Eisenberg, D.
1997 Joint Technical Meeting of the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards (NCSBCS) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Eisenberg, D., (1997), Sustainability and the building codes, Joint Technical Meeting of the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards (NCSBCS) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Abstract:
I want to start with this premise: Building codes are based on a societal decision that it is important to protect the health and safety of people from the built environment. If, inadvertently, the codes are actually jeopardizing the health and safety of everyone on the planet by ignoring their impacts on resources and the environment, resulting in the destruction of the ecosystems that sustain us, we are obligated to re-invent the codes with that larger perspective.
Sustainability has been defined as the state in which we are able to meet our current needs without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Though there are other definitions, I use it to represent the ability of whole systems to remain healthy and continue indefinitely. I also acknowledge that in cosmic terms, nothing may be sustainable by this definition, but it serves well enough to talk about activities in terms of human generations. I also don't mean to imply that simply sustaining or maintaining destructive human patterns of behavior would fit the definition. My preference would be for the terms "restorative" or "regenerative", but since they are even less widely understood or used, I will stick with "sustainable".