sustainable development 1 storyboard 3 basic types of indicators needed why indicators, why...

Sustainable Development

1

Storyboard

3 basic types of indicators needed

why indicators, why sustainability?

what is my role as an engineer?

what personal development do I need?

thermodynamic realities

upstream design principles

redefine problem; look for human element

LCA & other tools

Sufficiency of human well-being for all

Sustainability of environmental integrity

Awareness of facts:Meadows/Daly framework for sustainable development indicators

Main point Sustainable development is a way of thinking that involves a) living within the thermodynamic limits of the natural system; b) Increasing the sufficiency of real human wealth for all.

Awareness of personal role:Mindset needed to engage in design for sustainable development

Awareness of strategies:Design strategies for sustainable development

Efficiency of creating well-being

This work was made possible by the National Science Foundation’s DUE#0717428 | © Jane Qiong Zhang and Linda Vanasupa



2

The engineer’s role



Activity

What happens when expenses exceed income? Give examples of income, principle, and expenditures for economic, social and natural resources.

principle(economic, social

and natural resources)income

expenses ≤ income comfort, happiness, health

Using regenerated income, not principle

Increasing sufficiency of real human “well-being” for all


expenses

3

stockflowflow

ends

means

happiness, community, enlightenment

technology, wealth, natural capital

H. D

aly

, D. M

eado

ws

ends

means

happiness, community, enlightenment

technology, wealth, natural capital

I dedicate my professional knowledge and skill to the advancement and

betterment of human [health, happiness and fortune].

NSPE Engineer’s Creed, 1957

H. D

aly

, D. M

eado

ws


Engineer’s Creed

I dedicate my professional knowledge to the advancement and betterment of human welfare*. *welfare-health, happiness and fortune

Activity

Describe how preserving the environment is consistent with the “enhancement and betterment of human welfare” stated in the Engineer’s Creed. Alternative Activity

Draw a causal loop diagram that illustrates how preserving the environment is consistent with the “enhancement and betterment of human welfare” stated in the Engineer’s Creed.

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Engineer’s Creed (National Society of Professional Engineers, 1954)


Sustainability Health Safety The joy of living

Activity

How do each of the four areas fit within the role of the engineer as expressed in the Engineer’s Creed?

Alternative Activity

Draw a causal loop diagram showing how the four areas fit within the role of the engineer as expressed in the Engineer’s Creed?

Grand Challenges of Engineering

7



Classroom Activity

(2 minutes)

Discuss the above definition. What are needs of the present? What are needs of future generations? How those needs are met?

“Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the

ability of future generations to meet their own

needs”

(The World Commission on Environment and Development, United Nations,1987)

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Facts: The signs for needed change

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Our Earth: A Closed Thermodynamic System

Activity (2 minutes)

Identify the sources and sinks for materials used in our economy, which sits wholly within a closed, thermodynamic system? Do the same for energy.

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Accelerated glacial melting

http://na.unep.net/digital_atlas2/webatlas.php?id=266

09 Sept 1986 30 July 2006

Edge of Helheim Glacier, Greenland

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Area of land needed to generate resources and absorb wastes from human economic activity

Ecological Footprint

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Ecological Footprint(giga hectares)

=



13

Area within the Great Lakes watershed ~0.58 M km2



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Current human activity Michigan requires an equivalent of 8 x the actual area, or 4.6 M km2.

Is this sustainable?

Area within the Great Lakes watershed ~0.58 M km2


WWF Living-Planet Report 2006 © 2006 WWF (panda.org). Some rights reserved.

Global expenses have been ~140% of its ecological footprint income since ~1985.

World average available ~2 gha/person;US use ~13 gha/person


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7Activity16

Find five resources that are likely to run out first. How long are these resources expected to last? Do we need the products they support?

Materials Flows in the Economy


Interaction among Human and Environment

Evidence of past 30 years:

•the shrinking ice in the Arctic;

•melting glaciers;

•growth of cities like Las Vegasl

•forest loss in the Amazon;

•the decline of the Aral Sea and Lake Chad

17http://na.unep.net/OnePlanetManyPeople/powerpoints.html

2 earths needed by 2050


Meadows Framework for Sustainable Development

Indicators

source: D. Meadows, “Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development,”

A Report to the Balaton Group, The Sustainability Institute, Hartland, VT (1998)

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Indicators

like “design specifications”, they help you know when you have achieved your goal

Well-being

Natural capital

Social, human, and built capital to convert resources to well-being

From the Daly Triangle

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Harmony, community, Enlightenment, self-respect

Knowledge, wealth, mobility

Labor, tools, infrastructure

Raw materials, solar energy, biosphere, biochemical cycles


Sustainable Development Indicators

real human well-being

environmental integrity

sufficiency for all

sustainability

measures ratio,or efficiency of converting resources to real human well-being2

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Meadows suggests three indicator types:

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Pick any two of these three types of indicators. What would be the danger of only measuring these two?

Indicators = “design specifications”


Sustainability of Natural Resources

use rate < regeneration rate

Renewable resources:

Non-Renewable resources:

Pollutants:

Metric tons

year≤

consumed regenerated

consumed

Substitution byrenewables

emitted

Detoxified and absorbed by natural systems

Daly Rules for environmental integrity

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Metric tons

year

Metric tons

year

Metric tons

year

Metric tons

year

Metric tons

year

≤

≤

sustainability 2


Mindset Required forDesigning for Sustainability

22

Sustainable Development “We can’t

solve problems at the same level of thinking used to create them.”

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Biases

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Pre-industrial (before 1700)

Industrial (1700-2000)

Post-Industrial (2000-)

Labor-intensive(human and animal power)

Energy-intensive(fossil fuel power)

Design and information-intensive (innovation power)

Required Inputs to Economy: Past and Present

David Holmgren


Events

Mental models

beliefs, assumptions

Systemic structures

policies, technology

Patterns

trends

symptoms

Peter Senge, Bob Doppelt


Mental Models at Work

Activity

What are the mental models at work?

5 minutes: Identify the mental models that are at work within each of these stages 27


Material

objects subject-object

Efficient

Final

transpersonal

Formal

subject-subject

Ari

stotl

e,

Roger

Burt

on

natural capital processes

designintent


natural capital

intent design

Roger

Burt

on,

Donella

Meadow

s

Redefining goalsEnvisioning

new purpose

Empowering self-organization

Changing System Rules

Altering numbers,

stocks and flows

processes


A Vision Test

Can you identify this animal?

(Divide the room into three groups of viewers, the next image should be seen only by Group 1)

30

GROUP 1: WHAT IS THIS?

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The next image should be seen only by Group 2


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The next image should be seen only by Group 3


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You are all looking at the same thing.

Take 60 seconds in small groups to indentify what you saw.

© 2009 - Jane Qiong Zhang and Linda Vanasupa

You are all looking at the same thing.

Take 60 seconds in small groups to indentify what you saw.

34© 2009 - Jane Qiong Zhang and Linda Vanasupa

Innovative design for sustainability requires

& beyond

35

seeing our limits

Design Strategies for Sustainable Development

36


Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

o Inventories inputs and outputs of product or process life cycle;

o Converts inventory to impact in categories (e.g. global warming, acidification, aquatic toxicity, human health);

o Applies value-based weighting of categories to compute a single impact number.


What is more valuable, to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions, to prevent aquatic toxicity, or to protect human health?

37

For more, see Chapter 7: Mihelcic and Zimmerman


Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Strengths

Considers whole cycle,

Allows consideration of multiple criteria

Facilitates comparison

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Limitations

Costly

Imprecision of data

Hidden embedded

values


Innovation:

“We can’t solve problems at the same level of thinking used to create them.”

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The Five I’s


The Five I’s: Inherency

1. Inherency of non-toxicity

Paul T. Anastas, Julie B. Zimmerman


2. Integration

The Five I’s: Integration


3. Interdisciplinarity

domain domain expand designexpand design

The Five I’s: Intedisciplinarity


Trends indicate the world population will grow from 6.6 Billion to 9 Billion people by 2050. What would it take to reduce the impact in this scenario to half of what it is now?


Four I’s

3. Interdisciplinarity

domain domain expand designexpand design

4. International

The Five I’s: International

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