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Storyboard
Sustainable Development
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:
Awareness of facts:
Awareness of strategies:
Mindset needed to engage
in design for sustainable
development
Meadows/Daly framework for
sustainable development
indicators
Design strategies for
sustainable development
what is my role as
an engineer?
what personal
development do I
need?
why indicators,
why sustainability?
3 basic types of
indicators needed
Sufficiency of
human well-being
for all
thermodynamic
realities
Efficiency of
creating well-being
upstream design
principles
redefine problem;
look for human
element
LCA & other tools
Sustainability of
environmental
integrity
This work was made possible by the National Science Foundation’s DUE#0717428 | © Jane Qiong Zhang and Linda Vanasupa
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Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development
The engineer’s role
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Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development
Using regenerated income,
not principle
expenses ≤ income
income
flow
principle
(economic, social
and natural resources)
stock
Increasing sufficiency of real
human “well-being” for all
comfort, happiness, health
expenses
flow
Activity
What happens when expenses exceed income? Give examples of income,
principle, and expenditures for economic, social and natural resources.
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H. Daly, D. Meadows
ends
happiness, community, enlightenment
means
technology, wealth, natural capital
H. Daly, D. Meadows
ends
happiness, community, enlightenment
I dedicate my professional knowledge
and skill to the advancement and
betterment of human [health, happiness
and fortune].
NSPE Engineer’s Creed, 1957
means
technology, wealth, natural capital
Sustainable Development
Engineer’s Creed
Engineer’s Creed
(National Society of Professional Engineers, 1954)
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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Sustainable Development
Sustainability
Health
Grand Challenges of Engineering
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?
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Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development
“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)
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?
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Sustainable Development
Facts: The signs for needed change
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Sustainable Development
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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Sustainable Development
Accelerated glacial melting
30 July 2006
09 Sept 1986
Edge of Helheim Glacier, Greenland
http://na.unep.net/digital_atlas2/webatlas.php?id=266
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Sustainable Development
Ecological Footprint
(giga hectares)
Ecological Footprint
=
Area of land needed to generate resources and
absorb wastes from human economic activity
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Sustainable Development
Ecological Footprint
Area within the Great Lakes watershed ~0.58 M km2
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Sustainable Development
Ecological Footprint
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
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Sustainable Development
Global expenses have been ~140% of
its ecological footprint income since
~1985.
WWF Living-Planet Report 2006 © 2006 WWF (panda.org). Some rights reserved.
Ecological Footprint
World average available ~2 gha/person;
US use ~13 gha/person
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Sustainable Development
Activity
Materials Flows in the Economy
Find five resources that are likely to run out first. How long are
these
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resources expected to last? Do we need the products they support?
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Sustainable Development
Interaction among Human and Environment
2 earths needed by 2050
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
http://na.unep.net/OnePlanetManyPeople/powerpoints.html
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Sustainable Development
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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Sustainable Development
Harmony, community,
Enlightenment, self-respect
Knowledge, wealth,
mobility
From the Daly Triangle
Well-being
Social, human, and built
capital to convert
resources to well-being
Labor, tools,
infrastructure
Natural capital
Raw materials, solar
energy, biosphere,
biochemical cycles
Indicators
like “design specifications”, they help you know when you
have achieved your goal
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Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development Indicators
Meadows suggests three indicator types:
sufficiency for all
sustainability
1
2
real human
well-being
environmental integrity
3
measures ratio,or
efficiency of converting
resources to real human
well-being
Indicators = “design specifications”
Activity (2 minutes)
Pick any two of these three types of indicators. What would be the danger of only
measuring these two?
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Sustainability of Natural Resources
Sustainable Development
Daly Rules for sustainability
2
environmental integrity
use rate < regeneration rate
Renewable resources:
Metric tons
year

Metric tons
year
regenerated
consumed
Non-Renewable resources:
Metric tons
year

Metric tons
year
Substitution by
renewables
consumed
Pollutants:
Metric tons
year

emitted
Metric tons
year
Detoxified and
absorbed by
natural systems
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Sustainable Development
Mindset Required for
Designing for Sustainability
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Sustainable Development
“We can’t solve
problems at
the same level
of thinking
used to
create them.”
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Sustainable Development
Biases
Required Inputs to Economy: Past and Present
Pre-industrial (before 1700)
Labor-intensive
(human and animal power)
Industrial (1700-2000)
Energy-intensive
(fossil fuel power)
Post-Industrial (2000-)
Design and information-intensive
(innovation power)
David Holmgren
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Sustainable Development
Events
symptoms
Patterns
trends
Systemic structures
policies, technology
Mental models
beliefs, assumptions
Peter Senge, Bob Doppelt
Sustainable Development
Events
symptoms
Patterns
trends
Systemic structures
policies, technology
Mental models
beliefs, assumptions
Peter Senge, Bob Doppelt
Sustainable Development
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
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Sustainable Development
intent
transpersonal
Formal
design
subject-subject
Material
Efficient
natural capital
processes
objects
subject-object
Aristotle, Roger Burton
Final
Sustainable Development
intent
Envisioning
new purpose
design
Redefining goals
Empowering
self-organization
Altering numbers,
stocks and flows
processes
Changing System
Rules
Roger Burton, Donella Meadows
natural capital
Sustainable Development
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)
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GROUP 1: WHAT IS THIS?
The next image should be seen only by Group 2
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GROUP 2: WHAT IS THIS?
The next image should be seen only by Group 3
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GROUP 3: WHAT IS THIS?
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
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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
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Innovative design for sustainability requires
seeing our
limits
& beyond
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Design Strategies for
Sustainable Development
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Sustainable Development
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.
For more, see Chapter 7: Mihelcic and Zimmerman
Activity (5 minutes)
What is more valuable, to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions, to
prevent aquatic toxicity, or to protect human health?
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Sustainable Development
Strengths
Considers whole
cycle,
Allows consideration
of multiple criteria
Facilitates comparison
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Limitations
Costly
Imprecision of
data
Hidden
embedded
values
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Sustainable Development
The Five I’s
Innovation:
“We can’t solve
problems at
the same level
of thinking
used to
create them.”
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Sustainable Development
The Five I’s: Inherency
1. Inherency of non-toxicity
Paul T. Anastas, Julie B. Zimmerman
Sustainable Development
2. Integration
The Five I’s: Integration
Sustainable Development
The Five I’s: Intedisciplinarity
3. Interdisciplinarity
domain
expand design
Activity (10 minutes)
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?
Sustainable Development
3. Interdisciplinarity
domain
expand design
Four I’s
The Five I’s: International
4. International