The engineers of the future will need to be more focused on green engineering to deal with the many problems facing the earth including waste disposal, limited resources and pollution. Example of these problems include plastic waste disposal, liabilities of fossil fuels and heavy metal pollution. Green engineering uses science and technology to accomplish sustainability. In order for a product to be sustainable its whole life cycle needs to be assessed. A products life cycle includes its acquisition (collection of raw materials), manufacturing, distribution, use and end of life. It is important to do a complete life cycle analysis for a product to determine its sustainability.
One example of considering the entire life cycle is provided for wind power. What are the inputs that produces greenhouse gasses for a windmill? Inputs include concrete for the base, mining for the metals required, energy for both the transport of materials and assembly which comes from burning fossil fuels releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Use of the windmill produces energy with little green house gas production At the end of the windmill’s life cycle it needs to be considered if any of the parts be recycle? What parts need to be disposed of and what are the consequences of the disposal? Such as toxic leachate or methane being released from landfills. Also how will the parts be transported. Considering a windmills whole life cycle brings up the question does it actually create enough clean energy to be considered sustainable given the inputs, output and disposal.
Principles of green engineering can focus the products design on different aspects of sustainability. One of the principles of green engineering as presented by the authors of the article
Through the 12 Principles of GREEN Engineering
is preventing waste rather than treating the waste once it is made. [12] One examples of this includes burning low sulfur coal rather than using scrubbers which remove the sulfur from the smokestacks.
Another principle of green engineering from the same article is designing products for easy separation of materials at the end of a life cycle. Separating a product at the end of its life cycle can require energy or use of toxic chemicals. If the product was designed to be easily separated these harmful processes could be reduced or even eliminated. [12]
Using local resources such a material or energy sources is one other tenant of green engineering. By following this tenant it minimizes the need for transport of material and using less sustainable methods for generating energy. One example could be building a wind farm rather than a coal powered power plant in a naturally windy location. Rather than needing to transport the coal from a location far away, the wind that is there already is harnessed for energy both reducing the amount of fossil fuels used in transportation and generation of energy.
Currently many products reach the end of their life cycle not because all of the parts are non-functional but they are perceived as no longer stylistic or the technology has become obsolete. Designing products for a “afterlife” is another principle of green engineering. An example of this would be to reduce waste, parts that are still functional or valuable would be collected for reuse. [12]
The principles of green engineering need to be a focus to help reduce environmental problems occurring now and prevent more in the future. By considering a products whole life cycle from acquisition to end of life will help increase sustainability and dramatically reduce the amount of waste created.