15.02, segalas — lecture on technology and sustainable development
DESCRIPTION
SD Course in Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, 12-23 Febraury 2006TRANSCRIPT
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Erasmus Mundus Action 4 project“Promoting European Education in Sustainable Development”
TEMPUS Joint European Project_ 25163_ 2004 “Bridging the gap between University and businesses”
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Professor Jordi SegalasTechnology and Sustainable DevelopmentPolytechnic University of CataloniaBarcelona, SPAIN
Technology and Sustainable DevelopmentRole of Engineers
Case study
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Are we followers?
What role can engineers play, in What role can engineers play, in sustainable development?sustainable development?
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Economy(‘inevitable laws’)
Environment(‘technology
can fix it’)
Society
The current world view - relative importance?
Economy laws are ‘inevitable’ - market laws
Environment is used to fulfill the demands of the Economy laws. (Resources, waste and pollution absorption)
Society adapts to the inevitable economy laws: As much money as sooner as possible.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
But this is what we all ultimately depend on for life - so...
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Environment - ‘inevitable’
Environment - ‘inevitable’
Engineers provide the interfaces...
SocietySociety
InfrastructureInfrastructure
ProductsProducts
Economy- invented!Economy- invented!
Environmental laws are ‘inevitable’ - laws of nature.
Environment nurtures, supports and makes possible….Society - which has a mixture of instinctive and learned/cultural laws
Society has invented, to serve society’s purposes….Economy - whose rules and practices are totally ‘invented’by society
SO: why do so many regard Economic laws as ‘inevitable’ (globalisation, etc); but Environmental laws, and limits, as manipulable?
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Serving Needs, or Quality of Life, or Wants?
• “Traditional cultures, having more limited means to satisfy human needs, tend to meet as many needs as possible with as few resources as possible.
• In contrast, industrial capitalism emphasises the creation of specialised products that fight for market niches to fill ‘needs’ that, as often as not, cannot be satisfied by material goods.
(Natural Capitalism, Ch. 14)
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Example: which of these is more worth an engineer’s energy & interest?
Hasbro's Tooth Tunes toothbrushes have an MP3 player built in. They use bone-conduction to rattle the sound through your teeth for 3 minutes, making sure you brush for the American Dental Association's recommended time.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Example: which of these is more worth an engineer’s energy & interest?
Thousands of refugee deaths from hypothermia could be prevented every year if a new hi-tech UK-designed tent lining performs well in tests in Afghanistan. A team from the University of Cambridge has developed linings for existing refugee tents that will pay for themselves in saved heating costs in one winter. They are made of a sandwich of materials: polyester wadding like you'd find in a puffa jacket and a cheap breathable waterproof membrane.
Design of Temporary Shelters for Refugees
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Choosing what you are engineering for - engineers can’t be neutral
OK NEVER NEVER
GOOD MAYBE NEVER
BRILLIANT GOOD MAYBE
Affl
uenc
e
Technology
Luxury
Quality
Needs
No net impact High impactIn - between
Sustainability
Leadership
Sustainability
Leadership
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
OK NEVER NEVER
GOOD MAYBE NEVER
BRILLIANT GOOD MAYBE
Engineers’ reputation as professionals, not mercenaries - whose interests do we serve?
• “Video toothbrush”• “In development by
Panasonic, this electric toothbrush has a miniature video camera mounted beside the bristles to allow the user to see on a monitor the ‘40%’ of debris they normally miss.”• (TYNKYN - EC 11/01)
• “Video toothbrush”• “In development by
Panasonic, this electric toothbrush has a miniature video camera mounted beside the bristles to allow the user to see on a monitor the ‘40%’ of debris they normally miss.”• (TYNKYN - EC 11/01)
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
What defines a socially sustainable product?
• Is being manufactured sustainably enough, whatever the product’s social impact?
• Or, should engineers push for socially sustainable features in the products: for instance….affordability and accessibility for the ‘excluded’ - the poorest 10%?
• Or, should we put our energy and interest into products and projects which serve ‘needs’rather than artificially created ‘wants’?
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Case Study
http://www.interfacesustainability.com/
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Enterprise core
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Enterprise relation to Society
The company is part of a supply chain, with suppliers and customers and a market, our share of which we hope to increase. Products flow through that supply chain in one
direction; money flows in the other direction.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
XX Century Enterprise Model
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
1. Zero Waste
Against ideal operational standards—zero waste—they identified $70 million in waste, based on 1994 operations—10 percent of sales!
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
1. Zero Waste
Total manufacturing waste sent to landfills has decreased by 63% since 1996.
The cumulative avoided costs from waste elimination activities since 1995 have totaled over $299 million.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
2. Benign Emissions
Interface identified and inventoried 247 air emissions stacks and 19 waste water effluent pipes at their manufacturing locations.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
2. Benign Emissions
Reduced the number of stacks on its facilities by 35 percent and the number of effluent pipes by 53 percent.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
3. Renewable Energies
The third front, Renewable Energy, means eventually harnessing solar energy Harnessing renewable energy will attack numerous unwanted linkages, both to the lithosphere and to the biosphere, and will allow closed loop recycling
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
3. Renewable Energies
An emphasis on initiatives thatimprove efficiency and conserveenergy has reduced the total energyused at carpet manufacturing facilities(per unit of product). It is down 41% since 1996.
use of renewableenergyincreasedfrom 11% to 13% in 2005.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
4. Closing cycles
Two cycles are introduced: a natural, organic cycle, emphasizing natural raw materials and compostableproducts ("dust to dust") a technical cycle, giving man-made materials and precious organic molecules life after life, through closed loop recycling.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
4. Closing cyclesThe ReEntry program diverted 85 million pounds of material fromlandfill between 1995 and 2005. In 2005, 18 million pounds wasdiverted from landfill and used in recycling (71%), energy captureand conversion (28%), and repurposed (1%).
The percentage of recycled or biobased content in productsworldwide has increased from0.5% in 1996 to 15.9% in 2005.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
4. Closing cycles
Water intake per square meterof carpet is down 81% in modular carpet facilities and down 52% in broadloom facilitiesfrom 1996 due to conservationefforts and process changes
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
5. Efficient resources/goods transport
We can: • videoconference to avoid the
unnecessary trip for a meeting.• drive the most efficient
automobiles available. • site our factories near the markets
they serve• plan logistics for maximum
efficiency
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
6. Sensitivity Hookup
• service to the community through involvement and investment in the community (especially in education),
• closer relations among ourselves (inside the circle) to get all of us in alignment, and with suppliers and customers.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
6. Sensitivity Hookup
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
7. Redesign of commerce
Redesigning commerce probably hinges, more than anything else, on the acceptance of entirely new notions of economics, especially prices that reflect full costs.
It means shifting emphasis from simply selling products to providing services
Relationships based on delivering, via leasing agreements, the services our products provide, in lieu of the products themselves
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
7. Redesign of commerceOther examples:Photocopies:
Elevator:
We can go farther:
In ICT: You can buy hours of word editor instead of hardware and software.In civil engineering: you can provide the service: connection between two places instead of roads. The enterprise is responsible for maintenance, in case of interruption enterprise is fined.
Schindler, Sells vertical transport maintenance free instead of elevators
Xerox: Sells copy services instead of copy machines.
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
• service oriented
• resource-efficient
• wasting nothing
• solar driven
• cyclical (no longer take-make-waste linear)
• strongly connected to stakeholders: communities (building social equity), customers, and suppliers—and to one another.
• Our communities are stronger and better educated
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Redefine engineering culture away from ‘Building things’ to ‘meeting needs sustainably’?
I built all this!
I didn’t needto build
anything new!
Providing and Refurbishing the minimum to meet society’s needs
Visible construction, at great public expense, to meet society’s wants
The 19th (& 20th?) Century Engineer The 21st Century Engineer
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007
Environment -‘inevitable’
Environment -‘inevitable’
Engineers provide the interfaces...
Society - instinctive?Society - instinctive?
• Becoming sustainable requires leaders who recognisethis world view, and act accordingly.
InfrastructureInfrastructure
ProductsProducts
Economy- invented!Economy- invented!
Course SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTNTUU “KPI”, 12-23 February 2007