SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING

Module 1
Preamble
• Objective of this course is to inculcate in students an
awareness of environmental issues and the global
initiatives towards attaining sustainability.
• The student should realize the potential of
technology in bringing in sustainable practices.
MODULE-1
• Sustainability: Introduction, concept, evolution of the
concept; Social, environmental and economic
sustainability concepts; Sustainable development,
Nexus between Technology and Sustainable
development; Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
Sustainability
• Sustain- Allow something to continue for a period of
time
• Sustainability- the quality of being able to continue
over a period of time
• Sustainability means meeting our own needs without
compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs.

• Sustainability is the ability to achieve continuing

economic prosperity while protecting the natural
systems of the planet and providing a high quality of
life for its people.
• Sustainability is based on a simple principle:
Everything that we need for our survival and
wellbeing depends, either directly or indirectly, on
our natural environment

• Sustainability is important to ensure that we have

and will continue to have, the water, materials, and
other resources to improve human welfare, to protect
human health and our environment.
Why sustainability?

• Our actions of today will affect many things in the

future.
• We should be careful to avoid limiting the choices of
generations to come because of our actions
• Our natural world is our life support system and we
want it to last –so we need to look after it
Evolution of sustainability
• The history of sustainability traces from the
earliest civilizations to the present.
• The use of fire and desire for specific foods may have
altered the natural composition of plant and animal
communities.
• Agrarian communities (8,000 and 10,000 years
ago) depended largely on their environment
• Societies outgrowing their local food supply or
depleting critical resources either moved on or faced
collapse.
• The surplus of storable food allowed the population
to settle in one place instead of migrating in search of
wild foods and grazing land.
• It increased population density and also led
to deforestation which resulted in flooding and over-
irrigation leading to diminished yields
• Decrease in agricultural production led to the decline
of the civilization.
• Many civilizations had fallen because of poor
management of resources .
• In contrast, stable communities of shifting
cultivators existed in many places and large agrarian
communities in China, India and many have farmed
in the same localities for centuries.
• Industrial revolution of the 18𝑡ℎ to 19𝑡ℎ centuries
used the potential of the energy in fossil fuels.
• Coal was used to power engines and later to generate
electricity.
• Modern sanitation systems and advances in medicine
protected large populations from disease.
• Such conditions led to a human population explosion
• By the 20th century, the industrial revolution had led
to an exponential increase in the human consumption
of resources.
• The increase in health, wealth and population was
perceived as a simple path of progress.
• In the 1930s economists began developing models
of non-renewable resource management and the
sustainability of welfare in an economy that uses non-
renewable resources.
• An environmental movement pointed out that there were
environmental costs associated with the many material
benefits that were now being enjoyed.
• Modern industrial agriculture- the ‗Green Revolution‘
was based on the development of synthetic fertilizers,
herbicides and pesticides affected rural wildlife.
• In the 1970s environmentalists were concerned about
pollution, the population explosion, consumerism and the
depletion of finite resources.
• The 1973 and 1979 energy crises demonstrated the
extent to which the global community had become
dependent on a nonrenewable resource
• In 1980, publications of the International Union for
Conservation of Nature drew attention to the decline
of the world's ecosystems.
• In 1987 the United Nation's World Commission on
Environment and Development, in its
report suggested that development was acceptable, but
it must be sustainable development that would meet
the needs of the poor while not increasing
environmental problems.
• In 1961 almost all countries in the world had more
than enough capacity to meet their own demand; by
2005 many countries were able to meet their needs
only by importing resources from other nations.
• A move toward sustainable living by increasing
public awareness and adoption of recycling,
and renewable energies emerged.
• The development of renewable sources of energy in
the 1970s and '80s, primarily in wind
turbines and photovoltaics and increased use
of hydroelectricity, presented some of the first
sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel and nuclear
energy generation.
• In March 2009 the Copenhagen Climate Council,
issued a statement: "The climate system is already
moving beyond the patterns of natural variability
within which our society and economy have
developed and thrived. These parameters include
global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise,
ocean and ice sheet dynamics, ocean acidification,
and extreme climatic events. There is a significant
risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to
an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic
shifts.
• The car-free movement, smart growth (more
sustainable urban environments), life cycle
assessment (analysis of resource use and environmental
impact over the life cycle of a product or process),
greenbuilding, dematerialization (increased recycling of
materials), decarbonisation (removing dependence on
fossil fuels) and much more.
• Rapidly advancing technologies now provide the means
to achieve a transition of economies, energy generation,
water and waste management, and food production
towards sustainable practices.
Sustainable Engg. & Traditional Engg.
• Traditional engineering
• Considers the object
• Focuses on technical issues
• Solves the immediate
problem (now)
• Considers the local context
(user)
• Assumes others will deal
with politics, ethics &
societal issues
• Sustainable engineering
• Considers the system in
which the object will be
used
• Integrates technical and
non-technical issues
• Strives to solve the
problem for the indefinite
future (for ever)
• Considers the global
context (planet)
• Acknowledges the need for
engineers to interact with
experts in other disciplines
related to the problem
Designing a new computer infrastructure

• Traditional engineering:
▫ Focus on performance
• Sustainable engineering:
▫ How will widespread use impact electricity demand
and electronics recycling?
Designing a new arsenic-based wood
preservative
• Traditional engineering:
▫ How effective is it in my wood product?
• Sustainable engineering:
▫ How will wide use affect the construction industry?
▫ How will the chemical affect demolition waste / recycling?
Sustainability
• Sustainability has three components, which are inter-
related
▫ Environment
▫ Economy
▫ Society
• Environment gives resources, raw materials to the
Economy for production activities. Economy creates
products and sells it to society for use.
• Production by Economy and Consumption by Society
lead to the following environmental impacts.
1. Exhaustion of Resources – Water, Petroleum, Forests
2. Loss of Biodiversity - Extinction of Animal/Plant
Species due to Water, Soil, Air Pollution
3. Deforestation - conversion of forestland to farms, urban
use etc.
4. Ozone Depletion - reduction of the amount of ozone in
the stratosphere due to the emission of
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFC/s emitted from the
industries, rises to the Stratosphere.Sunlight breaks
CFCs to release Chlorine. Chlorine reacts with Ozone
and destroys it.
5. Acid Deposition – results in acid rain, acid fog and acid
mist.
6. Desertification - type of land degradation in which a
land region becomes dry, typically losing its water
bodies, vegetation and wildlife.
7. Eutrophication - form of water pollution occurs when
excessive fertilizers run into lakes and rivers. This
encourages the overgrowth of algae and other aquatic
plants.
8. Global Warming - gradual increase in the average
temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and its oceans,
caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse
gases – Carbon oxides, Nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides,
Fluorocarbons
• The need of sustainability is to reduce these damages
and create a livable planet earth for the future
generations.
• For this, United Nations presented the key
sustainability concepts:-
▫ Inter-generational equity – Expects the present
generation to hand over a safe, healthy and resourceful
environment to the future generation.
▫ Intra-generational equity – Emphasize the
technological development should support economic
growth of the poorer section, so as to reduce the gap
between nations.
• People and their communities are made up of social,
economic, and environmental systems that are in
constant interaction.
• Sustainability means keeping these in harmony.
• That is by balancing environment, society and
economy.
Social sustainability
• Ability of a society to continue to evolve harmoniously,
for an indefinitely long time, through human interaction,
communication, social integration and cultural
development
• Social sustainability occurs when the formal and informal
processes; systems; structures; and relationships actively
support the capacity of current and future generations to
create healthy and liveable communities. Socially
sustainable communities are equitable, diverse, connected
and democratic and provide a good quality of life
Economic Sustainability
• Ability of an economy to support a defined level of
economic activity indefinitely

Environmental Sustainability
• A state in which the demands placed on the
environment can be met without reducing its capacity
to allow all people to live well, now and in the future.
Social Sustainability
A community or society that wants to pursue sustainability
will try to:
1. Maintain residents’ quality of life.
Quality of life has many components: income,
education, health care, housing, employment, legal rights.
Each locality must define and plan for the quality of life it
wants and believes it can achieve, for now and for future
generations.
2. Enhance local economic viability.
A viable local economy is essential to sustainability.
This includes job opportunities, sufficient tax base and
revenue to support government and the provision of
infrastructure and services, and a suitable business climate.
3. Promote social and intergenerational equity.
A sustainable community‘s resources and
opportunities are available to everyone, regardless of
ethnicity, age, gender, cultural background, religion, or
other characteristics. Further, a sustainable community
does not deplete its resources and destroy natural
systems.
4. Maintain the quality of the environment.
A sustainable community tries to find ways to co-
exist with natural environment and ecosystem. It avoids
unnecessary degradation of the air, oceans, fresh water,
and other natural systems.
5. Incorporate disaster resilience and mitigation into its
decisions and actions.
A community is resilient in the face of inevitable natural
disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and
drought if it takes steps to ensure that such events cause as little
damage as possible.
6. Use a consensus-building, participatory process when
making decisions.
Participatory processes are vital to community
sustainability... It encourages the identification of concerns and
issues, promotes the wide generation of ideas for dealing with
those concerns, and helps those involved find a way to reach
agreement about solutions.

These are the six principles of sustainability that can help a

community ensure that its social, economic, and environmental
systems are well integrated and will endure.
Environmental sustainability
• Environmental sustainability requires:
1. Maintenance of biodiversity (genes, species and
ecosystems)
2. Protection of natural capital (air, water, soils etc)
3. Maintenance of the energy and material cycles of
the planet
4. Health and resilience of all life support systems.
This can be achieved by:

1. Reduce dependence upon finite, resources like

Fossil fuels, minerals and metals

2. Nature must not be subjected to increased

concentrations of substances produced by society.
Consideration should be given to the biodegradability
of substances and the length of time it takes the earth to
reabsorb them.
3. The physical basis for the productivity and
biodiversity of nature must be not systematically
degraded. This requires that we protect diverse and
special habitats.

4. There must be efficient use and fair distribution of

resources to enable humans to meet their needs. This
requires a reduction in consumerism, especially among
wealthy nations.
Economic sustainability
• The economic sustainability ensures that the industry
or business is making profit without creating much
damage to environment/ecology.
• Economic growth is expressed in terms of Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). This is the total amount of
production produced within a nation, within one year.
• Economic growth has to be sustainable, if it
improves quality of human life. Thus population
factor must be included to ensure fair resource
consumption.
Economic Social And Environmental
Matrix
Sustainable Development
• Sustainable development is the development which
meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.
• (Definition proposed by the Brundtland Commission
in 1987 in their report ―Our Common Future‖).
• The three pillars of sustainable development are
environment, society and economy
Features of Sustainable development
• Sustainable development should have the following
features:-
1. Satisfying human needs
2. Favouring a good quality of life through decent
standards of living
3. Sharing resources between rich and poor
4. Acting with concern for future generations
5. Looking at the ‗cradle-to-grave‘ impact when
consuming
6. Minimizing resource use, waste and pollution
Measures of Sustainable Development
1. Technology
▫ Using appropriate technology is one which is
locally adaptable, eco-friendly, cost effective,
resource efficient and culturally suitable.
2. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Approach
▫ The 3-R approach recommending minimization of
resource use, using them again, and recycling the
materials. It reduces pressure on our resources as
well as reduces waste generation and pollution.
3. Promoting Environmental Education and Awareness
▫ Environmental education will greatly help in changing
the thinking pattern and attitude of people towards our
earth and the environment.
4. Resource Utilization as Per Carrying Capacity
▫ Any system can sustain a limited number of
organisms on a long-term basis which is known as
its carrying capacity. If the carrying capacity of a
system is crossed by over exploitation of a
resource, environmental degradation starts.
5. Improving Quality of Life Including Social,
Cultural and Economic Dimensions

▫ Development should include sharing of benefits

between the rich and the poor. The tribal, ethnic
people and their cultural heritage should also be
conserved
Nexus between Technology and Sustainable
Development
• Technological innovation is a ‗double edged sword‘,
with respect to sustainable development.
• Technology improves quality of life, eliminate
diseases and increase life expectancy
• On the other hand, technology creates irreparable
environmental damage due to resource extraction and
pollution of air, water, soil.
• As technology advances, the environmental
degradation accelerates exponentially.
• The benefits of technological innovations are mostly
enjoyed by the developed countries.
• The technology remains as a dream for
underdeveloped countries which still face poverty,
inadequate sanitation facilities etc.
• Hence it is essential to integrate technology, society
into sustainability.
Technology can support sustainability by

1.Conserving natural capital (renewable and

nonrenewable resources)
2. Reducing waste and pollution
3. Raising efficiency standards
4. Finding substitutes for toxic/hazardous materials
Technological applications towards sustainable
development in various sectors

1.SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY

• Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals-

environmental health, economic profitability, and social
and economic equity.
• Ways towards sustainable agriculture are:

a) Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

b) Rotational Grazing
c) Soil conservation
d) Water quality/wetlands
e) Cover crops
f) Crop/ landscape diversity
g) Nutrient management
h) Agro-forestry
2. SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
• Sustainable energy - energy that, in its production or
consumption, has minimal negative impacts on
human health and the healthy functioning of vital
ecological systems.
• This can be achieved by using the following:
a. Renewable energy sources
b. Energy efficient systems
a. Renewable energy sources

i. Solar
ii. Biomass
iii. Wind
iv. Tide
v. Geothermal Heat
b. Energy efficient systems

i. upgrading the efficiency of the existing equipment

ii. reduction of energy loss,
iii. saving of fuel, and
iv. optimization of operating conditions and service
life
 WHAT IS TO BE SUSTAINED? WHAT IS TO BE DEVELOPED?

People – Child survival, Life expectancy,

Nature – Earth, Biodiversity, Ecosystems
Education, Equity, Equal opportunity

Economy – Wealth, Production,

Life support – Resources, Environment
Consumption

Society – Institutions, Social capital,

Community – Cultures, Places States, Regions
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
• The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are
eight goals that all 191 UN member states have agreed to
try to achieve by the year 2015.
• The United Nations Millennium Declaration, signed in
September 2000 commits world leaders to combat
poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental
degradation, and discrimination against women. The
MDGs are derived from this Declaration, and all have
specific targets and indicators.
• The MDGs have been superseded by the Sustainable
Development Goals, a set of 17 integrated and
indivisible goals that build on the achievements of the
MDGs but are broader, deeper and far more
ambitious in scope.
The Eight Millennium Development Goals

• To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

• To achieve universal primary education
• To promote gender equality and empower women
• To reduce child mortality
• To improve maternal health
• To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
• To ensure environmental sustainability
• To develop a global partnership for development
The Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs)
• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as
the Global Goals, were adopted by all United Nations Member
States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty,
protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and
prosperity by 2030.
• The 17 SDGs are integrated— action in one area will affect
outcomes in others, and that development must balance social,
economic and environmental sustainability.
• SDGs are designed to bring the world to several life-
changing ‗zeros‘, including zero poverty, hunger,
AIDS and discrimination against women and girls.
• Everyone is needed to reach these ambitious targets.
The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial
resources from all of society is necessary to achieve
the SDGs in every context.
1. No Poverty 11. Sustainable Cities and
2. Zero Hunger Communities
3. Good Health and Well-being 12. Responsible Consumption
4. Quality Education and Production
5. Gender Equality 13. Climate Action
6. Clean Water and Sanitation 14. Life Below Water
7. Affordable and Clean Energy 15. Life On Land
8. Decent Work and Economic 16. Peace, Justice, and Strong
Growth Institutions
9. Industry, Innovation and 17. Partnerships for the Goals
Infrastructure
10. Reducing Inequality
Clean Development Mechanism
• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) is an International Environmental
Treaty that seeks to reduce atmospheric concentrations
of greenhouse gases
• Adapted in 1992
• Divided countries into 2
• Annex I parties – developed countries
• Non Annex I parties – developing countries
• Conference of parties – COP – governing body
• COP – 3 in Kyoto, Japan in 1998
• Rules - Kyoto Protocol
• Target - Average 5 % emission reduction compared to
1990 levels over 2008–2012 ( Annex I)
• Non annex – I - agreed to objective but did not undertake
the target
• Under the principle of ―common but differentiated
responsibility and respective capabilities‖
• Protocol developed 3 mechanisms to give flexibility to
parties to meet their targets
• Clean Development Mechanism
• International Emissions Trading
• Joint implementation (JI)
Clean Development Mechanism

• Defined under article 12 of kyoto protocol

• Annex I parties implement projects – reduce GHG
gases in non Annex I parties
• In return – Certified Emission Returns
Purpose of CDM
• To assist Annex I parties in achieving compliance
with their own quantified emission limitation and
reduction commitments
• To assist non Annex I parties in contributing to the
Convention‘s ultimate objective.
• To assist non Annex I parties in achieving sustainable
development