SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT
 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• The process of moving human activities to a
pattern that can be sustained in perpetuity. It is
an approach to environmental and development
issues that seek to reconcile human needs with
the capacity of the planet to cope with the
consequences of human activities.
• Meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs.
TWO KEY CONCEPTS OF SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
• The concept of needs
- the essential needs of the world's poor, to
which overriding priority should be given; and
• The idea of limitations
- imposed by the state of technology and social
organization on the environment's ability to
meet present and future needs
SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE
The study of sustainable development
and environmental science
 SUSTAINABILITY
• The capacity to endure; it is how
biological systems remain diverse
and productive indefinitely
• The endurance of systems and
processes
• The organizing principle for
sustainability is sustainable
development
THE FOUR INTERCONNECTED DOMAINS
 THREE PILLARS OF
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
 SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT GOALS
The five forms of future resources’ availability
HUMAN
ENVIRONMENTAL MANUFACTURED

MONEY SOCIAL
 GOALS
• Drive down the adverse environmental and social
aspects of engineered products, services and
infrastructure
• Dramatically improve their environmental
performance
• Improve the contribution of engineering products,
services and infrastructure to a high quality of life
• Help society to move towards a significantly more-
sustainable lifestyle
• Ensure products, services and infrastructures meeting
these criteria are competitive in their marketplace
and, ideally, the most competitive
Some sustainability issues in
engineering
• Civil Engineering – Jubilee River
• Chemical & Manufacturing Engineering –
laundry cleaning products
• Product design in Electrical & Electronic
Engineering – mobile phones
• Civil Engineering & Building – Mossley Mill
regeneration in Northern Ireland
• Balancing positive and negative impacts – the
case of catalytic converters
• The energy challenge
Guiding Principles of Engineering for
Sustainable Development
• Look beyond your own locality and the immediate future
• Innovate and be creative
• Seek a balanced solution
• Seek engagement from all stakeholders
• Make sure you know the needs and wants
• Plan and manage effectively
• Give sustainability the benefit of any doubt
• If polluters must pollute… then they must pay as well
• Adopt a holistic, ‘cradle-to-grave’ approach
• Do things right, having decided on the right thing to do
• Beware cost reductions that masquerade as value
engineering
• Practice what you preach.
FIVE MAIN STAGES IN THE LIFE
CYCLE OF DESCISION MAKING
• Framing the requirements
• Scoping the decision
• Planning and Design
• Implementation, Delivery and
Operations
• End of usable life
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Sustainable Development
 Sustainable development
• process for meeting human development
goals while sustaining the ability of natural
systems to continue to provide the natural
resources and ecosystem services upon which
the economy and society depend.

• the organizing principle for sustaining finite

resources necessary to provide for the needs
of future generations of life on the planet.
 Sustainable development
• It is a process that envisions a desirable future
state for human societies in which living
conditions and resource-use continue to meet
human needs without undermining the
"integrity, stability and beauty" of natural
biotic systems.
So is it all just about the
environment?
• Living within our environmental limits is one of
the central principles of sustainable
development. One implication of not doing so is
climate change.

• But the focus of sustainable development is far

broader than just the environment. It's also about
ensuring a strong, healthy and just society. This
means meeting the diverse needs of all people in
existing and future communities, promoting
personal wellbeing, social cohesion and inclusion,
and creating equal opportunity.
If sustainable development focuses
on the future, does that mean we
lose out now?
• Not necessarily. Sustainable development is
about finding better ways of doing things,
both for the future and the present. We might
need to change the way we work and live now,
but this doesn't mean our quality of life will be
reduced.

• A sustainable development approach can

bring many benefits in the short to medium
term.
How does it
affect me?
• The way we approach development affects
everyone. The impacts of our decisions as a
society have very real consequences for people's
lives. Poor planning of communities, for example,
reduces the quality of life for the people who live
in them.

• Sustainable development provides an approach

to making better decisions on the issues that
affect all of our lives. By incorporating health
plans into the planning of new communities, for
instance, we can ensure that residents have easy
access to healthcare and leisure facilities.
How do we make
it happen?
We all have a part to
play. Small actions,
taken collectively,
can add up to real
change.
 Main goals
• to minimize the depletion of
natural resources
• to promote development
without causing harm to the
environment
• to make use of environmentally
friendly practices.
 Dimensions
•Environmental
•Economics
•Social
 Environmental
• The ecological stability of human settlements
is part of the relationship between humans
and their natural, social and built
environments

• Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture consists of environmentally-
friendly methods of farming that allow the
production of crops or livestock without damage to
human or natural systems.
 Economics
• Economic development has
traditionally required a growth in
the gross domestic product.

• Sustainable development may

involve improvements in the
quality of life for many but may
necessitate a decrease in resource
consumption.
Economics
– Environmental
economics
– Energy
– Manufacturing
– Technology
– Transport
– Business
– Income
– Architecture
 Social
–Politics
A study concluded that social indicators and, therefore,
sustainable development indicators, are scientific constructs
whose principal objective is to inform public policy-making.

–Culture
Working with a different emphasis, some researchers and
institutions have pointed out that a fourth dimension should
be added to the dimensions of sustainable development,
since the triple-bottom-line dimensions of economic,
environmental and social do not seem to be enough to
reflect the complexity of contemporary society.
A development that meets the
needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own
needs
 SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
THREE PILLARS
 Economic
Development
• the issue that proves the
most problematic as most
people disagree on
political ideology
 Social
Development
• awareness of and legislation
protection of the health of
people from pollution and other
harmful activities of business
and other organizations.
 Environmental
Protection
• It defines how we should study and
protect ecosystems, air quality, integrity
and sustainability of our resources and
focusing on the elements that place
stress on the environment.
 SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
GOALS