Sustainability in industrial design education: developing innovation through local techniques and more holistic constraints

Concern about 'sustainability' is becoming ubiquitous in many domains of life. First emerging in the 1970s, the term quickly spread from ecology to economics and other areas to become a new global philosophy. Today, the concept of 'sustainability' is used in such varying contexts that it has been suggested that any generic meaning is impossible. Thus, in areas such as economic development, it tends to be a catchall term for a range of phenomena. Despite this semantic ambiguity, the term continues to flag lifestyle choices pursued without regard for long-term environmental and socioeconomic consequences. Sustainability agendas and education in design fields sometimes consider the broader domains of socio-economic and human concerns, while others are more narrowly focused on specific design processes. Birkeland, for example, focuses on integrated systems design—eco-solutions that encompass social, political, and economic factors and that radically reduce resource use while increasing health, equity, and life quality.