Place and Time - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 176

members of society in mind despite the loud voices of politicians, investors, and
others who would dictate less than green design decisions.

Implementing Sustainable Designs

Sustainability requires adopting new and better means of using materials and
energy. The operationalizing of the quest for sustainability is defined as green
engineering, a term that recognizes that engineers are central to the practical appli-
cation of the principles of sustainability to everyday life. The relationship between
sustainable development, sustainability, and green engineering is progressive:

sustainable
development

green architecture
and engineering

sustainable
design

→ sustainability →

→

Sustainable development is an ideal that can lead to sustainability, but this can
only be done through green engineering.
Green architecture and engineering 22 treat environmental quality as an end in
itself. The EPA amplifies the importance of the interrelationships of feasibility,
environmental quality, public health, and welfare:

the design, commercialization, and use of processes and products, which are
feasible and economical while minimizing 1) generation of pollution at the
source and 2) risk to human health and the environment. The discipline
embraces the concept that decisions to protect human health and the envi-
ronment can have the greatest impact and cost effectiveness when applied
early to the design and development phase of a process or product. 23

Green engineering approaches are continuously being integrated into engi-
neering guidelines. This is made easier with improved computational abilities
(see Table 4.3) and other tools that were not available at the outset of the en-
vironmental movement. Increasingly, companies have come to recognize that
improved efficiencies save time, money, and other resources in the long run.
Hence, companies are thinking systematically about the entire product stream in
numerous ways:

Applying sustainable development concepts, including the framework and
foundations of “green” design and engineering models
Applying the design process within the context of a sustainable framework,
including considerations of commercial and institutional influences