Transitions - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 81

chapter 3
Transitions
Before we can truly appreciate the significant progress in sustainable design, let us
point to the evolution, even revolution, in our transition from neglect to regula-
tion to prevention to sustaintainability. During the last quarter of the twentieth
century, protecting the environment was focused almost exclusively on controlling
pollutants. This was primarily under a sense of urgency that called for a reaction
mode: cleaning up the most pressing and ominous problems. Toward the end of
the century and into the twenty-first century, green approaches have emerged,
but the emphasis has still been primarily on treating pollutants at the end of the
process. Controls are placed on stacks, pipes, and vents. Emergency response and
remediation are dedicated to spills, leaks, and waste sites. The process is changing
slowly. Although this topic focuses on new ways of thinking and embraces the
ethos of green design, engineers and other designers need to be knowledgeable of
current expectations. Quite likely, even the most forward-thinking engineering
and design firms will need to address existing pollution. So we must consider the
basics of pollution control, then prevention and sustainability, with an eye toward
regenerative systems.
A BRIEF HISTORY
With recent strides made in taking a more integrated, proactive view of envi-
ronmental design and protection, we hasten to point out the remarkable progress
in environmental awareness, decision making, and actions in just a few short
decades. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, advances and new envi-
ronmental applications of science, engineering, and their associated technologies
began to coalesce into an entirely new way to see the world, at least new to most
of Western civilization. Ancient cultures on all continents, including the Judeo-
Christian belief systems, had warned that humans could destroy the resources
83