[Editorial]

The theme of this issue of IEEE Potentials is “sustainable design”—a nascent but very promising area of research that aims to eliminate our negative impact on the environment through smart engineering. We have a lineup of articles from renowned researchers all over the world who expound upon their ingenious ideas to preserve the environment through skillful design of products, buildings, and services. While organizing the contents of this issue, my thoughts turned from sustainable designs that will endure to entire engineering companies that will last the test of time. In today´s competitive marketplace, “high-tech” industries (a term our friends in business schools use for all electrical/electronic product companies) especially have a hard time sustaining their dominance. Anyone familiar with the high-tech sector will appreciate that one bad bet placed by an electrical engineering (EE) company on the future of electronics can result in calamitous results, as proven in the case of Xerox or Hewlett-Packard, to name just two.