Today even the most advanced building or factory in the world is still a kind of steamship, polluting, contaminating, and depleting the surrounding environment, and relying on scarce amounts of natural light and fresh air. People are essentially working in the dark, and they are often breathing unhealthful air. Imagine, instead, a building as a kind of tree. It would purify air, accrue solar income, produce more energy than it consumes, create shade and habitat, enrich soil, and change with the seasons. Equity, Economy, Ecology HE Next Industrial Revolution incorporates positive intentions across a wide spectrum of human concerns.
Equity refers to social justice.
Shoe companies have been blamed for exposing workers in factories overseas to chemicals in amounts that exceed safe limits. What an advance for humankind it would be if no factory worker anywhere worked in dangerous or inhumane conditions. Economy refers to market viability. Safe, intelligent designs should be affordable by and accessible to a wide range of customers, and profitable to the company that makes them, because commerce is the engine of change. Ecology, of course, refers to environmental intelligence.