The Concept of Sustainability in Engineering
“Sustainable engineering is the process of designing or operating systems such that they use energy and resources sustainably, in other words, at a rate that does not compromise the natural environment, or the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.“
-Wikipedia
(image reference : https://sustainable.engineering.asu.edu/)
What is Sustainability?
The word “sustainability” means the ability to continue at a certain level for a period.As we all know the human civilization takes resource form environment to sustain our present modern day to day life. For that human civilization has damaged its own environment and there are so many examples throughout the human history. At present
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Economic Development – Giving people what they want without reducing quality of life and harming the environment
Social Development – Encouraging people to participate in sustainability and teaching them to protect environment and the consequences of not doing so
Environmental Protection – 3R concept (reduce, reuse, recycle), using biotechnologies, ECT.
(image reference: http://www.foremanroberts.com/sustain_what_we_offer.htm)
Sustainable Engineering
"Engineering in context, engineering with a conscience, engineering for an infinite planet and the Indefinite future" -Benoit Cushman-Roisin
Sustainable engineering is based on principles that support sustainable development. As engineering is the interface between the design and implementation & production of a product sustainable engineering should be applied from early stages. Because it is hard to turn back or redo the whole process in later stages. Also find ways to keep up sustainability of the product throughout its entire life-cycle.
Traditional vs. Sustainable approaches in Engineering
Traditional
Sustainable
Considers the object and
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At present transportation systems are switching their power source from fossil fuels to electric power to reduce the carbon emission. Sustainable transport systems in the world,
Bogota, Colombia (They have established rapid bus transit system and bicycle infrastructure to promote public transportation among citizens.)
Mexico City, Mexico (Expanded their Metrobus system. According to reports Metrobus system to helps cut off CO2 emission by 122,000 tons per year.)
Rio de Janeiro & Sao Paulo, Brazil (Has 39 km bus line used by 270,000 people every day, have 400 km of cycling lanes by 2015.)
(image reference : http://energyclub.stanford.edu/journal-home-page/stanford-energy-journal-issue-4-sustainable-transportation/) Reference:
Principles of Sustainable Engineering https://www.e-education.psu.edu/eme807/node/688 Mason, M. What Is Sustainability and Why Is It Important? Retrieved from https://www.environmentalscience.org/sustainability Sustainable engineering. (5 February 2018). In Wikipedia. Retrieved
Nations focus on growth as a progress for the country. Yet to be sustainable as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, a: able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed [or] b: involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources [or] c: able to last or continue for a long time, also indicates a steady progress. Still sustainable nations are few and far between. Sustainability does not meet the definition for growth desired by nations. Instead many nations see it as limiting economies and hurting the pocket books.
Environmental sustainability is when a person, community or area is able to meet the needs of the present, without compromising the needs of the future. Overconsumption will lead to hardship in the future, and possibly to the destruction of the planet’s finite resources; and if we continue using our resources as at current rates, which have been estimated to be 4 planets worth of resources, this will be inevitable. Populations are all the inhabitants of a specific area/country and this population can be controlled in various methods such as population policies, like the ones in China, Kerala and France; as well as control via migration by putting on limits.
For example, rail modes of transportation may be used to transport large amounts of freight long distance if the railheads are available at both origin and destination. This eliminated the use of semi-truck that create the same amount of emission as one train. One trains can move over 100 containers, while one semi-truck maybe only can move two or three at the most. The environmental effected mode in this situation is train of course. One of most environmental impacted modes of intermodal transportation is over the road truck. The industry aims to reducing emission from the surface mode of truck by increasing the use of alternative fuels and use of less pollutions modes such as carpooling and route sharing. Today’s consumers is having a hard time avoiding products manufactured and transported overseas, as economic globalization moves more goods from factories to major markets throughout the world (Corbett, Winebrake J. 2007). The push by the consumer for goods coming from location has a great effect on emission and global warming. The consumer may not even understand the impact they personally have on the world
Sustainability is when something can be used and not be depleted, destroyed, or damaged past recovery. As we work to live sustainably, we are in effect making use of our resources in a fashion that doesn't eliminate them, and doesn't harm their source. Our resources come from the environment around us and we need to make sure that it is not harmed as we use it. According to the EPA, sustainability stems from a single principle that "Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment” (Sustainability Information). Considering this, it's obvious why we need to make sure we live sustainably and do not damage the source of our resources, our environment.
A design process is a sequence of steps and different techniques that designer follows to come up with a design solution to a problem, whether it is architectural, graphics, or something abstract. Designers, architects, and engineers aim to invoke consciousness around sustainability at every step in the design process. When applying the sustainable design principles and improve tools such as CAD there is a huge impact on the design process. McLennan J, F. (2004) believes that "we have an amazing capacity to damage the habitat of all living things while building our own, but we also have an ability to heal it through good design". Sustainable design plays a key role in the design process of changing design society, improves the life, health, well-being and improves the environment through an improved design process. It has become an integral part of our life by bringing so many benefits to
Design, first and foremost, is concerned with solving problems, but from where we currently stand we have created more problems than we have solved. Sustainable product design is focusing on creating products with the least possible negative impacts on the environment, featuring eco-sound materials, energy efficiency, and easy recycling.
Sustainable development in civil engineering is another challenge that they face today. According to an Engineering Times survey conducted by the national society of professional engineers it is believed that the civil engineers are not involved in sustainable design as they should be. Even though sustainability was a minor consideration in civil engineering in the past, today civil engineers have learned and applied new skills to implement sustainability into projects.
“Sustainable Development: At its heart, sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a good quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It is about living within the carrying capacity of the environment so that how we live, work and enjoy leisure activities, which do not harm or put undue pressures on the environment. It is about ensuring everyone has the opportunity to have a decent education, a quality environment that they take pride in, good health and a decent job (n.p, 2014)”
“The bottom line in engineering ethics is the idea that engineering ought to be aimed at the good of humanity, and that individual engineers ought to be using their skills to improve the lot of humanity.”
In class we discussed what sustainable development meant to us; each group had its own definition. Our group’s definition was that sustainable development is for the long term for future generations, for the basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and job. The basic will increase over time and our resources will diminish, which why sustainable development is important. Sustainable development is important for future generations so that they end up with a world better than ours. Sustainable development is achievable if society works together to meet everyone’s basic needs and create a better world.
Sustainability development has three components: environment, society, and economy. If you consider the three to be overlapping circles of the same size, the area of overlap in the center is human well-being. As the environment, society, and economy become more aligned, the area of overlap increases, and so does human well-being. Therefore, education for sustainable development (ESD) is the use of education as a tool to achieve sustainability. Simply put, ESD is a way to make the world a safer, healthier, and more livable place for us and future generations (McKeown, 2002, pgs 7-9).
Sustainability simply defined to me as balancing act between the development of sustainability is necessary for both planet Earth and humans to survive. This is reinforced in the World Commission on Environment and Development report (1987) that sustainable development must meet the needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future generations”. The Earth Charter Organization widened the idea of sustainability to respect for a culture of peace, universal human rights, nature, and economic justice (What is sustainability?, n.d.).
Economic development is fundamentally about enhancing the factors of productive capacity, such as land, labor, capital, and technology, of a national, state, or local economy, as stated by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Economic development influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance economic well-being. We experience economic growth when our standard of living is rising. Rather than being a simplistic process, economic development typically is a range of influences aimed at achieving objectives like creating jobs and wealth and improving the quality of life. It incorporates coordinated initiatives targeted at expanding infrastructure and increasing the volume and/or quality of goods and services produced by a community. A common measure of economic development is a country’s gross national ...
Economic development has a direct relationship with the environment. Whereas economic development is a policy intervention endeavour with aims of economic and social well-being of the people, economic growth is a phenomenon of market productivity and rise in GDP. According to them, the first chain consists of economic growth benefiting human development, since economic growth is likely to lead families and individuals to use their heightened incomes to increase expenditures, which in turn furthers human development. At the same time, with the increased consumption and spending, health, education and infrastructure, systems grow and contribute to economic growth.
plays vital role in improving society and there are many ethical and moral issues that engineering and computer science professionals will face like the medical, legal and business professions. It is important to understand how to contemplate these issues and increase moral autonomy. Engineering ethics is not only teaching moral behavior knowing about immoral and amoral in a set of beliefs, but also increasing the ability of engineers and other professionals to face boldly with the moral problems arising from technological advancements, changes and other related activities.