Sustainability continues to be a hot topic. It was a prime discussion at the ASCE “Civil Engineering 2025 Summit” in June and was the key focus of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations meeting two weeks ago. As noted in one of my recent blogs, whether or not you agree with the politics behind the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” is at least putting sustainability in the public’s vocabulary.

Why is sustainabity becoming increasingly important? The keynote speaker at the WFEO international luncheon pointed out that are at a point in time where 50% of the world population lives in urban areas and 50% lives in rural areas. On the demographic front, the world is well on its way to a population exceeding 10 billion people in 2050. Today, people occupy more space on the planet than they did 30 years ago, and we are straining the earth’s environment, particularly the needs for energy, fresh water, clean air, and safe waste disposal. Shifting demographics and population growth continue to strain our overburdened infrastructure. The shift of people moving from rural areas to cities and ex-urban areas has accelerated. Around the world, population density is increasing. And-unfortunately, in the developed world our infrastructure continues to age and maintenance or replacement has not kept pace with deterioration. In contrast, in the developing world, the need for new infrastructure outstrips our ability to put it in place.

The profession is finally moving towards more acceptance of green design and more conferences are focused on green design, such as one being held this week in Pittsburgh. (http://www.nthpconference.org/) With continued design of green buildings, our future will see new processes, less harmful to the environment and most new construction based on green- and smart-building technologies. The future may result in many new buildings actually producing more energy that they consume.

Demands for sustainable energy, fresh water, clean air, and safe waste disposal will begin to drive infrastructure development on a global scale. Constrained resources and growing energy demands have already led to the need for prioritizing energy resources and for use of alternative fuels. For example, there is a key issue on the ballot this week in Washington State concerning renewable energy sources. Despite that the major power source in Washington is hydropower, a clean source of energy; the voters will decide whether to add pressure to the utility companies to develop more environmentally friendly forms of energy such as wind power and ethanol. While credits will be given to those who develop alternative forms of energy, penalties will be assessed against those who do not. Improved water purification methods, desalination technologies, and increasing use of closed-loop systems will be necessary to meet clean water needs. Our investment in continuing to highlight the issue of sustainability will see advances in nuclear technology that will change the requirements for disposal of highly radioactive nuclear waste.

While it is difficult at times for us to see the potential in the applicability of a sustainable mindset and while it may sound like a crazy idea, I can see life-cycle design philosophies taking hold that could result in nearly zero net waste and great savings in energy consumed for waste disposal. Virtually everything in the future could be recycled and re-used. Crazy? Maybe not if you truly appreciate the need for a sustainable future.

November 17, 2006

In America, the only way to make changes is force change by increasing the cost not to embrace sustainable practices.

Our country reacts to a stock market, and politicial environment. It is interesting to watch gas prices slowly rise after the elections on November 7th.

It is cheaper to throw away and buy something new than it is fix it or recycle it. Until that changes, sustainable development will remain a idealistic goal only. The problem as we know is by the time it affects the country financially, it may be too late.

Chris Garlick
Civilized Solutions

November 15, 2006

One of the most challenging factors of sustainability is modifying human behavior. The sharing of technological innovations and the implementation of new ideas must surely foster the move towards a more sustainable world.

Heidi Massin
Massin Consulting Services, LLC

November 9, 2006

Sustainability requires adaptation to a constant change of social attitudes and a shelter's envelope merging a form and functions as one. Once built expressions merge these basic needs, future recycling will adapt to change in a sustainable way.

Samuel H. Goss Jr. AIA

November 8, 2006

Sustainability needs to start with the cause not the affect. Ever increasing population is not sustainable so as much effort needs to be expended to stop overpopulation as is spent trying to react to it.

Ed Trotter
CH2M Hill

November 6, 2006

Sustainability is best achieved by developing energy resources from renewable. In 2006 wind energy seems to be the best of the clean alternatives. I have applied for a patent that consists of static airfoils (the size of skyscrapers) for the production of electrical power that is ten times better then the largest horizontal turbines. I am developing a wind tunnel testing model for testing at U of M aeronautics department to be done in January of 2007.

Frank Grassi
Grunwell-Cashero