The Sustainability Imperative - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 251

PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE
Design professionals apply the physical sciences. Since designers are technical
professionals, they depend on scientific breakthroughs. Science and technologies
are drastically and irrevocably changing. The designer must stay abreast of new
developments. The scale is simultaneously increasing and decreasing. We think
about the planet, but the nano scale, where the design scales structures and systems
are a few angstroms, is receiving increasing attention.
Green Design: Both Integrated and Specialized
Professional specialization has both advantages and disadvantages. The principal
advantage is that the practicing designer can focus more sharply than can a
generalist on a specific discipline. The principal disadvantage is that integrating
the various parts can be challenging. For example, in a very complex design, only
a few people can see the overall goals. Thus, those working in specific areas may
not readily identify duplication or gaps that they assume are being addressed by
others.
The work of technical professions is both the effect and the cause of mod-
ern life. When undergoing medical treatment and procedures, people expect
physicians, nurses, emergency personnel, and other health care providers to be
current and capable. Likewise, society's infrastructures, building, roads, electronic
communications, and other modern necessities and conveniences are expected
to perform as designed by competent engineers designers and planners. But how
does society ensure that these expectations are met? Much of the answer to this
question is that society cedes a substantial amount of trust to a relatively small
group of experts, the professionals in increasingly complex and complicated dis-
ciplines that have grown out of the technological advances that began in the
middle of the twentieth century and grew exponentially in its waning decades.
Within this highly complex, contemporary environment, practitioners must
ensure that they are doing what is best for the profession and what is best for
the public and client. This best practice varies by profession and even within a
single professional discipline, so the actual codified rules (codes of ethics, either
explicit or implicit) must be tailored to the needs of each group. However, many
of the ethical standards are quite similar for most design professions. For example,
people want to know that the professional is trustworthy. The trustworthiness is a
function of how good the professional is in the chosen field and how ethical the
person is in practice. Thus, the professional possesses two basic attributes, sub-
ject matter knowledge and character. Maximizing these two attributes enhances
professionalism.