trends and future of sustainable development - TransEco

2. Theory and LiteratureTo achieve excellence in education for sustainability, it is necessary to promote interdisciplinaryknowledge building (European Commission 2003), and the disciplinary competences and perspectiveshave to be re-evaluated. Design, and sustainable design even more so, is merging values and knowledgebetween domains of society, as it must address "several dimensions of stakeholder activities andsystemic levels related to the product or service" (Shedroff 2009, 5).Co-operation is the foundation on which innovations occur (Ibid., 12). This, however, puts emphasison the framework for collaboration. How could this framework be designed in such a way that it wouldpromote innovation, but at the same time orientate the collaborators and their disciplinary perspectivestowards more sustainable outcomes?Balancing sustainabilitySustainable design should weight different possibilities in three different dimensions of sustainabledevelopment, as is visible in the famous diagrams that link the ecological, economic and socioculturalaspects. These dimensions can be perceived to interact equally, or then hierarchically (see Fig. 1).Figure 1The triangular versus the "nested" model for sustainable development (Source:Gidding et al. 2002)The traditional triangular model that is separated into three different areas, "often leads to a narrowtechno-scientific approach" (Gidding et al. 2002, 187). In hierarchical or "nested" sustainabledevelopment, on the other hand, the "economy is dependent on society and both dependent on theenvironment" (Ibid., 192). A systems perspective requires appreciation and understanding "in regard tothe interaction between various systems" in the three dimensions of sustainability (Shedroff 2009, 5),and one should bear in mind this hierarchy of these dimensions, and the fact that the sociocultural – notto mention the economic aspects – should still follow the limits of the ecosystem.At the same time the systemic order of the focus areas from the nested approach helps to prioritizethe compromises that have to be made during the design processes. Sustainable design focuses onsolutions that are better for society, environment and economy, but in the end the selected focus dictatesthe order of things. To follow the systemic approach, a team should first iteratively assess their shared264