Designing Tomorrow - Livestream

The half-century history of environmental protection is, at best, mixed and the approaches of the past will need to be significantly changed if we are going to realize a sustainable future. While there have been improvements since the 1960's in the most obvious and egregious problems such as air and water pollution in certain parts of the world, these advances have been uneven. The approaches to environmental protection of the past have been marked by characteristics including:

1. A win-lose framework;
2. Reductionist, fragmented, analytic-only thinking;
3. Risk assessment;
4. Narrow metrics of success; and
5. Near-term vision.

The elements of a future approach that would allow for a pathway to sustainability include:

1. Alignment rather than conflict between environment/human health and economic goals;
2. Integrated systems thinking coupled with reductionist analysis;
3. Sustainable design as a goal rather than risk management;
4. Design for a dynamic world;
5. A focus on what to invent, create and innovate rather than simply what to reduce, limit, and minimize; and
6. Addressing inherent nature rather than circumstantial factors.

Speaker: Julie Beth Zimmerman, Yale University

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