Agriculture Reference
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opportunities to expand their awareness of the issues that will confront future
generations and build knowledge that will provide a foundation for conceiving
solutions to the most pressing problems.
At Duke, for example, students have taken their own initiative to enter into
design experiences at home and abroad. In recent years, they have engaged in
team projects in Indonesia and Africa, all with green engineering emphases. We
will address some of the lessons we have learned from teaching this course at the
conclusion of this chapter.
Energy
Peering through the lens to the future of energy generation presents a paradoxical
picture. On the one hand, the picture is clear in that a transition must occur from
the current status of a carbon-based economy dependent on fossil fuels as the
primary source of energy production. In many ways, the picture also remains un-
clear as to the composition of alternatives that will replace current sources. Will
we transition from a carbon economy to a hydrogen economy? Will nuclear en-
ergy re-emerge as a “green energy” source? After all, it releases virtually no
carbon compounds. However, issues like long-term storage of highly toxic
wastes continue to vex the nuclear power industry. Wind, photovoltaics, bio-
fuels, hydrogen, tidal turbines, and still emerging innovations all provide po-
tential answers as well as new questions. What we do know is that the laws
of thermodynamics will play a central role in determining which are most
successful.
Economics
Economics will certainly play a central role in the future of sustainable design
and engineering, but change is already occurring in the actual metrics of how
performance will be measured. An example of this change can be witnessed in
the changing attitudes of the development community toward sustainable design.
Once viewed with skepticism and a threat to the bottom line, the economic
advantages are coming into focus as life-cycle assessment tools begin to tell a
more complete story of performance. In addition to the measures of energy
consumption, a growing body of research is now pointing to the benefits to the
corporate bottom line by way of productivity gains. The linking of employee
productivity and well-being to the built environment is changing the traditional
measures of cost-benefit analysis. The impact of a subtle change in productivity
considered over a modest time frame can make the case for looking beyond the
“first cost” entry of the bottom line.
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