Guided Summary

Guided Summary
Why is sustainability a challenge to traditional engineering design?

‘sustainable’ and ‘design’ are terms that share an ambiguous heritage that is not
clarified by combining them into ‘sustainable design.’

2. Why is sustainability a paradigm shift for engineering?

This shift to a more systemic design process that must consider the global complexities
of the proposed design is itself a paradigmatic shift.

3. What is the challenge for engineering? Give an example.

Public safety

4. What criticism do the authors make of the ‘triple bottom line’ mental model
of sustainability?

The reason is that it misrepresents the physical or thermodynamic relationships of the

economic, societal or environmental systems. The consequences are design decisions
that are misaligned with the natural order of things.

5. What alternative model do the authors suggest?

embedded systems model of reality

6. What is the strength of this alternative model?

It more accurately reflects the natural relationships between society, economy and
environment. It illuminates the common-sense basis of the first of the 12 Principles of
Green Engineering.