Steffen Lehmann - Designing for Zero Waste

In a world where more and more people are consuming more and generating more waste thisbook is vital reading. In a society where most of us are consciously and sub-consciously detachedfrom the reality of our own supporting ecosystems this book is vital reading. In an economy whereprecious resources are produced so cheaply that we can throw so much of them away this bookis vital reading. In an environment being stripped of its resources, being polluted and made toxicon an industrial scale this book provides a real chance to re-connect and re-think our relationshipwith the supply and waste streams we take for granted in our unsustainable lifestyles. That reconnectionis essential and this book shows us ways to make it happen. Please read it.

Professor Susan Roaf, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

Designing for Zero Waste is a timely resource and guide covering basic principles to city andregional governance. The flows of the waste created in our daily lives and building processes arelargely ignored, misunderstood, or misinterpreted. This book should inspire a better understandingof material efficiency, avoidance of waste, and re-thinking material flows at a variety of scalesand professions.

Professor Alison Kwok, University of Oregon, Eugene, USA

Materials and resources are being depleted at an accelerating speed, and rising consumption trendsacross the globe have placed material efficiency, waste reduction and recycling at the centre ofmany government policy agendas, giving them an unprecedented urgency. The complex natureof the problem requires an increasing degree of interdisciplinarity. Resource recovery and the optimization of material flow can only be achieved with behaviour change to reduce the creation ofmaterial waste and wasteful consumption. Designing for Zero Waste aims to develop a more robustunderstanding of the links between lifestyle, consumption, technologies and urban development.

Professor Steffen Lehmann, PhD, is the Director of the Zero Waste SA Research Centre forSustainable Design and Behaviour at the University of South Australia. Steffen is a widelypublished author and scholar and is Founding Director of the s_Lab Space Laboratory forArchitectural Research and Design (SydneyBerlin), as well as editor of the US-based Journalof Green Building and an advisor to Australian and German governments, city councils andindustry. See www.slab.com.au.

Dr Robert Crockeris a Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Architecture and Design at theUniversity of South Australia, and teaches both the history and theory of design and the SchoolsMaster of Sustainable Design. With an Oxford doctorate in modern history (1987), Robert haspublished one monograph and two edited books. He is currently working on the role and idea ofthe national past in shaping Anglo-American domestic design and consumer culture in the 1920sand 1930s, and is developing another project on the role of technology in shaping consumerbehaviour and attitudes towards waste. Find Roberts homepage at www.unisa.edu.au.

Editor of Series: Professor Steffen Lehmann (Steffen.Lehmann@unisa.edu.au)

All books in this series are authored and/or edited by leading academics and practitionersin the field of sustainable design.Although there has been an immense amount of theory- and technology-focusedwriting published on the topic of sustainable design, many of these books have failedto introduce readers to the wider challenge of what the rethinking of design, production,operation and recycling of all products, buildings and cities really means.Sustainability is not a passing fashion, and people are constantly searching for moreinformation, ideas and products in this area. This new book series will aim to developa more coherent theoretical framework for how different theories of sustainable designmight engage with the practice of architects, designers, urban planners and relatedprofessions. The knowledge gained from this book series will equip the readers withthe tools for realizing the full potential of the good intentions of sustainable design.The aim is that these books will provide a novel alignment of interdisciplinaryperspectives on the problems of global consumerism, sustainable design and strategiesto avoid resource waste, on the scales of products, buildings, districts and cities.The books will become essential reading for architects, industrial designers, urbandesigners and researchers/students in these disciplines. Potential readers for the bookswill also include industry and government agencies. Global relevance and the potentialfor use as textbooks will be essential.The book series has been developed in coordination with UN-Habitat and willbecome a highly useful addition to the literature on sustainable design, urban developmentand city culture, focusing on the key topics encountered by students and scholarsof urban studies, pointing towards related bibliographic material.If you have an idea for the series then please contact the series editor

Series Editor of the Sustainable Design Book Series

Professor Steffen Lehmann, PhD, is an internationally highly respected architect,urbanist and scholar, the Professor of Sustainable Design, Director of the ZWSAResearch Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour (sd+b), at the University of SouthAustralia. Steffen Lehmann has also been the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable UrbanDevelopment for Asia and the Pacific since 2008, the first such chair created with aparticular view towards the rapid urbanization process in Asian cities. Since 1992, hehas practised as a registered and licensed architect and urban designer in Berlin, wherehe established his own practice, the Space Laboratory for Architectural Research andDesign (s_Lab).

Consumption, technologies and the built environment

Edited by Steffen Lehmann and Robert Crocker

First published 2012

by Earthscan

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Earthscan

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Earthscan is an imprint of the Tayior & Francis Group, an informa business

2012 selection and editorial material, Steffen Lehmann and Robert Crocker; individual chapters, the contributors.

The right of the editors to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Designing for zero waste: consumption, technologies and the built environment / [edited by] Steffen Lehmann and Robert Crocker.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Waste minimization. 2. Urban ecology (Sociology) I. Lehmann, Steffen,

1963- II. Crocker, Robert, 1952

TD793.9.D47 2012

628.4dc23