Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Sustainable system
100%
Switching to renewables
Total
burden
Innovating technology
Increasing efficiency
Current system
(unsustainable)
0%
Time
Figure 5.1
Sustainability staircase.
continuous improvement process. Continuous improvement is a management tool used to pro-
duce incremental improvements in a system, which starts with an initial action followed by
successive actions to increase efficiency in a cyclical approach while continuous monitoring
confirm that the efforts are heading in the right direction.
Unfortunately, increasing efficiency cannot be perpetuated forever. At some point the cur-
rent technology cannot be improved any further or the investment of effort and money do not
translate into important efficiency improvements. So, new steps are needed, such as innovat-
ing technology and the incorporation of renewable energy and resources.
Transitioning to renewable energy and materials is a fundamental step in a genuine
commitment to sustainability. However, at the current time the use of renewables is not an
easy action because limited availability of renewable energy and raw materials. Therefore,
before considering the use of renewable resources it becomes even more important to increase
the efficiency of the whole system, and thus becoming it less wasteful in the use of renewable
energy and materials that are currently rare commodities.
Due to the limited offerings of renewable energy, it is a good time to consider its
in-house production. But with current technologies, it is unviable to run a plant completely
on renewable energy so it would replace only partially the energy from conventional
sources.
Extra temporary step in the sustainability staircase
Carbon offsets can be added as an extra step to the sustainability staircase to help mitigate
emissions of greenhouse gases. Carbon offsets are financial instruments that are purchased
in the form of certificates to make up for unavoidable emissions. The capital raised through
the sale of these instruments is used for the development of projects designed to capture or
neutralize those emissions. Some examples of projects are production of renewable energy,
methane capture from landfills, forestry projects, and destruction of pollutants with high
greenhouse potential. Renewable energy projects include wind energy, hydroelectric power,
and biomass. For Instance:
