Environmental Engineering: Paramount or Passé?

Environmental Engineering: Paramount or Passé? Ethics, Buzzwords, Trends, and A Vision for a Better World

Introduction to Environmental Engineering by Aarne Vesilind Ethics • A systematic framework for making decisions when there are conflicting values • The most important aspect of any ethical code or system one adopts is that one should then be prepared to defend it as a system that everyone should employ • Universality • If an act is acceptable for one person it must be equally acceptable for others

Is Universality our Ethic? • What value does universality assume? • What are examples where individuals or groups didn’t apply (or aren’t applying) the ethic of universality? • Are we willing to adopt Universality as part of our ethic? • Can we extend Universality to past generations? (Would it be okay with us if they did what we are doing?)

Broad Goals of Environmental Engineering • Protecting the environment from the potentially deleterious effects of human activity • Improving environmental quality for human health and well-being Why do we care about the environment? What is the ethical basis for concern for the environment?

Environmental Ethics • Anthropocentric (human centered) • Only human beings are morally significant persons and have a direct moral standing. • Since the environment is crucial to human well-being and human survival, then we have an indirect duty towards the environment • Responsibility to future generations • Leopold's Ecocentrism (The Land Ethic, 1949) • Humans as citizens rather than conquerors of the land • "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."

Introduction to Environmental Engineering by Aarne Vesilind More Environmental Ethics • Instrumental values • Environment has value as a commodity • Deep ecology • Humans are no more important than other creatures • Reduce the human population • Use fewer resources • Spiritual connection • The amount of love and care is proportional to the ability to give and demands nothing in return • Reverence for life (Albert Schweitzer) • Compassion and a sense of sacredness toward all of life

Code of Ethics:Fundamental Principles2 • Engineers uphold and advance the integrity, honor and dignity of the engineering profession by: • using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of human welfare and the environment; • being honest and impartial and serving with fidelity the public, their employers and clients; • striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering profession; and • supporting the professional and technical societies of their disciplines. New power plant Discover a spill What if there are conflicts?

Fundamental Canons • Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development3 in the performance of their professional duties. • Engineers shall perform services only in areas of their competence. • Engineers shall issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner. • Engineers shall act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees, and shall avoid conflicts of interest.

Fundamental Canons • Engineers shall build their professional reputation on the merit of their services and shall not compete unfairly with others. • Engineers shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the engineering profession. • Engineers shall continue their professional development throughout their careers, and shall provide opportunities for the professional development of those engineers under their supervision.

Sustainability • Sustainability • Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. • Sustainable Development • “the challenge of meeting human needs for natural resources, industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and effective waste management while conserving and protecting environmental quality and the natural resource base essential for future development.” What system of ethics are these based on?

Or… • power plant • windmills East Ithaca Bypass? • You are part of an engineering firm that has a contract to design a new road east of Ithaca • The road will reduce traffic flow thru several neighborhoods and provide a better connection to the airport • Develop a list of pros and cons • How would you make an ethical decision about your participation in helping to build this road? Apply universality, anthropocentric and ecocentric ethics.

Ethics of the Bypass • Universality • Local? • Global? • Anthropocentric • Good for the human community? • Ecocentric • Preserve the biotic community? • Sustainability • Meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

Reflections • How could we do a better job of “conserving and protecting environmental quality and the natural resource base essential for future development”? • What is a broader role for environmental engineers? Now, the promised Buzz words…

Precautionary Principle • People have a duty to take anticipatory action to prevent harm. "If you have a reasonable suspicion that something bad might be going to happen, you have an obligation to try to stop it.") • The burden of proof of harmlessness of a new technology, process, activity, or chemical lies with the proponents, not with the general public. • Before using a new technology, process, or chemical, or starting a new activity, people have an obligation to examine "a full range of alternatives" including the alternative of doing nothing. • Decisions applying the precautionary principle must be "open, informed, and democratic" and "must include affected parties."

Cleaner Production • Application of an integrated preventive environmental strategy to processes, products, and services to increase overall efficiency, and reduce risks to humans and the environment. • Can be applied to the processes used in any industry, to products themselves and to various services provided in society.

Cleaner Production • For production processes, • Cleaner Production results from one or a combination of conserving raw materials, water and energy; eliminating toxic and dangerous raw materials; and reducing the quantity and toxicity of all emissions and wastes at source during the production process. • For products, • Cleaner Production aims to reduce the environmental, health and safety impacts of products over their entire life cycles, from raw materials extraction, through manufacturing and use, to the 'ultimate' disposal of the product. • For services, • Cleaner Production implies incorporating environmental concerns into designing and delivering services.

Eco-Efficiency • Delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout the life cycle, to a level at least in line with the earth's estimated carrying capacity

Pollution Prevention/Waste Minimization • The terms Cleaner Production and pollution prevention are often used interchangeably. • Both, Cleaner Production and pollution prevention (P2) focus on a strategy of continuously reducing pollution and environmental impact through source reduction -- that is eliminating waste within the process rather than at the end-of-pipe. • Waste treatment does not fall under the definition of Cleaner Production or P2 because it does not prevent the creation of waste.

Green Productivity • A strategy for enhancing productivity and environmental performance for overall socio-economic development

Industrial Ecology or Industrial Metabolism • Industrial ecology and industrial metabolism are concepts for new patterns of industrial production and are closely related to the Cleaner Production concept. • Industrial ecology and industrial metabolism are studies of industrial systems and economic activities, and their links to fundamental natural systems. • They aim to imitate the material recycling aspect of an ecosystem - a material flow management is the crucial aspect of these approaches.

Six Principal Elements of Industrial Metabolism • The creation of industrial ecosystems: maximizing use of recycled materials in production, optimizing use of materials and embedded energy, minimizing waste generation, and re-evaluating "wastes" as raw material for other processes. • Balancing industrial input and output to natural ecosystem capacity: understanding the ability of the larger natural system to deal with toxics and other industrial wastes in typical and catastrophic situations. • Dematerialization of industrial output: reducing materials and energy intensity in industrial production.

Six Principal Elements of Industrial Metabolism • Improving the metabolic pathways of industrial processes and materials use: reducing or simplifying industrial processes to emulate natural, highly efficient ones. • Promote the development of an energy supply system that functions as a part of the industrial ecosystem, and is free of the negative environmental impacts associated with current patterns of energy use. • Policy alignment with a long-term perspective of industrial system evolution: nations working together to integrate economic and environmental policies.

Life Cycle Assessment:From “Cradle to Grave” • LCA covers the entire life cycle of a product or function, from the extraction and processing of the raw materials needed to make the product to its recycling and disposal. • LCA also addresses different types of environmental impacts such as the use of scarce resources, the release of hazardous materials, impacts on the local environment, and the effects on global problems such as ozone depletion and climate change.

Use of ____ __ products 44.8 Gg/yr manufacture ____________ of products Recovered materials Reused materials 29.5 Gg/yr Environment ____________ 115.7 Gg/yr Raw materials Products Industrial scrap Flow of Materials: US Waste to Energy Domestic waste Industrial waste grave Waste to Energy cradle After Vesiland and Rimer Unit Operations in Resource Recovery Engineering, Prentice Hall (1981)

“Cradle to Cradle” • Recycling is often “downcycling” • Plastic bags become plastic lumber, but can’t be turned back into plastic bags • Paper fibers become shorter and weaker • Design product cycles to mimic biological cycles • Aim for zero waste! • Products are leased for their service because the company wants the materials back for reuse

Technical Metabolism • Eliminating the concept of waste means recognizing materials as nutrients that cycle through either the biological metabolism or the technical metabolism. • The biological metabolism is made up of natural processes that circulate the pool of materials or nutrients—water, oxygen, soil, CO2—that support life on Earth. • The technical metabolism, designed to mirror natural nutrient cycles, is a closed loop system in which valuable, high-tech synthetics and mineral resources circulate in an endless cycle of production, recovery and reuse.

Technical Nutrients • Products can be designed from the outset so that, after their useful lives, they will provide nourishment for something new. • Biological nutrients that easily reenter the water or soil or • Technical nutrients that circulate as pure and valuable materials within closed-loop industrial cycles

Triple Bottom Line • Measuring the benefits and costs of a product, service, or company in the areas of • Society • Environment • Economy

Traditional Environmental Engineering Focus • Drinking Water Treatment • Wastewater Treatment • Air Pollution Control • Solid Waste Disposal • Hazardous Waste Site Remediation • Storm Water Management Summarize the difference between Cleaner Production and waste water treatment…

An Expanded Role • Designing better products, processes, and services that get closer to the goals of zero waste and sustainability • Resist the temptation of being the faithful robot devoid of ethics • Be more active in helping to create sustainable policies

The Challenge • Our society is so far from the goal of sustainability and from the ethic of universality that it is difficult to see the path. • We must all dream about how a better world would be structured and do what we can to make changes to move in the right direction. • Environmental Engineers are paramount if we accept this challenge!

Energy Consumption

Motor Vehicles • Transport now accounts for • _____ of world energy use • _____ of the world's oil production • motor vehicles account for nearly ___ % of all transport-related energy • Transport • is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions • pollutes urban air • uses substantial land • degrades and fragments habitat 1/4 1/2 80

Faster route to airport More jobs Reduce traffic in some neighborhoods Decrease fuel consumption Pave over farms, forests, and homes Increase development (strip malls…) Encourage use of cars Increase fuel consumption Fragment ecosystems Road kill East Ithaca Bypass Pros Cons

Universality • How many miles per gallon per person is ethical? • Global warming • Petroleum resources

Environmental Engineering: Paramount or Passé?