When you hear the word “sustainability,” what is the first thought that comes to mind?

More often than not, responses will veer towards simple conservation practices such as recycling or driving an electric car. While each of these approaches is sustainable in its own way, both require more materials in order to produce less waste. For instance, we must first create recycling plants and charging stations before either practice is viable.

But what if instead of using more to produce less, we focused on the inverse — using less to produce more? This concept, called “ephemeralization,” is further explained in the video above. Implementing some creative storytelling and doodles, the narrator describes the evolution of the bridge as architects test out better building theories over time. Ultimately, it is the design which focuses on the least amount of materials for construction that ends up having the longest-lasting impact.

Think of the difference between buying an electric car and just ditching your vehicle altogether. The latter results not only in the reduction of CO2 emissions, but prevents further waste of materials that would be required to make and power a vehicle.

Even websites, for instance, often require a dozen different plugins and programs to run properly, despite the fact that they could be condensed into a single interface that requires less time and energy to run.

Regardless of the industry or problem at hand, we must constantly be thinking to ourselves, “How can this design be simplified? How can I make this as efficient as possible with the minimum number of resources?”

The history of websites and apps has followed the bridge example pretty well…so what kind of bridge is yours?

This post was originally published on the Green Machine, Inc blog. To learn more about Azul Arc’s Acquisition of GMinc, click here.