Hasta La Ideas

There’s a difference between green engineering and green design.

Green engineering reduces people’s ecological impact without requiring them to change their habits–for instance, replacing coal power with wind power; the consumer still just flicks the light switch, and their lights turn on just the same.

Green design reduces people’s ecological impact by changing their habits–for instance, better urban design lets people walk to work rather than driving to work. Everything has a user interface, even cities. How easy is it to find transit, how close does it go to where you want and when you want? Is there a corner store a block away, or just a big-box store five miles away?

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