MCN 201 SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING
MODULE 1
SUSTAINABILITY- INTRODUCTION
The concept of sustainability become so important nowadays, because of the
irreparable damage caused to the environment by industrial civilization &
consumerism, which originated about 3 centuries ago.
They were based on the following wrong assumptions:
Earth belongs to the humans only
Ignore the fact that humans are part of the Earth's biosphere
Earth's stock of resources are infinite
Environment can bear any amount of damage that is caused by human activity.
The advantages & disadvantages of industrial civilization & consumerism are listed
below:-
Advantages
1. Flourished the economy
2. Improved the living quality of the society
Disadvantages
1. Caused irreparable damage to the environment
2. Pose a threat to the life support systems of earth.
3. E.g.1.The hole in the ozone layer surrounding our planet as a shield against the
dangerous ultraviolet radiation from the sun
4. E.g.2. Increased carbon dioxide content and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
that cause global warming
Several warnings concerning the instability of Earth’s life support systems have been
raised in the recent times.
In 1992, some of the world’s senior scientists from 70 countries, signed and sent an
urgent warning “The environment is suffering critical stress…” to the government
leaders of all nations as part of the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (the “Earth Summit”) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This marked the
beginning of the concept sustainability.
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 creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature
can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the requirements of present
and future generations.
Sustainability is important to making sure that we have and will continue to have,
the water, materials, and resources to protect human health and our environment.
SUSTAINABILITY- DEFINITION
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- NEED & CONCEPT
Sustainability has three components, which are inter-related, as shown in Fig below.
1. Environment
2. Society
3. Economy
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 environmental impact, caused by economy on production and society on
consumption, leads to the following damages to human life.
1. Fresh water scarcity
2. Climate change
3. Exposure to toxics in food, air, water and soil
4. Emerging diseases
5. Food insecurity resulting in poverty
6. Energy scarcity due to depletion of non-renewable resources
7. Ecosystem damage and habitat loss due to pollutant discharges
8. Sea level rise
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 following key
sustainability concepts:-
Intergenerational 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.
Sustainability means balancing environment, society and economy, as shown in Fig
below:
SOCIAL- ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
CONCEPT
The concept of sustainability is based on the basis that people and their communities
are made up of social, economic, and environmental systems that are in constant
interaction and that must be kept in harmony.
SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
There are six principles of sustainability that can help a community ensure that its
social, economic, and environmental systems are well integrated and will endure. 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 vitality. 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.
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, virgin resources like Fossil fuels, minerals and
metals
2. Nature must not be subjected to increased concentrations of substances produced
by society. This requires that consideration 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
The concept of sustainable development has received much recognition after the
Stockholm declaration in the year 1972.
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
as shown in Fig below
Sustainable development should have the following features:-
1. Satisfying human needs
2. Favoring 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
The following are the measures of sustainability development:-
(i) Technology: Using appropriate technology is one which is locally
adaptable, eco-friendly, cost effective, resource efficient and culturally
suitable. Nature is often taken as a model, using the natural conditions of
that region as its components. This concept is known as “design with
nature”.
(ii) Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Approach: The 3-R approach advocating
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.
(iii) Promoting Environmental Education and Awareness: Making
environmental education the centre of all learning process will greatly help
in changing the thinking pattern and attitude of people towards our earth
and the environment.
(iv) 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 (say, by
over exploitation of a resource), environmental degradation starts.
(v) Improving Quality of Life Including Social, Cultural and Economic
Dimensions: Development should not focus just on one-section of already
affluent people. Rather it 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
Technology is the offspring of science. Technological innovation can be seen as a
‘double edged sword’, with respect to sustainable development.
1. Technology improves quality of life, eliminate diseases and increase life
expectancy
2. 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.
Also 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
Pollution prevention and cleaner production technologies are more cost effective
than end of pipe waste treatment technology.
Some of the technological applications towards sustainable development in various
sectors are given below.
1. SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY
Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals-environmental health,
economic profitability, and social and economic equity. Some of the common
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 is the energy that, in its production or consumption, has
minimal negative impacts on human health and the healthy functioning of
vital ecological systems, including the global environment.
This can be achieved by using the following:
a. Renewable energy sources
i. Solar
ii. Biomass
iii. Wind
iv. Tide
v. Geothermal Heat
b. Energy efficient systems - upgrading the efficiency of the existing
equipment, reduction of energy loss, saving of fuel, and optimization of its
operating conditions and service life provide an ecologically safe strategy.
MILLENIUM 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 Eight Millennium Development Goals are:
1. to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
2. to achieve universal primary education;
3. to promote gender equality and empower women;
4. to reduce child mortality;
5. to improve maternal health;
6. to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
7.to ensure environmental sustainability; and
8. to develop a global partnership for development.
The MDGs are inter-dependent; all the MDG influence health, and health
influences all the MDGs.
For example, better health enables children to learn and adults to earn. Gender
equality is essential to the achievement of better health.
Reducing poverty, hunger and environmental degradation positively
influences, but also depends on, better health.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs)
Recently, the international community decided to adopt a new set of
development goals focusing on improving the sustainability of nation-states.
The need for a new set of targets was developed at the Rio +20 Conference,
held in Rio de Janeiro, in June 2012.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) build on the achievements of the
Millennium Development Goals. As mentioned, in a press release, by Wu
Hongbo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.
Sustainable development goals that build on the successes of the Millennium
Development Goals, and that apply to all countries, can provide a tremendous
boost to efforts to implement sustainable development and help us address
issues ranging from reducing poverty and creating jobs to the pressing issues
of meeting economic, social and environmental aspirations of all people.
The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to transform our world:
GOAL 1: No Poverty
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
GOAL 4: Quality Education
GOAL 5: Gender Equality
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
GOAL 13: Climate Action
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
GOAL 15: Life on Land
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM (CDM)
The Clean Development Mechanism is regarded as one of the most important
internationally implemented market based mechanisms to reduce carbon
emissions.
Created under the Kyoto Protocol, the CDM was designed to help developed
nations meet domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction commitments by
investing in low-cost emission reduction projects in developing countries.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), established under the Kyoto
Protocol, is the primary international offset program in existence today.
It generates offset through investments in GHG reduction, and avoidance
projects in developing countries.
These offset credits, called Certified Emission Reduction credits (CERs),
represent a reduction in one metric ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted to the
atmosphere.
Developed countries can use CERs to more costeffectively achieve their
Kyoto Protocol GHG emission reduction targets.
The stated purpose of the Clean Development Mechanism is to help
developing countries achieve sustainable development, and assist
industrialized countries in complying with their emission reduction
commitments.
PURPOSE OF CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM
Private companies fund projects in developing countries that reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
They must also meet sustainable development criteria and the “additionality”
requirement, which means the emission reductions made, must be
“additional” to what would have been possible without CDM funding.
Upon verification, the CDM awards these projects certified emission
reductions (CERs), each equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide.
CERs are then sold to developed countries, which use them to meet a part of
their reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
CERs are also called “offset credits” because they “offset” the developed
countries’ emissions with reductions in developing countries.
CDM allows countries to continue emitting green house gases, so long as they
pay for reductions made elsewhere.
The justification for this is based on the premise that it would be far more
expensive to implement emission reduction in industrialized countries than in
developing countries.
It would help developing countries to gain sustainable development benefits
from the entry of “clean” and more energy efficient technologies.
