First Principles - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 74

comatose patients. According to the National Academy of Engineering, technol-
ogy “is the outcome of engineering; it is rare that science translates directly to
technology, just as it is not true that engineering is just applied science.” 5
One of the themes of this topic is the importance of innovation. The playing
field is not even. The status quo often works against design and engineering
programs. The “earth homes” of the 1970s had many advantages in terms of
energy savings. Most of the structures of the homes (at least three walls) were
often underground. Early solar panels clearly made sense in terms of alternative
energy at the home scale. Windmills had the same advantage. Of course, some
of the failure to entice designers, contractors, developers, and homeowners were
real, such as less daylight available in earth homes, problems of cost and reliability
of early versions of photovoltaic cells, and noise and other aesthetic problems with
windmills. However, some of the resistance to adoption was the sheer difference
between these technological advances and that which the public perceived to be
“normal.” Real estate agents cautioned against buildings that were too different,
since this could affect the resale value. Homeowners did not want to be perceived
as “flaky.” So any innovation, no matter how efficient and efficacious, will often
meet with resistance.
When we teach green engineering and sustainable design courses, we must
keep in mind that there will be recalcitrance. This xenophobia is not limited to
the less educated but exists within the design professions themselves. Green en-
gineering and design is a paradigm shift. This phenomenon was noted in the late
twentieth century by the famous philosopher of science, Thomas S. Kuhn, who
applied it to scientific discovery. Kuhn changed the meaning of the word paradigm ,
extending the term to mean an accepted specific set of scientific practices. The
scientific paradigm is made up of what is to be observed and analyzed, the ques-
tions that arise pertaining to this scientific subject matter, to whom such questions
are to be asked, and how the results of investigations into this subject matter
will be interpreted. The paradigm can be harmful if it allows incorrect theories
and information to be accepted by the scientific and engineering communities.
Some of the resistance against shifting paradigms results from groupthink . 6
Innovations in design occur when a need or opportunity arises (hence the
adage “Necessity is the mother of invention”). For example, design professionals
may first develop an understanding of the thermodynamics behind a phase-change
heat pump and then apply this knowledge when society experiences a need to
keep food cold.
The idea of science of application through the dynamic form was articulated
by Donald Stokes in his analysis of the post-World War II scientific research
paradigm. In particular, Stokes' interest in the historical progression of the ideas
of “basic” and “applied” research is quite instructive. In 1944, Vannevar Bush,
Franklin D. Roosevelt's director of the wartime Office of Scientific Research and
Development, was asked to consider the role of science in peacetime. He did this