Sustainable Development

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Sustainable Development

• Tough Choices for Engineers

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• Concept of sustainable development
• Levels of engineers involvement
• Examples
• Implications for the formation of engineers

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The planet is responding

• Industrial Activity
• Our use of fossil fuels has no precedent and a
  limited future
• (20-5000 years)

• Global Warming
• Surface temperature increase of perhaps
• 30 C by 2100

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The planet is responding

• Sea Level Rise
• Could be 0.6metre by 2100
• Whole countries could be devastated
• Coastal Zones lost Managed retreat

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The planet is responding

• Climate change in UK
• Warmer wetter winters
• Drier hotter summers
• More extreme weather events
• Higher winds
• Greater rainfall intensities
• Longer drought spells

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The planet is responding

• Pollution of air, ground and waters
• UN declared the first ever area of irredeemable
  contamination in FSU

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• Poverty
• The gap between rich and poor is widening
• Wealth creation has not led to a better life for
  all

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• The population has doubled since 1950

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Sustainable Development

• ..development that meets the needs of the
  current generation without compromising the
  ability of future generations to meet their own
  needs.

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For the intellectually frail

• Not cheating on the kids
• Tony Blair

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For the intellectually more confident

• Sustainable development is a process, which
  enables all people to realise their potential and
  improve their quality of life in ways that
  simultaneously protect and enhance the Earths
  life support systems.
• Forum for the Future

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UK Governments Sustainable Development Strategy

• social progress which meets the needs of everyone
• effective protection of the environment
• prudent use of natural resources
• maintenance of high and stable levels of economic
  growth and employment

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Engineers must engage in the process of decision
making

• Frightening
• New, potentially divisive
• Takes engineers beyond their areas of expertise
• Requires new approaches, new skills
• May frighten aspiring engineers
• Will require new approaches to education

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So

• Engineers will accommodate principles of
  sustainable development in their professional
  duties
• They will embrace social, economic and
  environmental issues into their decisions
• Engineers must therefore be prepared to take
  responsibility for their decisions

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Help!

• What does sustainable development mean for
  engineers?

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Involvement in Consultation

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EU
UN Protocols
UK Govt
EU Country
EU Country
Scottish Executive
Welsh Assembly
NIA
English Regions
County Auth
Statutory Bodies
Non Stat
Borough Councils
Action Groups Interest Groups Corporate
Assoc NGOs
Parish Councils
Individuals
Community Groups
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Stratigraphy of Consultation
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International Government Organisations
Global Companies
International NGOs
Statutory Bodies
NGOs
Large National Companies
National Govt
County Govt
Statutory Bodies
NGOs Local NGOs
Companies SMEs
Local NGOs
Local Govt
Planning Control
SMEs Mirco Business
Parish
Planning opinion
Micro business sole traders
Me
My environment
My property
My job
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Levels of decision

• What is the built environment context
• What is built
• How is it built
• How does it perform
• What is its eventual fate
• What is the built environment context
• What is built..

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Time related decisions in design

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Use of resources in construction design
decisions
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Use of resources in building and construction
design decisions
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Use of resources in construction design
decisions
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How much material is sustainable?

• Designers must consider likely life of use
• Is it more sustainable to build for
  deconstruction and reuse, or
• Build for 500 years and allow for adaptation
  within a shell
• Use materials in such a way that they can be used
  beneficially for many generations

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For example

• 21 million houses in UK with 2 pa turnover
• Houses we build now will be occupied and in use
  for at least 100 years

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• How does the centuries approach square with
  improving materials performance and increasing
  complexity of components?

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• Any such approach to plan for useful life
  centuries from now would require
• Better estimating of what can be useful in future
• Complete revision of NPV costing to allow the
  triple bottom line to become a measurable reality

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Profligacy

• 600 tonnes of material
• used to produce
• 60 tonnes of product
• of which
• 6 tonnes are in use
• 6 months later

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Waste hierarchy

• Use at all?
• How much material is sustainable?
• Use less
• Waste less
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Recover energy
• Final disposal

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• Use at all?
• How can building be avoided?
• Reuse existing buildings
• Increase efficiency of use of other buildings
• Re-examine the need
• Make demolition and reconstruction a planning
  issue
• Internalise costs

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Final disposal Landfill

• If we take a sustainable approach, we should
  regard landfills as future quarries.
• This would mean
• Segregated disposal
• Research to optimise storage conditions
• Future opportunities for mining

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Using waste as an indicator

• No Waste Concept
• What if no waste could be exported from a system
• What would the system do differently
• After the exercise, what will change
• The rest must be introduced by other means

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Using waste as an indicator

• No Waste Concept
• Apply to major industrial company
• Apply to a home
• Apply to a city
• A dimension of footprint

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No waste concept

• London cannot continue to export its waste
• London would look differently on material use if
  it had to lose its own land to waste tips
• Recycling would become mainstream
• Risks of recycling would be worthwhile
• Industries would be measured/chosen by their
  waste performance
• Households would be close to the waste issue
• brittle but controllable

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No waste concept

• Manila does not export its waste
• Poverty in Manila results in far lower waste per
  person
• Recycling is mainstream, pollution is serious
• Risks of recycling are borne by recyclers
• Industries can operate with impunity
• Households are largely unaware of the waste issue
• Manila could not impose a change in practice
• elastic but ungovernable

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Venice in Peril
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Sustainable Development

• Intra Generational Equity
• How to achieve Sustainable Development for
  Developing Countries

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How not to

• Art 4.5 Kyoto Protocol
• Technology Transfer
• North agrees to tell south how to pollute less
  and agrees to pay
• But assumes development will proceed in line with
  North (Globalisation)

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Knowledge transfer

• At the very least, transfer of knowledge should
  be two-way
• Developed world cities should seek greater
  flexibility
• Developing world cities could perhaps learn to
  leapfrog the development model, introducing new
  technology alongside traditional systems

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How about

• Developing countries finding new ways to develop
• Less dependency on North
• Less consumption for same QoL
• Allowing growth of own technology
• Selectively adapting modern technology to achieve
  new models of development

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Engineers would have to

• Understand traditional and modern methods
• Embrace the process of engagement
• Explain their design approaches
• Justify their decisions against a wide range of
  criteria

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If sustainable development is here to stay

• Engineers will have to be trained differently
• Engineers will have to be trained differentially
• New criteria will be needed to select the best
  engineers
• New research will have to be developed

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Research

• Need for quantification and rigour
• Need for setting of priorities
• Need to begin to study future value
• Need to bring engineering closer to other
  departments

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Education of engineers

• Engineers at the highest level will have to be
  educated with a breadth, a depth, and a maturity
  not previously achieved.
• Education will have to be seen as an enrichment
  of the individual for the benefit of society
• Students will be only those who can master the
  theory, understand the context, conduct the
  analysis and communicate the outcomes.

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Education of engineers

• This will require new approaches from selection,
  through delivery, to award of degrees and
  qualification of professional engineers.
• It will take courage.

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