The Eco-Design Movement

Like an endangered species, green design has a fragile hold on life. True, all the design and architecture schools are teaching it, Wal-Mart is marketing it, and venture capitalists are investing in it. But it had better be more than that; it had better become the movement to end all movements or we will all be facing what the self-described "former next president of the United States" has bluntly called "an inconvenient truth."

Although as a movement eco-design is still relatively fresh and unformed, some emerging trends can already be discerned. First, there is what might be called the moralistic approach: Be less bad. Get rid of your SUV and buy a Prius. The problem here is that, according to Worldchanging.org, a minimum of 50 to 60 percent of the lifetime energy consumption of a car goes into its manufacture and shipping, so this may translate into feel-a-little-too-good-a-little-too-late. At the other end of the spectrum, William McDonough and Michael Braungart are trying to design buildings that are not just "energy efficient," but net energy producers.

Eco-design’s most colorful prophet is Bruce Sterling, author of an unending stream of Viridian manifestos. Sterling’s bottom line? We must ditch the bad habits of the past, and create a new "viridian" green future.