A novel and sustainability-oriented approach to the design of large-aperture iron-dominated magnets is proposed, focusing on its application to charged particle momentum detection in high-energy experimental physics. As compared to classical design techniques, a broader number of goals and constraints is taken into account, considering jointly the detection performance, the minimization of both the electrical power and magnet size, and the electromagnetic efficiency. A case study is considered for the detector magnet of a specific experiment, where the optimal design is pursued with semi-analytical tools, duly introducing the main quantities’ scaling laws in analytical form and successively validating the results with 3D numerical tools. A solution at higher energy efficiency is obtained, as compared to a more traditional design point of view. The proposed methodology can be fruitfully employed also in the design of magnets with a reduced ecological footprint in a number of other industrial and medical applications.