| 9/1/2011 Author: Panos Y. Papalambros, Volume: 133(9) – September, 2011 “Who cares for planet Earth?—Apparently not us at JMD…” was my editorial message in February 2009. Since then, the entire JMD Editorial Board has taken up the challenge to show that we do care and to translate that caring into rigorous archival research work. As one step in that direction, Guest Editor Steven Skerlos, and Associate Editors Karthik Ramani and Alexander Slocum took on the task to put together the present issue devoted solely to work on sustainable design. I am truly grateful to them for their hard work, arguments, and cheerful spirit. I am also grateful to all the authors that submitted their papers, whether they appear in this issue or may appear in later issues. I should note that submissions to a “special issue” are reviewed exactly the same way as those to “regular issues.” In fact, the only thing “special” about a special issue is its thematic focus—an effort to increase community awareness in the specific topic and to demonstrate JMD’s sustained interest in it. Our goal is to have JMD serve as a preferred venue for archival work on sustainable design, broadly defined yet focused. I believe that good engineering design is intrinsically sustainable, and I would challenge all our authors and editors to offer counterexamples. (Of course, it is all about the definition of “good.”) In a contrapositive challenge, I would urge our authors to consider and articulate a sustainability view in their future submissions to JMD. |
