An insatiable appetite for energy, a burgeoning world population, and a heightened awareness of climate change are focusing global attention on sustainability, an issue that may very well determine the future course of civilization. The pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle today is of paramount importance for future generations. Achieving sustainability calls for the stewardship of all the natural systems of the planet, with everyone taking responsibility for solving the environmental problems people face today and will continue to face in the future. In response to widespread environmental degradation, the author suggests the practice of sustainable design. Sustainable design is a real, practical, and long-term practice that could make a huge contribution to energy savings and environmental health around the world if fully embraced and adopted on a global scale. This approach brings together building design, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, material selection, site planning, resource efficiency, and water use to boost energy savings, and makes the most of all the building's elements. Sustainable design takes into consideration the building structure, its systems, and its site location as a whole and examines how they will best fit together to save energy and reduce environmental impact. In this article, the author discusses five broad categories for sustainable design: (1) site; (2) energy; (3) materials; (4) indoor quality; and (5) water, and describes how to use these categories in the classroom. (Contains 3 figures.)