Transcript Environmental Engineering: Paramount or Passé? Ethics, Buzzwords, Trends, and

Environmental Engineering:
Paramount or Passé?
Ethics, Buzzwords,
Trends, and
A Vision for a Better World
Monroe L. Weber-Shirk
School of Civil and
Environmental Engineering
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; New power plant
 being honest and impartial and serving with fidelity the
public, their employers and clients;
Discover a spill
 striving to increase the competence and prestige of the
engineering profession; and
 supporting the professional and technical societies of
their disciplines.
What if there are conflicts?
Fundamental
Canons
1. 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.
2. Engineers shall perform services only in areas of
their competence.
3. Engineers shall issue public statements only in an
objective and truthful manner.
4. Engineers shall act in professional matters for
each employer or client as faithful agents or
trustees, and shall avoid conflicts of interest.
Fundamental
Canons
5. Engineers shall build their professional
reputation on the merit of their services and shall
not compete unfairly with others.
6. Engineers shall act in such a manner as to
uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and
dignity of the engineering profession.
7. 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?
East Ithaca Bypass?
Or…
•power plant
•windmills
 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
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Dematerialization of industrial output: reducing
materials and energy intensity in industrial
production.
Six Principal Elements of
Industrial Metabolism
4. Improving the metabolic pathways of industrial
processes and materials use: reducing or simplifying
industrial processes to emulate natural, highly
efficient ones.
5. 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.
6. 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.
Flow of Materials: US
manufacture
____________
of products
44.8 Gg/yr
Recovered materials
Use __
of
____
products
Reused materials
Environment
Raw materials
____________
cradle
Waste to Energy
29.5 Gg/yr
Domestic waste
Industrial waste
Waste to Energy
115.7 Gg/yr
grave
Products After Vesiland and Rimer
Industrial scrap
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
Pe r C apita Ene rgy C onsumption (Gj)
0
100
200
300
400
0
50
100
150
200
West Asia
North America
Latin America and the
Caribbean
Europe and Central Asia
Asia and the Pacific
Africa
Total Ene rgy C onsumption (Pj)
Motor Vehicles
West Asia
700
North America
600
Latin America and
the Caribbean
Europe and
Central Asia
Asia and the
Pacific
Africa
500
400
300
200
100
year
1996
1990
0
1980
 is a major contributor to greenhouse gas
emissions
 pollutes urban air
 uses substantial land
 degrades and fragments habitat
800
millions
 Transport now accounts for
 _____
1/4 of world energy use
 _____
1/2 of the world's oil production
 motor vehicles account for nearly
80 % of all transport-related energy
___
 Transport
East Ithaca Bypass
Pros
 Faster route to airport
 More jobs
 Reduce traffic in some
neighborhoods
 Decrease fuel
consumption
Cons
 Pave over farms,
forests, and homes
 Increase development
(strip malls…)
 Encourage use of cars
 Increase fuel
consumption
 Fragment ecosystems
 Road kill
Universality
How many miles per gallon per person is
ethical?
Global warming
Petroleum resources
Agenda
Course and Team evaluations
Return Prelim 2
WTP status: Schematic, PowerPoint,
Competition, Judges
East Ithaca Bypass: pros, cons, ethics
Current environmental buzz words
Evaluations
Team evaluation
Exit Survey
Official College Course evaluation
Prelim 2
Excellent!
Class Mean and Median 89%
Class Std. Dev. 8%
WTP Competition
Posters: invite your friends
Judges:
Paul Tunison, Plant Manager
Mark Vallely, Plant Operator
Prof. Dick
Jesse Koehler, ENGRI 113 alum
Proposal: Stop economics competition on
Friday afternoon
PowerPoint presentation
 Place in PowerPoint Presentations folder on
Enviro
 Practice your presentation
 Emphasize what you learned and how you learned
it!
 Make sure it will take 8 minutes
 Remember your primary audience (the judges)
 Don’t show LabVIEW code (they won’t be impressed)
 Don’t speak in jargon (valve 1, black box, HMI)
Code of Ethics