"In many ways, the environmental crisis is a design crisis. It is a consequence of how things are made, buildings are constructed, and landscapes are used. Design manifests culture, and culture rests firmly on the foundation of what we believe to be true about the world... It is clear that we have not given design a rich enough context. We have used design cleverly in the service of narrowly defined human interests, but have neglected it's relationship with our fellow creatures. Such myopic design cannot fail to degrade the living world, and, by extension, our own health."

— Sim Van der Ryn, quoted in The Philosophy of Sustainable Design, by Jason McLennan