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R. Shanthini 03 Sept 2010

SustainabilityRadical resource productivity

Whole system designBiomimicry

Green chemistryIndustrial ecology

Renewable energyGreen nanotechnology


Sustainability

means surviving to infinity.

Biased to Man-made capital(buildings & equipment)

vsConventional economic view

Biased to Natural capital

(natural resources & ecosystem services)

Ecological economic view


Natural resources: - water, minerals, biomass and oil

Ecosystem services: - Land which provides space to live and work - Water and nutrient cycling - Purification of water and air - Atmospheric and ecological stability - Pollination and biodiversity - Pest and disease control - Topsoil and biological productivity - Waste decomposition and detoxification

Examples of Natural Capital:


Very Weak (Solow-) Sustainability

SD is achievable as long as the total of natural capital (KN) plus the man-made capital (KM)

remains constant.

i.e., KN + KM = constant

Conventional Economic View: It is okay to reduce KN stocks as far as they are being

substituted by increase in KM stocks.

Rationale: Increasing man-made stocks provide high incomes, which lead to increased levels of

environmental protectionism.

(Substitutability Paradigm)


Very Weak (Solow-) Sustainability

Criticism:

What about the following substitutions to maintain KM + KN = constant?

Boats for Fish Pumps for Aquifers

Saw mills for Forests

(Substitutability Paradigm)


Weak (Modified Solow-) Sustainability

SD is achievable by maintaining KN + KM = constant only by preserving the non-substitutable

proportion and/or components of KN stocks.

Rationale: Upper limits on the non-substitutable proportion and/or components of KN stocks are needed to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem

resilience to meet the human needs.

Problem: Yet there is no scientific consensus over the set of

physical indicators required to monitor and measure biodiversity and ecosystem resilience.

Eg: How much CO2 could be emitted?


Strong Sustainability

SD is achievable only when KN = constant.

(Non-substitutability Paradigm)Rationale:

Non-substitutability of some components of KN;

Uncertainty about ecosystem functioning and their total service value;

Irreversibility of some environmental resource degradation and/or loss;

Scale of human impact relative to global carrying capacity (scale effect)

Eg: greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion and

acid rain


Criticism of Weak & Strong Sustainabilities

They both assume a centralized decision-making process and a decision-maker who decides on behalf of “society” among alternative programs and plans.

In reality, virtually all economic decisions are decentralized among many much narrower interests,

namely individuals, family groups, or firms.

Even with the best concerns for the welfare of future generations and the planet, most decision-makers

optimize within a much narrower context.

Eg: Purchase of a car

Source: R. U. Ayres, ‘Viewpoint: weak versus strong sustainability’


Natural Capitalism

Industrial Capitalism recognizes the value of money and goods as capital.

Natural Capitalism extends recognition to natural capital and human capital.

Problems such as pollution and social injustice may then be seen as failures to properly account for

capital, rather than as inherent features of Capitalism itself.

Eg: Polluting with a car or not being able to afford a car will be seen as a failure of the political system

forcing it to seek remedies.

Source: P. Hawken, A. Lovins and H. Lovins, 1999‘Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution.’


Tata’s nano car – any comments?

R. Shanthini 03 Sept 2010 Source: www.cartoonstock.com/directory/t/traffic_jams.asp

Negative direction in Industrial CapitalismPositive direction in Natural Capitalism


Natural Capitalism

The "next industrial revolution" depends on four central strategies:

- conservation of resources through more effective manufacturing processes

- reuse of materials as found in natural systems

- change in values from quantity to quality

- investing in natural capital, or restoring and sustaining natural resources

Source: P. Hawken, A. Lovins and H. Lovins, 1999‘Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution.’


means doing more with less for longer.

Radical Resource Productivity (or Eco-efficiency)

An (engineering) drive to dramatically increase the output per unit input of resources

(such as energy, man-made materials & natural resources such as air, water, or minerals).


The Industrial Revolution led to a radical increase in labour productivity and capital productivity at the cost of exploitation of natural resources

which are considered abundant.

What is needed now is a radical increase in resource productivity

because it can slow or reverse resource depletion,reduce pollution caused by the inefficient

use of resources,and save money.

Source: http://www.sustainabilitydictionary.com



World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has identified the following

seven elements of eco-efficiency:

- reduce the material requirements for goods & services

- reduce the energy intensity of goods & services

- enhance material recyclability

- maximize sustainable use of renewable resources

- extend product durability - increase the service intensity of goods & services

- reduce toxic dispersion



Increasing efficiency could result in Rebound Effect

Example of Rebound Effect:

In Scotland, about a 66% efficiency increase was realized in making of steel per unit amount of coal consumed.

It was however followed by a tenfold increase in total consumption of coal.





A consumer saved 90% electricity by replacing an inefficient light bulb by a 90% more efficient one.

He/she may forget to turn the light off and/or may leave it on for prolonged periods.





A family purchased a hybrid car which is 50% more efficient than a standard car.

It paid half as much for petrol to go a km.

Therefore it may decide to drive the car more.



Purposeful sustainability policies and incentives for sustainability orientated behaviour change

are needed to make efficiency savings meaningful.

Otherwise efficiency saving can lead to rebound effects that lead to even greater resource consumption due to either making a process much cheaper or

removing the financial incentive for behaviour change.



Whole System Design

optimizes an entire system to capture synergies.

Source: http://www.frugalmarketing.com/dtb/10xe.shtml

What is synergy?

Synergy means combined effort being greater than parts


Synergy in Ecosystem

Commensalism: one population benefits and the other is not affected

Mutualism: both populations benefit and neither can survive without the other

Protocooperation: both populations benefit but the relationship is not obligatory


Parasitism – one is inhibited and for the other its obligatory

Amensalism - one is inhibited and the other is not affected

Competition – one’s fitness is lowered by the presence of the other

Antagonism (the opposite to synergy) in Ecosystem

http://www.answers.com/main/Record2?a=NR&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcommons.wikimedia.org%2Fwiki%2FImage%3ABN-forest.jpg


Take a look at an age-old exampleof synergy:

Whole System Design


Pumping is the largest use of electric motors, which use more than 50% of world’s electricity use.

One heat-transfer loop was designed to use 14 pumps totalling 71 kW by a top Western firm.

Dutch engineer Jan Schilham cut the design’s pumping power use by 92% to just 5 kW

(using the methods learned from the efficiency expert Eng Lock Lee of Singapore)

Source: http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/LovinsLovins1997.pdf

Whole System Design

A modern example of synergy:


How was that possible? The pipes diameter was increased. Since friction reduction is proportional to diameter5, small pumps were enough.

Pipes were laid out before the equipment installation. The pipes are therefore short and straight, with far less friction, requiring smaller and cheaper pumps,

motors and inverters.

The straighter pipes also allowed to add more insulation, saving 70 kW of heat loss with a 2-month payback.


Whole System Design


What about the cost?

Optimizing the lifecycle savings in pumping energy plus capital cost of the whole system showed that the extra cost of the slightly bigger pipes was smaller than the cost reduction for the dramatically smaller pumps and drive systems.

Whole-system life cycle costing is widely used in principle, but in practice, energy-using

components are usually optimized (if at all) over the short term, singly, and in isolation.


Whole System Design


Whole System Design

Traditional engineering design process focuses on optimizing components for

single benefits rather than whole systems for multiple benefits.

WSD requires creativity, good communication, and a desire to look at causes of problems

rather than adopting familiar solutions, and it requires getting to the root of the problem.



Whole System Design

A future example: Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) building in British Columbia

all heating and cooling from the ground underneath the building all electricity from the sun

use 100% day-lighting during the day use no external water supply

depend on natural ventilation and sustainable building materials treat all waste produced

minimize the use of private automobiles have hospital operating room levels of air quality

improve the productivity and health of building occupants

Sustainable Buildings


Green(siting, water, energy, and material efficiencies reduce the building footprint)

Humane(occupants are happy, healthy and productive)

Smart(fully

adaptive to new

conditions while being

cost competitive)

Sustainable Buildings

Whole System Design


Like the engineering profession itself, engineering education is compartmentalized,

with minimal consideration of systems, design, sustainability, and economics.

The traditional design process focuses on optimizing components for single benefits rather

than whole systems for multiple benefits.

This, plus schedule-driven repetitis (i.e., copy the previous drawings),

perpetuates inferior design.

Whole System Design



Worked Examples on WSD from Natural Edge Project, Australia

Example 1: Industrial Pumping Systems

Example 2: Passenger Vehicles

Example 3: Electronic and Computer Systems

Example 4: Temperature Control of Buildings

Example 5: Domestic Water Systems

Whole System Design

Source: http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/Whole_System_Design.aspx

(Uploaded at www.rshanthini.com)

http://www.rshanthini.com/


Rocky Mountain Institute started a Factor Ten Engineering (“10XE”), a four-year program to develop and introduce pedagogic tools on whole-system design for both engineering students and practicing engineers.

The focus is on case studies where whole-system design boosted resource productivity by at least tenfold, usually at lower initial cost than

traditional engineering approaches.

Whole System Design



Study nature, observe its ingenious

designs and processes, and then

imitates these designs and

processes to solve human problems.

Biomimicry (or Bionics)

‘Nature knows what works, what is appropriate,

and what lasts here on Earth.’


Janine Benyus

Author of ‘Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature’, a book that has galvanized scientists, architects, designers and engineers into exploring new ways in which nature's successes can inspire humanity.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/janine_benyus_shares_nature_s_designs.html




Termite mounds include flues which vent through the top and sides, and the mound itself is designed to catch the breeze.

As the wind blows, hot air from the main chambers below ground is drawn out of the structure, helped by termites opening or blocking tunnels to control air flow.



Eastgate centre(shopping centre and office block) at central Harare, Zimbabwe ismodelled on local termite mounds and is ventilated and cooled entirely by natural means.


Super-grip gecko tape modelled after gecko’s feet



Biomimicry (or Bionics)Trapped air on the rough surface of the lotus leaf reduces liquid-to-solid contact area.

Due to self-attraction, water forms a sphere.

Due to natural adhesion between water and solids, dirt particles on a leaf's surface stick to the water.

The slightest angle in the surface of the leaf causes balls of water to roll off the leaf surface, carrying away the attached dirt particles.

Source: http://biomimicryinstitute.org/case-studies/



GreenShield™ coats textile fibres with liquid repelling nano particles in order to create water and stain repellency on textiles, and results in a 10-fold decrease in the use of environmentally harmful fluorocarbons (the conventional means of achieving repellency). Other products inspired by the

Lotus Effect include Lotusan paint and Signapur glass finish.


Fiber that can stop bullets is made from petroleum-derived molecules at high-pressure and high temperature with concentrated sulfuric acid. The energy input is extreme and the toxic byproducts are horrible.


Spider makes equally strong and much tougher fiber at body temperature, without high pressures, heat, or corrosive acids. If we could act like the spider, we could take a soluble, renewable raw material and make a super-strong water-insoluble fiber with negligible energy inputs and no toxic outputs.

Janine Benyus, 1997


Nature runs on sunlight Nature uses only the energy it needs Nature fits form to function Nature recycles everything Nature rewards cooperation Nature banks on diversity Nature demands local expertise Nature curbs excesses from within Nature taps the power of limits

Janine Benyus, 1997



Nature fits form to function- An owl can fly silently to avoid being heard or seen.

- A penguin uses its "wings" to swim due to the large

portion of water in their environment. - Anymore…….



Nature taps the power of limitswe humans regard limits as something to be overcome

so we can continue our expansion. Other Earthlings

take their limits more seriously, knowing they must

function within a tight range of life-friendly temperatures,

harvest within the carrying capacity of the land, and

maintain an energy balance that cannot be borrowed

against.



We flew like a bird for the first time in 1903, and by 1914, we were dropping bombs

from the sky.

Perhaps in the end, it will not be a change in technology that will bring us to the

biomimetic future, but a change of heart, a humbling that allows us to be attentive to

nature's lessons.

- Janine Benyus, 1997



How to evaluate innovation?We need to consider how an innovation will impact the

planet. So ask these questions:

Does it run on sunlight? Does it use only the energy it needs?

Does it fit form to function? Does it recycle everything? Does it reward cooperation? Does it bank on diversity?

Does it utilize local expertise? Does it curb excess from within? Does it tap the power of limits?

Is it beautiful?Source: http://www.wanderings.net/notebook/Main/BiomimicryByJanineBenyus

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Education

radical resource

pdfwhole system

nature fits

system design

industrial

radical increase

kn stocks

system designsource