Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

MSc. PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Critical Evaluation on how environmental issues affecting the way a project is

chosen, planned, designed and implemented

“Engineering Project Evaluation”

Module Assessor: Mr. Ian Ridely

Title of Assignment: Assignment 1

Submitted By: Imran Hasan

Student ID: 089047178

Email: imran.hasan@sunderland.ac.uk

Date of Submission: 11-01-2009

University of Sunderland 1
Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

Index

Introduction 1

Ecosystem Types
1

Engineering Project Lifecycle and Environmental effects 2

Environmental issues on choosing engineering projects

3
Environmental Issues affecting planning engineering
projects 3

Designing phase and environmental issues

5
Implementation of engineering projects and environmental
issues 6

Conclusion
6

Reference
7

University of Sunderland 2
Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

Environmental Issues in Engineering Projects

Introduction:
Our planet earth has a natural environment which is known as 'Ecosystem’. It includes all
active and non-active things that live on our planet. Therefore environment includes all
humans, plant life, mountains, glaciers, atmosphere, rocks, galaxy, massive oceans and seas.
It also includes natural resources such as water, electric charge, fire, magnetism, air and
climate (Internet Geography, 2008).

Figure1. Introduction to Ecosystems (Internet Geography, 2008)

Ecosystem Types:
There are six major ecosystem types that can be used for better understanding towards
environment and its associated elements by (H.John Heinz III, 2002)
• Forest
• Urban and suburban areas
• Coast and oceans
• Farmlands
• Fresh waters

(Wall G, 2002) discussed that in today’s world of human and especially engineering projects
are facing many challenges. Engineering developments are resulting in resource depletion
and environmental destruction and by the introduction of modern technologies in the field of
engineering and manufacturing industry has a major impact on our life in past few years. Due
to the rapid change in the industrial, engineering and manufacturing industry; our planet earth
and its environment has drastically changed and has very severe effects on the environment.
Engineering and manufacturing industry has increasing use of metals, plastic, oil and rubber
which are used in the production of numerous end products which can be associated with
different industries such as Car production units, shipping industries, Cotton mills, plastics
industries, Coal mining, heavy machineries and etc which are causing numerous arduous
effects and are considered to be non-environment friendly.

University of Sunderland 3
Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

Engineering and industrial wastes can be one of the mundane environmental issues which are
referred as Anthropogenic (Eoearth, 2008). The term anthropogenic is used in the light of
common waste caused by engineering and manufacturing industries which can be chemical
waste, metal waste and toxic gas release that can pollute water, land and air severely.
Despite the fact that the modern engineering has accomplished a lot more and altered the way
engineering industry worked in the past but it has polluted the environment, which are going
to affect earth and its ozone layer. According to (Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D. 2007) who
highlighted in the preface of his book Carbon free- Nuclear free: An Energy Map for the U.S
“The history of development shows that the norms for the ‘good life’ are set by the wealthy.
We must develop the notion of ‘Enough’.”We ignore at our cost Mahatma Gandhi’s timeless
advice on sustainability:”The earth has enough for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s
greed.”We need the courage to say:”Enough is enough!”

Engineering Project Lifecycle and Environmental effects:

Any project can be executed in different phases which are very essential in terms of choosing,
planning, designing and implementation. This paper will be discussing about the
environmental impacts and its assessment on each of the phases of the engineering projects
and its evaluation throughout the project lifecycle. Engineering projects are engaged with the
different essence of activities such as manufacturing, plastics industries, power generation
units, car production, shipping industries and cotton mills which are using a large amount of
energy, material and resources and can affect the environment of earth.

Engineers must have the understanding that whatever they are doing must have an impact on
environment and what countermeasures they can adopt to overcome them.

Let’s have a look at how these environmental issues can affect the each stages of project
which are as follows:

• Choosing a project
• Planning
• Design
• Implementation
Choose a project

Implement Planning

Design

Simple Project lifecycle

University of Sunderland 4
Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

Environmental issues on choosing engineering projects:

Engineering projects are one of the kinds of projects that can be chosen carefully by
considering several issues that might not be environmental friendly and can pollute water, air
or land. Engineering projects can be categorized into different project types and each of the
categories has its respective environmental impacts such as;

• C02 Emission
• Energy Conservation
• Genetic Pollution
• Land pollution
• Carbon neutral
• Water pollution
• Waste disposal
• Toxins
• Metal-processing waste
• Plastic waste

Therefore, these environmental issues can be assessed initially to decide whether the project
is feasible to proceed further or not and according to (Communities and local Government,
2000) this assessment is commonly known as ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’. It
delineates the processes for different types of projects before they can be developed. By the
help of this assessment, a systematic approach and procedures are considered in advance that
could be beneficial to predict any future environmental impacts and methods to reduce them.
It also enables a sustainable development and property used and will benefits whoever
involves in planning process to choose such engineering projects.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) declares that approximately 10 trillion dollars must
be spent in near future on replacing the power plants and some other energy infrastructures in
some large scale industrial based countries. The political and socio-economic factors must be
assessed to determine this investment which is in that context that we will shun severe
climate changes and nuclear disasters because engineering and manufacturing projects
involves high volumes of energy consumptions.

Industrial based countries should commit to reduce emissions by 30 percent in 2020 and 80
percent in 2050 by domestic moderations and include massive funding for decarbonisation to
developing countries. According to (UNEP, 2008) the consumption of energy level can be
satisfied globally with sun rays 10,000 times over and on average 1700 KWH energy can be
received via sunlight for each square metre of land each year and by one estimate the net
worth of the solar electricity market is already € 13 billion annually.

Environmental Issues affecting planning engineering projects:

In general, if we are initiating any engineering project on large scale then there is another
important phase needs to be carefully executed i.e. Project Planning. According to (Robert
Loo, 1996) this is one of the significant phases in any project which refers to the
conceptualization and designing of the engineering project that what needs to be done in
advance. It normally inaugurates overall project plan and afterwards detailed project planning

University of Sunderland 5
Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

phase. This project description considered to be the heart of the project which can result in
severe results if it is not carefully planned. This project plan gives a laconic and standard
summary of the project purpose and its objectives, any terms and conditions, mandate for
project, description of methodology and milestones (project start and end dates). Engineering
and industrial projects normally consumes a large amount of metal, rubber, leather and
plastics materials which emits high level of Co2, toxic gases, chemicals and several hazardous
industrial wastes while processing that can be referred to as major source of environmental
pollution. Theses industrial wastes can be considered as major threats to environment and
society which needs to be carefully planned and evaluated during planning phase.
(Chrysanthus Chukwuma Sr, 1998) describes if environmental issues are perceived
adequately in the initial stages of planning and management then it is quite convenient, not
only familiarize with scientific and engineering methodologies but also with generalized
principles on which planning of engineering projects are to be founded. The planning phase is
so important that they must be simulated and integrated with our daily lives and general
deficiency of interest and ignorance diffuse the attitude of high majority of people as regard
the environment. According to engineering project planning it should insure waste
management such as contamination of animal skin, toxic materials, impact of chemicals on
land, water pollution, heavy metal-processing waste, plastic waste and other industrial
wastes.
(I. Barnsley, 2008) from United Nation University elaborates more in his report on Emission
trading that any project which has to be developed should be well planned in terms of several
factors keeping in mind before signing an agreement of development. This project plan must
cover all aspects from: what is the scope of project; how to reduce emission that will be in
legal limits and certified by the relevant authorities; stakeholder’s participation and
consultation and what other environmental impacts and risk of the project. There are several
issues needs to be contemplated while planning any project which can be discussed below;

 Emission reduction measurement: It is all-important that any project which is planned

must be measured precisely in terms of emission of toxic gases and quantity of
greenhouse gases already emitted from the target activity even after implementation.
 Methodology to measure emission: There are several methodologies already involve in
measuring emission reduction from day to day and commercial activities.
 Project Impact on large-scale: It is important for planning any project to reduce
emission and what impacts may a project have in advance on environment which can be
good or bad and find out if this project will have any long-term benefits.
 Consultation: Stakeholders and community representatives must be consulted during the
planning phase because they are the actual decision makers who involves in planning to
improve the best strategy for the community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
 Rights to reduce emission: Another very important aspect must be evident for the
proposed activity of the project which includes forestry and land management that what
are the legal rights to any emission.
 Certification of emission reduction: This involves any third party who will certify the
reduction of emissions or offsets that should be under agreement that which activity
should take place that is a major source of greenhouse gases.

Therefore planning any engineering project must cover all aspects to make this world
environmental friendly and developing a better pollution free society.

University of Sunderland 6
Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

Designing phase and environmental issues on engineering projects:

Environmental issues are more serious concerns these days and most of the industries need to
surmount these issues to reduce the load of the severe environmental impacts on our
ecosystem. (Keijiro Masui et al. 2003) has proposed in recent years that industries and
manufacturers become more conscious about the environmental friendly designs of products.
United Nations of Environment Programme (UNEP) has conducted a joint project with small
and medium sized organizations in 1997 in association with University of Technology and
Syntens Corp. to produce environmental conscious design (Ecodesign). After introducing this
concept of (Ecodesign), some new design tools also discovered which can be used in the
evaluation of product’s impact on environment and its recyclability. According to the research
of (Akao, 1996) as cited by (Keijiro Masui et al. 2003) that there is another design tool called
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) which is used to dissect the usability of the product to
give the understanding of environmental impact and their preventions in the early stages of
design. This concept of QFD can be applied to design of the products and can be more
elaborated by this flow chart described by the research of (Keijiro Masui et al. 2003).
Design for Environment

Product concept making

Conceptual design

Qualitative Design Review

Detailed Design
Figure 2.
Quantitative design review DfE flows and design
support tools
(Keijiro Masui et al. 2003)
Production

After these detailed findings of the design aspects of the product the design engineers try to
improve the product which can be environmentally friendly to obtain requirement of the
market. Engineers and customers later discuss design aspects of the products to consider the
environmental concussions of manufacturing and its recyclability. These aspects of design of
the product can be described below which needs to be considered are as follows to overcome
environmental affects;

1. Material quantity must be used in smaller amount.

2. Logistics and transportation of the material should be easy to transport and retained.
3. Assembly process must be easy to process.
4. Energy consumption should be adequate during each phase of manufacturing.
5. Reusability of the product should be well kept in mind to gain more benefits in future.
6. Disassembly should be easy to regulate in the maintenance phase.
7. Design of the product should be harmless to living organisms for example noise, smell or
vibrations.
8. Emission of water, air and soil pollution should be carefully taken into consideration.
9. Disposal activities must be easy to achieve at finalization with less resources
consumption.
Implementation of engineering projects and environmental issues:

University of Sunderland 7
Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

Zabihollah Rezaee and Rick Elam (2000) stated in their research that Industries and
manufacturing organizations are getting more environmental cognizant in the last two decade
and so many laws, rules and regulations are been proposed in order to maintain a better
environmentally friendly atmosphere for the world. These environmental issues are gaining a
lot of interest day by day by communities, people, governments, industries, manufacturers
and businesses. Environmental accountability becomes more important and can be
categorized into mandatory requirement and voluntary initiatives. In this era of
environmentally conscious world, large-scale corporations and industries are drifting towards
environmental management which is moderately improving the factors affecting environment
and its ecosystem. Recently International Standard Organization (ISO) stipulate global
business by the introduction of ISO 14000 standards to look after the environmental issues a
study by Stee and Rabae (1995 cited Zabihollah Rezaee and Rick Elam 2000). ISO 14000 is
relatively a better management tool which extracts information from the organizations on
their current environmental management system (EMS) and issue annual reports. This
standard is subsequently important in the implementation phase of any engineering project
because it evolves around governmental laws, legislations and society concerns over air
pollution, toxic drainage, waste management, soil corrosion and hazardous substances
wastage that cause water pollution. Environmental management systems must be conformed
against the standards that can be verified and issued with certifications of ISO 14000.

These legislations and laws are set out to improve the environment’s overwhelming situation
day by day and to hinder any future related issues that can devastate our planet and its
environment. It is quite essential to create such an environment within the manufacturing
units and industries so that everybody should be aware of the environmental issues while
implementing any new projects or working with existing ones. Implementation phase requires
a proper framework and a complete strategy which includes staff, resources and management
who must be trained well for the new change in the organization. While implementing new
projects companies should be well prepared for any future challenges or latent issues that
probably may ascend for example: lack of training, communication within departments,
psychological pressures on staff for new projects and improved rules and possible resistance
to accept it.
Therefore management has to control all these possible issues while implementing any new
projects within engineering and manufacturing units as these changes will be more beneficial
for the betterment of staff itself and have less polluted industries which results in
environmental friendly world.

Conclusion
The main purpose of this report is to create the awareness of environmental issues and its
effects on a project lifecycle of any engineering and manufacturing units. Today’s world is
rapidly changing due to the introduction of modern technology, market needs and
competition around the globe. People’s opinion matter in today’s world and customers are
getting more concerned about the environmental friendly end products which are profitable,
quick seller and free from environmental risks. It also summarizes that the whole lifecycle of
the projects on each stage from choosing of the projects till its implementation that
environmental issues plays a vital role on each stage and above discussion can elaborate the
high priority towards this significant matter that can devastate the world’s environment.
Therefore engineering and manufacturing organizations should be concentrating more on the
today’s environmental issues to make this world pollution free and a better place to live.
Reference: Total words= 2582

University of Sunderland 8
Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

Internet Geography. (2008) Introduction to Ecosystems [online].Available from:

http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/topics/whatecosystem.html#biomes
[Accessed on 06 December 2008]

Internet Geography. (2008) Introduction to Ecosystems, viewed 8th December 2008,

<http://www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/images/ecosystems/worldclimate.gif>

Eoearth. (2008) Anthropogenic biomes, [online] Available from:

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Anthropogenic_biomes[Accessed on 07 December 2008]

Wall, G. (2002) Conditions and tools in the design of energy conservation and management
systems of a sustainable society. Energy Conservation and Management, 43(9). [online],
Available from: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/S0196-8904(02)00010-9
[Accessed 07 December 2008]

H.John Heinz III. (2002) The State of the Nation's Ecosystems, [online] England, Cambridge
University Press. Available from: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6m0lMjyme7YC
&printsec=frontcover#PPT28, M1 [Accessed 07 December 2008]

Engineeringtalk. (2003) New steel has environmental issues covered, [online].

Available from: http://www.engineeringtalk.com/news/cru/cru100.html
[Accessed 08 December 2008]

Communities and local Government. (2000) Environmental impact assessment: A guide to

procedures, [online]. Available from: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planning
andbuilding/pdf/157989.pdf [Accessed 08 December 2008]

UNEP (2008) Our Planet:Renewable Energy-Generating power, jobs and development,

[online] Available from:http://www.unep.org/PDF/OurPlanet/2008/Dec/EN/OP-2008-12-en-
FULLVERSION.pdf [Accessed 09 December 2008]

Robert Loo. (1996) Training in project management: a powerful tool for improving
individual and team performance, 2(3) [online]. Available from:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?contentType=Article&Filename=html/
Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/1350020301.pdf [Accessed 29 December
2008]

Chrysanthus Chukwuma Sr. (1998) Environmental issues and our chemical world – the
need for a multidimensional approach in environmental safety, health and management, 9(3)
[online] Available from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?contentType
=Article&Filename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/0830090306.pdf
[Accessed 29 December 2008]

Keijiro Masui, Tomohiko Sakao, Mitsuru Kobayashi, Atsushi Inaba. (2003) Applying Quality
Function Deployment to environmentally conscious design, 20(1), 91-98. [online] Available
from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?contentType=Article&Filename
=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/0400200105.pdf [Accessed 04 Jan
2009]
Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D. (2007) Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy
Policy. USA:Jointly published by IEER Publication and RDR Books, [online] Available
from: http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/CarbonFreeNuclearFree.pdf [Accessed 05 Jan 2009]

University of Sunderland 9
Environmental Issues Imran Hasan

I. Barnsley. (2008) Emissions trading, carbon financing and indigenous peoples. Published
by Institute of Advanced Studies. United Nations University, [online] Available from:
http://www.ias.unu.edu/resource_centre/UNU-CARBONMARKET.pdf [Accessed 06 jan
2009]

Zabihollah Rezaee, Rick Elam. (2000) Emerging ISO 14000 environmental standards: a
step-by-step implementation guide, 15(1/2), 60-66. [online] Available from:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?contentType=Article&Filename=html/
Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/0510150108.pdf [Accessed 07 jan 2009]

University of Sunderland 10