Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Earth Island: Solutions Industrial Engineering & The Environment Lecture 14 Outline Environmental Solutions • Some facts about the problem • Some Roles for Industrial Engineers – Pollution Prevention in Production Processes – Understanding the Systems Problems – Assessing Systems • Sustainability – at Georgia Tech – The Natural Step – Natural Capitalism Frightening Facts • 180 million tons of trash/year in U.S. • 50% of topsoil • Everglades extinct? • Loss of species – frogs – we save mountains, not lowlands • Water, aquifers More facts • Fertility rates • Waste • Equilibria Pollution Prevention Idea: instead of treating waste, don’t produce it. – Move the environmental solution upstream in the production process,just as we move quality concerns upstream. – Role of I.E.s Understanding Systems Problems • Tragedy of Commons. – Example: whales and the IWC – Example: strip mining the ocean floor, where there is a new species every square meter. • Limits to Growth – Example: Human Population, now over 6,000,000,000 • Transportation Engineering: – Building more highways does not reduce traffic problems. (Why?) It increases oil usage and pollution. Assessing Systems • A production process can not always be evaluated in isolation, but must be evaluated in situ, as part of a system • IE methods and approaches can help in the evaluation of systems Sustainability The idea: Could we continue our current activities indefinitely? A definition of sustainability (Carol Carmichael, Ga. Tech Center for Sustainability) Sustainability at Georgia Tech • We are one of the leading institutions • Georgia Tech mission statement • Center for Sustainable Technology • Project 3: you assess sustainability. The Natural Step • Four Principles – Systematic destruction of green space – Systematic removal of material from earth’s crust – Systematic placement of material requiring safeguarding into the environment • Founded by Dr. Roberds. Now in many countries. • Can we tax resource use rather than profits? Natural Capitalism (Lovinses, Hawken) • Paul Hawken in The Ecology of Commerce says that industry must save the environment because it must. It is the only entity powerful enough to do so. • Natural Capitalism proposes ideas for a different business mindset. • One idea: Provide services, not goods – Example: Ray Anderson’s company Interfaces leases carpet squares Service vs. Product • Imagine buying the use of a working automobile for 12 years. Notice how this would change the incentives of the automobile manufacturer.