Sustainability: Definitions and Applications

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Sustainability Definitions and Applications

• Leonard W. Casson, Ph.D., P.E., DEE
• University of Pittsburgh
• 949 Benedum Hall
• Pittsburgh, PA 15261-2294, U.S.A.

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The Earth
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The Earth From an Engineering Perspective
Sustainability and Green Design Why ?
Inputs ?
Outputs ?
Mass and Energy Balances
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Objectives

• What is Sustainability ?
• What is Sustainable Development ?
• What is Green Engineering and Environmentally
  Conscious Manufacturing (ECM)?
• Why do I need to incorporate these concepts into
  my engineering judgment and thought process?
• So What ??????????

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What is Sustainability

• Sustainability is an umbrella term which includes
  developing innovative approaches to the following
  concepts
• Energy Conservation
• Urban Design
• Waste Treatment (Water, Wastewater, Solid
  Hazardous)
• Urban Forestry
• What does Sustainability really mean ?????

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Sustainability

• Sustainability is finding a way to take care of
  our needs, while considering the needs of our
  children and the generations to come.
• We need to make wise engineering decisions that
  will leave future generations something worth
  inheriting.
• We need to leave them sufficient resources to
  support a life worth living

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Sustainability Concepts Apply to All Engineering
Disciplines !!!

• HOW ?????
• YOU WILL DECIDE DURING
• YOUR CAREER

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What Type of Earth Will WE Give To Future
Generations ?

• You Decide !

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Sustainable Development Concerns

• Energy Conservation
• Urban Design
• Enhanced Building Codes
• Drinking Water Treatment
• Wastewater Treatment
• Clean Recreational Waters
• Transportation
• Health and Safety

• Urban Forestry
• Food Supply Distribution
• Conservation Issues
• Manufacturing
• Solid Waste Treatment Disposal
• Waste Minimization
• Recycling
• Hazardous Waste Treatment Disposal

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Why Be Concerned with Sustainable Development ???

• Example Solid Waste

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How Much Solid Waste Do You Generate Per Day ???

• Approximately 2 to 4 pounds per person per day

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Municipal Solid Waste
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Number of Landfills in the U.S.
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Number of Landfills
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How Do We Manage This Situation?
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Functional Elements in a Solid Waste Management
System
Waste Generation
Waste Handling, Separation, Storage, And
Processing at the Source
Collection
Separation and Processing and Transformation
of Solid Waste
Transfer And Transport
Disposal
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How Can We Reduce the Amount of Waste Going To
Disposal ?

• Recycling and Incineration

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General Recycling Facts

• Goal USEPAs Goal is for the nation to recycle
  at least 35 of MSW by 2005.
• Reduce the generation of Solid Waste to 4.3
  pounds per person per day.
• Recycling
• Point of Disposal
• Centralized Recycling System

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What Can YOU Do?Personal Reuse Measures

• Using durable coffee mugs.
• Using cloth napkins or towels.
• Refilling bottles.
• Donating old magazines or surplus equipment.
• Reusing boxes.
• Turning empty jars into containers for leftover
  food.
• Purchasing refillable pens and pencils.
• Participating in a paint collection and reuse
  program.

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Recycled Products Shopping List

• Aluminum cans
• Newspapers
• Cereal boxes
• Paper towels
• Egg cartons
• Carpeting
• Motor oil
• Laundry detergent bottles

• Car bumpers
• Nails
• Anything made from steel
• Trash bags
• Glass containers
• Comic books

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National Recycling Rates
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What Drives the Recycling Process ?

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Green EngineeringandEnvironmentally Conscious
Design and Manufacturing
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What is Green Engineering ?

• Green Engineering is a systems-level approach to
  process and product design where environmental
  attributes are treated as primary objectives or
  opportunities rather than constraints.
• Environmental Objectives and Life Cycle Analysis
  are incorporated into the Engineering Design
  Process.

Note The environment does not have to refer only
to the global natural environment.The
environment may also include the close
proximity (user) of a technical system.
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Green Engineering Goals

• Waste Reduction
• Total Quality Management (TQM)
• Just-in-Time Manufacturing (JIT)
• Materials Management
• Design for Recycling (DFR)
• Design for Disassembly (DFD)
• Toxics Management
• Design for Remanufacture
• Life Cycle Assessment and Costing
• Pollution Prevention
• Product Enhancement

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What is Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing ?

• The development of cleaner, more efficient
  manufacturing methods to achieve the goals of
  green engineering.

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How Can You Change Your View the The
Manufacturing Process ?
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Materials Flow and Waste Generation
Raw Materials, Products And Recovered Materials
Raw Materials
Waste Materials
Residual Debris
Residual Waste
Manufacturing
Processing and Recovery
Secondary Manufacturing
Consumer
Final Disposal
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Green Product Design Concepts
Green Design
Waste Prevention
Enhanced Materials Management
Reduce Weight Toxicity Energy Use
Facilitate Remanufacturing Recycling
Composting Energy Recovery
Extend Service Life
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Do These Concepts Relate to Your Engineering
Discipline ?

• YES !!!!!!!!

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How Do These Concepts Relate Your Engineering
Discipline ??

• You Decide

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Moving Toward a Sustainable Future

• How do you shift from a non-sustainable pathway
  toward a sustainable pathway?
• Problems
• Legacy investment in non-sustainable
  technologies, processes and systems
• Sustainable development viewed as an expense, not
  as an opportunity
• Poor environment for innovation

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Three Steps

• Develop a practical awareness of the sustainable
  development issue
• Create a sustainable project roadmap
• Develop a sustainability knowledge base

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Resource Extraction, Harvesting
Process, Modify Resources
Convey, Transport
Consume
Discard
Harvesting
Extraction
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Developing a Practical Awareness of the
Sustainable Development Issue

• Is sustainable development an issue worthy of
  concern?
• What are the metrics of sustainability ?

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Conditions for Sustainability

• Renewable resources (ecological)
• Use lt Regeneration

• Non-renewable resources (minerals, fuels)
• Use lt Development of renewable substitutes

• Pollution emissions
• Emissions lt Carrying capacity of environment

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The Debate Over Sustainability
Resource Constrained
Resource Abundance
Ecological Resources (Renewable)
No real resource shortages
Little ecological damage
Impending resource shortages
Substantial ecological damage
Reaching carrying capacity
Carrying capacity not in jeopardy
Minerals, Metals, Fuels Resources (Non-Renewable)
No real resource shortages
Technology not capable of making additional
needed resources economically available
Impending Resource Shortages
Technological advances will continue to save the
day
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Creating A Sustainable Project Roadmap

• If sustainability is an important issue, then how
  will we change course?
• Making progress project by project.

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Approach

• Create a sustainability framework for evaluation
• Advance the state-of-the-practice
• Determine current state of the practice
• Set targets based on best-in-class technologies,
  achievements by others
• Evaluate using sustainability-based criteria
• Systems evaluation
• Sustainability is a journey, not a binary choice
• Economic viability is critical!

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Five-Step Process

• Step 1 Project Vision
• Where are you going
• Step 2 Fatal flaw analysis
• What issues might cause the project to fail?
• Step 3 Benchmarking
• What existing projects can be used as indicators
  and benchmarks for sustainable development?
• Step 4 Sustainable technologies
• Which technologies can be incorporated into the
  design that meet SD principles?
• Step 5 Systems integration
• Do systems meet target benchmarks?

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Developing a Sustainability Knowledge Base

• Develop and maintain a knowledge base of
  sustainable projects and technologies

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Developing a Sustainability Knowledge Base

• Scan the world of technologies
• Evaluate technologies against sustainability
  criteria
• Use a sustainability framework
• Scan the world of projects
• Learn and record what has been achieved
• Verify performance
• Maintain and disseminate the information

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Technical, Economical, Ecological Trade-offs

• Please note Compromises between technical,
  economical and environmental concerns are a fact
  of life

Environmental Extreme
Technical Extreme
Compromise (?)
or ... (?)
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An Enlightened Thought Process

• Define what are the environmental impacts
  (Objective).
• Identify relationships between the environmental
  impacts and design options.
• Provide the capability to design with respect to
  reducing the environmental impacts
  (Optimization).
• Establish the tradeoffs with respect to the other
  design goals (e.g., performance, cost and
  quality) (Compromise)

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The Balancing Act
Common Complaint I have to satisfy my
customer demands, my boss, get the product out on
time, meet all the deadlines, do Total Quality
Management, etc., and now I also have to worry
about DESIGN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT ? YES
!!!!!!!!!!
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So What ?????

• You get to determine how these emerging concepts
  will be incorporated into your conference paper
  next semester and into your engineering judgment
  throughout your career.

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Sustainability Lecture Location

• http//www.engr.pitt.edu/casson/Sustainable_pres.
  ppt