15
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Cays, An Environmental Life Cycle Approach to Design,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63802-3_2
Chapter 2
The Energy Essential: Physical Forces
Animate All Things
Abstract Technology purposely channels, concentrates, and transforms energy,
matter, and information to improve the human condition. Continuous energy-rich
fossil fuel use is the root cause of environmental degradation. Since matter is
embodied energy and humankind’s demand for stuff is at an all-time high, energy
sources directly affect future ecological prospects. The proposed solution of shifting
to 100% renewable energy is complicated by the need for high embodied energy
industrial processes. Understanding abstract concepts of energy is critical to finding
solutions for unintended consequences at the root of environmental problems. This
chapter demystifies energy terms and establishes conceptual foundations for designers to consider as they work through the primary challenges of consumption.
Technical language and abstract units can obfuscate and seemingly minimize the
negative impacts of energy production. Major environmental impacts can hide in
dense detail and make it easy for producers to externalize important environmental
impacts or shift one ecological cost for another. This chapter provides brief introductions of classical thermodynamic concepts such as energy, exergy, and entropy,
as well as the more recent concept of emergy. These and the larger underlying scientific phenomena that support them are at the heart of natural and anthropogenic
ecological transformations in an industrialized world.
2.1 Design Shapes the Natural World
Any successful next act for Homo sapiens will continue to recognize limits and
capitalize on opportunities present in the physical world. Those pursuing truly sustainable—or better, regenerative—designs move forward when they simultaneously
keep fundamental physical limits and the ultimate goal of the design problem in
view. If one main design goal is not only to reduce the harm we do to ecosystems
but also to attempt to heal the damage already done with each additional thing we
make, we need to first establish reference points in accordance with physical laws
that govern all matter and energy.
Most designers work within fairly narrow boundary conditions. They often don’t
consider the larger physical context in which their designs function. Even so-called
sustainable products can externalize fundamental negative impacts by not properly
considering or purposely ignoring them as an important part of a system. Scrutinizing
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
J. Cays, An Environmental Life Cycle Approach to Design,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63802-3_2
Chapter 2
The Energy Essential: Physical Forces
Animate All Things
Abstract Technology purposely channels, concentrates, and transforms energy,
matter, and information to improve the human condition. Continuous energy-rich
fossil fuel use is the root cause of environmental degradation. Since matter is
embodied energy and humankind’s demand for stuff is at an all-time high, energy
sources directly affect future ecological prospects. The proposed solution of shifting
to 100% renewable energy is complicated by the need for high embodied energy
industrial processes. Understanding abstract concepts of energy is critical to finding
solutions for unintended consequences at the root of environmental problems. This
chapter demystifies energy terms and establishes conceptual foundations for designers to consider as they work through the primary challenges of consumption.
Technical language and abstract units can obfuscate and seemingly minimize the
negative impacts of energy production. Major environmental impacts can hide in
dense detail and make it easy for producers to externalize important environmental
impacts or shift one ecological cost for another. This chapter provides brief introductions of classical thermodynamic concepts such as energy, exergy, and entropy,
as well as the more recent concept of emergy. These and the larger underlying scientific phenomena that support them are at the heart of natural and anthropogenic
ecological transformations in an industrialized world.
2.1 Design Shapes the Natural World
Any successful next act for Homo sapiens will continue to recognize limits and
capitalize on opportunities present in the physical world. Those pursuing truly sustainable—or better, regenerative—designs move forward when they simultaneously
keep fundamental physical limits and the ultimate goal of the design problem in
view. If one main design goal is not only to reduce the harm we do to ecosystems
but also to attempt to heal the damage already done with each additional thing we
make, we need to first establish reference points in accordance with physical laws
that govern all matter and energy.
Most designers work within fairly narrow boundary conditions. They often don’t
consider the larger physical context in which their designs function. Even so-called
sustainable products can externalize fundamental negative impacts by not properly
considering or purposely ignoring them as an important part of a system. Scrutinizing