Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
development protects the biosphere and improves competitiveness and profitability
by making 'simple changes' to the way businesses are run. The idea is to make more
productive use of resources and to increase energy efficiency four- to tenfold ('factor
four' or 'factor ten') through sustainably enhanced technological design. This may
also enable the trappings of the Western lifestyle to be preserved. For instance, the
institute has developed the 'Hypercar' - an ultra-light vehicle with a hybrid-electric
drive and low-drag design, which on its first release was heralded as up to five times
more efficient than conventional cars. To reach its full potential and virtually eliminate
pollution, the Hypercar needs to be powered by hydrogen fuel-cells. Richard Welford
(1998) argues that sustainability must fully inform the design of every product,
building and service, as 80-90 per cent of a product's life-cycle costs, and waste
resulting from the production process, are committed at the final design stage. Edwin
Datschefski (2001) reinforces this, noting that just one in around 10,000 products
is usually designed with the environment in mind. In
Biomimicry
, Janine Benyus
(2002) demonstrates the benefits to designers and businesses from learning from
natural systems, processes, shapes and forms. In
Cradle to Cradle
, McDonough and
Braungart (2002) argue that creative sustainable design essentially means eliminating
waste completely through the application of human ingenuity. Once a product has
reached the end of its useful life in one form, it serves as the raw technical material,
or biological nourishment, for another. Closed-loop industrial cycles will see recycling
being replaced by downcycling, as exemplified by the plastic material from which
the actual
Cradle to Cradle
book has been manufactured. From all this, Lovins
et al
. (1999) identify four necessary interlinked shifts in business practices:
•
dramatically increase the productivity of natural resources;
•
shift to biologically inspired production models;
•
move to a solutions-based business model; and
•
reinvest in natural capital.
The US carpet manufacturer Interface, whose Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ray
Anderson experienced an epiphany after reading Hawken's
Ecology of Commerce
,
is frequently cited as an adventurous corporation adopting these necessary and
interlinked shifts, and committing to developing an ecologically sustainable business
practice. In his autobiography,
Mid-Course Correction
, Anderson (1998) writes of
his billion-dollar corporation first becoming sustainable and then restorative. Instead
of just taking materials from the Earth it will put things back. Carpet tiles will no
longer be sold, used and then discarded but, in this 'age of access' (Rifkin, 2000),
will be leased, reused and recycled. The production and consumption process will
become cyclical rather than linear. Destructive technologies will be replaced by new
ecologically sensitive ones and, most important, Interface will model a new, sustainable
and successful mode of doing business that could be emulated by others.
The world is a complex and complicated place. The Finland-based company Neste
Oil has entered the increasingly controversial field of producing new forms of low-
emission biofuels. Neste Oil's NExBTL Renewable Diesel reduces greenhouse gas
emissions by between 40 and 60 per cent compared with conventional diesel, but
is derived from palm oil, viewed by Greenpeace International (2007) and other NGOs
as a major environmental problem. However, Neste Oil prioritizes sustainable
