SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING (MCN 201) SREE BUDDHA COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, PATTOR

MCN 201 - Sustainable Engineering

Module 1
SYLLABUS
Sustainability – Introduction, Concept of Sustainability, Need for Sustainability, evolution
of the concept, social, environmental and economic sustainability concepts. Sustainable
development, Nexus between technology and Sustainable development, Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), CleanDevelopment
Mechanism (CDM)

SUSTAINABILITY- INTRODUCTION
The concept of sustainability become so important nowadays, because of the irreparable
damage caused to the environment by industrial civilization & consumerism, which originated
about 3 centuries ago.
They were based on the following wrong assumptions:
• The earth belongs to humans only
• Ignore the fact that humans are part of the Earth's biosphere
• Earth's stock of resources are infinite
• The environment can bear any amount of damage that is caused by human
activity.
The advantages & disadvantages of industrial civilization & consumerism are listed below: -
Advantages
1. Flourished the economy
2. Improved the living quality of the society
Disadvantages
1. Caused irreparable damage to the environment
2. Pose a threat to the life support systems of the earth.
3. E.g.1.The hole in the ozone layer surrounding our planet as a shield against the
dangerous ultraviolet radiation from the sun
E.g.2. Increased carbon dioxide content and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that
causes global warming
Several warnings concerning the instability of Earth’s life support systems have been raised in
recent times. In 1992, some of the world’s senior scientists from 70 countries, signed and sent
an urgent warning “The environment is suffering critical stress…” to the government leaders

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of all nations as part of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the
“Earth Summit”) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This marked the beginning of the concept of
sustainability.
Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-
being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. Sustainability creates
and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony,
that permits fulfilling the requirements of present and future generations. Sustainability is
important to make sure that we have and will continue to have, the water, materials, and
resources to protect human health and our environment.
SUSTAINABILITY- DEFINITION
Sustainability is the ability to achieve continuing economic prosperity while protecting the
natural systems of the planet and providing a high quality of life for its people.
The evolution of sustainable development concept

SUSTAINABILITY- NEED & CONCEPT

Sustainability has three components, which are inter-related, as shown in Fig.1:
• Environment

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• Society
• Economy

• The environment gives resources, raw materials to the Economy for production
activities.
• The economy creates products and sells them to society for use. Production by
Economy Consumption by Society leads to the following environmental impacts.
The environmental impact, caused by the economy on production and society on consumption,
leads to the following damages to human life.
1. Freshwater scarcity
2. Climate change
3. Exposure to toxins in food, air, water, and soil
4. Emerging diseases
5. Food insecurity resulting in poverty
6. Energy scarcity due to depletion of non-renewable resources
7. Ecosystem damage and habitat loss due to pollutant discharges
8. Sea level rise
The need for sustainability is to reduce these damages and create livable planet earth for future
generations. For this, United Nations presented the following key sustainability concepts: -
Intergenerational equity – Expects the present generation to hand over a safe, healthy, and
resourceful environment to the future generation. Intra-generational equity – Emphasize the
technological development should support the economic growth of the poorer section, so as to
reduce the gap between nations. Sustainability means balancing the environment, society, and
economy.
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SOCIAL- ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPTS

The concept of sustainability is based on the basis that people and their communities are made
up of social, economic, and environmental systems that are in constant interaction and that
must be kept in harmony.

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
There are six principles of sustainability that can help a community ensure that its social,
economic, and environmental systems are well integrated and will endure. A community or
society that wants to pursue sustainability will try to:
1. Maintain residents’ quality of life.
Quality of life has many components: income, education, health care, housing, employment,
legal rights. Each locality must define and plan for the quality of life it wants and believes it
can achieve, for now, and for future generations.
2. Enhance local economic vitality.
A viable local economy is essential to sustainability. This includes job opportunities, a

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sufficient tax base and revenue to support the government and the provision of infrastructure
and services, and a suitable business climate.
3. Promote social and intergenerational equity.
A sustainable community’s resources and opportunities are available to everyone, regardless of
ethnicity, age, gender, cultural background, religion, or other characteristics. Further, a
sustainable community does not deplete its resources and destroy natural systems.
4. Maintain the quality of the environment.
A sustainable community tries to find ways to co-exist with the natural environment and
ecosystem. It avoids unnecessary degradation of the air, oceans, freshwater, and other natural
systems.
5. Incorporate disaster resilience and mitigation into its decisions and actions.
A community is resilient in the face of inevitable natural disasters like tornadoes, hurricanes,
earthquakes, floods, and drought if it takes steps to ensure that such events cause as little
damages possible.
6. Use a consensus-building, participatory process when making decisions.
Participatory processes are vital to community sustainability... It encourages the identification
of concerns and issues, promotes the wide generation of ideas for dealing with those concerns,
and helps those involved find a way to reach an agreement about solutions.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Environmental sustainability requires:
1. Maintenance of biodiversity (genes, species, and ecosystems)
2. Protection of natural capital (air, water, soils, etc)
3. Maintenance of the energy and material cycles of the planet
4. Health and resilience of all life support systems.
This can be achieved by:
1. Reduce dependence upon finite, virgin resources like Fossil fuels, minerals, and metals
2. Nature must not be subjected to increased concentrations of substances produced by
society. This requires that consideration be given to the biodegradability of substances
and the length of time it takes the earth to reabsorb them.
3. The physical basis for the productivity and biodiversity of nature must be not
systematically degraded. This requires that we protect diverse and special habitats.
4. There must be efficient use and fair distribution of resources to enable humans to meet
their needs. This requires a reduction in consumerism, especially among wealthy
nations.
ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY
Economic sustainability ensures that the industry or business is making a profit without
creating much damage to the environment/ecology. Economic growth is expressed in terms of
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Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is the total amount of products produced within a nation,
within one year. Economic growth has to be sustainable if it improves the quality of human
life. Thus, population factors must be included to ensure fair resource consumption.
ECONOMIC-SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MATRIX

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (Definition proposed
by the Brundtland Commission in 1987 in their report “Our Common Future”).
Sustainable development (SD) is a process for meeting human development goals while
maintaining the ability of natural systems to continue to provide the natural resources and
ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend.
The three pillars of sustainable development are environment, society, and economy.
Sustainable development should have the following features: -
1. Satisfying human needs
2. Favoring a good quality of life through decent standards of living
3. Sharing resources between rich and poor
4. Acting with concern for future generations
5. Looking at the ‘cradle-to-grave’ impact when consuming
6. Minimizing resource use, waste, and pollution
CHALLENGES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
A variety of challenges exist in the modern world that may hinder efforts towards sustainable
development. Some of them are
• Misconception about sustainable development: The popular perception that
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undertaking a sustainable development path hinders developmental activities

• Population explosion in the developing economics (requires more food, energy, goods)
• Over exploitation of natural resources in the developed countries (Created a huge
imbalance between the rich nations and the developing nations)
• Poverty
• Poor solid waste management
• Scarcity of fresh water
• Loss in biodiversity
• Over dependence on fossil fuels leading to global warming and climate change.
• Absence of adequate political and industrial will for moving towards a sustainable
future. Corruption and misuse of sustainable development assistance funds
• High cost of the appropriate technology to tap renewable energy resources
• Lack of co-ordination between three pillars of sustainable development
• Unsustainable urbanization which results in slums, congestion of living space,
inadequate food and poverty.
• Absence of strict environmental laws and legislations, to curb the menace of pollution
• Lack of broad public awareness towards sustainable development.

MEASURES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The following are the measures of sustainability development: -
1. Technology:
Using appropriate technology is one that is locally adaptable, eco-friendly, cost-effective and
culturally suitable. Nature is often taken as a model, using the natural conditions of that
region as its components. This concept is known as “design with nature”.
2. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle Approach:
The 3-R approach advocating minimization of resource use, using them again, and recycling
the materials. It reduces pressure o our resources as well as reduces waste generation and
pollution.
3. Promoting Environmental Education and Awareness:
Making environmental education the center of all learning processes will greatly help
in changing the thinking pattern and attitude of people towards our earth and the
environment.
4. Resource Utilization as Per Carrying Capacity:
Any system can sustain a limited number of organisms on a long-term basis which is known
as its carrying capacity. If the carrying capacity of a system is crossed (say, by

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overexploitation of a resource), environmental degradation starts.

5. Improving Quality of Life Including Social, Cultural and Economic Dimensions:
Development should not focus just on one section of already affluent people. Rather it
shouldinclude sharing of benefits between the rich and the poor. The tribal, ethnic people
and their cultural heritage should also be conserved.

Egg of Sustainability model

The ‘Egg of Sustainability’ model was designed in1994 by International Union for the
Conservation of Nature. It illustrates the relationship between people and ecosystem as one
circle inside another, like the yolk of an egg. For an egg to be good, both the yolk and the
white should be good. Sustainable development is the sum of the total well-being of the
people and ecosystem

NEXUS BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Technology is the on the offspring of science. Technological innovation can be seen as a
‘double-edged sword, with respect to sustainable development.
(i) Technology improves the quality of life, eliminate diseases, and
increase life expectancy
(ii) On the other hand, technology creates irreparable environmental
damage due to resource extraction and pollution of air, water, soil.
As technology advances, environmental degradation accelerates exponentially. Also, the
benefits of technological innovations are mostly enjoyed by the developed countries.
Technology remains a dream for underdeveloped countries which still face poverty, inadequate
sanitation facilities, etc.
Hence it is essential to integrate technology, society into sustainability.
Technology can support sustainability by
1. Conserving natural capital (renewable and nonrenewable
resources)
2. Reducing waste and pollution
3. Raising efficiency standards
4. Finding substitutes for toxic/hazardous materials
Pollution prevention and cleaner production technologies are more cost-effective than the end
of pipe waste treatment technology. Some of the technological applications towards sustainable
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development in various sectors are given below.

NEXUS BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY & SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals-environmental health, economic
profitability, and social and economic equity. Some of the common ways towards sustainable
agriculture are:
a) Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
b) Rotational Grazing
c) Soil conservation
d) Water quality/wetlands
e) Cover crops
f) Crop/ landscape r diversity
g) Nutrient management
h) Agro-forestry
NEXUS BETWEEN ENERGY TECHNOLOGY & SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• Technologies to invest more in energy efficiency and renewable energy applications
(specifically solar and wind, bio fuel, waste to energy techniques)
• Technology to optimize the consumption of non-renewable energy sources (use of
energy efficient equipment, star rated appliances etc)
• Achieving energy efficiency in buildings in the form of ventilation, lighting efficiency,
passive heating and cooling in buildings etc
• Transition of incandescent bulbs to CFL and then to LED bulbs have conserved
energy.
Nexus between Environmental Technology and Sustainable Development
• Sustainable wastewater treatment and its efficient disposal
• Technologies for reducing waste (at source) and efficient solid waste management
• Technologies for providing access to safe drinking water
• Pollution prevention and cleaner production technologies
• Technologies to reduce day to day operation inefficiencies, emission of environmental
contaminants, exposure to hazardous materials and gaseous emissions.
• Technology to mitigate risk of disasters.
Nexus between disease related Bio-medical Technology and Sustainable Development
• Technologies for the improvement of healthcare systems
• Opening of international health research centers to research on newly developed diseases
and their control, sources of health problems as well as conduct local research on design
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and delivery of health maintenance system.

• Technology to make simple drugs available throughout the world.
• Implementation of proper sanitation facilities and access to clean water can have a
tremendous impact on controlling diseases.
• Technologies to reduce maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate and to improve
life expectancy.
Nexus between Communication - Information Technology and Sustainable
Development
Information, education and communication technologies are the fundamentals to achieve
sustainable development. Educational programmes at all levels are needed to effectively teach
the relation between poverty, population growth, resource consumption, environmental
degradation and sustainable development. These programmes will create awareness and
develop an attitude of concern for the environment. Video conferencing is an effective tool.
This technology allows health practitioner to treat patients from anywhere without the need
of travel, thereby reducing unnecessary costs, travel time and greenhouse gas emissions.
Communication devices such as radio, television, cellular phones, computer networks,
satellite systems etc are used to create awareness as it has greater access to the global
population.
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs)
The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are eight goals that all 191 UN member
states have agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015. The United Nations Millennium
Declaration, signed in September 2000 commits world leaders to combat poverty, hunger,
disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and discrimination against women. The MDGs
are derived from this Declaration, and all have specific targets and indicators.
The eight MDGs are the following
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
2. To achieve universal primary education;
3. To promote gender equality and empower women;
4. To reduce child mortality;
5. To improve maternal health;
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
7. To ensure environmental sustainability; and
8. To develop a global partnership for the development
Importance of MDGs
The MDGs are interdependent; all the MDG influence health, and health influences all the
MDGs. For example, better health enables children to learn and adults to earn. Gender equality
is essential to the achievement of better health. Reducing poverty, hunger and environmental
degradation positively influences, but also depends on, better health.

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Gap for improvement between the progress of MDGs and the present goals

This significant gap mainly reflected in the following aspects:

• Conflicts remained the biggest threats to human development.

• The achievement of each subproject’s objectives was unbalanced.

• MDGs progress in each region was uneven. For instance, East Asia and South America
fared much better than Africa. Despite noticeable progress, there were still large gaps
between rural and urban, and between the poorest and richest households.

• There was a large gap between the efforts and performance of developed countries and
their commitments. Developed countries had made several international public pledges
of assistance to developing countries, but most of these pledges had not been delivered
on time.

• The focus of MDGs was to solve the survival problems faced by the extreme poverty
in developing countries, but due attention was not paid to how to guarantee sustainable
development.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs)
Recently, the international community decided to adopt a new set of development goals
focusing on improving the sustainability of nation-states. The need for a new set of targets was
developed at the Rio +20 Conference, held in Rio de Janeiro, in June 2012. The Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) build on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals.
As mentioned, in a press release, by Wu Hongbo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for
Economic and Social Affairs.
Sustainable development goals that build on the successes of the Millennium Development
Goals, and that apply to all countries, can provide a tremendous boost to efforts to implement
sustainable development and help us address issues ranging from reducing poverty and creating
jobs to the pressing issues of meeting economic, social and environmental aspirations of all
people.
The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to transform our world:
GOAL 1: No Poverty
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
GOAL 4: Quality Education

GOAL 5: Gender Equality

GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

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GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality

GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
GOAL 13: Climate Action
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
GOAL 15: Life on Land
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goal
Kyoto Protocol
To tackle the challenges posed by global warming and climate change, the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) initiated the framing of a protocol during the climate change
meeting held at Kyoto, Japan in 1997. This later came to be known as Kyoto Protocol and it is the first
international step towards greenhouse gas emission reduction, mentioning reduction targets to stabilize
its concentration in our atmosphere. The Kyoto Protocol provided three flexible mechanisms for the
developed/ highly industrialized nations to reach their greenhouse gas reduction targets:
1. International Emission Trading
2. Joint Implementation
3. Clean Development Mechanism

CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM (CDM)

The Clean Development Mechanism is regarded as one of the most important internationally
implemented market-based mechanisms to reduce carbon emissions. Created under the Kyoto
Protocol, the CDM was designed to help developed nations meet domestic greenhouse gas
(GHG) reduction commitments by investing in low-cost emission reduction projects in
developing countries.
The industrial revolution in the 19th century saw large scale use of fossil fuels both for
industrial activities and vehicular movements. In addition, population explosion and
urbanization also have contributed to rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These
greenhouse gases prevented heat from our planet escaping into outer space which resulted in
global warming and changes in the climate all over the world. To tackle the challenges posed
by global warming and climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCC) initiated the framing of a protocol during the climate change meeting held
at Kyoto, Japan in 1997. This later came to be known as Kyoto Protocol and it is the first
international step towards greenhouse gas emission reduction, mentioning reduction targets to
stabilize its concentration in our atmosphere.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), established under the Kyoto Protocol, is the
primary international offset program in existence today. It generates offset through investments
in GHG reduction and avoidance projects in developing countries. These offset credits, called
Certified Emission Reduction credits (CERs), represent a reduction in one metric ton of carbon
dioxide (CO2) emitted to the atmosphere. Developed countries can use CERs to more cost-

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effectively achieve their Kyoto Protocol GHG emission reduction targets.

The purpose of the Clean Development Mechanism is to help developing countries achieve
sustainable development, and assist industrialized countries in complying with their emission
reduction commitments.
PURPOSE OF CLEAN DEVELOPMENT MECHANISM
Private companies fund projects in developing countries that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
They must also meet sustainable development criteria and the “additionality” requirement,
which means the emission reductions made, must be “additional” to what would have been
possible without CDM funding. Upon verification, the CDM awards these projects certified
emission reductions (CERs), each equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide. CERs are then sold
to developed countries, which use them to meet a part of their reduction commitments under
the Kyoto Protocol. CERs are also called “offset credits” because they “offset” the developed
countries’ emissions with reductions in developing countries.
CDM allows countries to continue emitting greenhouse gases, so long as they pay forreductions
made elsewhere. The justification for this is based on the premise that it would be far more
expensive to implement emission reduction in industrialized countries than in developing
countries. It would help developing countries to gain sustainable development benefits from
the entry of “clean” and more energy-efficient technologies.

PART A
(Answer all questions. Each question carries 3 marks)

1. Enlist major gaps of millennium development goals.

2. Define Sustainable development or What do you mean by the term Sustainable
development.
3.With the help of a schematic diagram, write about sustainability's three pillars.
4. Information technology-enabled paperless office is a big step to achieve
sustainable development. Come out with three supporting and three opposing
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points for this statement.

5. What is the need for sustainability?
6. Explain the nexus between technology and sustainable development.
7. List three Sustainable Development Goals.

PART A
(Each question carries 14 marks)
1. Discuss the relevance of the concept of sustainability in modern world.
2. What is Kyoto protocol aimed at? Comment on clean development mechanism.
3a) What do you mean by Sustainable Development Goals? Explain in detail.
b) List any nine Sustainable Development Goals.
4 a) Describe Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
b) Give your views on the impact of CDM with respect to global warming.
5. Explain the concept of Sustainable development.
6 a) Write a note on social, environmental and economic sustainability concepts.
b) what are the challenges of sustainable development?
7. Government has recently banned Auto-rikshaws older than 15 years from the roads.
Analyze this action by considering three pillars of sustainable development.
8. There exists an unavoidable nexus between technology and sustainable engineering.
Explain with any four examples.

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