Sustainability is an essential attribute of desirable change
in people’s lives. Change and sustainability are intractably intertwined.
People do not want to live ‘naturally’. The want to live healthier, safer and
more full lives than would be given to them ‘naturally’. Humans inevitably bring
change to the world but such change can be either sustainable or unsustainable
depending on how it is designed. Stopping humans from being human and desiring
a better life is not a sustainable strategy. Thoughtless or self-centered
change is equally not sustainable. On the other hand, change brought about by careful and
responsible designing is sustainable. Good design depends on
the exercise of several necessary competencies—of which one is ‘sustainability’.
Sustainability cannot be exercised without being systemically integrated with
all of the other design competencies at the same time—which is the only way
design can be sustainable and sustainability can be sustained.
