Sustainable design is the art of designing physical objects and the built environment to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability. It ranges from the microcosm of designing small objects for everyday use, through to the macrocosm of designing buildings, cities, and the earth's physical surface. It is a growing trend within the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, urban planning, engineering, graphic design, industrial design, interior design and fashion design.

The needed aim of sustainable design is to produce places, products and services in a way that reduces the use of non-renewable resources, minimizes environmental impact, and relates people with the natural environment. Sustainable design is often viewed as a necessary tool for achieving sustainability. It is related to the more heavy-industry-focused fields of industrial ecology and green chemistry, sharing tools such as life cycle assessment to judge the environmental impact or "greenness" of various design choices

Green construction requires the erection of a building or a structure in a manner that does least harm to the environment and to the workers, while maximising the resources used.

Construction is normally viewed as a messy activity: construction sites are notorious for the amount of waste normally found, and for dusty/wet conditions. This need not be so - construction work that is planned to fit into the environment will require the minimum of bulk earthwork excavation and removal. Green construction will also consider the needs of construction workers, especially their occupational health and safety. A building cannot be green if it has abused workers' rights in the process of constructing the building.

In order to minimise waste and harmful and/or dangerous working practices, many contractors are adopting lean manufacturing practices, coupled to offsite construction methods where as much of the building is manufactured under factory conditions and taken to site for installation.

Green materials are those materials used in construction that have least impact on the environment and offer the highest level of performance.

Most construction materials are produced by the extractive industries, i.e., the mining of steel, aluminium, cement, clay, sand, stone, etc. The mining of these materials is usually done in a manner that has a significant negative impact on the environment. In addition, these materials are finite and thus alternatives will have to be found at some stage in the future.

The conversion of the mined material into a construction material or product requires extensive manufacturing processes, some of which are energy-intensive, while others require varying degrees of chemical intervention. Furthermore, material manufacturing takes place roughly at the source of the raw material, thus requiring the transportation of the material of product to the construction site.

For all of these reasons, green construction materials are thus those materials that have a lesser impact on the environment, require less energy and chemical processing, are more locally sourced to reduce transportation, and are either renewable (timber, bamboo, natural fibres, etc.) or highly recyclable.

Green materials are also those that have superior performance characteristics in terms of thermal performance, maintenance, longevity, stability, strength, and lightness, among others.