Sustainable Development : The Engineering Context

While driving through the Atlantic Forest in Bahia, everywhere one looked it was green. I could not get over how much green there was. Unfortunately, only 7% of the original forest here remains today (Hance). The rapid growth of the cocoa economy combined with unsustainable practices led to this rapid decline. Agriculture still plays a major role in this region and will continue to impact the Atlantic Forest ecosystem unless more sustainable measures are put into place. There are numerous groups responsible for the direction of development in this region; however, a special emphasis needs to be placed on the role of social divisions and inequality. Presently and into the future, social classes will have an important role in the success or failure of sustainable development in the Atlantic Forest region. To comprehend why, sustainable development must be defined and then evaluated in the context of agriculture and land distribution.

8) It is profitable. 9) The biggest disadvantages is it doesn’t provide any adequate warranties.10) Remanufacturing products are always perceived as they are inferior to new products as lead to pricing and cannibalization issues. 11) Remanufacturing lead to a higher amount of emissions derived.

The modern lifestyle, full of one time use items and pollution generating machines, harming our environment is common knowledge, and, without a plan, the death of our planet is certain. Environmentalist and author, Derrick Jensen uses a comparison of possible outcomes to persuade his readers to take action that would help stop climate change; political resistance is his preferred and recommended course of action for his readers. Throughout his essay, “Forget Shorter Showers”, Jensen makes clear his desire to reduce or even reverse the effects industrialization: He suggests an approach where society makes changes to industry and to government over the current methods of

To develop and renew the urban infrastructure is a great challenge in 21th century. In Chengdu, the air quality is always terrible, which can cause some problems of citizens’ health and many cities in China have a inefficient transport system that cause large-scale traffic jam at the peak time. Chinese cities are covered with grey polluted haze and annoying voice from cars. All these problems are from the insufficient urban infrastructures. It is obvious that the necessity of improving, regenerating and advancing urban infrastructure is shown. Restoring and improving urban infrastructure is a vital way to improve the quality of citizens’ lives in cities. Environmental, financial and transport problems are the main challenges of regenerating and advancing urban infrastructure, which can be solved by government intervention and environmentally friendly strategies.

Over the course of the past few decades, humans have truly started to understand and study issues that threaten our environment in great depth. Modern environmental sustainability is defined as “the link between the health of nature and society, population growth, distribution of wealth and the combined approach to development, equity and conservation not new to social and environmental policy” (Oiamo 23). The definition of sustainability has transformed over time along with our knowledge and continually evolving understanding of the word. Sustainable development is a process that goes hand in hand with sustainability, however the definition is widely deliberated. Nonetheless, the most accepted definition was coined from the Brundtland Report in 1987 is “development that meets the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (Oiamo 28). Succinctly, sustainable development is only using the essentials needed to preserve ourselves as of right now, and nothing more. What lead to this present-day concept of environmentalism and sustainability were economic, environmental and social shifts prior to the 1970s.These are known as the three pillars of sustainability and were contrived by environmentalists such as Ebenezer Howard and Rachel Carson.

Doubtlessly, it is very simple to understand why sustainability is important: our worldwide future depends on it. This concept is established on the following interdependent issues: fossil fuel consumption, climate change due to CO2 emissions, and the rising costs of energy and water (Sustainable Housing Foundation, n.d, para. 1).

Despite recycling’s large cost, it helps to preserve and protect the world’s natural resources. By re-using the already processed materials, a person, or even a company, could save the trouble of trying to make it from raw materials by using materials already processed. Sometimes these processes, are expensive, and sometimes they are not, depending on the process.

We can state that in "Circular economy" utilizing old merchandise and utilizing crude material which is as waste, and it can be replicated and reused by reusing the item by utilizing the imaginative thoughts remembering that it doesn't influence the earth. This will help everyone to spare cash and it will give steady employment to individuals to work more in up and coming future. As we probably are aware we are in the new time of the business world as individuals are presently moving from paper cash to plastic cash and it is the change time frame for the world economy. Along these lines, same applies to our items as they require some change on the grounds that the entire world is moving towards the cutting-edge world. “Looking beyond the current [take, make and dispose] extractive industrial model, the circular economy is restorative and regenerative by design”. (1.macarthur, 2017) The circular economy can be explained as using raw materials, recycle it and use new technologies to make more efficient so that our product can be sustained for long period of time. While we are performing these task, we can generate more jobs and we require more employees as we are in producing phase, so we need more and more employees to perform the job. This sector works perfectly because we are recycling the waste and reproducing it by using different ideas, procedures and technologies to make our product perfect. (1.macarthur, 2017)

One approach that both consumers and architects can take is to buy and create recycled products. For example, for every one million cell phones recycled 35,274 pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered, according to the National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship, which addresses the federal government’s plans to enhance the management and life of electronic products as well as the discarding of e-waste. However, in order for cell phones to be recycled customers must return their products and technology companies must industriously create recycled products and encourage products to be returned. In addition to creating recyclable products and programs, many companies are going above and beyond to reduce their carbon footprint, by saving

“Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

A pointed emphasis on all that we, as humans do, is focused on environmental protection, energy conservation, and sustainability. However, long-term economic benefits must also be included as a central theme for enduring prosperity (Wang et al., 2014). The construction industry has longed been blamed for unstructured practices owing to lack of oversight, fractured coordination and self-interest that has contributed to negative environmental outcomes (Wang et al., 2014). This paper focuses on a case study that uses a sustainable project management philosophy purported to create long-term sustainability of a large social housing project.

Goal 14 addresses the issue of conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development (United Nations, 2015). There are seven targets that are used to achieve success for this goal. The targets that are truly measurable are targets 14.1, 14.3, 14.5, 14.6 and 14.7. Target 14.1 is truly measurable because firstly, marine pollution in the form of debris visibly fills the oceans and seas and can therefore be tracked to see how the amount changes with every year. Nutrient pollution causes algal growth in waterways and the algal growth can be measured to provide information on the amount of nutrient pollution in a water body. Target 14.3 is measurable because oceans’ pH levels can be measured and monitored to collect data over time. Assuming that target 14.5 is referring to 10% of the entire world’s coastal and marine regions, it is measurable. Target 14.6 is measurable because fisheries subsidies are forms of government intervention that have economic value. Since financial transfers from the government are involved, they should be recorded. Since target 14.7 focuses on the economic benefit of Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, it can be measured by looking at the specific economic activity and comparing it to previous years.

Sustainable Development is defined as expanding economic sectors and increasing wealth while at the same time minimizing the depletion of natural resources. The relations amongst nature, people, and tourism have flourished in recent years and the potential for a mutually beneficial bond between humans and their co existing environmental resources has created a new market niche which today is one of the largest growing industry sectors. Ecotourism has been a front runner in the promotion of a new strategy that focuses on the funding of conservation efforts, while ensuring to feed the socioeconomic growth that an areas habitants require. Hosting communities welcome eco-tourists to stay with them to gain an educational background on the natural history and conservation of the region while at the same time taking advantage of the tourist activities that the area provides. The accommodations, amenities, and tourist activities of these eco-tourism communities have been redesigned to be ecologically sustainable in the hope to minimize the carbon footprint of the area while encouraging a positive economic profit. This approach to conservation is a modern method which originated in Africa (Hulme & Murfree, 1999). Prior to this modern form of conservation was a deep-rooted technique which used what is known as the fortress technique to conserve natural resources. This system of practice speaks for itself because essentially, the area to be conserved will be

Fundamental for Coca Cola’s corporate culture and imperative for a sustainable business is respecting human rights and the protection of the workplace for employees. Therefore the company does everything to make sure that all people are treated with dignity and respect. „We expect our Company, our bottling partners and our suppliers to avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts as a result of business actions, and to address such impacts when they occur.”

The Environment: Is the environment a concern for engineers? If so, why, and what can be done about it? What is the role for an engineer?