Selected Sustainable Design Resources

              Selected Sustainable Design Resources
Compiled by Laura L. Barnes, GLRPPR Help Desk Librarian
Books & Reports
Charter, Martin, ed. Sustainable Solutions: Developing Products and Services for the Future. London : Greenleaf Publishing, 2001 (ISBN: 1874719365)
'Sustainable Solutions' provides state-of-the-art analysis and case studies on why and how cutting-edge companies are developing new products and services to fit 'triple-bottom-line' expectations.
McDonough, William; Braungart, Michael. Cradle to Cradle : Remaking the Way We Make Things. New York: North Point Press, 2002. (ISBN: 0865475873) The authors propose that products should be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles, without being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are).
Rothenberg, Sandra; Lenox, Michael; Jordan, Benjamin; and Field, Dr. Frank III. Alpha Motors, LTD. : Integrating Live-Cycle Environmental Concerns into Product Design : Case Study and Teaching Note. [Baltimore, MD ?] : World Resources Institute, 1998. (Order online at http://www.wristore.com/almotltdinli.html. Cost is $2.50)
Alpha Motors, a subsidiary of a large U.S. automaker, sought a life-cycle analysis (LCA) tool that could help product designers take account of environmental issues when making materials choices. The primary teaching objective of this case is to give students a basic understanding of LCA and the issues involved when integrating life-cycle tools into the product design process.
Ryan, John C.; Durning, Alan Thein . Stuff : The Secret Lives of Everyday Things. Seattle, WA: Northwest Environment Watch, c1997. (ISBN: 1886093040) (There is a companion curriculum guide available online at http://northwestwatch.org/indicators/stuff_curriculum.pdf) Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things takes you to the places and people you touch every day-when you sip your coffee, tie your shoes, click your mouse, or step on the gas. Once you follow a day in the life of an average North American and see the secret lives of your food, your clothes, and your toys, your world will never look the same.
Sawhney, Nitin. ThinkCycle: Supporting Open Collaborative Design for Product Innovation and Learning in Sustainable Engineering (Thesis Research Abstract). Cambridge, MA : Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. (Online at http://web.media.mit.edu/~nitin/thesis/thesis-research-summary.pdf)
Journals
Journal of Sustainable Product Design
http://www.kluweronline.com/issn/1367-6679
A peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary journal focusing on the theoretical, methodological and practical dimensions of sustainable and eco-product and service design and development.