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Principles and Practices in Sustainable Development for the Engineering and Built Environment Professions
Unit 2 - Efficiency/ Whole Systems
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.
Preliminaries
The 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.
Hargroves,
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.
Acknowledgements
The 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.
Citation
Smith, M., Hargroves, K. and Paten, C. (2007) Engineering
Sustainable Solutions Program: Critical Literacies
Portfolio, The Natural Edge Project, Australia
(TNEP).
The
Natural Edge Project Engineering Sustainable Solutions
Program is supported by the Australian National
Commission
for UNESCO through the International Relations
Grants
Program of the Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade.
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