SUSTAINABLE

ENGINEERING
Concepts, Design, and Case Studies

DAVID T. ALLEN
DAVID R. SHONNARD

PRENTICE
HALL

Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston •

Indianapolis • San Francisco

New York •
Toronto •
Montreal • London • Munich •
Paris • Madrid
Capetown •
Sydney •
Tokyo •
Singapore • Mexico City
 Contents

PREFACE ix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi

ABOUT THE AUTHORS xiii

1 AN INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY 1

1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 The Magnitude of the Sustainability Challenge 2
1.3 Energy 3
1.4 Materials Use 8
1.4.1 Minerals, Metals, and Organics 8
1.4.2 Water 12
1.5 Environmental Emissions 13
1.5.1 Ozone Depletion in the Stratosphere 14
1.5.2 Global Warming 16
1.5.3 Regional and Local AirQuality 17
1.5.4 Summary of Air Quality 24
1.5.5 Water Quality 24
1.5.6 Wastes in the United States 25
1.6 Summary 27
Problems 28
References 32

v
RISK AND LIFE-CYCLE FRAMEWORKS
FOR SUSTAINA BILITY

2.1 Introduction 35
2.2 Risk 35
2.2.1 Definitions 35
2.2.2 Risk Assessment 39
2.2.3 Risk-Based Environmental Law 40
2.3 Life-Cycle Frameworks 42
2.3.1 Defining Life Cycles 42
2.3.2 Life-Cycle Assessment 44
2.3.3 Life-Cycle-Based Environmental Law 54
2.4 Life-Cycle Assessment Tools 55
2.4.1 Process-Based Life-Cycle Assessments 55
2.4.2 Input-Output LCA 56
2.4.3 Hybrid Approaches 57
2.5 Summary 57
Problems 57
Appendix: Readily Available Hazard References 61
References 62

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND REGULATION

3.1 Introduction 65
3.2 Nine Prominent Federal Environmental Statutes 68
3.3 Evolution of Regulatory and Voluntary Programs
from End-of-Pipe to Pollution Prevention and Sustainability
3.4 Pollution Prevention Concepts and Terminology 73
3.5 Environmental Law and Sustainability 74
Problems 75
Appendix 77
References 89

GREEN, SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

4.1 Introduction 91
4.2 Environmental and Natural Resource Use Footprints of
Material Extraction and Refining 91
4.3 Tracking Material Flows in Engineered Systems 99
Contents vli

4.4 Environmental Releases 107

4.4.1 Using Property Estimates to Evaluate Environmental
Partitioning, Persistence, and Measures of Exposure 109
4.4.2 Direct Use of Properties to Categorize the Environmental
Risks of Chemicals 112
4.5 Summary 114
Problems 114
References 115

5 DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY: ECONOMIC,

ENVIRONMENTAL, AND SOCIAL INDICATORS 117

5.1 Introduction 117

5.2 Sustainable Engineering Design Principles 118
5.3 Economic Performance Indicators 126
5.3.1 Definitions 127
5.3.2 Estimates of Environmental Costs 128
5.3.3 A Framework for Evaluating Environmental Costs 131
5.4 Environmental Performance Indicators 133
5.4.1 Life-Cycle Impact Assessment 135
5.5 Social Performance Indicators 146
5.6 Summary 149
Problems 149

Appendix 151
References 160

6 CASE STUDIES 165

6.1 Introduction 165

6.2 Biofuels for Transportation 166
6.2.1 The Carbon Cycle and Biofuels 167
6.2.2 Feedstocks for Biofuels 169
6.2.3 Processing Routes for Biomass to Biofuels 170
6.2.4 Biofuel Life Cycles 173
6.2.5 Cautionary Tales and Biofuels 177
6.2.6 Summary of Sustainability of Biofuels 181
6.3 Transportation, Logistics, and Supply Chains 181
6.3.1 A Limited Life-Cycle Assessment of Garment Design,

Manufacture, and Distribution 182

6.3.2 Alternatives for Garment Transport Logistics 182
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6.3.3 Life Cycles, Materials Use, and Transportation

Logistics of Running Shoes 185
6.3.4 Sustainability and Logistics 186
6.4 Sustainable Built Environments 186
6.4.1 Energy Consumed for Building Operation 187
6.4.2 Materials Use forBuilding Construction and Maintenance 190
6.4.3 Design of Buildings for Sustainability 191
6.4.4 Conclusions on Sustainability of Buildings 200
6.5 Additional Case Studies 201
References 201

INDEX 207