Question

5.4 Sustainable Engineering

(a) Discuss the origins of sustainable engineering, what it is, and why it is important.

(b) Discuss and critique one method for assessing environmentally sustainability of engineered solutions.

(c) Explain how one could estimate the social impacts of engineered options using community/stakeholder communication and consultation.

(d) Describe a general approach for estimating the economic sustainability of an engineered option.   

(e) Explain how you would evaluate a solution using a triple bottom line analysis.   

Answer 1

Ans : a) Sustainable Engineering is the engineering which deals with the process of designing and operating the systems around us with the help of energy and natural resources available sustainably. When it comes to the question why they important , I will give simply some basic two examples. Firstly if we take power we need coal for the production of power which is a limited resource which is going to be ending soon for the future generations. So what will be do if we didn’t have power whole life , the day to day life of humans mainly depends on the power very much. To reduce this the Sun who is the unlimited resource of light can be used as the source. Which results the solar panels and other solar things. We can store the light emitting from the sun by which we can produce power.And they are dealing with the waste recycling , waste minimizing and pollution prevention etc. When it comes to waste every we produce some kgs of waste individually. This waste will be eaten by the cows and form there the process goes on which leads to the disturbance of while Eco system which may lead to the end of the human life. These are only few examples. We have to use the resources effectively and efficiently such that it should not affect the eco life at all.

Mainly the origin of Sustainability comes form the Brundtland Commission Report of the United Nations in 1987 which states “sustainability is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.