Sustainable design describes a design philosophy that values the natural environment as an integral factor in creating new products or modifying old ones. The term often refers to the movement in the architecture and engineering industries toward buildings that incorporate the local environment and take advantage of natural resources such as sunlight, wind patterns, and geographic location to minimize the impact of building on the local, regional, and global environment. Sustainable building designs consider larger settlement and industrial developments patterns and attempt to make them healthier, less wasteful, and with fewer impacts on the natural environment through site choice, building design, choice of building materials, and building operations. Sustainable designs try to maximize overall efficiency with surrounding resources, such as transportation, as well as energy efficiency, habitat preservation and restoration, natural and renewable energy sources, water conservation, recycled, local, and non-toxic materials, and healthy and productive interiors.

Learn about green buildings and cradle-to-cradle design.