Appropriate Technology reflects an approach to technological development, characterized by creative and sound engineering that recognizes the social, environmental, political, economic, as well as, technical aspects of a proposed technological solution to a problem facing a society.

The appropriate technology movement was started in the early 1970s by E. F. Schumacher who argued that technology should be designed in ways that would promote health, beauty, and permanence. Technology should not be regarded only as a means to an immediate end, it must be evaluated in terms of its contribution to a process of production or activity beneficial not only to its immediate users, but also to the society at large.

Generally appropriate technologies are smaller scale technologies, that are ecologically and socially benign, affordable, and often powered by renewable energy.

Criteria for selection of appropriate technologies:

Sustainable:

Technology which is capable of being maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage, forever.

Apt:

Technology suitable for the circumstance or purpose, appropriate, fitting, adapted to, having a tendency to behave as specified.

Small:

Appropriate technology is the kind of technology that fits small-scale, grassroots, community-centred economics: technology as if people mattered.