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Assessing Engineering Designs for Environmental, Economic, and Social Impact
Engineers will play a central role in addressing one of the twenty-first century’s key challenges: the development of new technologies that address societal needs and wants within the constraints imposed by limited natural resources and the need to protect environmental systems.
To create tomorrow’s sustainable products, engineers must carefully consider environmental, economic, and social factors in evaluating their designs. Fortunately, quantitative tools for incorporating sustainability concepts into engineering designs and performance metrics are now emerging. Sustainable Engineering introduces these tools and shows how to apply them.
Building on widely accepted principles they first introduced in Green Engineering, David T. Allen and David R. Shonnard discuss key aspects of designing sustainable systems in any engineering discipline. Their powerful, unified approach integrates essential engineering and quantitative design skills, industry perspectives, and case studies, enabling engineering professionals, educators, and students to incorporate sustainability throughout their work. Coverage includes
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
About the Authors xiii
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Sustainability 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 The Magnitude of the Sustainability Challenge 2
1.3 Energy 3
1.4 Materials Use 8
1.5 Environmental Emissions 13
1.6 Summary 27
Problems 28
References 32
Chapter 2: Risk and Life-Cycle Frameworks for Sustainability 35
2.1 Introduction 35
2.2 Risk 35
2.3 Life-Cycle Frameworks 42
2.4 Life-Cycle Assessment Tools 55
2.5 Summary 57
Problems 57
Appendix: Readily Available Hazard References 61
References 62
Chapter 3: Environmental Law and Regulation 65
3.1 Introduction 65
3.2 Nine Prominent Federal Environmental Statutes 68
3.3 Evolution of Regulatory and Voluntary Programs from End-of-Pipe to Pollution Prevention and Sustainability 72
3.4 Pollution Prevention Concepts and Terminology 73
3.5 Environmental Law and Sustainability 74
Problems 75
Appendix 77
References 89
Chapter 4: Green, Sustainable Materials 91
4.1 Introduction 91
4.2 Environmental and Natural Resource Use Footprints of Material Extraction and Refining 91
4.3 Tracking Material Flows in Engineered Systems 99
4.4 Environmental Releases 107
4.5 Summary 114
Problems 114
References 115
Chapter 5: Design for Sustainability: Economic, Environmental, and Social Indicators 117
5.1 Introduction 117
5.2 Sustainable Engineering Design Principles 118
5.3 Economic Performance Indicators 126
5.4 Environmental Performance Indicators 133
5.5 Social Performance Indicators 146
5.6 Summary 149
Problems 149
Appendix 151
References 160
Chapter 6: Case Studies 165
6.1 Introduction 165
6.2 Biofuels for Transportation 166
6.3 Transportation, Logistics, and Supply Chains 181
6.4 Sustainable Built Environments 186
6.5 Additional Case Studies 201
References 201
Index 207