Sustainable design is a collective process whereby the built environment achieves unprecedented levels of ecological balance through new and retrofit construction, with the goal of long-term viability and humanization of architecture. Focusing on the environmental context, sustainable design merges the natural, minimum resource conditioning solutions of the past (daylight, solar heat, and natural ventilation) with the innovative technologies of the present. The desired result is an integrated "intelligent" system that supports individual control with expert negotiation for resource consciousness.

International experts in the field address the fundamental questions of sustainable design and landscape management: How should the sustainability of landscapes and buildings be evaluated? Which targets have to be set and which thresholds should not be exceeded? What forms of planning and governance structures exist and to what extent do they further the goals of sustainability? Gathering 30 peer-reviewed entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, Sustainable Built Environments provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary coverage of these issues and other aspects of sustainable building and landscape design.
About the Author: Vivian Loftness, FAIA, is an internationally renowned researcher, author, andeducator focused on environmental design and sustainability, climate and regionalism in architecture, and the integration of advanced building systems for health and productivity.
At Carnegie Mellon University, Professor Loftness holds the Paul Mellon Distinguished Chair in Architecture, is one of 40 University Professors, and served a decade as Head of the School of Architecture. With over 30 years of industry and government research funding, she is a key member of Carnegie Mellon's leadership in sustainability research and education and contributor to the ongoing development of the Intelligent Workplace - a living laboratory of commercial building innovations for performance.
Her collaborative research is captured in over 100 journal articles, book chapters, and books, as well in the 2013 and 2020 Springer Reference Encyclopedia of Sustainable Built Environments, for which she serves as Editor. Professor Loftness has served on over 25 Boards of Directors, including EPA's NACEPT, DOE's FEMAC, and the National USGBC, AIA, and ILFI Boards. She has served on 12 National Academy of Science panels as well as the Academy's Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment and given four Congressional testimonies on sustainable design. Her work ha influenced national policy and building projects, including the Adaptable Workplace Lab at the U.S. General Services Administration and the Laboratory for Cognition at Electricity de France.
Professor Loftness has been recognized as a LEED Fellow; a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, the New Buildings Institute, and the Scott Energy Institute; and one of 13 Stars of Building Science by the Building Research Establishment in the UK. She received Awards of Distinction from AIA Pennsylvania and NESEA, holds a National Educator Honor Award from the American Institute of Architecture Students, and a "Sacred Tree" Award from the US Green Building Council. Professor Loftness is a Bachelor of Science and Master of Architecture from MIT.