Engineering Management for Sustainable Future: Assignment 2

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VASUDEVA - ENG93000 -
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE -
ASSIGNMENT 2

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Workshop 1................................................................................................................................4
Workshop 2................................................................................................................................7
Monbiot Article....................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
In this document, I have taken Monbiot article to give an instance of the hazardous effect on
earth. The change in climate, societal dysfunction, and loss of valuable species are the main
part for concern. I have explained about the sustainability in various aspects such as smart
and liveable city, kitchen appliances, current, and future electricity supply and electric car. In
this report, the solutions are also provided for a sustainable ecosystem.

Workshop 1
I have attended the workshop “the supply chain of electricity – Present Vs Future” where
I learned that electricity is an essential component for human life and industries but the issue
is, its utilization has also increased at the alarming rate. According to Gielen (2016, p. 119),
there was a need for innovative and technological advancement for transition in global
energy. The electricity companies initially followed the traditional supply chain of electricity
(generation of power, transporting through networks and distributing to industries/houses) but
now they are incorporating the intelligent systems, models, and tools for using and
transmitting energy to homes. According to Chu (2012, 294), solar, water energy source,
engineering & research on microbes for producing biofuels can be sustainable alternatives. I
feel that this opportunity can be used in the context of transportation & generating electricity.
Figure 1: Alternative fuels production methods
To store these energies, grid energy storage method can be used. But more intelligent
technological advancement has to be done for making the renewable energy more affordable
and sustainable.

I have chosen the topic “Are kitchen appliances environment sustainable?”, because I
have experienced that in every home, kitchen is the only place that involves equipment that
consumes energy. For instance, a survey was done in which data has been collected, it shows,
the kitchen appliances are the key factors of electricity consumption to maintain and operate
appliances. Cabeza, (2014) and other authors stated that residential appliances contribute to
the major electricity usage, and it is increasing year by year.
Figure 2: Energy usage in homes
According to Cabeza, (2014), the appliances use electricity as usual, and it may finally use
renewable energy that is generated either by home or by the grid. Sustainability is much
required in commercial kitchens. Some steps can be followed to save energy in the kitchen,
like, turning the gas off when not needed, carefully maintain appliances, purchase appliances
with more energy rating, etc. More enhancement has to be done in the market to make
kitchen appliances more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
1.

I attended the workshop on “Electric Cars”, a variant of electric vehicles (EV), that runs
using electricity. Unlike conventional fuel powered automobiles that are the cause of
increasing greenhouse gases in the environment, EVs are the new concept in the automobile
market, that is boon in the automobile industry. The companies produce electric vehicles or
hybrid vehicles (consist of the functionality of both gas & electricity). According to Kihm,
(2014), Electric cars are the replacement of petrol and fuel vehicles, and in 2025 it will
undertake the vehicle market by replacing them. I learned that these cars help economically
as well as contribute to a sustainable environment. It eliminates the emission of carbon in the
environment that results in greenhouse gas & pollution. Several studies resulted that electric
cars are efficient and responsible for the stable and green environment.

Workshop 2
While visiting the site I noticed that ecosystem services, that support the survival and
contributes directly or indirectly to the living being, has a negative impact due to climate
change and human intervention. According to Ouyang (2016), Rapid development of
economy and technology leads to ecosystem degradation. I believe that everything in the
environment should be sustainable and managed, neither more nor less, because the ideal
environment of the earth consists of balanced intervention of humans and ecosystem. The
solution for this can be fast technological and engineering advances that can enable to
maintain the ecosystem. Because the traditional engineering type does not support this kind
of balanced interaction. Traditional engineering only considers a single problem or object. It
is termed a closed system. It targets on only those issues that are technical in nature. It
focuses on immediate problems only that are based on short-term goals rather than long-term
goals. I discovered that traditional engineering does not deal with any kind of ethical and
environmental issues and assumes that other parties will accord with these issues. So, the
engineering that is done with the perspective of sustainability is totally opposite of traditional
engineering is adopted. It acknowledges the entire system which consists of the actual
problem. It is the open system. Unlike traditional Engineering, it deals with all the issues
including social, economic, technical and environmental. It tries to solve the long-term
problems that can lead the future infinitely. It focuses on global situations.
I think, following the “Hannover Principles” can help in achieving a sustainable ecosystem.
Few points that can be focused to evaluate the design principles is that:
a) It insists that rights co-exist between nature and human in supportive, healthy, sustainable
and diverse condition.
b) It observes interdependence between the humans and nature as the creation of the humans
interact with the nature in every aspect.
c) The designers should not create those objects that aim for a short-term goal and need
maintenance in future.
d) One should evaluate the products life cycle so that possible waste of natural system can
be eliminated.
e) The designers should depend on the natural sources of energy as much as possible so that
they don’t need to create external energy sources.

f) One should understand the design’s limitation because any design created by humans
does not last for a longer duration and it can never solve every problem.
g) One should try to explore and seek knowledge from the surrounding for better
improvement and innovation to re-establish the relationship between humans and nature.
I learned that ecosystem services are those services provided by the ecosystem that support
the well-being of the humans in terms of survival and quality of their livelihood. Some key
services that are provided by ecosystem are freshwater, soil biodiversity, climate regulation,
water purification, etc.
According to Li (2017), the increase in urban population leads to the raid extension of urban
land for the betterment of human life, because of this the researchers are tensed about the
instability in ecosystem. The potential solution for this there should be methods for
economic, environmental and social management to bring the ecology in balance.
There are various categories of these services:
1. Provisioning services – products that are collected from the ecosystem.
2. Supporting services – these services are required for the generation of other services.
3. Cultural Services – these services provide non-material services to humans.
4. Regulating Services – these services provide benefits by the regulation of processes in
the ecosystem.
According to Sidle (2013), the sustainability should be defined in every phase that achieves a
common goal in economic, social and environmental perspective for providing benefits to the
present and future era. I believe that we should salute trees to providing various services such
as air purification, noise reduction, food production, etc. due to climate change it directly
creates an impact on humans and nature. All these entities are interconnected.

I attended the workshop of “Smart and Liveable Cities”. I felt that urbanization leads to
the growth of smart cities. Cities are becoming smarter day by day along with the growth
of population. There are various factors that contribute to a smart city like mobility,
public safety, smart government, economic growth etc. The factors that make a city
liveable are, housing choice, accessing the land use, environment protection, city budget,
diverse economy maintenance, etc. According to Thuzar (2011), cities are facing a lot of
problems such as pollution, rising population, poor environment, and congestion all this
leading to the poor planning and management in the smart cities and these cities are not
becoming liveable anymore. According to Bibri (2018), the IoT and Big Data
technologies may be used to optimize the urban energy efficiency and environment
sustainability. I feel that smart cities and liveable cities must go in parallel for sustainable
development. With the invention of technology and AI, the cities are becoming intelligent
that uses digital technology to improve the human well-being and helps businesses to
enlarge their business and connect with their customers.

Monbiot Article
In the article by George Monbiot (2018), it is discussed about the breakdown of the climate
and earth’s condition that is rapidly becoming critical day by day. I felt that the political
sector tried to make soft aims in this direction, but they failed to do so. The softer aims can
never achieve the biggest target and cannot be used to solve the problem that has reached its
critical stage. I felt that this emergency needs to be handled because our earth is facing
extinction. The responsible authorities are only creating hope for a better future rather than
doing something productive in this direction. According to politicians, there are slow pace
changes in the environment, but the reality is that environment of earth is very complex and it
is changing gradually at an alarming rate. The day is not far when all the earth’s resources
will fail to support human and that time is inevitable. According to Berger (2017), the
mountain ice must freeze instead it is melting fast due to global warming. The public figures
triggering it as positive feedback but it is dangerous for the earth and for the life on earth.
Earth can grant limited resources per year but we are utilizing more than that and it is
reported that after a few years the consumption would be higher. We need to work in this
direction as soon as possible otherwise the end is not so far.

Conclusion
This report covers the major concept of sustainability. The effect on present and future earth
and the solutions to maintain sustainability using various methods, tools, and technologies.
The advanced engineering practices that can be used in level down the huge consumption of
energy and wastage of natural services have been discussed.

References
Gielen, Dolf et al. (2016) Climate and energy challenges for materials science. Nature
Materials. [Online] 15 (2), 117–120. [online]. Available from:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1767089651/.
Chu, Steven & Majumdar, Arun (2012) Opportunities and challenges for a sustainable energy
future. Nature. [Online] 488 (7411), 294–303.
Cabeza, Luisa F. et al. (2014) Investigating greenhouse challenge from growing trends of
electricity consumption through home appliances in buildings. Renewable and Sustainable
Energy Reviews. [Online] 36 (C), 188–193.
Kihm, Alexander & Trommer, Stefan (2014) The new car market for electric vehicles and the
potential for fuel substitution. Energy Policy. [Online] 73147–157.
Ouyang, Zhiyun et al. (2016) Improvements in ecosystem services from investments in
natural capital. Science (New York, N.Y.). [Online] 352 (6292), 1455–1459.
Li, Feng et al. (2017) Urban ecological infrastructure: an integrated network for ecosystem
services and sustainable urban systems. Journal of Cleaner Production. [Online] 163 (S),
S12–S18.
Sidle, Roy C et al. (2013) Broader perspective on ecosystem sustainability: consequences for
decision making. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America. [Online] 110 (23), 9201–9208.
Thuzar, Moe (2011) URBANIZATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: DEVELOPING SMART
CITIES FOR THE FUTURE? Regional Outlook. 96–100,183. [online]. Available from:
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1473876005/.
Bibri, Simon Elias (2018) The IoT for smart sustainable cities of the future: An analytical
framework for sensor-based big data applications for environmental sustainability.
Sustainable Cities and Society. [Online] 38230–253.