Description

Sustainable Development is the challenge of the 21st century. The tasks we face are colossal. The use of natural resources cannot increase, and in many cases will have to decrease significantly. At the same time, billions of Asians and Latin Americans are working their way up to Western levels of prosperity. Resource scarcity and serious environmental degradation are foreseeable. A decline in consumption is not an attractive option for many. So there will be a huge need for sustainable technology. But what is a sustainable technology? In the workplace, sustainability seems to be a rather vague concept. New technologies are always more efficient than the old ones, so is technological innovation always sustainable?

What does sustainable development mean for design, and the design process?
Sustainable Development is not about one problem but about many (potential) problems. This often leads to dilemmas, such as "Food or Fuel". In life cycle analysis, benchmarks are introduced by deriving targets from governments' environmental policies. There is not one sustainable future but many. Routes to a sustainable future require breakthrough technologies. Developing long-term visions by using scenarios is a good method to have quality long-term discussions with stakeholders. This will be illustrated by examples on car traffic, energy and urban planning

Speaker(s)

dr.ir. Karel Mulder, TU Delf, e-mail k.f.mulder@tudelft.nl

Location

Prinsenhof Best, Hoofdstraat 43,

5683 AC Best

Organiser

Region South

Name and contact details for information

ing. Gidi van Heijst, t: 06-10293448 or via the e-mail address below

geveha@zonnet.nl