ey - research.qut.edu.au€¦ · Web viewAll assumed that the oceans and forests would absorb all...

ey

‘Principles and Practices in Sustainable Development for the Engineering and

Built Environment Professions’

Unit 1: Redefining Roles Unit 2: Efficiency/Whole Systems

Unit 3: Biomimicry/Green Chemistry

Final – April 2007

Developed by:

PreliminariesThe engineering profession will play a significant part in moving society to a more sustainable way of life. Recognising this, the Engineering Sustainable Solution Program (ESSP) seeks to provide engineers and built environment professionals with a basic understanding of sustainability issues and opportunities as they relate to their practice. The ESSP is designed to facilitate the effective incorporation of key pieces of information, or ‘critical literacies’, relating to sustainability into engineering curricula and capacity building. This program provides an alert to sustainability principles and activity in the engineering profession.

In the preparation of any education program, and in particular an introductory course, it is a challenge to cover all possible questions or uncertainties that may arise during delivery of the material. In response to this challenge, this program will be supported (in its critical academic rigour and structure) by engineering related material in the publication, The Natural Advantage of Nations, and its companion web site (www.naturaledgeproject.net) along with other key texts.

Text BookHargroves, K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London.

The Text Book along with each of the units has an online companion to provide additional supporting material. Optional reading material is provided after each lecture for those who wish to explore the content in more detail..

AcknowledgementsThe development of the Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program – Critical Literacies Portfolio has been supported by grants from the following organisations;

- UNESCO, Division of Basic and Engineering Sciences, Natural Sciences Sector (with particular support and mentoring from Tony Marjoram, Senior Programme Specialist - Engineering Sciences, and Françoise Lee)

- The Institution of Engineers Australia, College of Environmental Engineers (with particular support and mentoring from Martin Dwyer, Director Engineering Practice, and Peter Greenwood, Doug Jones, Andrew Downing, Tim Macoun, Julie Armstrong and Paul Varsanyi.)

- The Society for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering (with particular support and mentoring from Terrence Jeyaretnam.)

Expert review and mentoring has been received from Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumeister, The Biomimicry Guild (USA); Paul Anastas, Green Chemistry Institute (USA); Alan Pears RMIT University (AUS); Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute (USA); Tom Conner, KBR (AUS); and Mia Kelly, TNEP Working Group (AUS). We would like to add a special thank you to the Engineers Australia review panel Trevor Daniell, Thomas Brinsmead and David Hood..

Principles and Practices in Sustainable Development of 113 Prepared by The Natural Edge Project 2007

http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/

Citation Smith, M., Hargroves, K., Paten, C., and Palousis, N. (2007) Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program: Critical Literacies Portfolio - Principles and Practices in Sustainable Development for the Engineering and Built Environment Professions, The Natural Edge Project (TNEP), Australia.

Prepared by The Natural Edge Project 2007 of 113 Principles and Practices in Sustainable Development

Educational Aims of Lectures in Unit 1

Lecture 1: The Critical Role of Engineering

To build on from the material covered in of The Role of Engineering in Sustainable Development A by outlining in more detail the historical changes and trends that have led to the call for sustainable development, and to introduce some of the most critical global efforts, conferences and publications that have informed the discussion. To further help engineers understand the critical role they play to the achievement of sustainable development.

Lecture 2: Rethinking the Application of Engineering Design

To reflect on the need to rethink the way engineering design is used to solve problems. Although engineering achievements have usually addressed and solved one problem, they have unfortunately often created several other problems within the system. Engineering institutions, scientific communities, the corporate sector and government are recognising the need to change the design scope; now seeking to design for sustainability/environment.

Lecture 3: Broadening the Problem Definition

To discuss the scale and speed society needs to work at to reduce its negative impact on the global environment and improve resource productivity to prevent further overshoot of ecological thresholds. To also define the types of performance targets engineers will need to help society achieve in order to ensure development is sustainable.

Lecture 4: Innovation to Achieve Factor 4-10

In order to take advantage of opportunities for innovation and deliver sustainable solutions, a shift must be achieved in the way engineers design and implement projects. But also there is much government and R&D bodies can do as well to ensure that all future research into new technologies seeks to ensure these will be sustainable technologies. Engineers leadership in sustainability would be greatly assisted if governments, R&D bodies, business and engineers worked together to work out how best they can achieve innovations of Factor 4-10.



Lecture 5: Efficiency – A Critical First Step towards Sustainability

To reinforce the critical point that efficiency is a vital sustainability strategy. The rate of return on investment makes it economically viable to further investment in sustainability initiatives such as renewable energy, and recycling of water and materials. To achieve sustainability will involve a transition. Engineers have a critical role to help society find the most cost effective ways to achieve this. Engineers need to become better at communicating the multiple benefits of engineering sustainable solutions to business, government or any organisation they work with. The concept of efficiency will help engineers better communicate how cost-effective reducing environmental impacts can be. Businesses, governments and other organisations are embracing efficiency because it improves performance, reduces costs and pollution. This is also an important topic to cover since engineers play a key role in often both managing and implementing efficiency.

Lecture 6: Efficiency: Engineering Efficiencies (Energy, Water, Materials)

Effective practitioners have shown that it is possible to achieve significant energy, water and material efficiencies with numerous everyday products and industrial processes. The goal here is to introduce and start to explain how to achieve such results, and how still greater results can be achieved in the future. A succinct overview of these exciting opportunities for engineers is outlined with checklists to provide guidance for those seeking to achieve greater energy, water and materials efficiencies. These checklists have been developed and formally published by The Institution of Engineers Australia and the Institution of Professional Engineers, New Zealand.

Lecture 7: Whole Systems: Achieving Whole of Systems Optimisation - Pipes and Pumps

To introduce RMI’s Pipes and Pumps case study as an existing whole system engineering example of redesigning industrial pumping systems, where optimising the whole of the system for multiple benefits can yield Factor 4 – 10 productivity improvements. To also show how this case study can be emulated for the Whole System Design (WSD) of numerous other engineering systems. Few people or organisations have done as much as Amory Lovins and RMI to communicate the benefits of whole of system engineering design (WSD) to engineers. This case study is therefore provided as a tribute to their leading work.

Lecture 8: Whole Systems: 10 step Operational Checklist to Achieve Whole System Design Optimisation

The goal here is to demystify the art of Whole System Design (WSD) as practised by WSD practitioners into easily understood operational steps. This operational check list will help to show how through Whole System Design big efficiency gains can be achieved. Some of these steps overlap with each other and some may seem obvious, however, each step is reinforcing aspects that are of importance in successfully implementing Whole System Design.



Lecture 9: Design Inspired by Nature

To discuss the concept of ‘Biomimicry’ and the principles on which the field is founded. To also discuss the role of the professional community in applying this methodology as a global network of Biomimicry practitioners. This lecture has been developed based on extensive conversations with Janine Benyus and is a testament to her leadership in the field as we attempt to communicate the concept to engineers.

Lecture 10: A Biomimetic Design Method and Information Sources

To present a methodology for applying Biomimicry principles to designing engineering solutions. To also provide details about sources and networks available to seek information about natural systems and Biomimicry design innovation examples. The method provided in this lecture builds on from conversations with Janine Benyus and is based on the evolving methodology developed by the Biomimicry Guild in 20051 adapted to fit the engineering design context.

Lecture 11: Definitions and Principles of Green Chemistry and Green Chemical Engineering

To provide and outline of what ‘Green Engineering’ is as defined by Paul Anastas et al. To introduce the concept of ‘Green Chemistry’ and state the 12 Principles developed for this field of science. The purpose of covering this material is to show an example of a field where engineers can take the inspiration from nature and apply it.

Lecture 12: Green Chemistry and Green Engineering In Practice: A Succinct Overview

To show through example, explanation, and argument why the application of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering principles can make a significant contribution to sustainable development, featuring some cutting edge examples. To demonstrate that Green Chemistry and Green Engineering are no longer just ideas, they are the basis now globally for a multi-billion dollar industry.

1 Summarised from Biomimicry Methodology (evolving), available at http://www.biomimicry.net/pdf/biomimicry_methodology.pdf. Accessed 26 November 2006. And through conversation with Janine Benyus.


http://www.biomimicry.net/pdf/biomimicry_methodology.pdf

Unit 1: Redefining RolesLecture 1: The Critical Role of Engineering

As population and economic growth place increasing pressures on our social and biophysical environment, engineers must accept increased responsibilities to develop sustainable solutions to meet community needs, overcome extreme poverty and prevent segregation of people. The education of engineers needs to inculcate an understanding of sustainability and cultural and social sensitivities as well. The engineering code of ethics must reflect a strong commitment to principles of sustainable development.

World Federation of Engineering Organisations, 2001, Model Code of Ethics.

Educational AimTo build on from the material covered in of The Role of Engineering in Sustainable Development A by outlining in more detail the historical changes and trends that have led to the call for sustainable development, and to introduce some of the most critical global efforts, conferences and publications that have informed the discussion. To further help engineers understand the critical role they play to the achievement of sustainable development.

Required ReadingHargroves, K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London:

Chapter Page

1. Introduction: Insurmountable Opportunities (4 pages) pp 1-4

2. Chapter 1: Natural Advantage of Nations, ‘Progress, Competitiveness and Sustainability’, (5 pages)

pp 7-11

3. Chapter 2: Risks of Inaction on Sustainable Development (9 pages) pp 34-42

4. Chapter 22: Changing Hearts and Minds: The Role of Education. ‘Partnering with Professional Bodies to Build Capacity’, (2 pages)

pp 440-441

Learning Points 1. Engineers have been very successful in developing technologies that enable progress and

economic prosperity by improving labour productivity; finding new energy sources; designing transportation systems; and enabling the mass import and export of goods over land and sea. However, the historically significant scale of human population rise, the spread of consumerism and the speed of technological change around the world is putting increasing pressure on the world’s natural ecosystems. It is ironic that a major limiting factor to current and future progress, and economic prosperity within the next 50 years, will be the decline in the resilience of the Earth’s biological systems, in effect we are destroying the world we are creating.


2. In March 2005 the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,2 conducted by 1360 experts in 95 nations, was launched. As a result of this report, there is no longer any scientific doubts that close to two thirds of the world’s ecosystems are now in serious decline.

3. At the same time, global inequality continues to rise.3 In his book, Capitalism at the Crossroads,4 Stuart Hart points out that according to the 1997 UNDP Human Development report,5 in 1960 the share of global income enjoyed by the wealthiest 20 percent of the world’s people was thirty times larger than the amount shared by the lowest 20 percent. It reached sixty one to one by 1991, seventy-eight to one in 1994. In the 2005 edition of the report6 it states that while 20 percent of the world’s people live on less than $1 a day, another 20 percent live in nations where people do not think twice about spending $2 on a cappuccino. At the extremes of this imbalance, the 500 richest people in the world have a larger combined income than the poorest 400 million.

4. To address the twin challenges of the decline of ecosystem resilience and increasing global inequality, the UN first organised the ‘1972 UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment’7 which was attended by official representatives of 113 nations. Despite this conference’s success, by the early 1980s progress to address these issues had lost momentum. The UN decided to form the UN Commission on Environment and Development chaired by the then Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Brundtland (also know as the Brundtland Commission) to produce a consensus document on sustainable development. This document, published in 1987, was called Our Common Future.8

5. The work of the Brundtland Commission helped build momentum for the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and attended officially by representatives of over 170 national governments. At this conference a significant document was created, known as Agenda 21,9 which is a blueprint of how all can play their part to achieve sustainable development globally. Chapter 31 of Agenda 21 covered in detail how scientists and technologists (engineers) have a key role to play to help achieve sustainable development.

6. Engineering activities shape the world through their products and process design, and through the management of the technical systems and innovations. Because of this, engineering is uniquely placed to be able to make a significant contribution to achieving sustainable development.

2 United Nations (2005) Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Available at

http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx. Accessed 5 January 2007). 3 See the Eldis Poverty Resource Guide at www.eldis.org/poverty/index.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007. The

Eldis Poverty Resource Guide supports the analysis of poverty and related implications of social and economic policies within Africa, Asia and Latin America.

4 Hart, S.L. (2005) Capitalism at the Crossroads, Wharton School Publishing, London.5 UNDP (1997) Human Development Report 1997- Human Development to Eradicate Poverty, UNDP, New

York. Available at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/1997/en/. Accessed 5 January 2007. 6 UNDP (2005) Human Development Report 2005- International cooperation at a crossroads: Aid, trade and

security in an unequal world, UNDP, New York. Available at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/ . Accessed 5 January 2007.

7 UNEP (1972) Report Of The United Nations Conference On The Human Environment, UNEP, Paris. Available at www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID. Accessed 5 January 2007.

8 Bruntland, G. (ed.) (1987) Our Common Future: The World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford. This publication is also commonly referred to as the Brundtland Report.9 UNCED (1992) Agenda 21: United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, UNCED, New

York, chap 31. Available at http://earthwatch.unep.net/agenda21/31.php. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://earthwatch.unep.net/agenda21/31.php

http://www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID

http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/

http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/1997/en/

http://www.eldis.org/poverty/index.htm

http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.aspx

Brief Background InformationThe practice of ‘engineering’ was developed in a context very different from today. Even 300 years ago we lived in a world with relatively few people and seemingly endless natural resources and abounding ecosystems. The successful development and expansion of towns, cities - and indeed empires and civilisations - was limited by factors including the availability of workers, fuel and energy supply, and the ability to source and transport goods. Engineers were very successful at enabling such progress through developing technologies to improve labour productivity, finding new energy sources, and designing transportation systems to enable the mass import and export of goods over land and sea. Engineering advances to steel and metal, rubber, bridge design, and inventions such as the steam engine underpinned the first industrial revolution.10

However the historically significant scale of human population rise, the spread of consumerism and the speed of technological change around the world is putting increasing pressure on the world’s natural ecosystems. A major limiting factor to progress, and economic prosperity within the next 50 years, will be the decline in the resilience of the Earth’s biological systems. Today, there is growing evidence that humanity in many regions and as a whole has overshot nature’s ecological thresholds. Extensive evidence now shows that current economic development paths are environmentally unsustainable. Research has shown that the scale of the human economy now overwhelms many of the Earth’s natural material cycles, such as nitrogen,11 sulphur,12

carbon,13 water,14 and trace metals.15 Humanity is now using up the ecological capital of future generations.16 Since 1963 there has been a 2.4-fold increase in the material throughput of the global economy17 and in 2001, humanity’s ecological footprint exceeded the global bio-capacity by 21 percent.18

Further evidence that humankind has already overshot the ecological thresholds in many areas of the world’s ecosystems is covered in the results of the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the results of the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC). In 2001, the IPCC, working with over 3000 atmospheric scientists and modellers, warned that deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions will be needed to avoid dangerous climate change. In 2002 the US National Academies of Science not only endorsed the IPCC’s conclusions but also produced a new report entitled, ‘Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises’, which argued that global warming may

10 BBC (n.d.) Overview of The First Industrial Revolution. Available at www.open2.net/industrialrevolution/. Accessed 5 January 2006).

11 Vitousek, P. M. (1994) ‘Beyond Global warming: Ecology and Global Change’, Ecology 75, pp 1861-1876; Vitousek, P.M. et al. (1997) ‘Human alteration of the global nitrogen cycle: Causes and consequences’, Ecological Applications, vol 7, pp 737-750.

12 MacKenzie, J.J. (1997) Oil as a Finite Resource: When is Global Production Likely to Peak?, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

13 Houghton, J.T., Filho, L.G.M., Callander, B.A., Harris, N., Kattenberg, A., and Maskell, K., (eds) (1995) The Science of Climate Change, Contribution of Working Group I to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 572.

14 Postel, S., Daily, G.C. and Erlich, P.R. (1996) ‘Human Appropriation of Renewable Fresh Water’, Science, no. 271, pp 785-88.

15 Nriagu, J.O. (1990) ‘Global Metal Pollution: Poisoning the Environment?’, Environment, vol. 32, pp 7-11.16 World Wildlife Fund (2004) Living Planet Report 2004. Available at www.panda.org/livingplanet. Accessed 5

January 2007. 17 Gardner, G. and Sampat, P. (1998) Mind over Matter: Recasting the Role of Materials in our Lives, World

Watch Paper 144, World Watch Institute, Washington D.C. 18 World Wildlife Fund (2004) Living Planet Report 2004. Available at www.panda.org/livingplanet. Accessed 5

January 2007.


http://www.panda.org/livingplanet

http://www.panda.org/livingplanet

http://www.open2.net/industrialrevolution/

trigger large, abrupt and unwelcome regional and global climatic events.’19

Evidence that the resilience of the world’s ecosystems is in serous decline is reported in publications such as the annual The State of the World reports20 and the 2003 World Bank Development Report on Sustainable Development in a Dynamic World.21 At the same time global inequality continues to rise. As Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General, stated in a speech on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, 17 October 2000, ‘Almost half the world’s population lives on less than two dollars a day, yet even this statistic fails to capture the humiliation, powerlessness and brutal hardship that is the daily lot of the world’s poor.’22 Clearly, current progress to reduce poverty is insufficient.

From this and many other reasons has come the call for sustainable development. Barbara Ward has been credited with being one of the first to use the term sustainable development. Barbara Ward and Rene Dubois in their seminal 1972 book Only One Earth23 outlined how poverty and environmental degradation are inextricably interlinked and therefore can only be addressed simultaneously. Ward played a significant role working closely with Maurice Strong, Secretary General of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, to ensure the success of the event. The conference and the book did much to popularise and build political will for sustainable development.

Fundamentally, it will be physically impossible for all developing nations to achieve Western material living standards with previous modes of development and technologies, as the global ‘ecological footprint’24 is already greater than the carrying capacity of our planet (See Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1. Humanity’s Ecological Footprint, 1961-2003

Source: World Wildlife Fund and Global Footprint Network (2006)25

19 National Academies of Science (2002) Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises Committee on Abrupt Climate Change, National Research Council, National Academy Press, Washington D.C.

20 Worldwatch Institute (n.d.) State of the World reports. Available at http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/sow/. Accessed 5 January 2007.

21 World Bank (2003) World Bank Development Report 2003: Sustainable Development in a Dynamic World, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

22 Annan, K. (2000) Message of the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Available at www.un.org/events/poverty2000/messages.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.

23 Ward, B. and Dubois, R. (1972) Only One Earth, Penguin, Hammondsworth, UK.24 The equivalent land and water area required to produce a given population's material standard, including

resources appropriated from other places. Co-developed by Dr Mathis Wackernagel. For additional information see the Global Footprint Network at www.footprintnetwork.org. Accessed 5 January 2007.

25 Global Footprint Network (2006) Footprint Network News, October 24, 2006. Available at http://www.footprintnetwork.org/newsletters/gfn_blast_0610.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.footprintnetwork.org/newsletters/gfn_blast_0610.html

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/

http://www.un.org/events/poverty2000/messages.htm

http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/sow/

For instance the UNEP (2002) Sustainable Consumption – A Global Status report stated that,26

If China were to match the US for levels of car ownership and oil consumption per person it would mean producing approximately 850 million more cars and more than doubling the world output of oil. Those additional cars would produce more CO2 per annum than the whole of the rest of the world’s transportation systems. If China were match US consumption per head of paper, it would need more paper than the world currently produces. If China were to consume seafood at the per capita rate of Japan, it would need 100 million tonnes, more than today’s total catch. If China’s beef consumption was to match the USA’s per capita consumption and if that beef was produced mainly in feedlot, this would take grain equivalent to the entire US harvest.

Significant changes are going to be required to meet individuals and societies’ needs globally in a way that ensures the same opportunity for future generations still to come. The critical role of engineers in the achievement of sustainability has been acknowledged both within and outside of the profession. As Maurice Strong said, ‘Sustainable development will be impossible without the full input by the engineering profession’.

In Agenda 21,27 the major document produced by the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in 1992, activities of engineers were included in chapters on human settlements and other specific aspects of sustainable development. Chapter 31 specifically addressed the contribution of science and technology to the promotion of sustainable development and called for the science and engineering professions to develop codes of practice and ethics that implicitly includes recognition of the concerns of sustainable development.

The engineering profession through international bodies such as the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) made an active contribution to the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. In September 1991, the WFEO held a meeting of its General Assembly in Arusha, Tanzania. At this meeting WFEO adopted the Arusha Declaration28 on the future role of engineering, developed from a study of Our Common Future,29

(the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development) and other documents. This declaration provided helpful guidelines that could be used by engineers in their projects. Soon after the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio Summit), a group of engineers made a systematic analysis of Agenda 21. They found that of the 2500 issues in Agenda 21, 1700 seemed to have engineering or technical implications, and at least 241 appeared to have major engineering implications.

Since 1992 the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) and national engineering bodies have responded to the call for sustainable development.30 In the early 1990s a number of national engineering institutions responded to this call for action. Taking the Australian Engineering institution as an example, Engineers Australia passed the following motion at the

26 UNEP (2002) Sustainable Consumption – A Global Status Report 2002, UNEP, Paris.27 UNCED (1992) Agenda 21: United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, UNCED, New York, chap 31. Available at http://earthwatch.unep.net/agenda21/31.php. Accessed 5 January 2007.28 WFEO (1992) Arusha Declaration, statement by WFEO to the UNCED Conference, 1992. Available at

http://www.iies.es/FMOI-WFEO/desarrollosostenible/main/assets/ArushaDeclaration.doc. Accessed 5 January 2007. 29 Bruntland, G. (ed.) (1987) Our Common Future: The World Commission on Environment and Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford. This publication is also commonly referred to as the Brundtland Report.30 WFEO (n.d.) Engineers and Sustainable Development – Engineering Progress. Available at

http://www.iies.es/FMOI-WFEO/desarrollosostenible/main/progress.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.iies.es/FMOI-WFEO/desarrollosostenible/main/progress.htm

http://www.iies.es/FMOI-WFEO/desarrollosostenible/main/assets/ArushaDeclaration.doc

http://earthwatch.unep.net/agenda21/31.php

1993 Annual General Meeting: ‘That Council acknowledge the leadership role the engineering profession must provide in attainment of sustainable development and that Council develop special plans to achieve this leadership role and report progress regularly to the members.’ Later, as a result of this motion, the Institution set up a Task Force on Sustainable Development in 1994. In October of 1994 Council adopted a ‘Policy on Sustainability‘. From 1999 to 2001 Engineers Australia published reports on sustainable energy,31 transport32 and built environment issues.33 Also the Code of Ethics for the Institution was changed to include sustainable development, a process that continues to be updated. The objective of sustainability is reflected in the Tenets and Principles and interpretation of Engineers Australia’s Code of Ethics. Similar such processes were enacted by other national engineering bodies globally. The US National Society of Professional Engineers has incorporated sustainable development specifically into their code of ethics.34 Also national engineering professional bodies published significant reports outlining in detail ways engineers could assist their nation transition towards sustainability.

In 2001 The World Federation of Engineering Organisation (WFEO) developed a model code of ethics for engineers globally.35 In explaining the model codes of ethics WFEO sums up many of the core reasons of why the call for sustainable development matters so much to engineers.

Because of the rapid advancements in technology and the increasing ability of engineering activities to impact on the environment, engineers have an obligation to be mindful of the effect that their decisions will have on the environment and the well-being of society, and to report any concerns of this nature... with the rapid advancement of technology in today's world and the possible social impacts on large populations of people, engineers must endeavor to foster the public's understanding of technical issues and the role of Engineering more than ever before. As population and growth place increasing pressures on our social and biophysical environment, engineers must accept increased responsibilities to develop sustainable solutions to meet community needs, overcome extreme poverty and prevent segregation of people. The education of engineers needs to inculcate an understanding of sustainability and cultural and social sensitivities as well. The engineering code of ethics must reflect a strong commitment to principles of sustainable development... Sustainable development is the challenge of meeting current human needs for natural resources, industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and effective waste management while conserving and, if possible, enhancing the Earth's environmental quality, natural resources, ethical, intellectual, working and affectionate capabilities of people and socioeconomic bases, essential for the human needs of future generations. The proper observance to these principles will considerably help to the eradication of the world poverty.

WFEO, Code of Ethics, 200136

31 Engineers Australia Sustainable Energy Taskforce (2001) Towards a Sustainable Energy Future: Setting the Directions and Framework for Change, Institution of Engineers of Australia.32 Sustainable Transport Taskforce (1999) Sustainable Transport: Responding To the Challenges, November 1999, Institution of Engineers of Australia.33 Engineers Australia Commercial Buildings Taskforce (2001) Sustainable Energy Innovation in the Commercial Buildings Sector, November 2001, Institution of Engineers of Australia Engineers Australia. 34 US National Society of Professional Engineers (n.d.) Code of Ethics. Available at http://www.nspe.org/ethics/eh1-code.asp. Accessed 5 January 2007. 35 World Federation of Engineering Organisations (2001) Model Code of Ethics. WFEO. Available at

www.unesco.org/wfeo/ethics.html#6. Accessed 5 January 2007. 36 Ibid.


http://www.unesco.org/wfeo/ethics.html#6

http://www.nspe.org/ethics/eh1-code.asp

http://www.nspe.org/ethics/eh1-code.asp

To further demonstrate their commitment to sustainable development the World Federation of Engineering Organisation has also been very active in helping to develop and review the UN Earth Charter, which WFEO has endorsed. The UN Earth Charter is a comprehensive statement of sustainable development principles endorsed by numerous organisations and parliaments around the world. Finally, there are now regular conferences occurring focusing on education and professional development for engineers in sustainable development.37

37 Engineering Education in Sustainable Development (EESD) (2006) International Conference: Translating Sustainability into Concrete Targets, Lyons, France. Available at www.eesd2006.net/. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.eesd2006.net/

Optional ReadingWorld Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) (n.d.) Overview of Engineering Response at the International Level to the call for Sustainable Development, WFEO. Available at www.iies.es/FMOI-WFEO/desarrollosostenible/main/progress.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.

WFEO (1992) Arusha Declaration, adopted by WFEO and submitted to the 1992 UN Conference on Human Development. Available at http://www.iies.es/FMOI-WFEO/desarrollosostenible/main/progress.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.

WFEO (2001) Model Code of Ethics, WFEO. Available at www.unesco.org/wfeo/ethics.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

American Society for Engineering Education – Engineers Forum on Sustainability and Newsletters, see http://asee.org/resources/organizations/aboutefs.cfm and http://asee.org/resources/organizations/upload/EFSNewsletter-april-06.pdf

UNEP (1972) Stockholm Report of the UN Conference on the Human Environment, UNEP, New York. Available at www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID. Accessed 5 January 2007.

UNCED (1992) Rio Declaration of Environment and Development, UNCED, New York. Available at www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.

UNCED (1992) Agenda 21: United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, UNCED, New York, Chap 31: Science and Technological Community. Available at www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter31.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.

UN Earth Charter (n.d.) Homepage. Available at www.earthcharter.org/. Accessed 5 January 2007.

World Watch Institute (n.d.) State of the World reports. Available at www.worldwatch.org/node/1065. Accessed 5 January 2007.

Key Words for Searching OnlineEcosystem Services, Sustainable Development, Our Common Future, Agenda 21, World Federation of Engineering Organisations.


http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1065

http://www.earthcharter.org/

http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter31.htm

http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm

http://www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=97&ArticleID

http://asee.org/resources/organizations/upload/EFSNewsletter-april-06.pdf

http://asee.org/resources/organizations/aboutefs.cfm

http://www.unesco.org/wfeo/ethics.html



Unit 1: Redefining RolesLecture 2: Rethinking the Application of Engineering Design

Engineers are problem solvers who apply their knowledge and experience to building projects that meet human needs, and to cleaning up environmental problems. They work on a wide range of issues and projects, and as a result, how engineers work can have a significant impact on progress toward sustainable development.

World Federation of Engineering Organisations (2004)38

Educational AimTo reflect on the need to rethink the way engineering design is used to solve problems. Although engineering achievements have usually addressed and solved one problem, they have unfortunately often created several other problems within the system. Engineering institutions, scientific communities, the corporate sector and government are recognising the need to change the design scope; now seeking to design for sustainability/environment.

Required ReadingHargroves, K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London:

Chapter Page

1. Chapter 1: Natural Advantage of Nations, ‘Significant Potential for Resource Productivity Improvements’ (2 pages)

pp 12-14

2. Chapter 1: Natural Advantage of Nations, ‘A Critical Mass of Enabling Technologies’ (5 pages)

pp 16-21

3. Chapter 3: Asking the Right Questions, ‘How do we Design for Legacy?’ (2 pages)

pp 52-54

Learning Points1. The engineering profession has much to be proud of with regard to our past achievements;

improving the quality of life, health and opportunity for many people. Engineers have made significant contributions to:

a. improving public health through water sanitation and treatment,

b. improvements in communication, transport and trade,

c. the designs of most technologies that we know today, and

38 See WFEO Engineering for Sustainable Development website at www.iies.es/FMOI-WFEO/desarrollosostenible/main/progress.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.



d. numerous advances in medical and manufacturing techniques.

2. Although engineering achievements have usually addressed and solved a number of problems, they have unfortunately often created several other problems within the broader system. Some of the profession’s greatest achievements in the past are contributing significantly to the sustainability challenges we now face globally:

- The internal combustion engine, while providing society with transportation and lifestyle services, has significantly contributed to the amounts of atmospheric pollutants, including greenhouse gases, and smog producing particulates.

- The development of chemicals for agriculture has increased yields but generated vast amounts of toxic waste that has been put into the atmosphere and biosphere.

- The manufacture of electronic goods to significantly improve communications, data processing and information transfer has created problems with the use and disposal of toxic waste products (‘e-waste’).

- The development of technologies has allowed humankind the ability to harvest and exploit the world’s fisheries at unsustainable rates, impact upon rivers with untold ecological damage, and level forests at faster and faster rates.

- Infrastructure associated with urban development - including roads, rail, electricity grids, water supply (dams and pipelines), and sewerage collection and treatment systems – has contributed to deforestation, soil erosion, water quality degradation and ultimately reduced biodiversity.

3. In 1972, the biologist Barry Commoner showed in his book The Closing Circle39 that the escalating growth of environmental problems in the United States was partly due to flawed technology, and that this was due to the design scope being too narrow and not factoring in potential effects on environment, people’s health and cultural and historical sensitivities.

4. By not considering a wide range of options, some of which involve facets beyond the technological knowledge of any one engineer, many engineering applications have performed poorly as part of the larger system. This is partly due to the lack of knowledge and interaction beyond one’s own discipline and a lack of knowledge amongst many engineers and designers of the subject of ecology and its limits and thresholds. The confidence in the value of technological progress has also led at times for scientific and engineering designers to be too quick to reach their conclusion. There has been an under-appreciation of the value of a precautionary approach to technological development. Two examples that illustrate this were the development of leaded petrol40 and ozone destroying CFCs for air-conditioning and re-refrigerators.41

5. Other problems have been created by blocking coalitions and lobby groups, who, under pressure to improve profit margins, have deliberately challenged the early warnings by scientists of the health and environmental risks of for instance, asbestos42 (first warning

39 Commoner, B. (1972) The Closing Circle: Nature Man & Technology, Bantam Books, Toronto.40 US EPA (n.d.) History of Lead. Available at http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/perspect/lead.htm. Accessed 5

January 2007.41 Elkins, J. (1999) ‘Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)’ in Alexander, D.E. and Fairbridge, R.W. (1999) The Chapman & Hall

Encyclopaedia of Environmental Science, Kluwer Academic, Boston, MA, pp 78-80. Available at www.cmdl.noaa.gov/noah/publictn/elkins/cfcs.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov/noah/publictn/elkins/cfcs.html

http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/perspect/lead.htm

1898), PCB’s43 (first warning 1899), benzene44 (first warning 1897), acid rain45 (1872), lead46

(B.C.), and ozone depletion (1974).47 Now industry increasingly understands that preventing such problems and designing out pollution and waste in the first place is a far more profitable way to operate.

6. Engineers and designers have a critical responsibility and sacred trust as society’s technical experts to both alert industry, government and the broader society to risks and dangers with technological options. Engineers have an important responsibility to seek always to develop design solutions that are safe and environmentally benign to meet everyday needs and services. History has shown that a failure to take this responsibility seriously has led to very serious accidents and the deaths of innocent people such as Chernobyl, Bopac, etc., together with the impacts on the biosphere becoming more and more evident.

7. Engineers and designers are above all problem solvers par excellence. There is never just one solution. A goal may be reached by many, many different paths. The challenge then for engineering in the 21st Century is to re-design the way society meets its needs and provides its services, so that rather than depleting nature’s stocks, we now restore ‘natural and social capital’.

42 Deane, L. (1898) ‘Report on the Health of Workers in Asbestos and Other Dusty Trades’, in HM Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops (1898) Annual Report for 1898, HMSO London, pp 171–172. (see also the Annual Reports for 1899 and 1900, p 502).

43 Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are chlorinated organic compounds that were first synthesised in the laboratory in 1881. By 1899 a pathological condition named chloracne had been identified, a painful disfiguring skin disease that affected people employed in the chlorinated organic industry. Mass production of PCBs for commercial use started in 1929.

44 Santessen, C. G. (1897) ‘Chronische Vergiftungen Mit Steinkohlentheerbenzin: Vier Todesfalle’, Arch. Hyg. Bakteriol, vol 31, pp 336 - 376.

45 Smith R.A. (1872) Air and Rain, Longmans Green & Co., London.46 US EPA (n.d.) History of Lead. Available at http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/perspect/lead.htm. Accessed 5

January 2007.47 Molina, M.J. and Rowland, F.S. ’Stratospheric Sink for Chlorofluoromethanes: Chlorine Atom-Catalysed Destruction of Ozone’, Nature, 249 (28 June 1974):810-2.



Brief Background InformationThe engineering profession has many achievements of which it can be immensely proud. But the pace of progress from technological innovation unleashed by the first industrial revolution has had a significant environmental cost. History has shown that often new production technologies have had a far greater negative environmental impact than the approaches and technologies they were replacing. As an example, the use of agrochemicals enabled farmers to get higher yields from smaller land areas, but at an environmental cost. Pesticides polluted waterways, and killed or harmed other insects and animals that were not originally targeted. Artificial fertilisers depleted the soil of naturally occurring nitrogen fixing bacteria. This ensured continuing dependence on the new chemicals and the need for ever increasing amounts to be used, something that worked in the favour of the chemical companies.

As far back as 1921 Nobel Laureate Svante Arrhenius wrote, 48

Engineers must design more efficient internal combustion engines capable of running on alternative fuels such as alcohol, and new research into battery power should be undertaken… Wind motors and solar engines hold great promise and would reduce the level of CO2 emissions. Forests must be planted. To conserve coal, half a tonne of which is burned in transporting the other half tonne to market… so the building of power plants should be in close proximity to the mines… All lighting with petroleum products should be replaced with more efficient electric lamps.

Arrhenius understood the danger of wasting precious non-renewable resources and called for a war on waste:

Like insane wastrels, we spend that which we received in legacy from our fathers. Our descendants surely will sensor us for having squandered their just birthright…Statesman can plead no excuse for letting development go on to the point where mankind will run the danger of the end of natural resources in a few hundred years. Arrhenius above all believed in humanity’s capacity for innovation and foresight to solve these problems. He wrote, Doubtless humanity will succeed eventually in solving this problem… Herein lies our hope for the future. Priceless is that forethought which has lifted mankind from the wild beast to the high standpoint of civilized humanity.49

Already by 1924 engineers had developed the following examples of ecological sustainable and renewable forms of engineered technological solutions:

- Energy: Wind driven mills were operating in Persia from the 7 th Century A.D. for irrigation and milling grain. Wind powered all sea faring ships and transport for thousands of years. Clarence Kemp patented the first solar water heater in 1891. By 1897, solar water heaters serviced 30 percent of houses in Pasadena, California.50

- Transport: All major cities by 1920 had train and light rail systems connecting the suburbs to places of work. The modern bicycle had been invented by engineers in the late 19 th

Century.51 Biofuels and bio-diesel were already being used. In 1895 Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913) developed the first ‘diesel’ engine to run on peanut oil, as he demonstrated at the

48 Arrhenius, S. (1926) Chemistry in Modern Life, Van Nostrand Company, New York.49 Ibid, p 144.50 Perlin, P. (1999) From Space to Earth - The Story of Solar Electricity, Aatec Publications, Ann Arbor, MI. 51 About.com (n.d.) History of Bicycles and Cycling. Available at

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbicycle.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blbicycle.htm

World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. Unfortunately, Diesel died 1913 before his vision of a vegetable oil powered engine was fully realised. He stated in 1912,52 The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in the module of time as important as the petroleum and coal tar products of the present time.

- Recycling: The recycling of metals, glass and paper products goes back to the early 1800s. The cost of refining metals, and creating glass and paper products was far greater then than it is today. Many industries recycled materials. Henry Ford recycled his Model T Fords back in the 1920s in order to save money and resources, as well as designing the first engines to run on bio-fuels and petroleum. 53

- Green Buildings: The ancient Greeks pioneered passive solar design of their whole cities so all homes had access to sunlight during winter.54 Low embodied energy building using passive solar design has been practised in different forms for centuries. Many green buildings today are actually modelled on 19th Century building design that needed to keep buildings cool in summer and warm in winter without air conditioners and heaters to assist. Nineteenth Century engineers and architects knew how to design buildings to stay at roughly the same temperature without today’s powerful air-conditioning and heating systems.

So why then today, have we seen so many technologies initially hailed as another great sign of progress later prove to be significantly adding to humanities environmental load on the planet? Technologies have caused such environmental harm because they often have unexpected side effects or second order consequences that were not originally understood by the designers of the technology. This is certainly true of a wide range of technologies such as adding lead to petrol or CFCs to air-conditioners.

Thomas Midgley, the man responsible for these decisions did not appreciate or understand the negative effects that lead would have on public health or the effect that CFCs would have on the ozone layer.55 Thomas Midgley, Jr. (May 18, 1889 - November 2, 1944), an American mechanical engineer turned chemist, developed both the tetra-ethyl lead additive to gasoline and chloro-fluorocarbons (CFCs). Midgley died believing that CFCs were of great benefit to the world, and a great invention.56 While lauded at the time for his discoveries, today he bares now a legacy of having engineered two of the most hazardous and destructive inventions ever in human history. But he was not alone in being guilty of ignorance, scientists and engineers, until the 1950s, were ignorant of the negative environmental effect of burning fossil fuels. All assumed that the oceans and forests would absorb all the carbon dioxide produced from burning fossil fuels and it never occurred to them that burning fossil fuels could be a problem.

The reason plastics do not degrade in the environment is because they are designed to be persistent; similarly fertilisers were designed to add nitrogen to soil so it is not an accident that

52 Cummins, Jr, C.L (1993) Diesel's Engine: From Conception To 1918, Carnot Press; Grosser, M. (1984) Diesel, The Man and the Engine; For additional information see Cyberlipid.com (n.d.) Biodiesel. at www.cyberlipid.org/glycer/biodiesel.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.

53 Burkhalter, S.K. (2006) Newfangled? Hardly, Grist Online Article, 04 December 2006. Available at http://grist.org/news/maindish/2006/12/04/history/. Accessed 5 January 2007.

54 Perlin, J. and Butti, K. (1980) A Golden Thread - 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology, Van Nostrand Reinhold. This book provides a short summary of the evolution of passive solar design. Passive Solar refers to an approach to heating and cooling homes through simple devices and architectural design, as opposed to mechanically operated heating and cooling systems. For additional information see California Solar Centre (n.d.) Passive Solar History at www.californiasolarcenter.org/history_passive.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

55 US EPA (n.d.) History of Lead. Available at http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/perspect/lead.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.

56 Bryson, B. (2000) A Short History of Nearly Everything, Black Swan Publishing, London.



http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/history_passive.html

http://grist.org/news/maindish/2006/12/04/history/

http://www.cyberlipid.org/glycer/biodiesel.htm

they also add nitrogen to waterways as well as leading to algae blooms. Part of the problem Commoner argued in his book, The Closing Circle,57 was that designers make their aims too narrow: historically they have seldom aimed to protect the environment. He argued that technology can be successful in the ecosystem, ‘if its aims are directed toward the system as a whole rather than some apparently accessible part.’

Sewerage technology is an example. Commoner argued that engineers designed their technology to overcome a specific problem: when raw sewerage was dumped into rivers it consumed too much of the rivers oxygen supply as it decomposed. Modern secondary sewerage treatment plants are designed to reduce the oxygen demand of the sewerage. However, the treated sewerage still contains nutrients which help algae to bloom, and when the algae die they also deplete the river of oxygen. Instead of this piecemeal solution, Commoner argued that engineers should look at the natural cycle and reincorporate the sewerage into that cycle by returning it to the soil rather than putting it into the nearest waterway. Commoner advocated a new type of technology, that is designing with the full knowledge of ecology and the desire to fit in with natural systems. This sentiment was echoed in the World Federation of Engineering Organisation’s (WFEO) submission to the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development:58

If humans are to achieve truly sustainable development, we will have to adopt patterns that reflect natural processes. The role of engineers and scientists in sustainable development can be illustrated by a closed-loop human ecosystem that mimics natural systems.

Today we call this approach ‘design for environment’ or ‘design for sustainability’. The challenge then for science and engineering is to find profitable ways to provide sustainable solutions, unleashing creativity and innovation that goes beyond simply large reductions of negative environmental impacts to instead create positive social and environmental impacts. Many engineers and scientists have sought to respond to these issues, articulated by writers such as Commoner over the last 30 years, and have succeeded in truly designing for sustainability.

Leaders in this new field of design for sustainability,59 such as the innovative work of Dr John Todd and others have addressed Commoner’s concerns about sewerage treatment and designed new sewerage treatment processes utilising a deep understanding of the natural cycle. John Todd’s eco-machine60 sewerage treatment process is an example of the sort of holistic design approaches now being undertaken that will enable engineers to help humanity achieve sustainable development.61

Qualitatively it works as follows: raw sewage and air are pumped into a series of linked plastic tanks in which plants from over 200 species are suspended in wire mesh containers. While the plants drink up nutrients in the sewage, countless bacteria and microbes roots break down pollutants. As the sewage proceeds from tank to tank, becoming progressively cleaner, fish and snails join in the feast. What comes out of the last tank is sparkling water, at least clear enough

57 Commoner, B. (1972) The Closing Circle: Nature Man & Technology, Bantam Books, Toronto.58 The World Federation of Engineering Organisation's Reports. ComTech is the WFEO Standing Committee on

Technology. Its purpose is the sharing, transferring and assessment of technology. 59 Wikipedia (n.d.) Sustainable Design, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_design. Accessed February 2007.60 Todd, N.J. and Todd, J. (1994) From Eco-Cities to Living Machines: Principles of Ecological Design, North

Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Todd_(biologist). Accessed January 2007.61 Research for this section undertaken by Leryn Gorlitsky, University of Colorado, Boulder Maymester Course

2005.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Todd_(biologist)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_design

for irrigation, toilet flushing or car washing. The plants produce enough flowers to delight any gardener and abundant material for compost. Todd's ‘eco-machines’ cost about half as much to install as traditional treatment plants laden with concrete and plumbing. They don't smell, they are nice to look at, and they are educational.

In Fuzhou, China, a 600-meter canal (called Baima) became famous for being one of the most polluted in the city. Upwards of 3,000,000 litres per day of untreated domestic sewage was pouring into it causing significant health, safety and environmental issues for the community. Instead of the typical approach - re-pipe the polluted water to a central waste treatment facility - a 500-meter long Eco Machine Restorer was installed through the middle of the canal, comprising of 12,000 plants with over 20 native species.

Figure 2.1. An Eco-Machine at the Intervale Food Centre, Burlington, Vermont

Source: John Todd62

The resulting system created 92 percent reductions in COD (a measure of water pollution) and BOD (a measure of the quantity of organic materials); successfully reduced odours; eliminated floating solids; and improved neighbourhood aesthetics so much that children could safely walk and play on the walkway running through the middle of the Restorer. The canal water clarity has also improved, from 6 inches to several feet!

62 Picture provided by John Todd, Eco-Machines, John Todd Ecological Design Inc, www.jtecodesign.com/staff.html. Accessed January 2007.


http://www.jtecodesign.com/staff.html

Figure 2.2. Transforming the Baima Canal with Todd’s Living Machines

Source: John Todd63

Some eco-machines treat municipal waste, others industrial. The largest, for a food processing plant in Australia, can handle 100,000 gallons of waste per day, about as much as a town of 2,000 people would produce.

63 Ibid.


Optional Reading 1. WFEO (n.d.) Engineering for Sustainable Development. Available at

www.unesco.org/wfeo/engineeringforsd.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

2. Engineering Subject Centre: ToolBox for Sustainable Design Education. See Loughborough University at www.lboro.ac.uk/research/susdesign/LTSN/Index.htm. Accessed 3 February 2007.

3. Building Design Professionals: (n.d) Environmental Design Guide. Available at www.architecture.com.au/i-cms?page=60. Accessed 3 February 2007. For a succinct overview about this resource see www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/technical/fs03.htm.

4. Beder, S. (1997) The New Engineer: Management and Professional Responsibility in a Changing World, Macmillan Education Australia Ltd Publishing, Chap 9: Technology and the Environment, pp 195-224.

5. Commoner, B. (1972) The Closing Circle: Nature Man & Technology, Bantam Books, Toronto.

6. Johnston, S., Gostelow, P., Jones, E. and Fourikis, R. (1995) Engineering and Society: An Australian Perspective, Harper Educational, Sydney.

7. Todd, N.J. and Todd, J. (1994) From Eco-Cities to Living Machines: Principles of Ecological Design, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California. For an overview see www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu16se/uu16se0d.htm#11.%20living%20machines. Accessed 4 January 2007.

8. WFEO (n.d.) Engineering for Sustainable Development. Available at www.unesco.org/wfeo/engineeringforsd.html. Accessed 4 January 2007.

Key Words for Searching OnlineDiscover Engineering Online, sustainable engineering, World Engineering Congress 2004, WFEO, Design for Environment, Design for Sustainability, Sustainable Design.

Comprehension Quiz 1. From the learning points and the background reading, list three examples of where in the

past engineers have designed for sustainability and three examples where engineered innovations have since created as many problems as they solved.

2. List two to five significant and famous engineering icon achievements.

3. Are any of those you have listed examples of design for sustainability? If not…(see Q 4)

4. What societal needs and services were these engineering projects seeking to meet?

5. How could engineers today go back to the drawing board and re-examine the problem again to meet those needs through designing for sustainability? Broadly speaking what are some of the sustainable enabling technologies or new design techniques available today that could assist to achieve this?


http://www.unesco.org/wfeo/engineeringforsd.html

http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu16se/uu16se0d.htm#11.%20living%20machines

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/technical/fs03.htm

http://www.architecture.com.au/i-cms?page=60

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/susdesign/LTSN/Index.htm

http://www.unesco.org/wfeo/engineeringforsd.html

Unit 1: Redefining RolesLecture 3: Broadening the Problem Definition

Sustainability has major implications for society and engineers. Engineers are involved in all aspects of resource use, from resource extraction through to technology and product design, manufacture, operation and even management of wasted resources and products. The increasing use of resources in the manufacture of technology and products raises serious questions regarding the sustainability of that use. For every kilogram of final product, kilograms of material are moved, energy is consumed and pollution is released which contaminates soil, water and air… Overall, our use of resources needs to be reduced significantly, by factors of 10- to 50-fold, in order to achieve sustainability and this reduction will only occur through cleaner production, recycling, servicising and, most importantly, through sustainable technology design. This will require engineers to better understand the services technologies and products provide and find new ways of providing those services.

Dr Ir Ron McDowall FIPENZ New Zealand Society for Sustainability Engineering and Science, 200664

Educational AimTo discuss the scale and speed society needs to work at to reduce its negative impact on the global environment and improve resource productivity to prevent further overshoot of ecological thresholds. To also define the types of performance targets engineers will need to help society achieve in order to ensure development is sustainable.

Required ReadingHargroves, K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London:Chapter Page

1. Chapter 3: Asking the Right Questions (9 pages) pp 43-52

64 Boyle, C., Te Kapa Coates, G., Macbeth, A., Shearer, I. and Wakim, N. (2006) Sustainability and Engineering in New Zealand Practical Guidelines for Engineers, IPENZ. Available at www.ipenz.org.nz/ipenz/media_comm/documents/SustainabilityDoc_000.pdf. Accessed 3 January 2007.


http://www.ipenz.org.nz/ipenz/media_comm/documents/SustainabilityDoc_000.pdf

Learning Points1. Current development paths are not ecologically sustainable. In many areas current levels of

pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and exploitation of renewable resources have already overshot natural ecological thresholds and limits.

2. Environmental pressures from global warming, acid rain, toxic pollution, algae blooms are combining with deforestation, over-fishing and mass species extinction to reduce the resilience of ecosystems around the world. There are numerous examples of environmental surprise across the planet where ecosystems are crossing over ecological thresholds and in some cases genuinely collapsing; fisheries, the bleaching of a significant part of the world’s coral reefs, and loss of biologically diverse forests to name a few.65

3. Global population continues to rise and western consumption patterns continue to spread. In Lecture 2 it was shown (with the wisdom of hindsight) how unwise technological design has also been adding to the environmental load of the planet, especially in the last century. Now in the 21st Century countries like China and India are achieving significantly higher economic growth rates than they have in the past. This also is adding significantly to the environmental load on the planet.

4. There are many factors therefore responsible for environmental impact. Building on the base of the Ehrlich and Commoner formula,66 and building on from the work of Bill McDonough as highlighted by Ray Anderson, in his book ‘Mid Course Correction’67 we present a formula to reflect this:

I = A x P x T1

T2

where I = Total environmental impact of humankind on the planet

A = Affluence: the number of products or services consumed per person (i.e. for economists the annual Gross National Product per capita.)

T1 = Negative Environmental impact per unit of product/service consumed

T2 = Positive Environmental impact per unit of product/service consumed (Note that Ehrlich and Commoner did not include T2)

This formula can help us to gain clarity on the magnitude of the change needed in engineering design to meet society’s needs and services, and the change needed to meet those needs sustainably.

5. Because of rising global population and affluence forecast for the next 50 years, this formula shows that T1, expressed as a function of the negative environmental impact per unit of product or service consumed needs to be reduced by at least 10 fold, Factor 10, but potentially as high as 50 fold by 2050 if economic development is to return within the ecological limits of the Earth’s ecological life support systems. Also new technologies that actually eliminate impact and regenerate systems need to be innovated, T2.

65 Bright, C. (2000) State of the World Report, Anticipating Environmental Surprise, Worldwatch Institute, Washington D.C. Available at www.worldwatch.org/node/1065. Accessed 5 January 2007.

66 Commoner, B. (1971) ‘The Environmental Cost of Economic Growth’ in Shurr, S. (1971) Energy, Economic Growth and the Environment, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore/London, pp 30-65.

67 Anderson , R. (1998) Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: the Interface Model, Peregrinzilla Press, Atlanta, GA., p.19.


http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1065

6. The goal of reducing the environmental impact per unit of product or service consumed by factors of 10 to 50 is to allow a ‘decoupling’ of the economic trends such as GDP from the environmental pressure trends of 20th Century development.

7. Many people today are now talking about sustainability and beginning to seriously ask what does it mean to engineer a sustainable solution? How can technology be used to reduce or eliminate the negative impacts of our global development? Will it be too expensive?

Brief Background InformationSo how can we say that current development paths are not ecologically sustainable? What criteria can be used to make this case? In 2004, the OECD nations of the world agreed that the following conditions need to be satisfied to achieve sustainable development:68

- Regeneration: Renewable resources shall be used efficiently and their use shall not be permitted to exceed their long-term rates of natural regeneration.

- Substitutability: Non-renewable resources shall be used efficiently and their use limited to levels which can be offset by substitution by renewable resources or other forms of capital.

- Assimilation: Releases of hazardous or polluting substances to the environment shall not exceed its assimilative capacity; concentrations shall be kept below established critical levels necessary for the protection of human health and the environment. When assimilative capacity is effectively zero (e.g. for hazardous substances that are persistent and/or bio-accumulative), a zero release of such substances is required to avoid their accumulation in the environment.

- Avoiding Irreversibility: Irreversible adverse effects of human activities on ecosystems and on biogeochemical and hydrological cycles shall be avoided. The natural processes capable of maintaining or restoring the integrity of ecosystems should be safeguarded from adverse impacts of human activities. The differing levels of resilience and carrying capacity of ecosystems must be considered in order to conserve their populations of threatened, endangered and critical species.

In many areas current levels of pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and exploitation of non-renewable resources have already overshot ecological thresholds. There is real concern in the science community that due to uncertainties inherent in modelling complex ecosystems many have overestimated their resilience and now face the risk of unknown consequences. This is outlined in new databases such as the Resilience Network’s thresholds database.69

Many people have assumed that humankind can pull back once humanity’s environmental pressure pushes ecosystems beyond their ecological thresholds and start to collapse, but by then it may be too late. By then the ecosystem has already passed the ecological threshold and the collapse is irreversible unless the environmental pressure is reduced by at least 90 percent; a factor of ten or more to allow the ecosystem to recover. This phenomenon is known as Hysteresis.

68 OECD (2001) Environmental Strategy for the First Decade of the 21st Century, adopted by OECD Environment Ministers 16 May 2001. Available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/33/40/1863539.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

69 Resalliance Network (n.d.) Network Database. Available at http://resalliance.org/ev_en.php. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://resalliance.org/ev_en.php

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/33/40/1863539.pdf

How is it that the resilience of so many ecosystems has been reduced to the point that collapse on a massive scale is possible in our lifetimes? This is caused by many factors but one of them is the fact that humanity has based its management of renewable natural resources (fisheries, water quality, forests) on flawed assumptions. Take for instance the strategy of ‘maximum sustainable yield management’ of the worlds fisheries. In most cases the maximum sustainable yield in the short term was actually very close to the thresholds for collapse of that ecosystem in the medium to long term.

There are numerous examples of environmental surprise already across the planet where ecosystems are genuinely collapsing, such as fisheries, the bleaching of the world’s coral reefs, biodiversity loss, and the loss of forests to name a few. These are reported in detail in the 2000 State of the World report.70 Added to that, rising global population and spreading western consumption patterns. In Lecture 2 we showed that unwise technological design has also been adding to the environmental load of the planet in the last century. Now in the 21 st Century countries like China and India are achieving significantly higher economic growth rates than they have in the past. This also is adding significantly to the environmental load on the planet. In 2006 China was the world leading user of resources in every area other than oil, where the US still leads China.

‘Scaling-up’ current Western patterns of development and consumption as the basis of development for, say, China or India – adding another two billion ‘Western style’ consumers – is simply not a realistic option unless the risk of catastrophic collapse of the global ecosystem is considered acceptable. If China were to match the USA for levels of car ownership and oil consumption per person it would mean producing approximately 850 million more cars and more than doubling the world output of oil. Those additional cars would produce more CO2 per annum than the whole of the rest of the world's transportation systems. If China were to consume seafood at the per capita rate of Japan, it would need 100 million tonnes, more than today's total catch. If China's beef consumption was to match the USA's per capita consumption and if that beef was produced mainly in feedlot, this would take grain equivalent to the entire US harvest.

UNEP, Global Status 2002: Sustainable Consumption & Cleaner Production, 200271

70 Bright, C. (2000) State of the World Report, Anticipating Environmental Surprise, Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C.

71 UNEP (2002) Global Status 2002: Sustainable Consumption & Cleaner Production, UNEP TIE. Available at http://www.uneptie.org/pc/pc/gs2002.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.uneptie.org/pc/pc/gs2002.htm

There are many factors therefore responsible for environmental impact. Building on the base of the Ehrlich and Commoner formula,72 and building on from the work of Bill McDonough as highlighted by Ray Anderson, in his book ‘Mid Course Correction’73 we present a formula to reflect this:

I = A x P x T1

T2

where I = Total environmental impact of humankind on the planet

A = Affluence: the number of products or services consumed per person (i.e.: for economists the annual Gross National Product per capita.)

T1 = Negative Environmental impact per unit of product/service consumed

T2 = Positive Environmental impact per unit of product/service consumed (Note that Ehrlich and Commoner did not include T2)

This formula can help us to gain clarity on the magnitude of the change needed in engineering design to meet society’s needs and services, and the change needed to meet those needs sustainably. Because of rising global population and affluence forecasts for the next 50 years, this formula shows that T1, expressed as a function of the environmental impact per unit of product or service consumed needs to be reduced by at least 10 fold, Factor 10, but potentially as high as 50 fold by 2050 if economic development is to return within the ecological limits of the Earth’s ecological life support systems. Also new technologies that actually eliminate impact and regenerate systems need to be innovated, T2.

To actually achieve sustainable development will involve significantly reducing the environmental impact of today’s levels. Numerous studies are finding that to achieve a sustainable future we will need to reduce the year 2000’s negative load on the environment by roughly ten times, achieving Factor 10 improvements. This has been backed up by leading government studies, i.e. the Netherlands Government in their Inter-ministerial Sustainable Technology Development Programme (Sustainable Technology Development Programme). The programme is one of the first to both work out the scale and speed of change required to achieve nationwide ecological and social sustainable development over the next 50 years.

In setting a time-horizon of 50 years – two generations into the future – it was found that ten to twenty-fold eco-efficiency improvements will be needed to achieve meaningful reductions in environmental stress. It was also found that the benefits of incremental technological development could not provide such improvements.

Leo Jansen, Chairman, Dutch Inter-ministerial Sustainable Technology Development Program, 200074

Such a finding is also backed up by leading European sustainability expert Paul Ekin in his book, Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability.75 For instance, he reports that the IPCC


73 Anderson , R. (1998) Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: the Interface Model, Peregrinzilla Press, Atlanta, GA., p.19.74 Weaver, P., Jansen, L., van Grootveld, G., van Spiegel, E. and Vergragt, P. (2000) Sustainable Technology

Development, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK, Foreword, p 7.75 Ekins, P. (2002) Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: The Prospects of Green Growth,

Routledge Publishing, London.


recommends CO2 to be at least 60 percent of 1990 levels by 2050, and three other gases N2O, CFC-11, CFC-12 needs to be cut by at least 70 percent by 2050. Friends of the Earth calculated that the desirable reduction in the European Union’s use of cement, pig iron, aluminium, chlorine, copper, lead and fertilizer was in every case 80 percent or more by 2050. Ekin, having brought all these targets together, then used the Commoner-Ehrlich76 Equation to show that technologies needed to reduce humanities negative impact on the environment need to be a factor of 10 or more to achieve ecological sustainability by 2050.

The governments of Austria, the Netherlands, Western Australia and Norway have publicly committed to pursuing Factor 4, or 75 percent efficiencies. The same approach has been endorsed by the European Union as the new paradigm for sustainable development. Austria, Sweden, and OECD environment ministers have urged the adoption of Factor Ten goals, as have the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The concept of Factor 10 (a target of reducing environmental pressures by a factor of 10) is not only common parlance for most environmental ministers in the world, but such leading corporations as Dow Europe and Mitsubishi Electric see it as a powerful strategy to gain a competitive advantage.

Such targets seem quite unachievable but scientists and engineers working effectively with industry and government have managed to achieve Factor 4-10 type reductions of negative environmental impacts in a number of sectors. Already scientists and engineers have shown through their work with government and industry to stop using asbestos, decrease ozone-depleting chemicals, reduce SO2 emissions, reduce urban pollution and phase out leaded petrol that it is possible to achieve close to 90 percent reductions in pollution with negligible negative effect on economic growth.

Efforts over the last 30 years to reduce acid rain through reducing sulphur dioxide pollution in Europe and the USA are a great example of this. The program of emissions control adopted by the Second Sulphur Protocol is an example of what could be done for all major pollutants. The environmental objective of the Second Sulphur Protocol - to eventually bring sulphur depositions in Europe within the critical loads of receiving ecosystems - is a fundamental principle of ecological sustainability. The emission reduction required was of the order of a factor of ten, as is the estimated order of magnitude reduction required for other pollutants like CO2. Initial perceptions were that it would be incredibly costly, but the removal of subsidies from coal industries and the arrival of cost-effective low-sulphur fuel and technology changed the cost situation such that the sustainability standard was attainable for significantly less cost than anticipated. When the costs of sulphur to health and the environment are taken into account, this phase-out has had negligible net impact on economic growth.77

OECD countries like the Netherlands have made significant progress on reducing dramatically a range of environmental pressures (see Figure 3.1).


77 Ekins, P. (2000) Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability, Routledge Publishing, London, Chap 10: Sustainability and Sulphur Emissions: The Case of the UK, 1970-2010.


Figure 3.1. Progress in achieving decoupling in the Netherlands 1985-2010

Source: Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (2005)78

When engineers and scientists with government and industry commit to addressing and reducing environmental pollution, innovation from engineers can dramatically reduce the costs first predicted by industry. There is now a great history in engineering of seeking to dramatically reduce environmental pressures that can be utilised today to more confidently tackle issues such as the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2050 as recommended by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

PollutantEx-AnteEstimate

Ex-Post orRevised Ex-

Ante Estimate

Overestimationas a Percent of

Actual Cost

Asbestos$150 million (total for mfg. and insulation

sectors)$75 million 200%

Benzene $350,000 per plant Approx. $0 per plant Infinite

CFCs1988 estimate to

reduce emissions by 50% within 10 years:

$2.7 billion

1992 estimate to completely phase out CFCs within 8 years:

$3.8 billion

-

CFCs-Auto Air Conditioners

$650-$1,200 per new car $40-$400 per new car 63%-2,900%

Coke Oven Emissions OSHA 1970’s

$200 million – billion $160 million 29%-1,500%

78 Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (2005) Environmental Balance 2004. The State of the Dutch Environment, Summary. Available at http://www.mnp.nl/en/publications/2004/Environmental_Balance_2004.html. Accessed 4 December 2006.


http://www.mnp.nl/en/publications/2004/Environmental_Balance_2004.html

Coke Oven EmissionsEPA 1980s

$4 billion $250-400 million 900%-1,500%

Cotton Dust $700 million per year $205 million per year 241%

Halons 1989: phase out not considered possible

1993: phase out considered

technologically and economically feasible

-

Landfill Leachate

Mid-1980’s: $14.8 billion 1990: $5.7 billion 159%

Surface Mining $6-$12 per ton of coal $0.50-41 per ton 500%-2,300%

Vinyl Chloride $109 million per year $20 million per year 445%

Table 3.1. Industry original estimates of the cost of particular forms of environmental protection versus the actual costs.

Source: Eban Goodstein (1999)79

79 Goldstein, E. (1999) The Trade Off Myth: Fact & Fiction About Jobs and the Environment, Island Press, p 29.


Optional Reading 1. Boyle, C., Te Kapa Coates, G., Macbeth, A., Shearer, I. and Wakim, N. (2006) Sustainability

and Engineering in New Zealand Practical Guidelines for Engineers. Available at www.ipenz.org.nz/ipenz/media_comm/documents/SustainabilityDoc_000.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

2. Factor 10 Institute (n.d.) Systemic Fiscal reforms for a future with future. Available at www.factor10-institute.org/seitenges/Factor10.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.

3. Factor 10 Club (1994) Declaration of the Factor 10 Club. Available at www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/~walter/f10/declaration94.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

4. Smith, M.H., Elliot, F. and Stephen, S. (2003) ANU Factor 10 Symposium Booklet. Available at www.anu.edu.au/factoroften/assets/factor10background.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007. An Introduction and Background to the call for the achievement of Factor 10 reductions in environmental pressures.

5. UNEP IETC (2003) Environmentally Sound Technologies for Sustainable Development. Available at www.unep.or.jp/ietc/techTran/focus/SustDev_EST_background.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

6. Weaver, P., Jansen, L., van Grootveld, G., van Spiegel, E. and Vergragt, P. (2000) Sustainable Technology Development, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK. Available at www.greenleaf-publishing.com/pdfs/stdch1.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

7. Weizsäcker, E., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1997) Factor Four Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, Earthscan Publishing, London.

Key Words for Searching OnlineSustainAbility, Factor 4, Factor 10, WFEO ‘Engineering for Sustainable Development’, RMI, Wuppertal Institute, Environmentally Sound Technologies. Product Life Institute.


http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/pdfs/stdch1.pdf

http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/techTran/focus/SustDev_EST_background.pdf

http://www.anu.edu.au/factoroften/assets/factor10background.pdf

http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/~walter/f10/declaration94.html

http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/~walter/f10/declaration94.html

http://www.factor10-institute.org/seitenges/Factor10.htm


Unit 1: Redefining RolesLecture 4: Innovation to achieve Factor 4-10

The engineering knowledge and technology currently exists to make significant progress towards meeting basic human needs and advancing more quickly towards sustainable development. It is imperative to apply it now where it is needed the most and can make the most difference.

UNESCO/WFEO, Engineering for a Better World80

Educational AimIn order to take advantage of opportunities for innovation and deliver sustainable solutions, a shift must be achieved in the way engineers design and implement projects. But also there is much government and R&D bodies can do as well to ensure that all future research into new technologies seeks to ensure these will be sustainable technologies. Engineers leadership in sustainability would be greatly assisted if governments, R&D bodies, business and engineers worked together to work out how best they can achieve innovations of Factor 4-10.

Required ReadingHargroves, K. and Smith, M. H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London:

Chapter Page

1. Chapter 13: National Systems of Innovation (Weaver, P. et al.) (26 pages) pp 244-270

Learning Points1. It is important for the engineering profession to give careful consideration to the benefits and

disadvantages of emerging technologies. Although innovations are intended to provide benefit, there are numerous historical examples of unsuccessful and harmful consequences. But still more innovation for sustainable development is needed. Also Sustainable Technology Assessment processes are needed to ensure all future technological innovations indeed solve problems rather than creating further ‘unforeseen problems’.

2. From a technical and an economic perspective, the World Bank in 1992 argued that,81

If the environmental policies required are put in place, it is possible to reduce pollution by factors of 10 or more in the most serious cases, even if energy consumption levels (in countries) rise fivefold. Furthermore, developing countries would find themselves better-off both economically and environmentally.

3. Engineers’ leadership in sustainability would be greatly assisted if governments, R&D bodies, business and engineers worked together. What is needed is for each nation to make the goal of achieving sustainability a key part of its national system of innovation and to work out how

80 World Ferdation of Engineering Organisations (n.d.) Engineering for a Better World. Available athttp://www.wfeo.org/. Accessed 5 January 2007.

81 Anderson, D. (1992) ‘Economic Growth and the Environment’, Background Paper for the World Bank (1992) World Development Report 1992, World Bank, Washington D.C.


http://www.wfeo.org/

best they can achieve innovations of Factor 10 or more.

4. A notable example of such a program is the Netherlands’ Government’s Sustainable Technology Development Programme. The Programme found that given future trends in population and consumerism, the Netherlands needs to reduce their load on the environment by at least 90 percent by 2040 to prevent irreparable ecosystem damage. To meet this target, the Programme sought to bring about fundamental changes in the nation’s innovation processes across the major industries and infrastructure sectors.82 The Netherlands Programme showed that through research it is possible technologically to achieve Factor 10-20 reductions in environmental pressures by 2040 through a range of innovative technological approaches.

5. Often due to limited resources and time, engineering innovation has delivered incremental improvements to existing designs or processes over a period of time. In order to radically innovate over the whole system, significant continual improvements are required - in energy efficiency and resource productivity - over a short amount of time, across multiple industry sectors. Furthermore, in many cases designers recognise that the market acceptance of radical technological innovation can only come about with a change in societal behaviour through ‘social’ innovations such as ‘green marketing’. What was remarkable about the Netherlands work was that they had the courage to re-examine whole systems of urban infrastructure, industry, supply chains to investigate how they could move beyond incremental improvements to achieve Factor 10-20 over the next 40 years.

6. Such research is vitally important to make sure truly sustainable technologies are developed from now on to ensure, as much as is possible, that new technologies will not create more problems for future generations. Such research by engineers compliments efforts by practicing engineers to keep up to date with the latest new design for sustainability strategies. Such research also is helpful for the engineering profession to successfully deal with increasingly dynamic, sporadic and specialised problems caused by events associated with climate change and a decline in fresh water and the threat of peaking world oil production this century.

82 Weaver, P., Jansen, L., van Grootveld, G., van Spiegel, E. and Vergragt, P. (2000) Sustainable Technology Development, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK.


Brief Background InformationDr Ir Ron McDowall from the New Zealand Society for Sustainability Engineering and Science, has stated the following:83

Efficiencies and design changes will go a long way towards reducing resource consumption but it is not clear if they will be sufficient. Research by Weaver et al (2000) indicates that, in order to achieve sustainability, efficiencies will have to improve by factors of 10- to 50-fold, much higher than can be achieved using cleaner production technologies. This will require a new design concept, new thinking and new methods of producing and harnessing energy.

To achieve such targets, engineering leadership in sustainability would be greatly assisted if governments, R&D bodies, business and engineers worked together to work out how best they can achieve innovations of Factor 10 or more. What is needed is for each nation to make the goal of achieving sustainability a key part of its national system of innovation and to work out how best they can achieve innovations of Factor 10 or more, such as the Netherlands’ Government’s Sustainable Technology Development Programme.

Increased regulatory standards are also prompting companies to reassess their technological products and processes. For many industries and companies they simply must change their technologies to meet higher environmental standards around the world and thus ensure their products can be sold in lucrative markets such as Europe. In the case of the electrical and electronics industry the European Union is setting strict directives as to allowable levels of waste and hazardous substances. These directives will have a direct and immediate impact on the ability of many countries manufacturing industries to export to the European Union. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, enforced as of August 31st 2005, imposes ‘take back’ obligations on producers and distributors of a wide range of products such as appliances, IT, lighting and telecommunications equipment, tools, medical devices and motor vehicles. The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive; enforced as of July 1st

2006, enforces the reduction or elimination of hazardous substances within products (such as lead, mercury and hexavalent chromium).

Rather than being reactive to such new regulation some countries are being proactive. The German government has developed an ingenious form of regulation that helps drive better environmental outcomes while making German industry more competitive. The rest of Europe, including Eastern Europe, have now followed Germany’s lead. The ‘German Best Available Technology’ legislation does not involve mandating specific technologies, rather, the German Government upwardly adjusts standards that industry has to meet based on the standards met by the best and most cost effective available technologies. In theory then, whenever a new and improved technology is created globally, German industry is expected to meet the environmental standard achieved by that technology. Of course, regulatory practise is more flexible, ambiguous and much less instantaneous. However, it is sufficient to provide significant incentive for German firms to develop new technologies that make it cheaper for them to meet the competition from the best available technologies globally.

83 Boyle, C., Te Kapa Coates, G., Macbeth, A., Shearer, I. and Wakim, N. (2006) Sustainability and Engineering in New Zealand Practical Guidelines for Engineers.Available at www.ipenz.org.nz/ipenz/media_comm/documents/SustainabilityDoc_000.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.



Extract: Innovation Practices and Sustainable Technology (Sustainable Technology Development)84

The STD programme was established with the ambition of bringing about fundamental changes in innovation practices. It arose from an inquiry by the Dutch Commission for Long-Term Environmental Policy (CLTM) into the role of technology in achieving sustainability, whose main conclusion-that usual innovation practices offer no prospect of technology playing anything other than a peripheral role in achieving sustainable development-was one of enormous significance. It even cast doubt over the feasibility of ever achieving sustainability… In effect, usual innovation practice was declared incapable of delivering technologies and business plans compatible with sustainability.

However, this diagnosis of why usual innovation practices are generally incapable of delivering sustainable technologies also provides opportunity. The conclusion of the CLTM inquiry was not that technology would be incapable of playing a major role in the achievement of sustainability or that technologies capable of delivering substantial resource productivity improvements are not, in principle, feasible. On the contrary, members of the inquiry panel were convinced about the possibilities of developing and implementing sustainable technologies. Their concern - reflected in their conclusion - was that usual innovation processes and practices would not lead automatically to technologies compatible with sustainable development. To change the situation, a substantial effort would be needed to try to influence long-term research, technology development and innovation practices in the direction of sustainability.

84 Extract taken from Weaver, P et al. (2000) Sustainable Technology Development, Greenleaf Publishing, London, p 18.


Programme Aspect The Challenge Set AchievementsOverall To achieve Factor 10 - 50 in 50 years from 1990 (i.e. by 2040) - depending on the

issue (For example, fossil carbon emissions: Factor 25, oil: Factor 40, copper: Factor 30, acid deposition: Factor 50).

NutritionHigh technology closed-cycle horticulture

CO2 waste can be cut by Factor 8 (87%) and water by Factor 18 (94%).

Chemical and industrial materials

By 2040 no fossil fuel use to source industrial organic chemicals/materials and Factor 20 improvement in efficiency of eco-capacity use.

Many promising technology changes identified but no quantitative results reported.

Sourcing organic chemical feed stocks

To supply sufficient biomass to source organic chemicals and materials (plastics, liquid fuels, etc), and to find effective chemical pathways from biomass to needed organics chemical materials.

The quantity of biomass that can be produced is adequate for chemicals and materials, but there is a shortfall for liquid fuel.Feasible synthesis routes were available for practically all major commodity products. The quantity of phenolic compounds sourced from biomass may not be adequate.

Biomass production on saline soils

To find halophytic plants that produce useful biomass as feedstock for the production of chemical products so that biomass production can be expanded by utilizing otherwise unavailable salinised land.

Several appropriate halophytic plants are available.

Motor vehicle propulsionHydrogen fuel / fuel cell cars

To find alternative renewable energy ‘carrier’ fuel(s) (with high end-use conversion efficiency to offset any inefficiency of initial production) that can provide the based for a significant Dutch industry to replace fossil fuel oil in the refinery sector.

Hydrogen fuel (or hydrogen-rich liquid carriers, such as cyclohexane and methanol) were identified as possible alternatives.A hydrogen-fuelled fuel cell car could have an increased energy efficiency of Factor 1.75 (43%) compared to conventional internal combustion engine cars. Renewable energy use with carbon removal from the fuel and carbon sequestration could enable CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere.

Table 4.1. Results of the Netherlands Sustainable Technology Development Programme

Source: Weaver, P. et al (2000)85

85 Weaver, P et al. (2000) Sustainable Technology Development, Greenleaf Publishing, London. Summarised by Phillip Sutton in Hargroves, K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations, Earthscan, London, Chap 13: National Systems of Innovation by Paul Weaver, Table 13.1.


Optional Reading 1. Boyle, C., Te Kapa Coates, G., Macbeth, A., Shearer, I. and Wakim, N. (2006) Sustainability

and Engineering in New Zealand Practical Guidelines for Engineers, Available at www.ipenz.org.nz/ipenz/media_comm/documents/SustainabilityDoc_000.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

2. Weaver, P., Jansen, L., van Grootveld, G., van Spiegel, E. and Vergragt, P. (2000) Sustainable Technology Development, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK. First chapter available at http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/content/pdfs/stdch1.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

3. Hawken, P., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1999) Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, Earthscan, London, Chap 1: The Next Industrial Revolution. (www.natcap.org)

4. Lovins, A.B., Datta, E.K., Feiler, T., Rabago, K.R., Swisher, J.N., Lehmann, A. and Wicker, K. (2002) Small is Profitable: the hidden economic benefits of making electrical resources the right size, Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, Colorado. (www.smallisprofitable.org)

5. Lovins, A., Datta, E.K., Bustnes, O., Koomey, J.G. and Glascow, N.J. (2004) Winning The Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security, Rocky Mountain Institute, Colorado/Earthscan, London. Available at www.oilendgame.org. Accessed 5 January 2007.

Key Words for Searching OnlineNational systems of innovation, Netherlands Sustainable Technology Development programme. Biomimicry, distributed generation, emerging enabling technologies, fuel cell technology, materials science, nanotechnology, optoelectronics.

Comprehension Quiz1. List an international example of a country that has undergone significant innovation within

its national system of innovation.

2. List three examples of beneficial outcomes from the above program.


http://www.oilendgame.org/

http://www.smallisprofitable.org/

http://www.natcap.org/

http://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/content/pdfs/stdch1.pdf


Break-Out Group Activity1. For a group activity, prepare a discussion forum with role play on the Netherlands example.

The objective is to encourage students to become familiar with the idea of setting up national systems of innovation, to accelerate the move to more sustainable practices.

a. Provide students with the text from ‘Brief Background Information’, as homework reading.

b. Split the group into two – one will role play a group of businesses, the other will role play representatives from various government departments.

c. The forum is to be a meeting between industry and government, to reflect on successes and to find opportunities for further success. Business is lobbying government to provide them with more incentives to innovate.

Students are encouraged to be creative with the material provided.

2. As an individual exercise, students could develop a sustainability case study (500 – 1000 words) based on the Netherlands work summarised in the ‘Brief Background Information’.


Unit 2: Efficiency/Whole Systems

Lecture 5: Efficiency – A Critical First Step towards Sustainability

Educational AimTo reinforce the critical point that efficiency is a vital sustainability strategy. The rate of return on investment makes it economically viable to further investment in sustainability initiatives such as renewable energy, and recycling of water and materials. To achieve sustainability will involve a transition. Engineers have a critical role to help society find the most cost effective ways to achieve this. Engineers need to become better at communicating the multiple benefits of engineering sustainable solutions to business, government or any organisation they work with. The concept of efficiency will help engineers better communicate how cost-effective reducing environmental impacts can be. Businesses, governments and other organisations are embracing efficiency because it improves performance, reduces costs and pollution. This is also an important topic to cover since engineers play a key role in often both managing and implementing efficiency.

Required Reading Five Winds (2005) Eco-Efficiency, Training Module and Downloadable Powerpoints, WBCSD, pp 17-25.

Hargroves, K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London:

Chapter Page

1. Chapter 6: Natural Advantage and the Firm, ‘What will be the major driver of innovation in the 21st Century?’ (4 pages)

pp 83-87

Learning Points1. Since achieving sustainability involves a transition, it is wise to find the most cost effective

way to achieve such a transition. Efficiency – doing more with less for longer – has one of the best rates of return of any sustainability investment. This is because it is cheaper not to use as much energy, water and materials, all of which add to the costs of a business or any organisation.

2. Engineers have shown that it is possible to re-design and re-optimised numerous everyday products to achieve up to as much as 90 percent energy efficiency savings, (but often at least 40 percent energy efficiency improvements.


3. Businesses and organisations that have embraced efficiency have achieved remarkable reductions in environmental impact and also significant cost savings world-wide.86 Consider the following examples:

- Hewlett Packard in California reduced its waste by 95 percent and saved over US$870,000 in 1998.

- In five years, SC Johnson increased production by 50 percent while waste emissions were cut by half, resulting in annual cost savings of more than US$125 million.

- United Technologies Corporation’s sites eliminated almost 40,000 gallons per year of waste water and saved over US$50,000 per year with a fundamental change in the way it manages its test cells, underground storage tanks, and waste streams.

- 3M has implemented an efficiency program which has achieved a 95 percent reduction in volatile organic air emissions, 94 percent reduction in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) Releases (U.S. only), 10 percent reduction in solid wastes, and a 39 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

4. Efficiency is not limited simply to making incremental efficiency improvements in existing practices and habits. It should stimulate creativity and innovation in the search for new ways of doing things. Nor is efficiency limited to areas within a company’s boundaries, such as in manufacturing and plant management. It is also valid for activities upstream and downstream of a manufacturer’s plant and involves the supply and product value chains. Consequently, it can be a great challenge to development engineers, purchasers, product portfolio managers, marketing specialists and even finance and control.

5. Companies can use efficiency as an integral cultural element in their policy or mission statements. They can also set efficiency objectives for their environmental or integrated management systems. And it is a useful tool for monitoring and reporting performance, and for helping the firm’s communication and dialogue with its stakeholders.

6. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development reports87 and efficiency training program88 will assist engineers to convince their colleagues and CEO of the benefits of pursuing efficiency programs not just for business but for any organisation to reduce costs and help the environment. Useful first steps for implementing a company/organisation wide efficiency program are outlined in the background reading.

7. Efficiency means doing more, with less for longer. As discussed in ‘The Role of Engineers in Sustainable Development A’, such efficiency gains, though to be encouraged, are just the start because they can have negative rebound effects. Efficiency gains will need to be complimented by still further changes to operations to ensure they lead to truly sustainable outcomes. Efficiency is the first step. To achieve sustainable development companies and organisations also need to be doing more than simply using resources more efficiently.

86 DeSimone, L. and Popoff, F. (1996) Eco-Efficiency: the Business Link to Sustainable Development, MIT Press, Cambridge MA. De Simone from 3M and Frank Popoff from Dow Chemicals, two leading business figures, spell out the principles of eco-efficiency and present case studies of a number of international companies that are putting these principles into practice. The authors also discuss the value of partnerships across businesses and associations, communities, regulators and NGOs.

87 See World Business Council for Sustainable Development at www.wbcsd.org. Accessed 5 January 2007. 88 Five Winds (2005) Eco-Efficiency, Training Module and Downloadable Powerpoints, WBCSD, Geneva.

Available at http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/MRdaDUNiWNU4NZlWw9eM/ee_module.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/MRdaDUNiWNU4NZlWw9eM/ee_module.pdf

http://www.wbcsd.org/

8. Efficiency has value because it allows business, government, other organisations and homes to not only use resources more efficiently but also helps organisations to afford to take the steps towards sustainability, such as sourcing energy, water and materials from renewable and sustainable sources. The company Interface Ltd is a great example of the value of focusing on efficiency savings as a first step on the road to sustainability. Interface Ltd focused initially on efficiency savings and then, with the money saved from efficiency investments, they have been able to also focus on re-designing their products, their processes and where they source their raw materials from. Their case study is discussed in the background reading.

9. Many words are used virtually interchangeably to sum up efficiency initiatives. Eco-efficiency, resource (or eco-) productivity, resource efficiency, and resource intensity are all terms that are used in this field, and can be seen as specific indicators of the broader concept of efficiency,89 although in some instances resource efficiency is interpreted as a measure of resource productivity.90 All these words have slightly different meanings. Their definitions are discussed in the background reading.

Brief Background Information There is overwhelming evidence91 for the business case for efficiency investments. Companies which have implemented efficiency strategies have experienced excellent and rapid returns on their investments in efficiency. Efficiency initiatives can also help unleash creativity, improve reputation and increase competitiveness. Consider the following examples:92

- Manufacturing: General Electric’s ‘Ecomagination’ program to improve the efficiency of products and appliances is now worth US$10 Billion in sales per annum. In May 2005, General Electric, one of the world’s biggest companies with revenues of US$152 billion in 2004, announced ‘Ecomagination’, a major new business driver expected to double revenues from cleaner technologies to US$20 billion by 2010. This initiative will see GE double its research and development in eco-friendly technologies to US$1.5 billion by 2010, and improve energy efficiency by 30 percent by 2012. In May 2006, the company reported revenues of US$10.1 billion from its energy efficient and environmentally advanced products and services, up from US$6.2 billion in 2004, with orders nearly doubling to US$17 billion. In 2005, the company’s wind energy business was worth US$2 billion, estimated to rapidly reach US$4 billion. In five years, GE expects that alternative energies will comprise more than 25 percent of all energy equipment revenue.

- Car Manufacturing: Toyota has invested heavily in hybrid car and fuel efficient car designs and in 2006 posted record profits. At the Academy Awards in 2006 the car park for Hollywood

89 EEA (European Environment Agency) (1999) Making sustainability accountable: Eco-efficiency, resource productivity and innovation, Topic Report no. 11/1999, EEA, Copenhagen.

90 PIU (Performance and Innovation Unit) (2001) Resource productivity: making more with less, PIU, The Cabinet Office, London.

91 WBCSD (2000) Eco-Efficiency: Creating more value with less impact, WBCSD, Geneva. Available at www.wbcsd.org/web/publications/eco_efficiency_creating_more_value.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007. This report highlights some of the ways in which eco-efficiency has been interpreted by companies in different sectors (available in various languages).

92 Holliday, C., Schmidheiny, S. and Watts, P. (2002) Walking the Talk – The Business Case for Sustainable Development, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK. In this ground-breaking book, Stephan Schmidheiny – author of the hugely influential Changing Course – has joined with fellow prime movers in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Chad Holliday of DuPont and Sir Philip Watts KCMG, formerly of Shell, to spell out the business case for addressing sustainable development as a key strategic issue.


http://www.wbcsd.org/web/publications/eco_efficiency_creating_more_value.pdf

Stars was full of just one type of car, hybrid cars. In the US hybrids sell at US$22,000. This is very affordable for the family and can cut the family fuel bill in half. There is now up to an 8 - 12 month wait for anyone wanting a hybrid in the US such is their popularity. In 2005, Toyota profits reached over $14 Billion more than GM or Ford due to a focus on energy efficient cars like the Hybrid Prius. Standards and Poors in 2005 downgraded GM and Ford’s rating to junk bond status. GM and Ford had ignored the hybrid car market in the 1990s and banked on people wanting to keep on buying SUVs. GM and Ford now have hybrid cars available.

- Wal-Mart: In October 2005, the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, announced a US$500 million climate change commitment. These initiatives included: reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent in seven years; increasing truck fleet fuel efficiency by 25 percent in three years and double it in ten; developing a store that is 25 percent more energy-efficient within four years; pressuring its worldwide network of suppliers to follow its lead; and operating on 100 percent renewable energy. With US$312.4 billion in annual sales and more than 6,400 stores and facilities worldwide, Wal-Mart’s climate change commitment is of international business significance.

To ensure that a business or organisation is not left behind there are some useful steps to implement an effective efficiency strategy:93

- Assess the current situation - include any challenges or barriers in the organisation with respect to the decision-making process in question.

- Identify a set of conditions that would need to be in place to achieve the optimum results possible from efficiency initiatives.

- Identify the actions, including tools, information and human or financial resources required to ensure the actions are taken.

- Create a ‘Efficiency Strategy’ business case for the CEO to support.

- Get support from the CEO or otherwise head of your organisation.

- Select relevant Indicators of performance and ensure that they not only indicate performance but identify areas for improvement and innovation (such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI))

- Undertake audits, i.e. energy, water, resource, waste, pollution audits.

- Undertake Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to understand where the largest resource and energy usage and environmental impacts are occurring.

- Collect and interpret data.

- Communicate results.

- Bring together relevant teams within the company to workshop targets, goals for efficiency and then a strategy to achieve them.

Efficiency as a First Step towards Sustainable Development

93 Five Winds (2005) Eco-Efficiency, Training Module, WBCSD. Available at www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/MRdaDUNiWNU4NZlWw9eM/ee_module.pdf and http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTgwMjc. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTgwMjc

Case Study: Interface Ltd.94 As discussed in ‘The Role of Engineers in Sustainable Development A’ such efficiency gains, are just the start because they can have negative rebound effects. Long term efficiency gains in business will need to be complimented by still further changes to processes, products and services, and supply chains to ensure they lead to truly sustainable outcomes. Efficiency is the first step. To achieve sustainable development companies and organisations also need to be doing more than simply using resources more efficiently. The company Interface Ltd is a great example of the value of focusing on efficiency savings as a first step. Interface Ltd focused initially on efficiency savings and then, with the money saved from efficiency investments, they have been able to also focus on re-designing their products, their processes and where they source their raw materials to achieve sustainable development. By focusing on efficiency, Interface Ltd found areas where highly cost effective gains were possible.

The original gains were quick and effective; in one particular plant they were able to increase energy efficiencies by 92 percent simply by resizing the pump and redesigning the piping between the pump and the equipment.95 Interface Ltd concentrated initially on those areas where cost effective gains could be made and is now saving over US$200 million per annum with their efficiency initiatives, which is then paying for sustainability orientated initiatives. These financial savings from resource efficiency have allowed Interface to try improvements that have started affecting the company on a much more fundamental level.

Now they have replaced petrochemical based carpets with carpets made from renewable biomass such as corn waste that can be recycled with little loss of quality. The new carpet is the first certified climate-neutral product in the world; that is, all of the climate impact of making and delivering it has been offset before it gets to the customer. The carpet is so non-toxic that it is certified as being edible thus eliminating OH&S concerns. Rather than owning the carpet the customer leases it from Interface who then collect the worn out squares for recycling. In the first four years of this business model and wringing out waste in its own operation, Interface say they more than doubled their revenue, more than tripled their operating profit, and nearly doubled their employment, all at the same time. Overall they have achieved a 97 percent total reduction in materials used while providing a better service in every respect.

Interface has gone further than Factor 10 and is on the way to achieving Factor 100 and becoming the first genuinely ‘Sustainable Corporation’ on the planet. With sustainable development being the overall vision in this case, Interface has integrated 100s of efficiency initiatives and other new forms of innovation in accounting and product delivery, and in so doing climbed so far towards sustainability that it will take its competitors years to catch up.

94 Interface Inc. (n.d.) Interface Sustainability. Available at http://www.interfacesustainability.com/. Accessed 5 January 2007.

95 Refer to http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Whole_Systems_Design_Suite.aspx for examples of detailed designs.


http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Whole_Systems_Design_Suite.aspx

http://www.interfacesustainability.com/

Clarifying Definitions96

Many words are used virtually interchangeably to sum up efficiency initiatives which help the environment. In this course efficiency means the same as the traditional engineering definition of resource efficiency which in layman’s terms is simply ‘doing more, with less for longer’. Eco-efficiency, resource (or eco-) productivity, resource efficiency, and resource intensity are all terms that are used in this field, and can be seen as specific indicators of the broader concept of efficiency.97 All these words have slightly different meanings.

Resource Efficiency

Resource efficiency is defined as a basic ratio of useful resource output Ro, per total resource input, Ri:

Ro/Ri = resource efficiency

Hence energy efficiency is simply useful energy output, Eo, per input of energy, Ei:

Eo/Ei = energy efficiency

Eco-Efficiency

The word 'eco-efficiency' was first used by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in their 1992 publication Changing Course,98

Eco-efficiency is achieved by the delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout the life-cycle to a level at least in line with the Earth’s estimated carrying capacity.

In short, eco-efficiency is concerned with creating more value with less impact. It seeks to encapsulate the idea of using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution while providing the same or better services. Since then, it has been the subject of considerable discussion and analysis, i.e. in DeSimone and Popoff’s book Eco-efficiency. The Business Link to Sustainable Development,99 where it was defined as relating to ‘activities that create economic value while cont inuously reducing ecological impact and the use of natural resources’.

The problem with the term eco-efficiency is that the use of the prefix ‘eco’ may imply that efficiency is enough to be ‘green’ and achieve sustainable development when it is actually one of the first steps. Greater efficiency does not necessarily lead down a path of ecological sustainability. For example, technological advances have made it possible, through greater efficiency, for fishing fleets to catch fish, timber companies to harvest trees and mining companies to extract non-renewable resources at unsustainable rates. In other words, such

96 Adapted from Ekins, P. and Tomei, T. (2006) Eco-Efficiency of Consumption and Production Patternsin Asia and the Pacific. A Study for UNESCAP. Policy Studies Institute, London.

97 EEA (European Environment Agency) (1999) Making sustainability accountable: Eco-efficiency, resource productivity and innovation, Topic Report no. 11/1999, EEA, Copenhagen.

98 Schmidheiny, S. (1992) Changing Course: a global business perspective on development and the environment, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA; WBCSD (2000) Measuring Eco-Efficiency: A guide to reporting company performance, WBCSD, Geneva.

99 DeSimone, L.D. and Popoff, F. (1998) Eco-efficiency. The Business Link to Sustainable Development, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, p xix.


advances in efficiency have made these businesses in many ways more unsustainable.

Also efficiency gains can lead to negative rebound effects. Hence, for efficiency to lead to sustainability, such efficiency initiatives need to be complimented by still further sustainability orientated changes to business processes, products and services, and supply chains. To achieve sustainable development companies and organisations also need to be doing more than using resources more efficiently. The example of the company Interface Ltd illustrates this point. Hence in this course we simply use the word efficiency without the prefix ‘eco’ to make it clear that efficiency is but a first step towards being ‘green’ and ecologically sustainable.

Resource Productivity

Productivity, in the field of economics, refers to the production of some kind of welfare, or more simply put, the production of some other useful output by an input. Productivity can be measured by economic output, Yo, hence resource productivity then is the economic output per unit of natural resource input Ri:

Yo/Ri = resource productivity

Or economic output per input of energy:

Yo/Ei = energy productivity

This definition of resource productivity provides a measure of the effectiveness with which the economy value is created from natural resources.100 For analysis of resource productivity trends at the firm level, a range of indicators has been suggested (see WBCSD101), while at the sectoral and national levels the choices are more constrained.

Resource Intensity

Resource Intensity is the inverse of resource productivity. In other words resource intensity is measured as R/Yo, and energy intensity as Ei/Yo. It can also refer to the production of some undesirable output (often resulting in pollution) by some other factor, for example carbon dioxide output, C, per unit of energy input.

Any of these indicators provides only a relative measure, and needs to be supplemented by measures of absolute trends in resource flows. When environmental impacts - or resource flows - increase less fast than economic output, or are reduced, then decoupling is said to have occurred.

100 PIU (Performance and Innovation Unit) (2001) Resource productivity: making more with less, PIU, The Cabinet Office, London.

101 WBCSD (2000) Eco-Efficiency: Creating more value with less impact, WBCSD, Geneva. Available at www.wbcsd.org/web/publications/eco_efficiency_creating_more_value.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007. This report highlights some of the ways in which eco-efficiency has been interpreted by companies in different sectors (available in various languages).


http://www.wbcsd.org/web/publications/eco_efficiency_creating_more_value.pdf

Optional Reading 1. The following ESSP Critical Literacies Portfolio modules can be used as key references to

support the content contained within this Lecture:

- The Role of Engineers in Sustainable Development A Unit 2: Learning the Language. Lecture 5.

2. DeSimone, L. and Popoff, F. (1996) Eco-Efficiency: the Business Link to Sustainable Development, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

3. Five Winds (2005) Eco-Efficiency, Training Module, WBCSD. Available at www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/MRdaDUNiWNU4NZlWw9eM/ee_module.pdf and http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTgwMjc. Accessed 5 January 2007.

4. Hawken, P., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1999) Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, Earthscan, London, Chap 3: Waste Not. Available at http://www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter3.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

5. Schmidheiny, S. (1992) Changing Course: a global business perspective on development and the environment, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

6. von Weizsäcker, E., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1997) Factor 4: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, Earthscan, London, Chapter 1: Twenty Examples of Revolutionising Energy Productivity.

7. WBCSD, (1999) Eco-Efficiency: Creating More Value with Less Impact, WBCSD, Geneva.

8. WBCSD (1999) Measuring Eco-Efficiency: A Guide to Reporting Company Performance, WBCSD, Geneva.

9. www.meta-efficient.com

Key Words for Searching OnlineEfficiency, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Eco-Efficiency, Eco-efficiency Initiatives.

Comprehension Quiz1. Explain the difference between resource productivity, resource efficiency and resource

intensity. Refer to Brief Background Information.

Break-Out Group ActivityResearch five companies which have already achieved 60 percent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions using energy efficiency and renewable options. Refer to Brief Background Information.


http://www.meta-efficient.com/

http://www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter3.pdf

http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTgwMjc

http://www.wbcsd.org/DocRoot/MRdaDUNiWNU4NZlWw9eM/ee_module.pdf


Lecture 6: Engineering Energy, Water and Material Efficiencies

Educational Aim Effective practitioners have shown that it is possible to achieve significant energy, water and material efficiencies with numerous everyday products and industrial processes. The goal here is to introduce and start to explain how to achieve such results, and how still greater results can be achieved in the future. A succinct overview of these exciting opportunities for engineers is outlined with checklists to provide guidance for those seeking to achieve greater energy, water and materials efficiencies. These checklists have been developed and formally published by The Institution of Engineers Australia and the Institution of Professional Engineers, New Zealand.

Required Readingvon Weizsacker, E., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1997) Factor 4: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, Earthscan, London, Introduction: More for Less.


Chapter Page

1. Introduction: Insurmountable Opportunities (4 pages) pp 1-4

Learning Points1. Because much energy is lost in the transmission of energy and water from the power station

or dam to the consumer energy, water and material efficiency can provide significant reductions to the ecological footprint and greenhouse gas emissions of processes.

2. Energy, water and material efficiencies have a cascading effect, reducing significantly the overall environmental load of any engineered system (industrial processes, built environment, or product) on the biosphere. Small increases in end-use efficiency can reverse these compounding losses. For instance, saving one unit of output energy can cut the needed fuel input by up to 10 units at the electricity power station.102

3. Engineers have a critical role to play to ensure that both the process of creating products and the actual products themselves are as resource efficient (water, energy, material efficient) as

102 Rocky Mountain Institute (1997) ‘Cover Story: Tunnelling through the Cost Barrier’, RMI Newsletter, Summer 1997. Available at http://www.rmi.org/images/other/Newsletter/NLRMIsum97.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.rmi.org/images/other/Newsletter/NLRMIsum97.pdf

possible over the lifetime of their use.

4. Engineers have shown that it is possible to re-design and re-optimised numerous everyday products to achieve up to as much as 90 percent energy efficiency savings. Engineers and architects have shown that it is possible to design buildings so that during their day to day operation they need 30-80 percent less energy and water than conventionally designed buildings. There is now decades of documented experience by engineers in peer reviewed literature, journals and books of how to achieve this for most areas of engineering.103

5. There is significant interest improving resource efficiency because it fundamentally makes good business sense. Using energy, water or materials more efficiently offers an economic bonus because saving resources is a lot cheaper than buying them.

- Over the past decade, chemical manufacturer DuPont has boosted production nearly 30 percent but cut energy use 7 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 72 pecent (measured in terms of their CO2 equivalent), saving more than US$2 billion. Five other major firms—IBM, British Telecom, Alcan, Norske Canada and Bayer—have collectively saved at least another $US2 billion since the early 1990s by reducing their carbon emissions more than 60 percent.104

- Car companies that have invested in energy efficient cars are finding that this is a highly profitable part of their business especially with historically high oil prices. General Electric has committed to making its products and appliances as efficient to run as possible. These energy efficient products now constitute US$10 billion per annum in sales.

- Full cost studies of the financial and economic analysis of the benefits of water efficiency are in their early stages. But research undertaken by the UTS’ Institute for Sustainable Futures in Australia, for regulators and utilities across Australia, indicates the value of such research. Their research suggests that for cities and towns facing water supply augmentation, investment in water efficiency can result in water savings of greater than 30 percent at a unit cost that is less than supply augmentation, yielding net present value economic benefits in excess of AUS$100 million for some capital cities.

6. A significant ingredient in achieving increased resource efficiency is the reduction in raw materials consumed to provide the goods and services. A key incentive to address materials use is that reducing the amount of input materials, ultimately reduces the amount of waste generated. This reduces purchase and disposal costs and benefits the product’s economic performance.

7. Efficiency improvements can also make distributed approaches to energy and water supply much more cost effective. This can create economically viable ways to achieve truly sustainable energy and water supply solutions utilising distributed energy and water approaches.

8. To help guide engineers to achieve dramatically improved energy, water and materials

103 Boyd, G.A. and Pang, J.X. (2000) ‘Estimating the linkage between energy efficiency and productivity’, Energy Policy, vol. 28 no. 5, pp 289–296; Kelly, H.C., Blair, P.D. and Gibbons, J.H. (1989) ‘Energy use and productivity: current trends and policy implications’, Annual Review of Energy, no. 14, pp 321–352; US Department of Energy (1997) The interrelationship between environmental goals, efficiency improvement, and increased energy efficiency in integrated paper and steel plants, DOE/PO-0055, Washington, D.C., US Department of Energy, Office of Policy and International Affairs and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

104 The Climate Group (2005) Profits Up, Carbon Down. Available at www.theclimategroup.org/assets/Carbon_Down_Profit_Up.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.theclimategroup.org/assets/Carbon_Down_Profit_Up.pdf

efficiencies checklists are provided (see Brief Background Information). These checklists are a guide and should not be seen as a substitute for life cycle analysis. To ensure that all efficiency opportunities are identified and seized it is vital that the right questions are asked. Ideally all engineering projects would employ a life-cycle approach to their designs (industrial plants, built environment projects and products) to identify where large efficiencies savings are possible. Often the results of a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) can yield surprising information about where the highest environmental impacts actually exist and therefore where efficiency initiatives will be most effective.

9. An important way to measure the ecological stress potential of goods and services is the ‘Material Intensity Per unit Service’ or ‘MIPS’. This is a tool that can be used to begin to discuss and understand material flows through society and their ecological implications. MIPS is measured in material input per total unit of services delivered over its life cycle. This includes the time from resource extraction to manufacturing, transport, packaging, use and re-use, recycling, and final waste disposal. MIPS goes beyond direct inputs to include the hidden costs of materials and energy - preliminary estimates have been made for a number of materials and energy flows, and there is significant work yet to be undertaken in this field.


Brief Background Information(A) Checklist for Energy Efficiency in Process - Improving Efficiency with Small Financial Investments.105

If you are employed in the Process Industries and your company has not looked in detail at energy use before, chances are that simple changes can save energy and resources at minimal cost or with substantial savings. Internationally, policy on greenhouse gases and energy efficiency is heading towards setting standards for each industry and process related to units of production. For the reasons listed below, a preliminary audit may well be worth the time and resources. Ignorance is never bliss for a practising engineer - the following checklist aims to assist in improving energy efficiency.

Energy efficiency should be considered if you are involved in any industry using power/heat, particularly cement, paper, steel, textiles, non-ferrous metals, chemicals, food or wood products.

Improved energy efficiency may be achieved using a simple five step process:

1. Obtain Senior Management endorsement for the concept.2. Perform an energy audit to assess the present situation.3. Process the audit data – identify opportunities for energy efficiency and set targets.4. Implement changes.5. Monitor progress (data tracking).

Step 1. Obtain endorsement from management

- Arguments in favour of targeting energy efficiency are:- increased competitiveness and reduced costs (material inputs/fuel, maintenance,

personnel)- ability to defer major capital investment by using demand side management- increased efficiency and conversion efficiency- improved product through increased focus on quality systems- public relations benefit of ‘being green’ (e.g. Greenhouse Challenge)- improved health and safety record through improved housekeeping

Step 2. Perform energy audits

- Identify energy sources: - fuel type (gas, oil, diesel, other)- electricity (imported, generated in-house)- heat (steam, waste heat recovery)- compressed air- water or other

- For each energy source:

105 Green, D. (1997) Towards Sustainable Engineering Practice: Engineering Frameworks for Sustainability, Engineers, Australia.


- determine quantity of energy used, cost per unit- standardise unit to enable comparison- identify sources of information about energy use include energy bills, metering

(accuracy?), staff, design books (compare design vs. actual)

- Identify conversion processes and major energy uses:- determine where energy is used- production (major equipment items, systems, plant sections)- administration/buildings/storage- maintenance- transport/goods handling- determine whether the use is fixed or variable relative to production rate- use energy and mass balances to determine, efficiency of conversion processes, losses,

especially batch processes and waste disposal

- Include the following items in site-specific audits:- maintenance- leaks/loss of containment (fuel/utility systems)- loss of energy (uninsulated surfaces) poorly tuned equipment (process control

equipment)- poorly maintained equipment (clogged filters, sticking control valves) operations - standby/redundant equipment on idle rather than shutdown?- excessive reject rate/ waste production/off spec product recycling potential?- inefficient manual handling and storage procedures?- preventable shutdowns causing energy/product loss?- co-ordinate prodition to avoid peak loads on energy systems?- allowing for ambient conditions (compressor air inlet cooling off in cool weather, ramp

back heat tracing on hot days)- reduce cooling and heating- requirements by operating systems at optimum- through improved process control optimise batch sizes with storage to meet demand

(larger, less frequent batches?) - transport/storage - streamline contracts with suppliers to minimise storage- optimise storage to minimise handling- (e.g. liquids in 1000L bulky boxes rather than 20L drums) + size vehicles appropriately,

allowing for multiple uses + switch off while not in transit, optimise loading facilities to minimise time and resources (automate?)

- Administration/buildings:- comply with the latest Code of Practice for efficiency lighting, air conditioning, equipment

use (e.g. replace incandescent lights with fluorescent)

- Design:- non-integrated heat or pressure systems- pressure reduction followed by recompression.


- heat loss from hot stream while cold stream heated by additional heat source - waste heat utilised to preheat feed pressure - over-design of safety lighting, - air-conditioning (especially switchgear rooms etc.)- batch processes - modify to semicontinuous/ continuous- replace equipment with newer, more efficient, lower maintenance type- minimise electricity use where possible (use alternative fuel)- conduct energy efficiency audits on all new plants/equipment- oversized equipment - replace with smaller equipment in parallel- substitute fuels to improve efficiency.- utilise waste products as fuel (e.g. solvent recovery from drying operations) - use variable speed drives


(B) Water Efficiency Checklists (Water Efficiency, Reuse and Recycling Checklists)106

Water is essential for all life. It is also integral to economic development, community well-being, and cultural values. To be sustainable, supply and use of water must ensure that today's water needs are met equitably and in a manner that protects essential ecological processes and allows future generations to meet their own water needs. These requirements influence all aspects of water supply, use and disposal, which include:

- The sources of water we choose.- The ways in which those sources are tapped.- The level of consumption of water by individuals, industry and agriculture.- Access to acceptable quality water for all people.- Water supplies for ecosystems maintenance.- Effect of human activities on water resources.

Using Water More EfficientlyTo manage water in a sustainable manner available resources should be used as efficiently as possible. Efficient water use not only conserves limited supplies, it also saves money in a number of ways, such as:

- Eliminating or delaying need for constructing new dams or wells. - Decreasing quantity of water to treat.- Decreasing quantity of wastewater to treat. - Reducing size and cost of pipes, pumps, and other infrastructure. - Lowering customer costs. - Reducing energy used (and energy costs) for heating water.

Reduced consumption of water also has other benefits, such as making more water available for environmental flows in rivers to protect aquatic life, providing greater security against droughts and allowing for economic and population growth. Some of the ways in which water can be used more efficiently are:

- Have you carefully accounted for water use throughout the entire design process?- Use of more efficient plumbing fixtures, such as low-flow showerheads, water-efficient toilets,

and tap aerators. - Use of more efficient equipment, such as dishwashers and washing machines pressure

reduction grey-water. - Use water-efficient landscaping.- Use of efficient irrigation systems. - Water reuse and recycling. - Cooling water recirculation. - Recycling of rinse waters.- Redesign of manufacturing process to reduce water use leak detection and repair.- Water main rehabilitation metering and sub-metering.

106 Green, D. (1997) Towards Sustainable Engineering Practice: Engineering Frameworks for Sustainability, Engineers, Australia.


- Water audits.- Retrofit programs.- Pricing, eg higher unit rates for greater use.- Surcharges on excessive use, time-of-day.- Pricing.- Labelling of water-using equipment.- Consider water from aquifers, rainwater, surface run-off water.

Treating Wastewater and Stormwater as ResourcesBoth wastewater and stormwater have been regarded as waste products to be disposed of as efficiently as possible. Two factors are changing perceptions of these products: 1) disposal is becoming more problematical, with both wastewater and stormwater being seen as major sources of pollution; and 2) at the same time, increasing demands for water coupled with limited access to new supplies, makes consideration of alternative sources more compelling. Reuse of grey-water is also receiving new attention.

- Consider water from rainwater, surface run-off water, grey-water, and any water use for sewage transport or processing systems within a cyclical concept.

- Consider new ways to treat wastewater using organic treatment systems?- Consider whether your designs consider rainwater and surface run-off water as much as

possible for water resource use in infrastructure systems and processes.- Treat grey-water and apply it to practical or natural purposes suitable to its characteristics?- Minimise contamination and put any water used in any process related activity back into

circulation if possible.

Water Reuse and Recycling

Water reuse is the use of wastewater or reclaimed water from one application such as municipal wastewater treatment for another application such as landscape watering. The practice of using wastewater for irrigating agricultural crops is hundreds of years old, but it lost favour for many years. Water recycling is the reuse of water for the same application for which it was originally used. Recycled water might require treatment before it can be used again. Benefits of Wastewater Reuse and Recycling

For Municipal and Regional Authorities- Reduces the demands on available surface and ground waters.- New water sources may be unavailable or controversial.- Delays or eliminates need to expand potable water supply and treatment facilities.- May be less expensive than building more reservoirs.- May reduce cost of wastewater treatment.- May reduce the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and other pollutants being discharged to

water bodies. - Reduced need to transport water long distances.- Sale of treated water may offset costs of wastewater treatment provides free fertiliser (owing

to high levels of nutrients present) provides opportunities for economic development.


For Industry- Reduces cost of purchasing, treating and disposing of water.- Collects contaminants which need proper management.- May allow reclaiming of valuable materials which would otherwise be discharged.

Complementary Strategies- Making better use of water reduces the amount to be supplied - from any source. - Pricing, education and information, building and planning regulations and other techniques

used to improve efficiency and reduce demand stringent policies to maintain quality of wastewater sent to sewage treatment (to minimise heavy metals and toxic materials).

- Programs to minimise leakage of stormwater into sewers. - Integrated catchment management to provide an overall strategic approach to all water

issues.

Potential Uses of Recycled Water- Dependent on level of treatment applied, health regulations, and requirements for use.- Irrigation of landscapes, golf courses, woodlots, and some agricultural crops.- Water for power stations and other industrial uses.- Fire-fighting.- Restoration of wetlands.- Some recreational uses.- Ultimately for conversion to drinking water.

Treatment of Wastewater for Reuse and Recycling- Level of treatment depends on proposed uses and environmental and health regulations.- Reuse for irrigation and other uses that involve spreading water over land removes nutrients,

and may eliminate the need for nutrient removal that would be required for discharges to surface waters.

- Reused wastewater has most commonly received secondary treatment; higher levels of treatment would be required for potable supplies.

- There is a need to match suppliers and users.

Issues regarding Wastewater Reuse and Recycling- Health regulations place constraints on some potential uses.- Public education is required to overcome concerns about risks associated with reuse.- When using wastewater for irrigation and landscape watering, there is the same need to

ensure that runoff containing pesticides and other chemicals does not create pollution of ground or surface water.

Checklist for Stormwater Management

Vast quantities of runoff water have traditionally been discarded into surface waters using extensive networks of drains and channels. Studies in Adelaide, for example, showed that the amount of stormwater runoff was approximately equal to the total water use of the city. The


quality of stormwater is often poor because of contamination with oil and heavy metals from cars, animal and garden wastes, as well as cigarette butts, litter, and other pollutants. Discharge of large quantities of runoff immediately after storms commonly has a serious detrimental effect on receiving waters. The main driving force for taking a new approach to stormwater management has been the concern about pollution of surface waters, but the vast quantity of water available is leading to recognition that stormwater is also a valuable resource.

Land use and transport policies have led to large paved and built areas. Although soil will absorb rainwater, pavement will not, so in today's developed areas the volume and speed of runoff are many times higher than before development. Approaches to stormwater management have to address the range of issues contributing to problems resulting from runoff.

Techniques for Reducing the Contamination of Stormwater

- Controlling soil erosion from construction by:- maintaining vegetated areas,- limiting the amount of bare soils,- diverting peak flows around sensitive areas,- stockpiling of sand, gravel. soil etc. in a manner that prevents washing into roads- minimising cut and fill operations- minimising vehicle activity during wet weather

- Developing readily available systems for recycling used oil.- Green waste collecting and composting.- Encouraging car washing on lawns, not on roads.- Pet owner responsibility for collecting animal wastes.- Education of the community about stormwater issues.

Reducing Stormwater FlowOther approaches primarily aim to reduce the quantity and speed of stormwater flow. These include:

- Finding and eliminating illegal discharges.- Preserving natural drainage systems such as streams and vegetative buffers.- Reducing urban sprawl.- Use of vegetative filter strips and trees that remove pollutants and lessen erosion by holding

the soil in place.- Mulches to help stabilise bare soils and reduce erosion.- Low-maintenance landscapes or ‘xeriscapes’ utilising native and adapted plant species and

improved management practices to save water; lowering runoff by lessening the amount of water that's applied. (Fewer chemicals are applied, so pollution from pesticide runoff is also reduced).

- Porous pavements, used for streets and car parks, remove soluble and fine particle pollutants while increasing groundwater recharge. If properly designed, most of the runoff can be stored and will infiltrate into the ground where it can be used by trees and other vegetation.


- Structural controls include protective coverings of crushed stone, gravel, interlocking plastic meshes, and other measures.

Capturing StormwaterA third set of techniques is designed to capture stormwater and use it for beneficial purposes. Generally such techniques involve creation of new green spaces and waterfront landscapes that can enhance property values. In some cases, the stormwater is retained only temporarily to reduce peak flows of contaminated water; in others the water is retained over the longer term. These techniques may be combined with treatment of the stormwater using sand filters or other means. Examples of the beneficial use of stormwater include:

- Detention basins (both temporary and extended). - Retention ponds (water infiltrates into soils).- Constructed wetlands urban forestry projects recreation areas.

Constructed wetlands can remove nearly 80 percent of suspended solids and lead and more than half of the total phosphorus found in typical urban runoff. Wetlands also decrease flood flows and increase wildlife habitat.


C) Materials Efficiency - Adapted from the Solid Waste Checklist107

1. Have you taken all reasonable steps within the scope of the project (and/or work environment) to eliminate, reduce or manage demand for materials use to avoid the production of waste?

2. Have you included materials efficiency and waste minimisation requirements into requests for proposals from contractors (eg specified tenders use recycled content, reusable materials or reduce waste generated by the project as much as possible)?

3. Have you written solid waste contracts that incentivise waste reduction and introduce differential pricing to promote waste reduction?

4. Can you evaluate proposals or potential jobs with some consideration given to materials efficiency and waste production?

5. Can you establish a preference for materials and products that are: made from renewable, sustainably acquired materials; have recycled content; durable; low maintenance; non-toxic or low toxic; recyclable; and low polluting in manufacture, shipping, and installation?

6. Can you use your knowledge of sustainability to educate and suggest alternatives for product production, materials use and waste management options (eg using life cycle analysis tools to guide decision-making processes on best use of materials and energy)?

7. Have you considered all the various initiatives that could assist with waste minimisation (eg taking direct action like: recycling or composting; education and consultation; legislative changes; research and development; and monitoring and feedback)?

8. Can you quantify and apply the real costs of materials use, and waste generation and disposal to your project?

9. Can you use the discharge from one process as a resource for another (eg application of bio-solids to land for soil conditioning or use of wastewater as heating)?

10. Have you provided specifications and dimensions that minimise waste?

11. Can you establish targets for waste toxicity reduction and monitor them?

12. Can you design your product or asset for disassembly of materials and systems?

107 Boyle, C., Te Kapa Coates, G., Macbeth, A., Shearer, I. and Wakim, N. (2006) Sustainability and Engineering in New Zealand

Practical Guidelines for Engineers, Available at www.ipenz.org.nz/ipenz/media_comm/documents/SustainabilityDoc_000.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.



Optional Reading1. Pears, A. (2004) Energy Efficiency - Its Potential: Some Perspectives and Experiences,

Background paper for International Energy Agency Energy Efficiency Workshop, Paris April 2004. Available at www.naturaledgeproject.net/Documents/IEAENEFFICbackgroundpaperPearsFinal.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

2. Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources (2006) Energy Efficiency Opportunities Assessment Handbook, Commonwealth of Australia ISBN 0 642 72523 3. Available at www.energyefficiencyopportunities.gov.au/handbook. Accessed 5 January 2007.

3. Australian Greenhouse Office (n.d.) Energy Audit Tools. Available at http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/challenge/members/energyaudittools.html. Accessed 7 January 2007.

4. UK Carbon Trust: (2007) Savings By Technology UK Carbon Trust. Available at http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/energy/startsaving/technology.htm. Accessed 3 February 2007.

5. UK Carbon Trust (2007) Energy Efficiency Savings Opportunities: By Sector, UK Carbon Trust. Available At http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/energy/startsaving/sector.htm. Accessed 3 February 2007.

6. Rocky Mountain Institute (n.d.) Water Library. Available at www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid172.php#W04-21. Accessed 3 February 2007.

7. Sydney Water (n.d.) Tips for Business on Saving Water. Available at www.sydneywater.com.au/SavingWater/InYourBusiness/. Accessed 3 February 2007.

8. International Water Management Institute (n.d.) Homepage. Available at www.iwmi.cgiar.org. Accessed 5 January 2007.

9. University of Technology Sydney (UTS) – The Institute for Sustainable Futures (n.d.) Homepage. Available at http://www.isf.uts.edu.au/. Accessed 5 January 2007.

10. von Weizsacker, E., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1997) Factor 4: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, Earthscan, London.

- Chapter 1: Twenty Examples of Revolutionising Energy Productivity;

- Chapter 2: Twenty Examples of Revolutionising Materials Productivity (including Water).


http://www.isf.uts.edu.au/

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/

http://www.sydneywater.com.au/SavingWater/InYourBusiness/

http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid172.php#W04-21

http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/energy/startsaving/sector.htm

http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/energy/startsaving/technology.htm

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/challenge/members/energyaudittools.html

http://www.energyefficiencyopportunities.gov.au/handbook

http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Documents/IEAENEFFICbackgroundpaperPearsFinal.pdf

Key Words for Searching OnlineEnergy Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Decentralised Energy, Factor-10 Institute, Wuppertal Institute, Rocky Mountain Institute, Material Input Per Service unit.

Comprehension Quiz1. List two incentives to industry to address material flows in their products and services.

2. Define ‘Material Input Per Service Unit’.


Break-Out Group ActivityTurning Challenges into Opportunities for InnovationThe objectives of this activity are to explore the challenges associated with a focus on increased efficiency, and the opportunities for innovation in this field:

a. Ask students to take a few minutes to read the following excerpt from Factor 4: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use.

b. Using a page in the exercise book (or whiteboard), draw two columns. Label the right-hand column ’Engineering Challenge’ and the left-hand column ’Engineering Opportunity’.

c. Form the students into groups and assign them each two of the seven reasons listed in the reading excerpt. Each group should decide which country they will be ‘working in’.

d. The groups should then brainstorm two potential engineering challenges associated with each ‘reason’ and three possible solutions.

e. Students should share their discussions with the rest of the class (this could be in a short presentation, or through informal feedback to the facilitator).

Factor 4 Except

Key publications like Factor Four have highlighted the remarkable achievements already of applying resource efficiency approaches. In the book Factor Four the authors for the first time brought together the range of benefits and good reasons for Resource Efficiency108. Wei , Lovins and Lovins wrote, “

1. Live better: Resource efficiency improves quality of life. Efficient lighting systems help people to see with less electricity, less toxins in products and food are healthier, more resource productive factories produce better goods, healthier environments are created with more energy-efficient and cleaner buildings.

2. Pollute and deplete less: Efficiency reduces waste and pollution, which is otherwise a resource out of place, and can contribute to solving significant global issues such as human-induced climate change through greenhouse gas emissions and water shortage.

3. Make money: Resource efficiency is usually undertaken at a profit, as money is saved in two ways - by converting valuable resources into useful products and services (rather than non-useful waste) and by reducing the clean-up, remediation, transport, treatment, and disposal costs associated with the waste that is created.

4. Harness markets and enlist business: Market forces combined with innovative policy structures and market mechanisms can drive resource efficiency, much of it can be driven by individual choice and business competition.

5. Multiply use of scarce capital: The money saved with resource efficiency practices can be reinvested to solve further efficiency problems. For example, if a developing country invests in equipment to make energy-efficient light bulbs, it can provide the energy services at a tenth of the cost of building another power station.

6. Increase security: Resource scarcity and competition can be the source of international conflict – oil, minerals, forests and water are resources vital to the functioning of a country, and access to such resources based in foreign countries can be a primary reason for war.

7. Be equitable and have more employment: Resource efficiency activities can be the source of increasing employment – by reducing the amount of unproductive resource allocation, money can be saved and reinvested into more productive labour.”

108 Activity Excerpt: Seven Good Reasons for Resource Efficiency (Adapted from Factor 4: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use)


Unit 2: Efficiency/Whole System

Lecture 7: Achieving Whole of Systems Optimisation: Pipes and Pumps

Consciously or not, engineers mould the future. The technologies they design and develop will shape both work and leisure. The values they bring to their professional lives will play a part in determining the extent to which these technologies enrich or impoverish the lives of those they touch.

Johnston et al, 1995109

Educational Aim To introduce RMI’s Pipes and Pumps case study as an existing whole system engineering example of redesigning industrial pumping systems, where optimising the whole of the system for multiple benefits can yield Factor 4 – 10 productivity improvements. To also show how this case study can be emulated for the Whole System Design (WSD) of numerous other engineering systems. Few people or organisations have done as much as Amory Lovins and RMI to communicate the benefits of whole of system engineering design (WSD) to engineers. This case study is therefore provided as a tribute to their leading work.

Required ReadingThe Natural Edge Project (2007) Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program: Design Principles Portfolio – Whole System Design Suite, The Natural Edge Project, Australia, Case Study 1: Industrial Pumping Systems. Available at www.naturaledgeproject.net/Whole_Systems_Design_Suite.aspx. Accessed 5 January 2007.


Chapter Page

1. Chapter 1:Progress, Competitiveness and Sustainability (5 pages) pp 7-11

109 Johnston, S., Gostelow, P., Jones, E. and Fourikis, R. (1995) Engineering and Society: An Australian Perspective, Harper Educational, Sydney, p xvii.


http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Whole_Systems_Design_Suite.aspx

Learning Points 1. In Natural Capitalism, Hawken, Lovins and Lovins highlighted a series of actions critical to

successfully implementing Whole System Design (WSD):110

a. The whole system should be optimised.

b. All measurable benefits should be counted.

c. The right steps should be taken at the right time and in the right sequence.

d. Turn compounding losses into savings.

2. The authors of Natural Capitalism used the case study of pipes and pumps to illustrate the importance of these actions. As Amory Lovins from RMI writes,111

From the power plant to an industrial pipe, inefficiencies along the way whittle the energy input of the fuel - set at 100 arbitrary units in this example - by more than 90%, leaving only 9.5 units of energy delivered to the end use. Small increases in end-use efficiency can reverse these compounding losses. Hence by focusing on end use efficiency it can create a cascade of savings all the way back to the power plant.

3. An engineer Jan Schilham succeeded in doing just this. In 1997, leading American carpet maker Interface Ltd was building a factory in Shanghai. One of its industrial processes required fourteen pumps. In optimising the design, the top Western specialist firm sized those pumps to total ninety-five horsepower.

4. But a fresh look by Interface/Holland's engineer Jan Schilham, applying methods learned from Singaporean efficiency expert Eng Lock Lee, cut the design's pumping power to only seven horsepower - a 92 percent or twelve-fold energy saving - while reducing its capital cost and improving its performance in every respect.

5. The new specifications required two changes in design. First, Schilham chose to deploy big pipes and small pumps instead of the original design's small pipes and big pumps. Friction falls at nearly the fifth power of pipe diameter, so making the pipes 50 percent fatter reduces their friction by 86 percent. The system then needs less pumping energy - and smaller pump motors to push against the friction. If the solution is this easy, why weren't the pipes originally specified to be big enough?

6. Because of a small but important blind spot: Traditional optimisation compares the cost of fatter pipe with only the value of the saved pumping energy. This comparison ignores the size, and hence the capital cost, of the equipment - pump, motor, motor-drive circuits, and electrical supply components - needed to combat the pipe friction. Schilham found he needn't calculate how quickly the savings could repay the extra up-front cost of the fatter pipe, because capital cost would fall more for the pumping and drive equipment than it would rise for the pipe, making the efficient system as a whole cheaper to construct.

7. Second, Schilham laid out the pipes first and then installed the equipment, in reverse order from how pumping systems are conventionally installed. Normally, equipment is put in some convenient and arbitrary spot, probably just like the last one, and the pipe fitter is then

110 Hawken, P., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1999) Natural Capitalism, Earthscan, London, Chap 6: Tunnelling Through the Cost Barrier. Chapter freely downloadable at www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter6.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

111 Ibid, p 121.



instructed to connect point A to point B. The pipe often has to go through all sorts of twists and turns to hook up equipment that's too far apart, turned the wrong way, mounted at the wrong height, and separated by other devices installed in between. The extra bends and the extra length make friction in the system about three- to sixfold higher than it should be.

Figure 7.1. Long, thin, crooked pipes

Source: Amory Lovins (2003)112

8. By laying out the pipes before placing the equipment that the pipes connect, Schilham was able to make the pipes short and straight rather than long and crooked. That enabled him to exploit their lower friction by making the pump motors, inverters, and electricals even smaller and cheaper. The fatter pipes and cleaner layout yielded not only 92 percent lower pumping energy at a lower total capital cost but also simpler and faster construction, less use of floor space, less noise, more reliable operation, easier maintenance, and better performance.

9. As an added bonus, easier thermal insulation of the straighter pipes saved an additional 70 kilowatts of heat loss, enough to avoid burning about a pound of coal every two minutes, with a three-month payback. Fat, short, straight pipes - not skinny, long, crooked pipes!

112 Provided from personal liaison with Amory B. Lovins, CEO-Research, Rocky Mountain Institute, www.rmi.org.


http://www.rmi.org/

Brief Background InformationIn Natural Capitalism, Hawken et al highlighted a series of actions critical to successfully implementing Whole System Design (WSD):113

a. The whole system should be optimised.

b. All measurable benefits should be counted.

c. The right steps should be taken at the right time and in the right sequence.

d. Turn compounding losses into savings.

1. The whole system should be optimised – all parts of the system (sub-systems and single elements) should be considered when optimising the engineering solution. Changing the properties of one part of the system will affect the properties/behaviour of other parts of the system, which would be undesirable if other parts of the system are already functioning optimally. Therefore parts of the system optimised in isolation can lead to sub-optimal design for the system as a whole.

2. All measurable benefits should be counted – systems optimised for one parameter only (e.g. lower energy consumption) usually miss out on a range of benefits available through Whole System Design. For example, successful WSD can not only reduce energy consumption of a manufacturing process, but improve productivity, reduce safety and health risks, improve reliability, reduce maintenance, and improve employee workplace conditions. Multiple benefits can lead to compounding savings and productivity improvements.

3. The right steps should be taken at the right time and in the right sequence – Whole System Design carefully defines the system structure by determining what should be considered at each step of the process to yield maximal resource productivity. The right sequence is vital as early design decisions influence the performance of the rest of the system.

4. Turn compounding losses into savings - 90 percent of energy created at the power station is virtually lost through compounding inefficiencies within the existing electricity infrastructure (i.e. the power plant, grid, transformers etc.) before it reaches the end user.114 Hence, since energy losses compound, so should energy savings! Saving one unit of electricity at a pump will ultimately save 10 units of fuel at the power plant (as well as cost and environmental impacts), see Figure 7.2 below.115



115 Ibid.




Figure 7.2. From the power plant to an industrial pipe, inefficiencies along the way whittle the energy input of the fuel - set at 100 arbitrary units in this example - by more than 90 percent,

leaving only 9.5 units of energy delivered to the end use

Source: Amory Lovins (2005)116

By focusing on end use efficiency it can create a cascade of savings all the way back to the power plant. This is why an engineering focus on whole system (re)-designing to re-optimise ‘end use’ engineered systems such as motors, HVAC systems, buildings, and cars can help business and nations reduce environmental pressures significantly. By focusing on these engineered systems, which actually provide the services we need - close to the end user, big savings can be achieved.

Consider motors for a minute, motors use about 60 percent of the world’s energy,117 and those used in pumping applications use about 20 percent of the world’s energy.118 So if it is possible to reduce the amount of energy that a motor system needs this will create a cascade of savings all the way back to the power plant. Whole System Design resource productivity gains can be achieved while also reducing significantly the running costs of the system. The total life cycle cost of a typical pump is distributed 5 percent to capital costs, 10 percent to maintenance and 85 percent to energy consumption.119 So by reducing the energy consumption for the operation of the equipment by 92 percent significant cost savings can be achieved. The old idea was to ‘optimise’ only part of the system - the pipes - against only one parameter - pumping energy. Schilham, in contrast, optimised the whole system for multiple benefits - pumping energy expended plus capital cost saved. Optimising the whole system both for resource efficiency and cost benefits yields hidden sources of wealth.

This is archetypical: applying WSD principles to almost every technical system – HVAC systems,

116 Lovins, A.B. (2005) ‘More Profit with Less Carbon’, Scientific American, September 2005. 117 Hawken, P., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1999) Natural Capitalism: Creating the next industrial revolution,

Earthscan, London, p 115.118 Lamb, G. (2005) ‘User’s guide to pump selection’, WME Magazine, July 2005, pp 40-41.119 Ibid.


motors, lighting, buildings, cars, refrigerators, computers - yields ~3–10x energy/ resource savings, and usually costs less to build, yet improves performance. When most designs are complete, but still before they have been built, about 80-90 percent of their lifecycle economic and ecological costs have already been made inevitable. For all these reasons businesses, corporations and governments should all be interested in Whole System Design.

Optional Reading1. For more information on the theory behind systems thinking and Natural Capitalism’s

Principles of Whole System Design,

- The Role of Engineering in Sustainable Development A – Unit 2: Learning the Language, Lecture 8: The Role of Systems.

2. Hargroves, K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London.

3. Hawken, P., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1999) Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, Earthscan, London, Chap 6: Tunnelling Through the Cost Barrier. Available at http://www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter6.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

4. Rocky Mountain Institute (n.d.) Efficient Pump Systems. Available at http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid298.php. Accessed 5 January 2007.

5. von Weizsacker, E., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1997) Factor 4: Doubling Wealth – Halving Resource Use, Earthscan, London, pp 53 – 57.

Key Words for Searching OnlineMotor efficiency, life cycle cost, variable speed drive, pipe friction, end use efficiency.

Comprehension Quiz1. What are four points to consider when selecting a pump? What are the implications of failing

to consider each point? Refer to Lamb, G. (2005) ‘User’s guide to pump selection’, WME Magazine July 2005, pp 40-41.

2. What strategy did Jan Schilham use to design the pipes and pumps system at Interface’s Shanghai plant? How does this strategy differ from the conventional strategy that was used originally?

3. What specific design features in the pipes and pumps system lead to the small pumping energy? Discuss the features that would lead to a similar reduction in pumping energy in an air conditioning system. Refer to von Weizsacker, E. et al (1997).


http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid298.php



Lecture 8: 10 step Operational Checklist to Achieve Whole System Design Optimisation120

Educational Aim The goal here is to demystify the art of Whole System Design (WSD) as practised by WSD practitioners into easily understood operational steps. This operational check list will help to show how through Whole System Design big efficiency gains can be achieved. Some of these steps overlap with each other and some may seem obvious, however, each step is reinforcing aspects that are of importance in successfully implementing Whole System Design.

Required ReadingHawken, P., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1999) Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution, Earthscan, London, Chap 6: Tunnelling Through the Cost Barrier. Available at http://www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter6.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.


Chapter Page

1. Chapter 6 Natural Advantage: A Business Imperative. Achieving Radical Resource Productivity (through whole systems approaches) (3 pages)

pp 89-101

Learning Points

1. Step 1. Ask the right questions: At this first step it is important to define the design challenge clearly. What needs and services are we attempting to meet here? Is this the best way to do this? Are there other possible approaches? Through re-examining the whole supply chain, new opportunities for energy and resource efficiency improvements can be identified.

2. Step 2. Understand the system and benchmark against what’s possible: What level of Factor X improvement is possible? Is Factor 4, Factor 10 possible? Important steps toward achieving large energy and resource efficiency improvements are to understand the

120 The 10 step checklist for Whole System Design is a synthesis of lessons from leading experts of WSD optimisation for

sustainability, namely Amory Lovins, Alan Pears, Janis Birkeland and Janine Benyus. TNEP has sought to distil into ten steps the

key operational checks for engineers to ensure that best practice WSD optimisations are achieved.



fundamentals of the process, clarify the essential services being provided, and benchmark the system against the ideal and the best practically achievable.

3. Step 3. Review each step in the process and see what potential there is for energy and resource efficiency gains and the reduction of waste: Do not underestimate the importance of any potential energy and resource efficiency improvements. Together, all the small improvements compound, not just sum, to produce a large improvement. Hence, waste should be identified and eliminated in each step of the process and each part of the system. In addition, green chemistry and green engineering principles should be used to ensure that all chemicals used are non-toxic and to further reduce waste. Green Chemistry and Green Engineering principles are covered next in ESSP Role of Engineers B Unit 3.

4. Step 4. The whole system should be optimised: Through designing and optimising the system as a whole, new synergies can be identified that create multiple new ways to achieve energy and resource efficiency improvements, better performance and reduced waste.

5. Step 5. All measurable benefits should be counted: Components in a system are linked, so the right changes can yield a multitude of efficiency improvements throughout the whole system. Consider all impacts when comparing options.

6. Step 6. The right steps should be taken at the right time and in the right sequence: There is an optimal sequence for designing and optimising the components of a system. The steps that yield the greatest impacts on the whole system should be performed first.

7. Step 7. Start downstream to turn compounding losses into savings: As shown in the pipes and pumps case study, a typical industrial pumping system contains many compounding losses – from the generation of electricity at the power station, to transmission through the grid network, and subsequently at the pump motor to deliver the required power to pump the water – that only 9.5 percent of useful energy is ultimately available.

8. Step 8. It is desirable to model system behaviour: Theoretical modelling helps to both inform what is possible and guide strategies for improvement.

9. Step 9. Track technology change – six months is a long time: One of the main reasons there are still significant efficiency improvements available through Whole System Design is that the rate of innovation in basic sciences and technologies has increased dramatically in the last few decades.

10. Step 10. Design to create options and choices for future generations: A basic tenet of sustainability is that future generations should have the same level of life quality, environmental amenities and range of choices as ‘developed’ societies now enjoy. But why should we not aim to ensure that future generations have an even greater array of choices and ways to meet their needs and improve their wellbeing?


Brief Background InformationStep 1. Ask the right questions.What needs and services are attempting to be met here? Is this the best way to do this? Are there other possible approaches? For example, people want glass bottles or aluminium cans out of which to drink. To them, it makes no difference whether the glass or aluminium is made of recycled material or not. It does, however, make a significant difference to the planet’s ecosystems. This example demonstrates the potential impacts of design decisions. Decisions are made in the selection of system’s technologies and energy and resource inputs, and in the interpretation of the system’s provided service. A service-based perspective helps to clarify the system’s essential services, and identify alternative ways of providing those services. A service-based perspective can lead to substantially improved efficiency.

Step 2. Understand the system and benchmark against what’s possible.It is often useful to develop a simple spreadsheet model of the system being evaluated. It is remarkable how useful this can be, as it forces the analyst to think about the interacting components of the system, and to evaluate the existing solution. This process of benchmarking helps to clarify how the existing system compares with the ideal and the best practically achievable. Benchmarking against ‘Best Practice’ is a dangerous strategy: existing best practice is actually best of a bad lot practice because the reference cases typically were designed decades ago and the financial criteria used to evaluate investments in efficiency are likely to have been very stringent (less than a three year payback period is a typical threshold). Today we should be able to do much better.

Step 3. Review each step in processes and see what potential there is for energy and resource efficiency gains.Do not underestimate the importance of any potential efficiency improvements; waste should be identified in each step of the process. At most sites (from homes to large industrial plants) there is very limited measurement and monitoring of energy and resource consumption at the process level, and rarely are there properly specified benchmarks against which performance can be evaluated. Thus plant operators rarely know where the greatest potential for efficiency improvements lie. Measurement and monitoring help identify the system’s performance inadequacies, which, when improved, can substantially improve performance.

Step 4. The whole system should be optimised.Optimizing an entire system takes ingenuity, intuition, and close attention to the way technical systems really work. It requires a sense of what’s on the other side of the cost barrier and how to get to it by selectively relaxing your constraints… Whole-system engineering is back-to-the-drawing-board engineering… One of the great myths of our time is that technology has reached such an exalted plateau that only modest, incremental improvements remain to be made. The builders of steam locomotives and linotype machines probably felt the same way about their handiwork. The fact is, the more complex the technology, the richer the opportunities for improvement. There are


huge systematic inefficiencies in our technologies; minimize them and you can reap huge dividends for your pocketbook and for the earth. Why settle for small savings when you can tunnel through to big ones? Think big!

Rocky Mountain Institute, Summer Newsletter, 1997121

Refer back to the ‘Pipes and Pumps’ case study to see why Whole System Design is worth the effort. Over the last two decades, scientists and engineers armed with the latest science and technological innovations have been able to re-optimise many engineered systems.

Step 5. All measurable benefits should be counted.This [checkpoint] might seem obvious, but the trick is properly counting all the benefits. It’s easy to get fixated on optimizing for energy savings for example, and fail to take into account reduced capital costs, maintenance, risk, or other attributes (such as mass, which in the case of a car, for instance, may make it possible for other components to be smaller, cheaper, lighter, and so on). Another way to capture multiple benefits is to coordinate a retrofit with renovations that need to be done for other reasons anyway. Being alert to these possibilities requires lateral thinking and an awareness of how the whole system works.

Rocky Mountain Institute, Summer Newsletter, 1997122

The ‘Pipes and Pumps’ case study lists numerous multiple benefits of applying a whole system approach to pipes and pumps to reinforce this message.

Step 6. The right steps should be taken at the right time and in the right sequence.

There is an optimal sequence for designing and optimising the components of a system. The steps that yield the greatest impacts on the whole system should be performed first. For example, consider solar-power for home energy supply. Solar cells are costly and provide perhaps one-half or one-third of the electricity consumed by a big heat pump striving to maintain comfort despite an inefficient building envelope, glazing, lights, and appliances. Solar cells are a wonderful technology, but the designers of such homes forgot something even more important: they forgot to start by designing the rest of the house equally cleverly. Suppose the building was first made thermally insulated so it didn't need as big a heat pump. (There are several much simpler ways to handle summer humidity.) Then, suppose the lights and appliances were then made extremely efficient, with the latest technologies that can cut the house's total electric load and heat to an average of barely over 100 watts. Now, the home’s heating and cooling needs would be very small; its electrical needs could be met by only a few square meters of solar cells; and it would all work better and cost less.

121 Rocky Mountain Institute (1997) ‘Cover Story: Tunnelling through the Cost Barrier’, RMI Newsletter, Summer 1997. Available at http://www.rmi.org/images/other/Newsletter/NLRMIsum97.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.122 Ibid.



Step 7. Start downstream to turn compounding losses into savings.Amory Lovins writes, 123

An engineer looks at an industrial pipe system and sees a series of compounding energy losses: the motor that drives the pump wastes a certain amount of electricity converting it to torque, the pump and coupling have their own inefficiencies, and the pipe, valves, and fittings all have inherent frictions. So the engineer sizes the motor to overcome all these losses and deliver the required flow. But by starting downstream - at the pipe instead of the pump - turns these losses into compounding savings. Make the pipe more efficient… and you reduce the cumulative energy requirements of every step upstream. You can then work back upstream, making each part smaller, simpler, and cheaper, saving not only energy but also capital costs. And every unit of friction saved in the pipe saves about nine units of fuel and pollution at the power station.

Step 8. It is desirable to model system behaviour.Mathematical and computer modelling techniques are valuable for addressing more complex engineering problems. For example, CSIRO has used computer modelling to make significant breakthroughs in fluid dynamics. Modelling of fluid dynamics by CSIRO is presenting opportunities for substantial efficiency improvements. A better understanding of how liquids and gases flow has also helped CSIRO designers to improve the efficiency and performance of processing technologies in a wide range of applications. From such modelling, CSIRO has developed the Rotated Arc Mixer (RAM), which consumes five times less energy than conventional industrial mixers. The RAM is able to mix a range of fluids that were previously not mixable by other technologies.

Step 9. Track technology change – 6 months is a long time.One of the main reasons there are still significant efficiency improvements available through Whole System Design is that the rate of innovation in basic sciences and technologies has increased dramatically in the last few decades. Innovations in materials science, such as insulation, lighting, super-windows, ultra-light metals and distributed energy options, are creating new ways to re-optimise the design of old technologies. Innovation is so rapid that, today, 6 months is a long time. For example, consider the average refrigerator, in which most of the energy losses relate to insulation. The latest innovations in materials science in Europe have created a new insulation material that will allow refrigerators to consume 50 percent less energy. Another example is innovations in composite fibres that make it possible to design substantially lighter cars. A final example is an innovation in light metals, which can now be used in all forms of transportation, from air travel to trains to cars, to allow further efficiency improvements throughout the whole system.

Step 10. Design to Create Options and Choices for Future Generations.A basic tenet of sustainability is that future generations should have the same level of life quality, environmental amenities and range of choices as ‘developed’ societies enjoy today. While most

123 Ibid


designers focus on best practice, some focus on designing to create more options for future generations by:

- designing and building homes and buildings where the materials can be dismantled and used again, such as the award winning Newcastle University green buildings.

- designing cars, electrical and office equipment so that over 90 percent of it can be re-manufactured at the end of its design life. Re-manufacturability is now a requirement in many countries in Europe and Asia, where the manufacturers’ responsibility for its products is extended to the entire life cycle.

- designing new urban developments with dual pipes to allow grey water to be used on gardens. Dual pipes are a requirement for new building developments in many countries so that future generations can choose to reuse their grey water.

- ensuring that new coal fired power stations built around the world can be used for geo-sequestration. There are significant concerns that many new coal fired power stations that are currently being built today are not being correctly sited nor designed to make geo-sequestration of CO2 emissions possible in the future.

- designing and installing pipelines that can be used for the hydrogen economy in the future, such as the gas pipelines in China, which are being designed to also work for hydrogen.

Optional Reading1. Hawken, P. Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1999) Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next

Industrial Revolution, Earthscan, London, Chap 2: Reinventing the Wheels. Available at http://www.natcap.org/images/other/NCchapter6.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

2. Lovins, A. (2004) ‘Energy Efficiency, Taxonomic Overview for Earth’s Energy Balance’, in Cleveland, C. J. (ed) Encyclopedia of Energy, vol 1, Elsevier.

3. Rocky Mountain Institute (1997) ‘Cover Story: Tunnelling through the Cost Barrier’, RMI Newsletter, Summer 1997. Available at http://www.rmi.org/images/other/Newsletter/NLRMIsum97.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

4. Pears, A. (2004) Energy Efficiency - Its Potential: Some Perspectives and Experiences, Background paper for International Energy Agency Energy Efficiency Workshop, Paris. Available at: www.naturaledgeproject.net/Documents/IEAENEFFICbackgroundpaperPearsFinal.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

5. Pears, A. and Versluis, P. (1993) ’Scenarios for Alternative Energy’ in Western Australia Report for Renewable Energy Advisory Council, Government of Western Australia, Perth.

6. von Weizsäcker, E., Lovins, A.B. and Lovins, L.H. (1997) Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use, Earthscan, London.

7. Birkeland, J. (2005) Design for Ecosystem Services A New Paradigm for Ecodesign Australian National University, for presentation at SB05 Tokyo ‘Action for Sustainability: The World Sustainable Building Conference’, September 2005. Available at http://www.naf-forum.org.au/papers/Design%20Paradigm.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.naf-forum.org.au/papers/Design%20Paradigm.pdf

http://www.naf-forum.org.au/papers/Design%20Paradigm.pdf

http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Documents/IEAENEFFICbackgroundpaperPearsFinal.pdf



8. Ostoja, A. (2003) Existing Buildings: 360 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, Australian Building Greenhouse Rating Second National Case Study Seminar, Sustainable Energy Development Authority, Sydney.

Key Words for Searching OnlineRocky Mountain Institute, Whole System Design, compounding savings, tunnelling through the cost barrier.

Comprehension Quiz1. List the four Whole System Design Principles developed in Natural Capitalism.

2. Choose one principle and briefly describe an engineering design example to illustrate it.

Break-Out Group ActivityThis activity explores the application of Whole Systems Design principles as summarised below:

1. Break into groups and choose one of the Whole System Design Principles.

2. Brainstorm and undertake some online research to identify a case study of this principle in practice.

3. Prepare a one page brief summary of the case study that you have found, and provide copies to the rest of the class.

Compare the one page outline of how you would approach a WSD process with the 10 step operational check list, what parts of the checklist did you get, what parts did you miss? Does that matter?


Unit 3: Biomimicry/ Green Chemistry

Lecture 9: Biomimicry - Design Inspired by Nature

BIOMIMICRY is one of those rare hopeful notes in the modern chorus of environmental warnings. Janine Benyus offers a radical alternative to today’s industrial model of progress – an elegant survival strategy drawn from a better understanding of those natural systems on which we are still totally dependent. Perhaps the best thing about this ‘quest for innovations inspired by nature’ is that it is more than just a theory. It is already underway.

Jonathon Porritt, Chairman, Chair of the UK Prime Minister’s Sustainable Development Commission, 2006124

Educational AimTo discuss the concept of ‘Biomimicry’ and the principles on which the field is founded. To also discuss the role of the professional community in applying this methodology as a global network of Biomimicry practitioners. This lecture has been developed based on extensive conversations with Janine Benyus and is a testament to her leadership in the field as we attempt to communicate the concept to engineers.

Required ReadingPublication/Chapter Page

1. Benyus, J. (1997) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, HarperCollins, New York, Chapter 1. Also, Biomimicry an Introduction (http://www.biomimicry.net/biomimicryintroduction.htm).

pp 1-10

2. Hargroves, K. and Smith, M. (2006) ‘Innovation inspired by nature – Biomimicry’, ECOS, no. 129. Available at www.naturaledgeproject.net/Documents/Biomimicry_000.pdf ( 3 pages)

pp 27-29

3. Hargroves, K., Smith, M. and Paten, C. (2007) Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program, Critical Literacies Portfolio – Role of Engineers in Sustainable Development A, The Natural Edge Project, Australia.

Lecture 7(Unit 2)

Learning Points1. Building on from knowledge gathered over centuries of harvesting and harnessing nature,

engineers and designers are now exploring the exciting field of emulating nature’s successes to assist sustainable development.

124 Porritt, J. (2006) Capitalism as if the world mattered, Earthscan, London.


http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Documents/Biomimicry_000.pdf

http://www.biomimicry.net/biomimicryintroduction.htm

2. Most of the solutions from the last 300 years have been poorly adapted (or mal-adapted) to natural ecosystems. In fact, many of these ‘solutions’ have lead to significant global challenges such as those caused by the creation and dispersion of pollution, including greenhouse gases, toxic chemicals and other hazardous substances.

3. Faced with the need to address these challenges, engineers and designers will be tempted to emulate the way humans have problem-solved, rather than asking nature’s advice. Russian researchers working on a global database for patents (TRIZ)125 uncovered an overlap of a mere 10 -12 percent between man-made patents and natural systems. As Janine puts it, ‘when we look to nature, 90 percent of the time we will be surprised!’

4. If we are to achieve harmony between development and nature on a global scale, we need to combine our engineering knowledge with the knowledge contained in natural systems, rather than just extracting resources from it, to deliver solutions that are well-adapted to our global environment... Innovation inspired by Nature.

5. In the words of Janine Benyus, Biomimicry is quite simply, ‘the art of asking nature for advice’ to assist in creating more sustainable ways of living.126

6. In engineering terms, Biomimicry describes the enquiry-based process of studying and mimicking the design and behaviour of nature, to inform the development of solutions that meet the needs of society while being in harmony with the planet’s natural systems. It is the cross-over between Natural Systems and Human Systems – using the knowledge of nature and a method of enquiry to inform the built environment.

7. In almost every field of endeavour, innovators are mimicking nature’s design elegance to create sustainable solutions.

Brief Background InformationUnderstanding the Relationship between Natural Systems and Human Systems127

It is apparent on a global level that many current practices harnessing nature’s resources are unsustainable - we need to rediscover nature’s knowledge. Consider that for the majority of our time on the planet as a species, we have been hunters and gatherers. As hunters and gatherers (harvesting nature) and then as Agrarians through pre-industrial times (harnessing nature), we paid a great deal of attention to natural systems as a source of knowledge - we naturally mimicked the organisms that we admired.

As our knowledge of natural systems increased, we began to harness those organisms that we needed, then to process nature’s raw materials to produce products and services (for example through agricultural practices, and steel and plastics manufacturing). Once we realised that we could make value-added products from nature’s raw resources, we began paying less attention to natural systems, seeing them more as a source of inputs for our products and services. As we transitioned from organism domestication to mass production and industrialisation, ‘transgenic engineering’ emerged, with the mindset of ‘animal as factory’.

125 The TRIZ Journal (n.d.) What is TRIZ?. Available at www.triz-journal.com/whatistriz.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.126 BRC (2005) Video Interview with Janine Benyus - Author, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Available at

http://www.brc21.org/carson/benyus_clips.html. Accessed 5 January 2007. 127 This lecture has been developed in collaboration with Janine Benyus.


http://www.brc21.org/carson/benyus_clips.html

http://www.triz-journal.com/whatistriz.html

Today, when we try to solve problems (such as filtration, adhesion, desalination, energy harvesting etc), we nearly always study the way human’s have problem-solved in the past, rather than how nature has done the very same thing. However, combining our knowledge of processes with our knowledge of natural systems, we now have the opportunity to build products and services that are in harmony with natural systems – ‘Biomimetic’ solutions.

The Natural Systems Understanding Map (Figure 9.1) represents the transition in application of knowledge - from harvesting or using Nature, to innovations that are inspired by Nature, where:

- Harvest [Take] refers to using materials provided by nature – plant or animal – with no human intervention in the production process itself. This includes using rainforest timber, or fishing for seafood. This is also known as ‘Bio-Utilisation’. However, rather than simply living off nature, if we instead saw nature as a source of ideas and inspiration (‘Nature as Mentor’), we could seek to live in balance with nature.

- Harness [Adapt] refers to domesticating the producer - domesticating organisms to assist us in product development. This includes for example agricultural practices using ‘beasts of burden’, and using bacteria for the production of insulin. This is also known as ‘Bio-Assistance’.

- Harmony [Copy] is the art of asking nature for advice, to assist in creating more sustainable ways of living. As Benyus explains, ‘This includes studying nature’s best ideas, designs and strategies and then emulating them so that we might live more gracefully on the planet’.128

This includes for example designing the front of a train like the beak of a bird, or an adhesive tape like the pads of a gecko’s feet. This is also known as ‘Bio-Inspired’ or ‘Bio-Mimetic Design’.

128 BRC (2005) Video Interview with Janine Benyus - Author, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature. Available at http://www.brc21.org/carson/benyus_clips.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.brc21.org/carson/benyus_clips.html

Figure 9.1. Natural Systems Understanding Map: showing the relationship between systems knowledge, enquiry, and the application of biomimicry to human systems

Source: The Natural Edge Project, Biomimicry Guild (2006)

Innovation from nature can be drawn from a number of areas, such as:

- The structure, or form, of nature (‘Nature as Model’), i.e. aerodynamic shapes, non-chemical adhesive methods and structural finishes and colour.

- The process of nature, i.e. cooling systems, nutrient cycling, filtration, desalination and energy supply.

- Nature’s ecosystem, i.e. feedback loops, diversity, organism niches and interactions, symbiotic relationships, food webs, energy and material flows, resilience, and the role of redundancy.

Besides providing the model, nature can also provide the measure (‘Nature as Measure’). We can look to nature as a standard against which to judge the ‘rightness’ of our innovations. Are they life promoting? Do they fit in? Will they last as long as is needed, and no longer? A well-adapted product or service would address all three innovation categories, whereas mal-adapted products or services may focus on one or two of the categories to the detriment of the others. As Janine explains in Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature,129 we could manufacture the way animals and plants do, using sun and simple compounds to produce totally biodegradable fibres, ceramics, plastics, and chemicals. Our farms, modelled on prairies, could be self-fertilising and pest-resistant. To find new drugs or crops, we could consult animals and insects that have used plants for millions of years to keep themselves healthy and nourished. Even computing could

129 Benyus, J. (1997) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Harper Collins, New York.


take its cue from nature, with software that ‘evolves’ solutions, and hardware that uses the lock-and-key paradigm to compute by touch.

In each case, nature can provide the models: solar cells copied from leaves, steely fibres woven spider-style, shatterproof ceramics drawn from mother-of-pearl, cancer cures compliments of chimpanzees, perennial grains inspired by tall grass, computers that signal like cells, and a closed-loop economy that takes its lessons from redwoods, coral reefs, and oak-hickory forests. Most of nature’s products and services are biotic; their processes are carried out in ambient temperature, low pressure and low toxicity conditions (with the exception of a volcano, tidal wave, hurricane or bush fire, which are considered abiotic).

Optional Reading1. Benyus, J. (2002) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, HarperCollins, New York.

2. The Natural Edge Project and Biomimicry Guild (2006) Australian Tour 2006 Resources. Available at www.naturaledgeproject.net/BenyusTour06.aspx. Accessed 5 January 2007.

Key Words for Searching OnlineBiomimicry, Biomimetic engineering, Biomimicry Guild.

Comprehension Quiz 1. Define the term ‘Biomimicry’.

2. List and summarise the three principles of Biomimicry.


http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/BenyusTour06.aspx


Lecture 10: A Biomimetic Design Method & Information Sources

This concept of sustainability is best illustrated by natural ecosystems, which consist of nearly closed loops that change slowly… If humans are to achieve truly sustainable development, we will have to adopt patterns that reflect these natural processes. The role of engineers and scientists in sustainable development can be illustrated by a closed-loop human ecosystem that mimics natural systems.

World Federation of Engineering Organisations, Submission to the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development130

Educational AimTo present a methodology for applying Biomimicry principles to designing engineering solutions. To also provide details about sources and networks available to seek information about natural systems and Biomimicry design innovation examples. The method provided in this lecture builds on from conversations with Janine Benyus and is based on the evolving methodology developed by the Biomimicry Guild in 2005131 adapted to fit the engineering design context.


1. Biomimicry Guild and Rocky Mountain Institute (n.d.) Biomimicry Database, Introduction to the Database. Available at http://database.biomimicry.org/start.php (1 page).

Introduction


Lecture 7(Unit 2)

3. Birkeland, J. (1997) Design for Sustainability: A Sourcebook of Ecological Design Solutions, Earthscan, London, Chap 8: Where will we go from here? (13 pages).

pp 285-297

Learning Points1. As we look to nature for advice in design, it is critical to manage business pressures (time

and resources) in the process of design innovation – we need to be sure that we have a clear design method; that we ask the right questions at the right time.

130 World Federation of Engineering Organisations (2002) Report to the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, WFEO. Available at http://www.wfeo-comtech.org/ch2mEngAndSustDev.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

131 Summarised from Biomimicry Methodology (evolving) at http://www.biomimicry.net/pdf/biomimicry_methodology.pdf. Accessed 26 November 2006. And through conversation with Janine Benyus.


http://database.biomimicry.org/start.php


http://www.wfeo-comtech.org/ch2mEngAndSustDev.pdf

2. In the field of Biomimicry, engineers and designers have the opportunity to ask questions of nature, to help integrate natural systems knowledge with our knowledge of human systems as part of the design process. For example, ‘How can engineers design cities to be as sustainable as a mature forest ecosystem? How would nature clean water? How does nature store energy?’

3. The design process is enhanced by the opportunity to look to nature for organisms with a similar problem and context to see what they do, and then to translate the useful forms, processes, and systems within the design context.

4. As this is an emerging field, the challenge is for professions to understand their role within their context. Based on an evolving methodology developed by the Biomimicry Guild,132 the following list proposes how a Biomimicry methodology would work:

Step 1: Identify the Real Challenge

Step 2: Translate the Challenge into Biology Language

Step 3: Define the Habitat Parameters/ Conditions

Step 4: Re-ask ‘How does Nature do that Function Here, in These Conditions?’

Step 5: Find the Best Natural Models (literal and metaphorical)

Step 6: Mimic the Natural Model

Step 7: Evaluate the Solution – ‘Nature as Measure’

Step 8: Pay Respect to the Inspiration

5. Each of these steps has a sub-set of questions and tasks for the engineer and designer to help focus in on the design solution (see ‘Brief Background Information’ for the method overview).

6. Further to the commonly known examples of Velcro®, Gecko Tape® and the Vortex Generator covered in the previous course,133 additional examples of commercialised Biomimetic design outcomes that have followed some or all of these steps include:

- Energy conversion inspired by the swaying motion of sea plants in waves (BioWAVE)

- Molecular-sized light sponges inspired by leaves (Dyesol)

- Efficient motor blades inspired by seaweed moving in ocean currents (PAX Impeller)

- Self-cleaning paint inspired by the surface structure of a lotus leaf (Lotusan)

- Anti-fouling treatments inspired by bio-film free ocean plants (Biosignal)

7. When working through the design method, it is likely to be more difficult to locate information about natural systems than human systems. There are a number of initiatives underway, in various stages of development, to assist designers and engineers in their searches, including:

- Biomimicry Guild Database (prototype for alpha-testing): A moderated open-source database of natural organisms that have already developed strategies to solve problems

132 Ibid.133 Hargroves, K., Smith, M.H. and Paten, C. (2007) Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program: Critical Literacies

Portfolio - The Role of Engineering in Sustainable Development A, The Natural Edge Project (TNEP), Australia.


relevant to human society (http://database.biomimicry.org/).

- TRIZ Database Development: A project aiming to establish a system into which all known solutions can be placed, classified in terms of function (www.triz-journal.com/whatistriz.htm l ).

- Biologists at the Design Table: A global network of ‘biologists at the design table’ to help quickly find species and organisms that might assist in design solutions (http://www.biomimicry.net/BaDT.html).

- Green Chemistry and Green Engineering Hubs: There is now a global network working on Green Chemistry and Green Chemical engineering that can assist those who have bio-mimetic ideas.

Brief Background InformationBiomimicry Design MethodAs this is an emerging field, the challenge is for professions to understand their role within their context. Based on an evolving methodology developed by the Biomimicry Guild in 2005, the following list proposes how the methodology may be adapted to fit the engineering design context:

Step 1: Identify the Real Challenge

a. What is a statement identifying the actual issue being addressed?e.g. The water filters in our plant clog often and are expensive to replace.

b. Ask ‘What do you want the design to do?’ (not ‘What do you want to design?’)

- Using the Challenge statement, ask ‘why’ multiple times.

e.g. Why do the filters clog? Because they must filter all the particulate from the water and

algae grows on them.

Why do they filter everything? Because the toxic molecules are the smallest.

Why does algae grow on them? Because it’s a wet medium and the tank is outside in the sunlight.

So, you want a design to remove small toxic molecules from the water?

- Interrogate the design challenge to pinpoint the mechanism/s of interest.

e.g. We want a design to remove small toxic molecules from the water

Step 2: Translate the Challenge into Biology Language – ‘Biologise’ the Question


http://www.biomimicry.net/BaDT.html


http://database.biomimicry.org/

a. Identify the functions required of the solution (i.e. purpose, role or use)eg. Removing the molecules from the liquid

b. Ask ‘how does nature do that function?’

c. Ask ‘how does nature not do that function?’

d. Reframe the question/s with additional keywords.

Step 3: Define the Habitat Parameters/ Conditions

Using simple adjectives, describe the Challenge’s parameters for the following conditions:

a. Climate Conditionse.g. wet, dry, cold, hot, low/high pressure, highly variable, low/high UV etc.

b. Nutrient Conditions e.g. nutrient poor (e.g. no funds), nutrient rich (e.g. lots of available materials)

c. Social Conditionse.g. competitive, cooperative

d. Temporal Conditionse.g. Dynamic, static, growing, aging etc.

Step 4: Re-ask ‘How does nature do that function here, in these conditions?’

a. Given the results from Step 3, reframe the question/s in Step 2.

Step 5: Find the Best Natural Models (literal and metaphorical)

a. Amoeba-through-Zebra Perspective: Organisations such as the Biomimicry Guild specialise in creating taxonomies of nature’s strategies relevant to the specific Challenge faced. They ask, ‘what are the design processes and technologies that we can learn from to mimic in this solution?’

- Find champion adapters – ask ‘Whose survival depends on doing what I want to do?’

- Look for the truly challenged: Find the organisms that are most challenged by the problem you are trying to solve, and yet remain unfazed by it. For example, find the marine organism that lives among hoards of microbes, yet its surface is free of bacteria.

- Look in extreme habitats (at both ends of the spectrum, i.e. both swamp and desert): turn the problem inside out and on its head. For example if you are looking for a way to dry out humid air, don’t look in the tropics; look in the desert where cockroaches drink water from air. When looking for a way to retard fire combustion, look for oxygen-scavenging in bottom-dwelling pond midges.

- Find naturalists and biologists at your local university, natural history museum, nature centre.

- Consult the Nature’s Solutions Database (www.database.biomimicry.org) created by biologists for designers and engineers and explore biological citation databases at university


http://www.database.biomimicry.org/

libraries.

b. Go for a walk outside: Find organisms/ ecosystems that are doing what you want to do and observe closely - note all the strategies you can find.

c. From this organised list, choose the most promising strategies for emulation given habitat conditions and design parameters.

Step 6: Mimic the Natural Model

Go back to the Challenge and try to emulate the natural strategies (i.e. ‘borrow the recipe rather than using the organisms’), based on what has been learnt.

a. Are you mimicking Form?

- Find out details of the morphology

- Understand scale and size effects

- Consider influencing factors on the effectiveness of the form for the organism

- Consider ways in which you might deepen the conversation to also mimic process and/or ecosystem

b. Are you mimicking Process?

- Find out details of the biological process


- Consider influencing factors on the effectiveness of the process for the organism

- Consider ways in which you might deepen the conversation to also mimic the form and/ or ecosystem

c. Are you mimicking Ecosystem?

- Find out details of the biological process


- Consider influencing factors on the effectiveness of the process for the organism

Step 7: Evaluate the Solution – Nature as Measure

In the development of a solution inspired by nature, we need to ask ourselves a series of questions about the impacts of the innovation in the biosphere - Does the design create conditions conducive to life? We can ask ourselves the following questions:

Form:

- Are the materials safe and the production process/es safe for the environment?

- Is shape designed to minimise material?

- Does it use recycled materials? Is it recyclable?

Process:


- Is the manufacturing benign? Does it use toxic catalysts?

- Does it use self-assembly?

- Is the system optimised rather than maximised?

- Is the design cyclic - does it adapt to cycles?

- Does its manufacture and use renewable energy? Abundant materials?

Ecosystem:

- Is the design locally attuned?

- How does the design coexist with other systems?

- Can the design detect feedback? Can it adapt? Evolve?

- Does the design promote appropriate behaviours by users?

- Does the design embrace diversity and redundancy?

We can also use the nine Biomimicry observations:134

1. Nature runs on sunlight.

2. Nature uses only the energy it needs.

3. Nature fits form to function.

4. Nature recycles everything.

5. Nature rewards cooperation.

6. Nature banks on diversity.

7. Nature demands local expertise.

8. Nature curbs excesses from within.

9. Nature taps the power of limits.

Step 8: Pay Respect to the Inspiration

Acknowledge the source of inspiration for the Biomimicry innovation.

This may include acting to conserve habitat for the organism, and promoting the Biomimicry Design Method.

Table 10.1. Biomimicry Methodology (evolving)

Source: Biomimicry Guild (2006)135

Natural Systems Knowledge Hubs

134 Benyus, J. (1997) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Harper Collins, New York, p 7.135 Summarised from The Biomimicry Guild (2005) Biomimicry Methodology (evolving) at

http://www.biomimicry.net/pdf/biomimicry_methodology.pdf. Accessed 26 November 2006. And through conversation with Janine Benyus in 2006.



Many design professionals globally are actively engaged in Biomimicry research and applications, whether in universities, companies or government funded research institutes. However, most designers are faced with tight deadlines and budgets on their projects, potentially limiting their enthusiasm for considering innovative alternatives to old economy technologies.

The following examples summarise initiatives currently underway to help the transition to new economy technologies by assisting the process of enquiry (including information filtering) and problem-solving within the design profession:

- Biomimicry Guild Database (Prototype for alpha-testing): The Biomimicry Guild and the Rocky Mountain Institute are creating a moderated open-source database of natural organisms that have developed strategies to solve problems relevant to human society (http://database.biomimicry.org/). The Biomimicry Database is intended as a tool to ‘cross-pollinate’ natural systems knowledge across discipline boundaries - a place where designers, architects, and engineers can search biological information, find experts, and collaborate, to find ideas that potentially solve their design/engineering challenges. The database also attempts to bridge the gaps of terminology and specialisation that separate biologists, chemists, and other researchers from engineers and other developers in industry.

The Biomimicry Database has six types of information:

1. Challenges: Challenges are human design problems that need solutions.

2. Strategies: Strategies are potential solutions to those problems; almost all are biological solutions, but some human-invented solutions are also listed.

3. Organisms: Organism records describe specific organisms, listing their taxonomic categorisation, a description of what the organism has/does that might be inspiring, and data on the organism's environment.

4. People: People/User records contain a description of a person/group relevant to a topic, contact information, an image, profession / field of study and whether they are an expert in their field(s), and a listing of the user's database entries.

5. Citations: Citation records contain basic bibliographic information and abstracts for papers referred to in Challenges, Strategies, or other records providing sources for further research on their respective topics.

6. Products: Product records have descriptions of biomimetic products, including company names and contact information and product availability.

The developers hope the system will prove useful to many researchers and designers as well as engineers, which would lead to more cross-discipline knowledge sharing and more biomimetic inventions and research.

- TRIZ Database Development: (www.triz-journal.com/whatistriz.html) Solutions to problems can move very slowly between different disciplines, but the transfer can be accelerated with suitable abstraction and classification of problems. Russian researchers working on the Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch (TRIZ) method for inventive problem solving have identified a systematic means of transferring knowledge between different scientific and engineering disciplines. The project aim is to establish a system into which all known solutions can be placed, classified in terms of function. With over 1,500 person-years of invested time, it represents the largest study of human creativity ever conducted. At present,



http://database.biomimicry.org/

the functional classification structure covers nearly three million of the world’s successful patents and large proportions of the known physical, chemical and mathematical knowledge-base. Unfortunately the resultant database currently contains little biological knowledge - an analysis comparing the compatibility with man-made and natural systems identified an overlap of a mere 10 -12 percent. However Genrich Altshuller, the instigator of TRIZ, believes one day it will.136 As Janine Benyus puts it, ‘in most of the places we look in Nature, we will be surprised!’

- Biologists at the Design Table: (http://www.biomimicry.net/BaDT.html) The Biomimicry Guild is creating a global network of ‘biologists at the design table’ offering research services to engineering designers to help them quickly find species and organisms that have already developed successful and effective strategies to solve problems.

- Green Chemistry and Green Engineering Hubs: There is now a global network working on Green Chemistry and Green Engineering that can assist those who have bio-mimetic ideas. Currently there are over 25 research institutions across the globe whose research focuses on the development of green technologies for chemistry. Among these are several key hubs and networks. For example, the USA Green Chemistry Institute137 now works with affiliates in over 20 countries, including the Centre for Green Chemistry at Monash University, Australia.138 Its goal is to ‘promote green chemistry research, education and outreach’. The Green Chemistry Network in the UK,139 the Green and Sustainable Chemistry Network of Japan, and the INCA in Italy have similar goals. The American Chemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry also publish a popular Green Chemistry journal.140

Optional Reading1. Benyus, J. (1997) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, Harper Collins, New York.

2. Kelly, K. (1995) Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World, Perseus Books Group, Jackson, TN.

3. Rees, R. (1998) The Way Nature Works, Macmillan Publishing, London.

4. Thompson, D. (1992) On Growth and Form, Dover Publications, Mineola, NY.

5. Vincent, J. and Mann, D. (2002) Systematic Technology Transfer from Biology to Engineering, University of Bath, UK. Available at www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/biomimetics/TRIZ.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

6. Vincent, J. (1990) Structural Biomaterials, Princeton Book Company Publishers.

7. Vogel, S. and Davis, K.K. (1998) Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People, W. W. Norton & Company, New York.

136 Vincent, J.F. and Mann, D.L. (2002) Systematic Technology Transfer from Biology to Engineering, University of Bath, UK. Available at www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/biomimetics/TRIZ.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

137 Green Chemistry Institute (n.d.) Homepage. Available at http://www.chemistry.org. Accessed 5 January 2007. 138 The Centre for Green Chemistry in the School of Chemistry, Monash University (n.d.) Centre for Green Chemistry

Homepage. Available at http://www.chem.monash.edu.au/green-chem/. Accessed 5 January 2007.139 Green Chemistry Network (n.d.) Homepage. Available at http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/gcn/ . Accessed 5

January 2007.140 RSC Publishing (n.d.) Green Chemistry. Available at http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/gc/index.asp. Accessed

5 January 2007.


http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/biomimetics/TRIZ.pdf

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/gc/index.asp

http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/gcn/

http://www.chem.monash.edu.au/green-chem/

http://www.chemistry.org/

http://www.biomimicry.net/BaDT.html

http://www.bath.ac.uk/mech-eng/biomimetics/TRIZ.pdf

Key Words for Searching OnlineBiomimicry Guild, Biomimicry Database, Rocky Mountain Institute.

Comprehension Quiz 1. List the key steps in the Biomimetic Design Method.

2. Name two examples of information sources and/or networks that can help engineers and designers find information about natural systems?

Break-Out ActivityUsing Figure 9.1 and the following table, discuss the application of transitioning in our knowledge of human and natural systems, from ‘Harvest’, to ‘Harness’ and ‘Harmony’.

If you have access to the internet, you may find the Biomimicry Guild Case Study database (http://database.biomimicry.org/start.php) helpful in your discussions.

Organism ‘Harvest’ ‘Harness’ ‘Harmony’Bacteria - Harvesting

bacteria for their medicinal properties.

- Using bacteria to produce yoghurt, beer etc.

- Using bacteria to produce insulin.

- Creating insulin emulating the molecular process used by the bacteria.

Cattle

Silk

Coal


http://database.biomimicry.org/start.php


Lecture 11: Definitions and Principles of Green Chemistry and Green Chemical Engineering

The chemicals industry is central to the pursuit of a sustainable society; without it, the prospects of sustainably meeting the needs of nine billion people by the second half of this century are zero.

Vision for a Sustainable UK Chemical Industry, 2005141

Educational AimTo provide and outline of what ‘Green Engineering’ is as defined by Paul Anastas et al.142 To introduce the concept of ‘Green Chemistry’ and state the 12 Principles developed for this field of science. The purpose of covering this material is to show an example of a field where engineers can take the inspiration from nature and apply it.



Lecture 7 (Unit 2)

Learning Points1. What exactly is Green Chemistry? Anastas and Warner define Green Chemistry as, 143

Green chemistry, environmentally benign chemical synthesis, alternative synthetic pathways for pollution prevention, benign by design: these phrases all essentially describe the same concept. Green chemistry is the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture and application of chemical products. Green chemistry is not complicated although it is often elegant. It holds as its goal nothing less then perfection, while recognizing that all of the advances and innovations towards this goal will contain some discrete risk.

141 Forum for the Future & Chemistry Leadership Council (2005) A vision for the sustainable production & use of chemicals, on behalf of the Chemistry Leadership Council. Available at http://www.chemistry.org.uk/pages/8/press/9308_chemistry.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.

142 Anastas, P.T. and Zimmerman, J.B. (2003) ‘Design Through the 12 Principles of Green Engineering’, Environmental Science and Technology. March 1, 2003, ACS Publishing.143 Anastas, P. T. and Warner, J. C. (1998) Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, New York.


http://www.chemistry.org.uk/pages/8/press/9308_chemistry.pdf

2. Green Chemistry is an overarching philosophy of chemistry defined by a set of principles. Green Chemistry principles (see Brief Background Information) can be applied to organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, even physical chemistry. The focus is on minimising the risks and maximising the efficiency of any chemical reaction. Green Chemistry seeks to reduce and ideally eliminate pollution at its source.

3. Paul Anastas et al in the book Green Engineering: Introduction144 refers to Green Engineering as being all about ‘pollution prevention’ - the design of systems and unit processes that reduce the need for the use of hazardous substances while minimising energy usage and the generation of unwanted by-products. The 12 Principles of Green Engineering is a modification of the Green Chemistry principles to engineering.145 The 12 Principles of Green Engineering can be used to re-engineer entire systems. The Principles are integrated and hence must be applied in whole, rather than in isolation, to achieve significant outcomes.

4. These principles of Green Chemistry and of Green Engineering, which are featured here in this module, provide a checklist for scientists and chemical engineers to use when designing new materials, products, processes and systems. The principles’ focus one's thinking in terms of sustainable design criteria and have been proven time and again to provide a thorough guide to help develop innovative solutions to a wide range of problems. Systematic integration of these principles is key to achieving genuine sustainability for the simultaneous benefit of the environment, economy, and society.

5. Green Chemistry and Green Engineering are fields that provide a sophisticated tool kit to help enable Biomimicry efforts, open up exciting new Whole System re-Design options and help achieve radical resource productivity.

6. The 12 principles of Green Engineering is, if you like, an operational checklist based on the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry to help engineers apply green chemistry principles to engineering challenges. The 12 Principles of Green Engineering, are as follows:146

i. Engineers must ensure that all energy transfers and materials are as inherently non-hazardous as possible.

ii. Waste prevention is preferred over waste clean-up.

iii. Separation and purification processes must exercise the highest amount of energy and materials productivity as possible.

iv. Products, processes and systems must be designed to exercise the highest efficiency of time, space, energy and mass.

v. Products, processes and systems must use available energy and materials on the basis of output required, rather than input supplied.

vi. Making decisions on the nature, reuse or recyclability of products must consider the embedded entropy and complexity as an investment.

vii. Product, process and system design should aim for durability, not ‘immortality’.

144 Anastas, P.T., Heine, P.T. and Williamson, T.C. (2001) Green Engineering: Introduction, American Chemical Society, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p 1.

145 Anastas, P.T. and Zimmerman, J.B. (2003) ‘Design Through the 12 Principles of Green Engineering’, Environmental Science and Technology. March 1, 2003, ACS Publishing. .

146 Ibid


viii. Products, processes and systems should, where possible, avoid being designed with unnecessary excess capacity or capability.

ix. Multi-component products should require minimal material diversity to maximize design for disassembly and value retention.

x. Products, processes and systems must exercise characteristics of Industrial Ecology, by including integration with available energy and materials flows.

xi. Products, processes and systems must be designed for performance beyond their commercial life.

xii. Material and energy inputs should be sourced from renewable, rather than depleting, feedstocks.

Brief Background InformationThe 12 principles of Green Chemistry are:147

1. Prevention: It is better to prevent waste than to treat or clean up waste after it has been created.

2. Atom Economy:148 Synthetic methods should be designed to maximise the incorporation of all materials used in the process into the final product.

3. Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses: Wherever practicable, synthetic methods should be designed to use and generate substances that possess little or no toxicity to human health and the environment.

4. Designing Safer Chemicals: Chemical products should be designed to achieve their desired function while minimising their toxicity.

5. Safer Solvents and Auxiliaries: The use of auxiliary substances (e.g. solvents, separation agents, etc.) should be made unnecessary wherever possible and innocuous when used.

6. Design for Energy Efficiency: Energy requirements of chemical processes should be recognised for their environmental and economic impacts and should be minimised. If possible, synthetic methods should be conducted at ambient temperature and pressure.

7. Use of Renewable Feedstocks: A raw material or feedstock should be renewable rather than depleting whenever technically and economically practicable.

8. Reduce Derivatives: Unnecessary derivatisation (use of blocking groups, protection/deprotection, temporary modification of physical/chemical processes) should be minimised or avoided if possible, because such steps require additional reagents and can generate waste.

9. Catalysis: Catalytic reagents (as selective as possible) are superior to stoichiometric reagents.

10. Design for Degradation: Chemical products should be designed so that at the end of their

147 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (n.d.) 12 Principles of Green Chemistry. Available at http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/principles.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.148 Green Chemistry Network (n.d.) Atom Efficiency PowerPoint presentation. Available at http://www.chemsoc.org/pdf/gcn/atomeff.ppt. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.chemsoc.org/pdf/gcn/atomeff.ppt

http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/principles.html

function they break down into innocuous degradation products and do not persist in the environment.

11. Real-time analysis for Pollution Prevention: Analytical methodologies need to be further developed to allow for real-time, in-process monitoring and control prior to the formation of hazardous substances.

12. Inherently Safer Chemistry for Accident Prevention: Substances and the form of a substance used in a chemical process should be chosen to minimise the potential for chemical accidents, including releases, explosions, and fires.

From the Green Chemistry principles the Green Engineering principles that follow were developed. The principles focus one's thinking in terms of sustainable design criteria and have proven time and again to be the source of innovative solutions to a wide range of problems. Systematic integration of these principles is key to achieving genuine sustainability for the simultaneous benefit of the environment, economy, and society. The 12 Principles of Green Engineering can be used to re-engineer entire systems. The Principles are integrated and hence must be applied in whole, rather than in isolation, to achieve significant outcomes. Green Chemistry and Green Engineering are fields that provide a sophisticated tool kit to help enable Biomimicry efforts, open up exciting new Whole System re-Design options and help achieve radical resource productivity.

The 12 principles of Green Engineering is, if you like, an operational checklist based on the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry to help engineers apply green chemistry principles to engineering challenges. The 12 Principles of Green Engineering, are as follows.

The Principles of Green Engineering149

Principle 1: Inherent rather than circumstantial. Though the negative impacts of hazardous substances can be minimised, this is often at the expense of a significant amount of time and resources (human, materials and energy), which further impose environmental and social impacts. Designers should take into consideration the inherent nature of the selected material to ensure that it is as benign as possible (i.e. non-toxic, and/or minimal energy and materials inputs required to complete the process).

Principle 2: Prevention instead of treatment. The concept of waste can be assigned to material or energy that existing processes cannot turn into useful products. The generation and handling of physical waste further creates other ‘wastes’ – waste of time, money and effort. Using materials and processes that generate minimal waste removes the costs and risks associated with substances that would otherwise have to be handled, treated and disposed of.

Principle 3: Design for Separation. Separation of products typically expends much of the energy and resources of most manufacturing processes. Designing products with physical and chemical properties that permit self-separation processes rather than induced conditions (such as high energy, temperature processes or the use of solvents) decreases waste, saves costs and reduces processing times.

Principle 4: Maximise mass, energy, space and time efficiency. If a system is designed and applied at less than maximum efficiency, resources are being wasted throughout the process. 149 Anastas, P.T. and Zimmerman, J.B. (2003) ‘Design Through the 12 Principles of Green Engineering’,

Environmental Science and Technology. March 1, 2003, ACS Publishing.


Space and time issues can be considered to eliminate waste and maximise efficiency (in addition to consideration of material and energy used). In optimised processes real-time monitoring systems can be used to ensure the process is following accurate behaviour based on required design conditions.

Principle 5: Output-pulled vs. Input-pushed. Le Châtelier’s Principle150 essentially states that when a stress (such as temperature or pressure) is applied to a system at equilibrium, the system readjusts to relieve or offset the applied stress. This principle can be applied in an ‘input-pushed’ process, where the addition of more inputs (stresses) leads to the generation of more outputs. But the same principle can be applied the other way – ‘output-pulled’ – where the outputs are continually minimised or removed from the system and the output is then ‘pulled’ through the system to minimise the amount of materials or energy used.

Principle 6: Conserve Complexity. Products that require more materials, energy and time are generally more complex, high-entropy substances. Recycling complex materials in many cases comes at sacrificed value (down-cycling) – such materials should be designed for reuse, where as materials of minimal complexity have more favourable properties for recycling.

Principle7: Durability rather than immortality. Products that last beyond their useful life often are the cause of environmental problems such as waste to landfill, persistence and bioaccumulation. By designing products that in addition to withstanding anticipated operating conditions (supported by maintenance and repair) possess a targeted lifetime, such issues can be avoided.

Principle 8: Meet need, minimise excess. ‘Over-designing’ products to embed flexibility and ‘worst case scenarios’ can often result in high manufacturing and operating costs. Technologies that target specific demands of the user not only minimises waste and cost, but further provides an alternative to ‘off the shelf’ technologies.

Principle 9: Minimise material diversity. Products such as computers, due to their diversity of materials used in electronic and packaging components, are difficult to recycle with existing methods while upfront designs that satisfy the same need with less material diversity have more options for recyclability and reuse.

Principle 10: Integrate local material and energy flows. Products, processes and systems should be designed to use local materials and energy resources – that is, resources that are as close as possible to the source of operation – to minimise inefficiencies and consumption associated with transportation.

Principle 11: Design for commercial ‘afterlife’. Designing products, processes and systems such that their components can be reused or reconfigured to maintain their value and useability for new products (sometimes referred to as ‘design for modularity’).

Principle 12: Renewable rather than depleting. The use of materials from a finite source – a source in which its rate of replenishment is negligible with respect to its depletion – has significant environmental effects due to their inability to be ‘cycled’ back to the source for reuse. Renewable materials by their very nature can be re-cycled to replenish the source (primarily ecological systems) and provide virtually infinite service with minimal, if any, waste.

Note: Making products, processes and systems more inherently benign can come about by either changing the inherent nature of the system, or changing the circumstances/conditions of the

150 See Le Chatelier’s Principle at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Chatelier's_principle. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Chatelier's_principle

system to reduce the release of toxins and associated exposure to harmful effects.151

151 Anastas, P.T. and Zimmerman, J.B. (2003) ‘Design Through the 12 Principles of Green Engineering’, Environmental Science and Technology. March 1, 2003, ACS Publishing.


Optional Reading1. Hargroves, K. and Smith, M.H. (2005) The Natural Advantage of Nations: Business

Opportunities, Innovation and Governance in the 21st Century, Earthscan, London, Chap 1: Natural Advantage of Nations. Available online at http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/NAON_ch1.aspx. Accessed 5 January 2007.

2. Anastas, P. T. and Warner, J. C. (1998) Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, New York.

3. Green Chemistry Institute (n.d.) Overview of the field of Green Chemistry. Available at http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=education%5cgreenchem%5cgreenreader.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

4. Wikipedia (2007) Green Chemistry. Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_chemistry. Accessed 5 January 2007.

5. Royal Society of Green Chemistry (n.d.) Green Chemistry, RSC Publishing, London. Available at http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/gc/index.asp. Accessed 5January 2007. Green Chemistry is a peer reviewed scientific journal devoted to green chemistry published by the Royal Society of Chemistry since 1999. It publishes research papers and reviews articles on any aspect of Green Chemistry that have to be conceptually accessible to a wide audience of chemists and technologists, including final year undergraduate students and postgraduate students. Sarah Ruthven is the editor of Green Chemistry and the current chair of the Editorial Board is Professor Martyn Poliakoff, University of Nottingham, UK.

6. Royal Society of Green Chemistry (n.d.) Green Chemistry News Archive. Available at www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/gc/greenchemistrynewsarchive.asp. Accessed 5 Jan 2007.

Key Words for Searching OnlinePaul Anastas, Green Chemistry Principles, Green Engineering Principles

Comprehension Quiz1. Define ‘Green Chemistry’.

2. Define ‘Green Engineering’.

Break-Out Group ActivityOne example of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering will be given to each student. Then referring to the set of principles, each student will be asked to analyse the example given and to list those principles that have been applied to successfully achieve Green Chemistry and Green Engineering.


http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/gc/greenchemistrynewsarchive.asp

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/gc/index.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_chemistry

http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=education%5Cgreenchem%5Cgreenreader.html


http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/NAON_ch1.aspx


Lecture 12: Green Chemistry and Green Engineering In Practice: A Succinct Overview

The reason green chemistry is being adopted so rapidly around the world is because it is a pathway to ensuring economic and environmental prosperity. Green chemistry (and Green Engineering) are powerful because it starts at the molecular level and ultimately delivers more environmentally benign products and processes.

Paul Anastas, Founder of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, 2001152

Researchers must spur public opinions and government policies toward constructing the sustainable society in the 21st century.

Ryoji Noyori, 2001 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry, 2005

Educational AimTo show through example, explanation, and argument why the application of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering principles can make a significant contribution to sustainable development, featuring some cutting edge examples. To demonstrate that Green Chemistry and Green Engineering are no longer just ideas, they are the basis now globally for a multi-billion dollar industry.


1. Hargroves, K. Smith, M. and Paten, C. (2007) Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program, Critical Literacies Portfolio – Role of Engineers in Sustainable Development A, The Natural Edge Project, Australia.

Lecture 7 (Unit 2)

2. Anastas, P.T. and Warner, J. C. (1998) Green Chemistry Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, NY.

Learning PointsThere are many additional reasons to those discussed earlier as to why the application of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering principles is making such a difference, such as:

1. In the past chemists mainly optimised the percentage yield rather than the atom economy of

152 Ritter, S.K. (2001) ‘Green Chemistry’, cover story, Chemical and Engineering News, July 16, 2001, vol 79, no. 29. Available at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/7929/7929greenchemistry.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/7929/7929greenchemistry.html

a chemical reaction. Ideally chemical reactions would be designed to maximise incorporation of all materials used in the process into the final product to prevent such waste production.153

Chemical synthetic approaches have been created in both industry and academia that produce far less waste (are atom efficient) while being significantly more environmentally benign.154 Atom economy is one form of measurement to evaluate how green is a chemical process, but there are other important aspects to take into account such as energy consumption and whether pollutants are created or not.

2. Converting feedstocks to final product along the chemical synthetic pathway requires the careful selection of reagents, catalysts, solvents and reaction conditions. In the past the focus has mainly been on optimising these for percentage yield rather than atom economy. Highly efficient reactions are now a very active area of research in green chemistry is investigating alternative more benign synthetic pathways to create safer chemicals. There is significant potential to meet societies needs for chemicals without using toxic or harmful chemicals.

3. There is significant potential to reduce environmental load through reusing chemicals or recycling chemicals and plastics.155

4. An area of potentially significant reductions in environmental load comes from changes in the types of solvents used for reactions. Solvents are used as a medium in which to carry out a synthetic transformation in chemistry and industry. To reduce environmental impacts the chemical industry is reducing the usage of organic solvents,156 has phased out halogenated solvents157 and is seeking more alternatives.

5. Organic solvents still pose a major problem because they are being used in large volumes in synthesis, processing and separations. Many solvents used are classified as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and are flammable, toxic and carcinogenic.158 While such solvents can be recycled, they often require costly and energy-inefficient purification procedures such as distillation, and the use of the recycled products is limited to non-pharmaceutical processes such as the petrochemical and plastics industries. Increasingly, VOC’s can be replaced by non-toxic, non-volatile, recyclable and renewable solvents such as ionic liquids, water, polypropylene glycols or super-critical CO2. Supercritical CO2 offers numerous advantages as a benign solvent as it is non-toxic, non-flammable, inexpensive, and can be separated from the product by depressurisation.

6. An area of critical importance to Green Chemistry and Green Engineering is catalysis. Catalysts in nature, in lab chemistry and the chemical industry play a role of assisting to lower the activation energy barrier of a reaction, and thereby help to catalyse the chemical reaction. Thus they can assist to help create new synthetic pathways for chemical reactions

153 Anastas, P.T. and Warner, J. C. (1998) Green Chemistry Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, NY.154 For a good example comes from Pharmacia (formerly Mosanto company) see US EPA Presidential Green

Chemistry Award (1996) 1996 Greener Synthetic Pathways Award: The catalytic dehyrogenation of diethanolamine, at http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/winners/gspa96.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

155 McDonough, W. and Braungart, M. (1998) ‘The NEXT Industrial Revolution’, The Atlantic Monthly, 1998 (October), pp 82-92; Graedel, T. (1999) ‘Green Chemistry in an industrial ecology context’, Green Chemistry, 1999, no. 1, G126 - G128.

156 Illman, D. (1994) ‘Environmentally Benign Chemistry Aims for Processes that Don’t Pollute’, Chemical Engineering News, Sept 5, pp 22-7.

157 Key, R.D., Howell, R.D. and Criddle, C.S. (1997) ‘Fluorinated Organics in the Biosphere’, Enviro Sci. Technol, no.31, p 2445.

158 Anastas, P.T. and Kirchhoff, M. (2002) ‘Origins, Current Status, and Future Challenges of Green Chemistry’, Accounts of Chemical Research, vol 35, no.9, pp 686-694.


http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/winners/gspa96.html

that use less energy than synthetic pathways used today.

7. There are usually several possible sources of feedstocks and synthetic pathways to create any chemical. Traditionally, chemistry and the chemical industry has gone for more simple approaches such as A + B = C. Find two things to combine to get just the substance you want, and you're done. Nature uses slower but less energy- and input- intensive methods. For example, complex biomolecular machinery can take A, add B to get D, then take E, add some F, bits of G, H and I to get K, then combine D, K and a few dozen other examples of complex molecular gymnastics to finally come up with the desired C. Nature’s way is done at ambient temperature harnessing catalysts to help reagents get over the activation energy barrier of a reaction.

8. Nature already effectively runs on Green Chemistry and Green Engineering principles for all of its processes, therefore there is much that engineers can learn from nature. As the UK Chemical Leadership Council wrote,159 ‘It is very difficult to achieve step-change improvements in environmental and economic performance through incremental improvements in conventional production technologies. For a growing number of chemical companies, inspiration is coming from biomimicry.’ (See the Case Study featured in the Brief Background Information)

Brief Background InformationA succinct overview of why the application of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering Principles is already making a difference. Green Chemistry has been able to assist industry in its drive towards sustainability by addressing issues in the design of chemical processes, namely: replacement feedstocks, alternative synthetic pathways, and alternative solvents. The burgeoning field of industrial ecology complements Green Chemistry by providing the tools and methods for measurement and evaluation for environmental auditing and impact of processes, essential for cost benefit analysis.160

Green Chemistry Seeks to Optimise the Atom Economy

Green Chemistry enables significant waste reduction through improved atom economy161 (that is reacting as few reagent atoms as possible in order to reduce waste162). Atom economy moves the practice of minimising waste to the molecular level. Traditionally, chemists have focused on maximising percentage yield, minimising the number of steps or synthesising a completely unique chemical. The Green Chemistry principle of optimising the atom economy introduces a new goal into reaction chemistry: designing reactions so that as many as possible of the atoms present in the starting materials end up in the product rather than in the waste stream. This concept provides a framework for evaluating different chemistries, and an ideal to strive for in

159 Forum for the Future & Chemistry Leadership Council (2005) A vision for the sustainable production & use of chemicals, on behalf of the Chemistry Leadership Council. Available at http://www.chemistry.org.uk/pages/8/press/9308_chemistry.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.160 Strauss, C. and Scott, J. (2001) ‘The Future Re-Written’, Chemistry & Industry, Oct, 2001.161 Trost, B.M. (1995) ‘Atom Economy: A Challenge for Organic Synthesis - Homogeneous Catalysis Leads the Way’,

Angew Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., vol 34, p 259.162 Green Chemistry Network (n.d.) Atom Efficiency PowerPoint presentation. Available at

http://www.chemsoc.org/pdf/gcn/atomeff.ppt. Accessed 5 January 2007.



http://www.chemistry.org.uk/pages/8/press/9308_chemistry.pdf.%20Accessed%205

http://www.chemistry.org.uk/pages/8/press/9308_chemistry.pdf.%20Accessed%205

new reaction chemistry. For example, a chemist practicing atom economy would choose to synthesise a needed product by putting together basic building blocks, rather than by breaking down a much larger starting material and discarding most of it as waste.

Barry Trost,163 from Stanford University, published the concept of atom economy in Science in 1991.164 In 1998 he received the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for his work. At the award ceremony, Paul Anderson (1997 ACS President) commented, ‘By introducing the concept of ‘atom economy, Dr. Trost has begun to change the way in which chemists measure the efficiency of the reactions they design.’ Atom economy answers the basic question, ‘How much of what you put into your pot ends up in your product?’ The atom economy describes the conversion efficiency of a chemical process in terms of all atoms involved. Atom economy can be written as: % atom economy = Molecular Weight (desired products) / Molecular Weight (all reactants) x 100%.

It is very important to note that atom economy is one form of measurement to evaluate how green is a chemical reaction, but there are other important aspects to take into account such as energy consumption and whether pollutants are created or not. Other important ways Green Chemistry and Green Engineering are making a significant difference is through reduced use of toxic reagents and hazardous chemicals, and the production of environmentally benign reactions and chemical products. Synthetic strategies now employ benign solvent systems, such as ionic liquid, water165 and supercritical fluids such as carbon dioxide.166 Solvent free methods have also been applied, as have biphasic systems, to integrate preparation and product recovery. For example, phases of liquids that separate are going to be much easier to recover without needing an extra extractive processing step. In addition, there has been significant research on utilising high-temperature water and microwave heating, sono-chemistry (chemical reactions activated by sonic waves) and combinations of these and other enabling technologies.167

Another very important area of Green Chemistry is the science of catalysis. Catalytic processes have allowed the development of efficient synthetic routes which often involve significantly less energy to be used in the reaction.168

The 2001 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry Ryoji Noyori in a 2005 article169 identified three key developments in Green Chemistry as being of great significance:

1. The use of supercritical carbon dioxide as a green solvent.

2. Aqueous hydrogen peroxide for clean oxidations.

3. The use of hydrogen in asymmetric synthesis.

163 Barry Trost (n.d.) About Barry Trost. Available at www.stanford.edu/group/bmtrost/bmt.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

164 Trost, B. (1991) ‘The Atom Economy: A Search for Synthetic Efficiency’, Science, no. 254, p 1471.165 Breslow, R. (1998) ‘Water as a solvent for chemical reactions’, in Anastas, P.T. and Williamson, T.C. (eds) (1998)

Green Chemistry: Frontiers in Benign Chemical Syntheses and Processes, Oxford University Press, New York, chap 13; Li, C.J. (2000) ‘Water as Solvent for Organic and Material Synthesis’ in Anastas, P.T., Heine, L.G. and Williamson, T.C. (eds) (2000) Green Chemical Syntheses and Processes, American Chemical Society, Washington D.C., chap 6.

166 Hancu, D., Powell, C. and Beckma, E.J. (2001) ‘Combined Reaction-Separation Processes in CO2’, in Anastas, P.T. Heine, L.G. and Williamson, T.C. (eds) (2001) Green Engineering, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., chap 7.

167 Strauss, C.R (1999), ‘Invited Review: A Combinatorial Approach to the Development of Environmentally Benign Organic Chemical Preparations’, Australian Journal of Chemistry, no. 52, pp 83-96.

168 Ibid.169 Noyori, R. (2005) ‘Pursuing Practical Elegance in Chemical Synthesis’, Chemical Communications, no. 14, pp

1807-1811.


http://www.stanford.edu/group/bmtrost/bmt.html

A critical area of ongoing research is addressing the question of how can modern society meet its chemical and plastic needs from renewable feedstocks. In 1989, Szmant reported that 98 percent of organic chemicals used in the lab and by industry are derived from petroleum.170

Hence renewable feedstocks, often combined with biomimetic methods (conventional chemical reactions that mimic nature) and biocatalysts, are under examination as alternatives to fossil carbon based starting materials. The Netherlands Sustainable Technology Development project has found that in principle there is sufficient biomass production potential to meet the demands for industrial organic chemicals after the more pressing needs to produce food have been met.171

Such exciting results and progress provides government, industry and academia with a solid foundation from which to work together to over time truly develop sustainable chemical and plastic industries.

Green Chemistry Awards

It is important to note that, while the fields of Green Chemistry and Green Engineering are relatively new, they are growing rapidly and there are now many significant awards for Green Chemistry. The award winners listed on the Green Chemistry award’s web sites (see footnotes) offer a good overview of the many ways that chemists and chemical engineers applying Green Chemistry principles are already making a difference. The US Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards began in 1995 to recognise individual researchers.172 Nominations are evaluated by an independent panel of chemists convened by the American Chemical Society. The Royal Australian Chemical Institute each year awards Australia’s Green Chemistry Challenge Awards.173 In Canada, The Canadian Green Chemistry Medal174 is awarded to an individual or group. In Italy, there are three awards given annually to industry. In Japan, The Green & Sustainable Chemistry Network,175 formed in 1999, began their Green Chemistry awards program in 2001. In the United Kingdom, the Crystal Faraday Partnership,176 a non-profit group founded in 2001, began their Green Chemistry awards in 2004.

The Nobel Prize Committee acknowledged the importance of Green Chemistry in 2005 by awarding the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for ‘the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis’ to Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs, and Richard R. Schrock. The Nobel Prize Committee wrote that, This represents a great step forward for 'green chemistry', reducing potentially hazardous waste through smarter production. Metathesis is an example of how important basic science has been applied for the benefit of man, society and the environment.

Table 12.1 presents a selection of award winners from the USA Presidential Green Chemistry Award to give an idea of the breadth of innovation for sustainability occurring in this important new field. 170 Szmant, H.H. (1989) Organic Building Clocks of the Chemical Industry, Wiley, New York, p 4.171 Okkerse, C. and van Bekkum, H. (1996) ‘Renewable Raw Materials for the Chemicals Industry’, Sustainability and

Chemistry, Sustainable Technology Development Project, Delft, Netherlands.172 US EPA (n.d.) Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge. Available at

http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/presgcc.html. Accessed 5 January 2007. 173 The Royal Australian Green Chemistry Institute (n.d.) Australia’s Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. Available at

http://www.raci.org.au/national/awards/greenchemistry.html. Accessed 5 January 2007. 174 Canadian Green Chemistry Network (n.d.) CGCN Homepage. Available at http://www.greenchemistry.ca/.

Accessed 5 January 2007. 175 The Green & Sustainable Chemistry Network (n.d.) Awards. Available at http://www.gscn.net/awardsE/index.html.

Accessed 5 January 2007. 176 Green Chemistry Network (n.d.) 2005 Crystal Faraday Green Chemical Technology Awards. Available at

http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/gcn/awards.htm. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/gcn/awards.htm

http://www.gscn.net/awardsE/index.html

http://www.greenchemistry.ca/

http://www.raci.org.au/national/awards/greenchemistry.html

http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/presgcc.html

Company Sample of USA Presidential Green Chemistry Awards

Professor Galen J. Suppes, from the University of Missouri-Columbia2006 Academic Award

For the invention of a system of converting waste glycerine from bio-diesel production to propylene glycol. Professor Suppes enabled conversion to occur at a significantly lower temperature using a copper-chromite catalyst, while raising the efficiency of the distillation reaction. Propylene glycol produced through this method is cost competitive enough to replace the more toxic ethylene glycol, the primary ingredient in automobile anti-freeze.177

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) and Novozymes2005 Greener Synthetic Pathways Award

Medical research has shown the negative effects on human health of Trans-fats. Novozymes and ADM have worked together to develop techniques that do not create Trans-fats. They have developed a new green process for the interesterification of oils and fats which interchanges saturated and unsaturated fatty acids without producing Trans-fats. As well as providing significant health benefits the process has greatly improved the atom economy, reduced the use of toxic chemicals and water, and waste by-products.178

Engelhard Organic Pigments2004 Designing Safer Chemicals Award

Red, orange and yellow pigments historically were created using toxic heavy metals such as lead, chromium and cadmium. Engelhard developed environmentally friendly ‘Rightfit’ pigments for use in packaging. The company will entirely phase out its use of heavy metals. In addition, a water-based manufacturing process was used rather than the organic solvents usually associated with the creation of pigments.179

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.2004 Alternative Synthetic Pathways Award

The anti-cancer drug Taxol was first isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, but isolating it required stripping the bark from the trees, killing them in the process. In addition, producing the drug took more than 20 chemical steps requiring some 20 solvents and reagents. Bristol-Myers Squibb developed a way to grow cell lines from yew trees in large fermentation tanks using only water, sugars, vitamins and trace elements. During its first five years, the process is expected to eliminate an estimated 32 metric tons of hazardous chemicals and other materials.180

Buckman Laboratories International2004 Alternative Solvents/Reaction Conditions Award

One-half of the paper and paperboard currently used in the USA is recycled, but adhesives, coatings, plastics and other materials on the old paper can produce spots and holes in the new paper. Called ‘stickies’, they cost the industry US$500 million annually. Buckman uses a new enzyme to turn stickies into a water-soluble, non-sticky material. The enzyme is produced by a bacteria and is completely bio degradable. Since 2002, more than 40 paper mills have converted to the enzyme.181

Table 12.1. A taste of what is possible through applying Green Chemistry and Green Engineering principles

Source: US EPA182

177 US EPA (n.d.) 2006 USA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge. Available at http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/past.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

178 US EPA (n.d.) Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge 1996-2006. Available at http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/presgcc.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

179 US EPA (n.d.) 2004 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge. Available at http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/past.html#2004. Accessed 5 January 2007.

180 Ibid.181 Ibid.182 US EPA (n.d.) Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge 1996-2006. Available at

http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/presgcc.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.



http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/past.html#2004


http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/pubs/pgcc/past.html

Feature Case Study: Biomimicry: Inspiring Green Chemistry - Baxenden183

For a growing number of chemical companies, inspiration is coming from Biomimicry and the application of industrial biotechnology. UK-based Baxenden Chemicals is one of those companies. It has self-funded the development of novel polymerisation technology based on the knowledge that enzymes are nature’s catalysts. It now produces a range of polyesters of various molecular weights on a large scale using an enzyme-based bioprocess. This process saves energy, improves product quality and operates at lower cost to improve bottom line performance. Traditional methods for manufacturing polyesters require the use of titanium or tin based catalysts and temperatures above 230ºC. Baxenden’s process eliminates the potentially toxic catalysts and operates at lower process temperatures, thereby reducing energy input. The polymer arising from the bioprocess has a very uniform molecular structure and has given Baxenden a competitive advantage in a number of specialised markets.

183 Extract taken from Forum for the Future and Chemistry Leadership Council (2005) A vision for the sustainable production & use of chemicals, on behalf of the Chemistry Leadership Council. Available at http://www.chemistry.org.uk/pages/8/press/9308_chemistry.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.chemistry.org.uk/pages/8/press/9308_chemistry.pdf

Optional Reading 1. Green Chemistry Institute (n.d.) Overview of the field of Green Chemistry. Available at

www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=education%5cgreenchem%5cgreenreader.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

2. McDonough, W. and Braungart, M. (2002) Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, North Point Press. San Francisco.

3. Green Chemistry Network (n.d.) Atom Efficiency PowerPoint presentation. Available at http://www.chemsoc.org/pdf/gcn/atomeff.ppt. Accessed 5 January 2007.

4. Ritter, S.K. (2002) ’Green Chemistry Gets Greener’, Chemical and Engineering News, 2002, vol 80, pp 38-42. Available at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/8020/8020green.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

5. Ritter, S.K. (2001) ’Green Chemistry’, Chemical and Engineering News, 2001, vol 79, pp 27-34. Available at http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/7929/7929greenchemistry.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

6. The Royal Australian Green Chemistry Institute Inc. (n.d.) Australia’s Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. Available at http://www.raci.org.au/national/awards/greenchemistry.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

7. Canadian Green Chemistry Network (n.d.) Homepage. Available at http://www.greenchemistry.ca/. Accessed 5 January 2007.

8. The Green & Sustainable Chemistry Network (n.d.) Awards. Available at http://www.gscn.net/awardsE/index.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.

9. The Green Chemistry Network (n.d.) 2005 Crystal Faraday Green Chemical Technology Awards. Available at http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/gcn/awards.htm. Accessed January 2007.

10. US EPA (n.d.) Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge 1996-2006. Available at www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=greenchemistryinstitute\awards\presidential.html. Accessed 5 January 2007.


http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=greenchemistryinstitute%5Cawards%5Cpresidential.html

http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay.html?DOC=greenchemistryinstitute%5Cawards%5Cpresidential.html

http://www.chemsoc.org/networks/gcn/awards.htm

http://www.gscn.net/awardsE/index.html

http://www.greenchemistry.ca/

http://www.raci.org.au/national/awards/greenchemistry.html

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/7929/7929greenchemistry.html

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/8020/8020green.html




ey - research.qut.edu.au€¦ · Web viewAll assumed that the oceans and forests would absorb all...

Documents

Transcript of ey - research.qut.edu.au€¦ · Web viewAll assumed that the oceans and forests would absorb all...