Build for Sustainability
Building for sustainability allows the project planners to maximize long term impact by maintaining user and stakeholder support and ensuring that the user and stakeholder contributions are still developed even in the case of a loss of funding or other interruptions. The ultimate goal of building a sustainable program or platform is to achieve not only a long term impact but also a positive impact. Projects built for sustainability are more likely to be ingrained in policies and institutionalized by an organization, company, or local government.
| Checklist Questions |
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| Have you planned and built for sustainability from the start? |
| Is there an agreed-upon definition of sustainability? |
| Is the implementation adaptable to the user as their needs and the context changes? |
| Have you identified a sustainable business model? |
| Does this implementation engage any governmental or non-governmental organizations to plan for continued success? |
| Are you competing with other organizations? If so, collaborate instead in order to identify the best approach with the greatest impact. |
Additional Resources
Case Study
The case study above also incorporates the design principle of building for sustainability by showcasing the exact support and contributions needed from stakeholders. This study allows for users to easily understand the ultimate goal of their research and it’s continuous impact.