Finding an ethical balance between Humans and the Planet for Design: An examination of Sustainability Ethics and their history in Design and Business

Abstract: Ethics have always undergirded sustainable cultures, however through the advances of Industrialization those were lost until the environmental movement began to question the destruction of nature at various points throughout industrialization’s growth. The movement continued to gain momentum as scientists began to understand the complexity and importance of the Earth’s ecosystems to human society. This resulted in the integration of sustainability into industrialization and society in various ways including organic farming, renewable energy, Permaculture Design, sustainable design and business movements, heeding the warnings of environmentalists but balancing the progress of industrialization. This was culminated with the Brundtland Report of 1987 entitled our “Common Future” that popularized the term “sustainable development”. Out of this evolution came about the first comprehensive Sustainable Ethics for a globalized world, pulling out of the ravages and opportunities of early Industrialization. Permaculture developed its 3-core ethics as early as 1985. However, the Triple Bottom Line, initially developed in 1994, became the dominant benchmark for applying sustainability in business. These sets of 3 ethics vary drastically based on terminology and rankings, which can have very different results, as the stated intentions for designers sets the path for their end result. Over these last 40 years, we have come a long way in developing sustainable solutions. This paper examines their impact, how they differ and how they relate, what other standards align with these stated ethics and how we decipher the best path forward for a global set of ethics to define a Global sustainable culture built upon sustainable industrialization.

Keywords: Sustainable Design, Sustainable Ethics, Permaculture Design, Triple Bottom Line, B Corporations

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006441

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