seen—
after the 2016 election, the members of the Corporate Eco Forum convened
a closed roundtable discussion and concluded that the current climate in
Washington, DC, will not affect their moves toward sustainability.4 A total of
60% of businesses responding to a survey in 2016 indicated that the changes
in administration would not impact their sustainability goals, and another
third admitted that it would slow them down, but progress would continue.5

What Is Sustainability?
There is a conversation within the design and planning professions that has
been underway in one form or another for more than two decades. The con-
versation revolves around several concerns. First, what is sustainability and
how is to be “sold” to clients and stakeholders? Perhaps the most common
definition for sustainability was crafted in 1987 at the World Commission
on Environment and Development, often referred to as the Brundtland
Commission, “Development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
This definition captures the concept in broad strokes that are difficult to
translate into action. In the final analysis, sustainability is complex, perhaps
4 Sustainability and Design Ethics

irreducibly so, but does it follow that sustainable design is also complex? The
sustainable design is, in one sense, not an attempt to recreate nature from
scratch but to mitigate the impacts of our actions on the existing system.
To some extent, the term sustainability has become almost meaningless.
We may share a general sense of what we think we mean by sustainable, but
there may be considerable difference of opinion when the details are to be
thrashed about, and, of course, design is about details. Design is a process
of bringing the imagined into reality. It is art and science, it is technical and
creative, it is practical, and it is beautiful. It does not thrive or produce its
best result when constrained by preset conditions. Ultimately, if the products
of design are to be valuable, they must serve the interests of society. In this
sense of “value,” the products of designers are a reflection of our more fun-
damental values. Professor Anderson was correct in his paper when he pos-
ited that the ecological crisis that he was concerned about was not a failure of
technology but rather a failure of philosophy. In fact, we know how to design
“sustainably” for the most part, but we do not do so for a variety of reasons.
Even with those reasons, we now understand that if the product of our work
treats nature as an afterthought, we do harm ourselves, others, and nature
largely because we value other things more. If we intend to design the ele-
ments of a sustainable world, then we must first have the values that direct
such work. The design will reflect our values. Perhaps, a Promethean ethic
will be manifested after all; a sustainable society will have the underlying
values that produce sustainability in its products and the built environment.
As the various definitions suggest that to become a sustainable society, we
must balance the interests of the present with the interests of the future in
such a way as to realize opportunity within the limitations of the environ-
ment. Environmental concern in the modern economy is commonly con-
sidered a luxury, less necessary, or even desirable when more fundamental
(economic) outcomes are not being met. In this view, the environment and
the economy are often viewed as adversarial by nature, environmental
concerns are often portrayed in terms of the negative impact on economic
concerns, and sustainability requires us to find a meaningful resolution
between them. In point of fact, sustainability requires us to maintain a qual-
ity environment and a robust economy in other than the zero-sum approach
of the past. A weak economy or a lack of opportunity invites environmen-
tal degradation, if only, because individuals will act in their own interests.
When those interests are threatened or impacted, concern with the environ-
ment is reduced.
Abraham Maslow wrote that we are motivated to fulfill needs, starting
with the most fundamental physiological requirements for air, water, and
food and proceeding through needs for safety, love, and ultimately self-
esteem.6 We tend to focus on the more fundamental needs and move on to
higher needs only when the more basic desires are satisfied. In the end, we
must understand that sustainability requires a healthy growing economy
and a robust economy can exist only within a healthy and diverse nature.
Why Does Prometheus Suffer? 5

Modern developed societies are primarily economic constructs; in practice,

we are homo economicus, perhaps more than we are homo sapiens.
The environment, or our current valuation of it, can be described in broad
economic terms as capital and resources. If capital is wealth that we might
invest to generate more wealth, then nature provides capital in the form
of stocks of materials and services that can be used to generate wealth or
from which we might draw utility. If managed sustainably, the supply of
wood from forests, or fish from the sea, can provide a stream of products
indefinitely. The forest also contributes oxygen to the atmosphere, pumps
water into the air, and provides other important environmental “services.”
Likewise, a functioning wetland provides a range of services, from water
treatment to flood buffering. Healthy natural landscapes invite economic
activity in terms of tourism and outdoor recreation in addition to the array
of natural services they provide. Like economic wealth, the idea is to use the
natural capital to generate greater wealth but never to spend the capital itself.
Wealth is generated by investing and managing capital, but it is also
generated by consuming resources. Resources are consumed to make new
wealth. Oil used as fuel is consumed; once used, it is no longer useful as a
resource. When we harvest forests or fish at a rate that is unsustainable, we
are treating our natural capital as a resource. Eating the seed corn as it were
reduces the natural capital available, which by definition is an unsustainable
act. Natural resources are generally only considered valuable in terms of how
they might be consumed. There is often little incentive to manage resources
in such a way as to ensure continued, albeit smaller levels of harvest or
exploitation. This is especially true in the cases of unowned or public resources
such as fisheries and forests. In competitive marketplaces, the individual often
has little incentive to conserve or limit consumption to sustainable levels in
the interest of the future or the community at large. Instead, in the absence of
a future benefit that outweighs current satisfaction, the incentive is to take as
much as possible. Finding a means to incentivize conservation and resource
management is necessary to find a willing partner in the fisherman and logger.
Various attempts to provide this incentive have met with some success around
the world. For example, dividing a fishery into shares owned by commercial
fishermen changes their relationship to the resource in a fundamental way.
Earlier, the resource was not owned by anyone, and so, it was in the short-term
interest of every fisherman to maximize his take. If the fishery is owned in
shares and the fisherman is entitled to a predetermined share of the take, it is
in his interest to have the fishery grow, so his share is larger. Early tests of this
approach have shown promise.7
In the end though, sustainability expands our view of nature as capital
to be invested and limits the use of nature as a resource whenever possible.
This view of nature as capital or resource is at the heart of the rational argu-
ment for sustainable design. It is clear that resources are generally finite in
nature. Even renewable resources can be considered as finite if the rate of
consumption exceeds the sustainable yield, as it often does. Consumption,
6 Sustainability and Design Ethics

even at a nominal rate, by a growing population of more than 6.5 billion peo-
ple, can quickly overwhelm the rate at which a given resource can replenish
itself. Thomas Malthus anticipated in his essay “An Essay on the Principle of
Population” that a growing population would increase at a rate faster than
food supply.8 He observed that while populations might increase exponen-
tially, the growth of agricultural production was arithmetic or linear. Within
some time, the number of people would be greater than the ability of a soci-
ety to feed them. He also observed that as populations grew, the availability
of surplus labor would drive wages down. More recently, Jared Diamond has
written how societies sometimes consume their resources to such a degree
that it leads to or contributes to a failure of the society as a whole. In part,
sustainability is about resource management and protection and moving
some natural resources into the natural capital account.
The issue is often described as one of consumption; if we simply use less
stuff, the world will be a better place. That might be true, but it might just as
well be true it is not simply the amount of consumption but the resources and
processes necessary to facilitate what we consume. Consumption is natural,
and everything consumes in the natural order of existence. Consumption in
and of itself cannot be bad, but there is no free lunch either. If we allow our-
selves to consume our way to failure, then we shall fail. There is ultimately
a finite supply of material things. Certainly, technology will enable to adopt
new methods to use new materials to avoid consequences of flagging sup-
plies of a resource. The Green Revolution utilized new methods and agricul-
tural inputs and cheap energy to produce more food. It now widely agreed
that those techniques have some significant costs and become increasingly
more expensive to maintain. Perhaps, genetically modified food is the next
Green Revolution. But who can know at this point? Consumption will con-
tinue, but sustainability requires that we recognize all of the costs and miti-
gate the effects of unsustainable consumption.
Sustainability has also been described as occurring on a continuum
between weak-side and strong-side sustainability. Weak-side sustainability
is also sometimes called the “constant capital rule.” In this view, an act is
considered sustainable as long as the amount of capital in a system remains
the same; in other words, we are able to shift capital between categories.
Capital can be found in various forms, ranging from human capital (creativity
and problem solving) to economic capital to natural capital. The weak side
allows capital to be shifted from natural capital to manufacturing capital
or equity in a real-estate development project. So, we can offset losses in
natural capital with concomitant increases in other capital accounts. A loss
in air quality might be sustainable if the economic value of the infrastructure
that caused it were to create an offsetting lasting positive value. In such an
instance, the total capital in the system remains the same for the future.
This would not be the case of, say, mining coal to generate electricity if the
environmental impacts of mining and burning coal were not accounted for.
Since these externalities of coal consumption extend into the future and the
Why Does Prometheus Suffer? 7

electricity generated is consumed almost immediately, there is no offsetting

capital exchange. In this case, the environment is treated as a resource—
consumed in exchange for wealth. Weak-side sustainability requires the
environment to be treated as capital and not consumed as a resource, but it
does allow the exchange of capital between its different forms.
Strong-side sustainability does not provide for shifting capital from one
form to another; natural capital cannot be traded for an increase in real-estate
equity, for example. Proponents of strong-side argument point to “critical
natural capital” in the form of natural systems. We rely on natural systems
to perform arrays of functions and services that are not provided for in the
economy. Strong-side sustainability would require our valuation of nature
to include not only the direct value of these services but also the systemic
value. For example, the water treatment values of various wetlands have
been calculated as ranging into the millions of dollars per year.9 Others have
calculated the value of wetlands in absorbing floods or acting as groundwa-
ter recharge zones. What is the systemic value of wetlands in a watershed?
How do we account for the contribution that a given wetland makes toward
maintaining biodiversity? Much of our attention, and therefore our regula-
tory approach, is focused toward managing the unique or the endangered,
but what are the systemic values of the ordinary places and routine func-
tions? When does the accumulated loss or degradation result in catastrophic
failure of a system? Strong-side sustainability argues that “critical natural
capital” cannot be equated to other forms of capital, since the valuation does
not account for such systemic values.
So, our considerations may occur on a continuum anchored by these com-
peting views of strong- and weak-side sustainability. This continuum of
sustainability ranges from permitting actions that involve an exchange of
capital between types (natural capital in exchange for economic capital for
example) to prohibiting any exchange between forms of capital. The prob-
lems are obvious. If the cost of offsetting environmental impacts exceeds
the economic value of a project, the project is not economically sustainable.
If we account for the true environmental costs of a project and they exceed
the economic benefit, how should the project be assessed? On the one hand,
arguments come down to balancing cost models, but on the other, we are
hamstrung from most undertaking any but the most simple economic activi-
ties. Most decisions under these rubrics will require thoughtful analysis to
yield a sustainable outcome; even the idea of a sustainable outcome may dif-
fer widely from one perspective to another, from one place to another, and
from one time to another.
Still, the designer’s interest in sustainability is a practical one. Sustainability
as an objective in design requires a deeper understanding and more measur-
able qualities than what a conceptual continuum will provide. Sustainability
will require important changes in our thinking and values, as described by
Thomas Berry,10 Amory Lovins, William McDonough,11 and many others.
This is especially true of the thinking among certain professional groups.
8 Sustainability and Design Ethics

Engineers, architects, landscape architects, product and industrial design-

ers, and other design and planning professionals play important roles in
the quality of our built environment and its impact on the environment and
the future. Already, many individuals and firms have adopted a “greener”
approach to their work. Still, development proceeds, even with green ele-
ments, with its impacts largely not accounted for. In the design processes in
the United States, the design professional is but one element. Be it commu-
nity officials and regulations, state and federal permits for particular actions,
or regulations to adhere to, there are clients, standards, insurers, interest
groups, and, at last, the consumer, all of whom participate in the process
to a degree more or less. Then, there is the issue of what difference a single
element in an individual project or an individual project itself can make on
development as a whole. In the end, these might be difficult to quantify, but
the overall impact of our decisions is measurable and what we have learned
is that significant and fundamental change is in order.
Perhaps, a fundamental distinction must be made when thinking about
sustainability. The word has taken on a vague gravitas that is used by every-
one from philosophers to car salesmen, but it has no meaning beyond the
context implied by the user. It seems important, but for the most part, we
are not really sure what it means. It seems that there is a need that a book
discussing the ethical implications of sustainability defines the term. The
definition is even more critical from a designer’s point of view, since the
designer shoulders much of the responsibility for synthesizing the form that
our intentions take.
What does it mean to say that design will lead to a sustainable outcome?
The laws of nature dictate that anything we might conceive to manufac-
ture or build will require the use of materials and energy. McDonough and
Braungart have articulated compelling and workable principles that would
lead to sustainable outcomes.12 These involve a fundamental rethinking of
how we evaluate and use materials and energy, how the things we design
function, and how we define quality. In other words, these involve a rethink-
ing of our values in a fundamental way, of how we might move from the
current values and thinking about design to sustainable values and design.
The discussion of sustainability among designers is broad. It encompasses
the entire continuum of weak to strong sustainability.
Practicing designers have practical issues and concerns. Discussions of
sustainability are replete with anecdotes that support or illustrate whatever
point is trying to be made. In the end, what is needed, and what one hopes
is at hand, is a fundamental shift in the values that underwrite the design
process. This shift must occur in all stakeholders of the process, but since
the design professionals are the core of the process, perhaps, this needs to
happen with them most of all. Adaptation requires giving up or modifying
the values of the past in favor of new values from which the paradigm of
sustainability will take shape.
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