The green design mentioned earlier mainly focuses on material product design, and the so-called "3R" goals are also mainly at the technical level. To systematically solve the environmental problems faced by humans, it is necessary to study them from a broader and more systematic perspective, and the concept of sustainable design has emerged. Sustainable design is formed on the basis of sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development was first proposed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UCN) in 1980. A committee composed of officials and scientists from multiple countries conducted a 5-year (1983-1987) long and extensive study on global development and environmental issues. In 1987, it published the first international declaration on sustainable human development, "Our Common Future." The report describes sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of contemporary people without harming the needs of future generations." The research report considers the two closely related issues of environment and development as a whole. The sustainable development of human society can only be based on the sustainable and stable support capacity of the ecological environment and natural resources, and environmental problems can only be solved in sustainable development. Therefore, only by correctly handling the relationship between immediate interests and long-term interests, local interests and overall interests, and mastering the relationship between economic development and environmental protection, can this major issue related to national economy, people's livelihood, and long-term social development be satisfactorily resolved.

The difference between "development" and "growth" is that "growth" refers to the expansion of the scale of social activities, while "development" refers to the interconnection and interaction of various parts of society as a whole, as well as the improvement of their activity capabilities. Unlike "growth", the fundamental driving force of development lies in the constant pursuit of a higher degree of harmony, while the essence of development can be understood as "a higher degree of harmony," and the essence of human civilization evolution lies in the constant search for a balance between "human needs" and "the degree of satisfaction of needs.". Therefore, promoting "harmony" in "development" is the harmony between "human needs" and "degree of satisfaction of needs", and it is also the essence of social progress.

Sustainable development has gained widespread consensus, prompting designers to actively seek new design concepts and models that are compatible with sustainable development. The design concept that is compatible with sustainable development is based on the premise of harmonious coexistence between humans and the natural environment, designing products, services, or systems that meet contemporary needs while also ensuring the sustainable development needs of future generations. In existing research, the design mainly involves establishing sustainable lifestyles, establishing sustainable communities, developing sustainable energy, and engineering technologies.

Professor Ezio Manzini from the School of Design at Politecnico di Milan defines sustainable design as "a strategic design activity for building and developing sustainable solutions... aimed at the entire production and consumption cycle, utilizing systematic product and service integration and planning, with utility and service replacing material products as the ultimate goal." Professor Manzini's definition of sustainable design is idealized, with a bias towards non materialistic design. Non materialistic design is based on the premise that the information society is a society that provides services and non-material products. The concept of "non-material" is used to describe the overall trend of future design development, which is to transform from material design to non-material design, from product design to service design, and from possessing products to sharing services. Non materialism is not limited to specific technologies and materials, but rather involves a re planning of human life and consumption patterns, understanding products and services at a higher level, breaking through the scope of traditional design, studying the relationship between humans and non materials, striving to ensure quality of life with less resource consumption and material output, and achieving the goal of sustainable development. Of course, human society, and even the natural environment, are built on a material foundation. Human life activities, survival, and development cannot be separated from material essence, and the carrier of sustainable development itself is also material. Sustainable design cannot be completely detached from its material essence.

In short, sustainable design is a strategic design activity that involves the construction and development of sustainable solutions, balancing economic, environmental, ethical, and social issues, guiding and meeting consumer needs through rethinking design, and maintaining sustained satisfaction. The concept of sustainability includes not only environmental and resource sustainability, but also social and cultural sustainability.

After sustainable design, the concept of low-carbon design has emerged. The so-called low-carbon design is a design aimed at reducing human carbon emissions and mitigating the destructive effects of greenhouse effects. Low carbon design can be divided into two types: one is to redesign people's lifestyles, improve their environmental awareness, and reduce carbon consumption through the redesign of daily behavior patterns without lowering their living standards; the other is to achieve emission reduction through the application of energy-saving and emission reduction technologies, or the development of new and alternative energy sources. It can be foreseen that low-carbon design will become a key theme in future industrial design.