Linking Science and Technology to Society's Environmental Goals (1996) / Chapter Skim
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Use a Systems Engineering and Ecological Approach to Reduce Resource Use
Use a Systems Engineering and Ecological Approach to Reduce Resource Use
Pages 73-80
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From page 73... ...
The current industrial system uses technology in ways that can lead to environmentally troublesome results: toxic materials, solid wastes, liquid effluents, and gaseous emissions that, when released into the environment, have a negative impact on our quality of life and can lead to excessive resource use. We have often dealt with these results after the fact by treatment and remediation, at great cost and effort.
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From page 74... ...
-- Forum Participant Comment Industrial ecology includes thinking about ways to manage wastes and effluents; to prevent the use of materials that are toxic1 or otherwise dangerous or difficult to use and handle, so that they are not released into the environment; and to use wastes and effluents products themselves. It envisions an economic system whose processes and products lead to outputs that are reusable and recyclable.
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From page 75... ...
Changes in the answers -- Forum Participant Comment to these questions might lead to changes in whether a material product is sold outright or leased and in whether a manufacturer has the right to replace, upgrade, or improve a product at times of its own choosing, as long as the service is continued or improved. Those possibilities build on old ideas but take on new dimensions when seen as ways for the industrial system to manage the environmental implications of material products and production.
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From page 76... ...
The combined dimensions of the tech nological basis of modern civilization and the remaining unmet human needs for current and future generations dictate the use of new technolo gies to replace or modify existing practices across a wide spectrum of activity. These new technologies must be sustainable, more efficient, and less resource-intensive and must work in concert with natural systems.
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From page 77... ...
For example, what are all the alternative paths for organic synthesis of particular chemical products, and what are the implications of the various paths for the nature of intermediate process chemicals, energy consumption, and the required facilities and facility investments? This is a classic and fundamental problem of chemical engineering, but it requires new tools to explore a wider universe of possibilities and the consequence of alternative paths.
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From page 78... ...
Industrial ecology takes a systems engineering and ecological approach to integrate the producing and consuming segments of the design, production, and use of services and products to reduce environmental impacts. Furthermore, industrial ecology requires substantial recycling, including the use of one plant's waste stream as feed for another plant, and therefore requires coordination, planning, and perhaps proximity -- all of which could make it more difficult for it to achieve widespread use.
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From page 79... ...
, Tracking Toxic Substances at Industrial Facilities: Engineering Mass Balance Versus Materials Accounting (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1990)
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