University of Manchester 23 June 2005

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University of Manchester 23 June 2005

• Introducing Sustainability -
• some issues and approaches
• Richard Dodds FREng

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• Local Authority Waste
• Regulations
• Technology solutions to re-use glass/paper etc
• System to be established and funded
• Consumers willing to use it
• Technology in context of
• Regulations - Environment-Cost - Community

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Definitions

• Sustainability is the principle, the
  destination,
• Sustainable Development is the route we take to
  get there

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..development that meets the needs of the
present generation,
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without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs..
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Traditional Product Design

• We used to ask
• What must the product do?
• How many can we sell ?
• What is the margin?
• How can we sell more?
• How can we cut costs?
• How can we attract new customers?
• And this set the agenda for designers..

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The agenda has changed.

• Now we also ask
• What effect will this product have on society and
  the environment ?
• How can we minimise the harm done ?

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Employers

• Life Cycle Analysis of products now routine
• Environmental impact in Annual Reports
• Being hit by new producer-responsibility
  regulations.
• Corporate Social Responsibility is beginning to
  bite

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UKSPEC

• Chartered Engineers should
• Undertake engineering activities in a way that
  contributes to sustainable development.

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Royal Academy of Engineering

• The RAEng recognised the increasing importance of
  SD in the practice of engineering
• The RAEng recognised the difficulty of fitting SD
  into engineering courses, due to lack of space
  and teaching materials
• The RAEng funded Visiting Professorships to
  address these issues

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• In line with the multi-disciplinary philosophy
  that underlies all Academy activities, we believe
  that
• Sustainable Development should not be considered
  as a separate issue to be addressed by special
  courses.
• the needs of sustainable development should
  become embedded in the thought processes and
  methodologies of all practising engineers and
  engineering designers.

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Embedding Sustainable Development at Cambridge
University Engineering Department Richard A.
Fenner, Charles M. Ainger, Heather J.
Cruickshank, Peter M. Guthrie Centre for
Sustainable Development Department of
Engineering Cambridge University e-mail
susdev-mphil-enquiries_at_eng.cam.ac.uk Web page
http//www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/sustdev/index.html
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The Departmental structure can be summarised as a
matrix, with six vertical sector-focussed and
research-driven Divisions, which also teach and
a common horizontal structure administering
teaching standards, some common courses and
projects, and academic quality control and
qualification outcomes. .
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The culture might be somewhat cheekily described
as innovative anarchy, circumscribed by a
compliance bureaucracy. The Divisions are the
innovative anarchists with each tending to
play to its own strengths, led by the professors
personal interest, reputation and enthusiasm for
topics, mediated by available research funding,
both from Government and private company sources.
It follows that the teaching content is only
partly responsive to the external world. Their
strength is the continuous drive for innovation
in each division their weakness is the relative
difficulty of cross-divisional co-operation
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The teaching structure provides the equally
essential compliance bureaucrats it sets and
administers examination and qualification
standards, structures and systems, across
divisions, and focusses largely on methods,
pedagogy and quality control systems. Its
strength is its rules and consistency its
weakness is the mirror image of that - long
time-scales for change, and no Department-wide
responsibility to improve teaching standards, as
opposed to maintaining them.
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The Department's management, above the Divisions,
is run on a consensual, co-ordinating style,
rather than a commanding and directing one.
Looking at external drivers, the Departments
reputation remains high, and it has not yet had
any difficulty in attracting sufficient
well-qualified student applications, in spite of
the steady UK national reduction in interest in
engineering so there is no crisis that
obviously demands a new approach.
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RAEng Case Studies

• Civil Engineering- Jubilee River
• Chemical and Manufacturing Engineering-Laundry
  Cleaning Products
• Walking the Talk- Introducing to Glasgow
  University
• Product Design-Mobile Phones
• Civil Engineering and Building- Mossley Mill
  regeneration
• Air Quality and energy from fossil fuels
• The Energy Challenge

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Two examples from Liverpool first year students
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Alternative approaches

• Stand-alone modules vs. Integrated into courses
• First year plus later vs. final year
• Voluntary vs. Compulsory (marked)

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Alternative approaches

• Stand-alone modules vs. Integrated into courses
• First year plus later vs. final year
• Voluntary vs. Compulsory (marked)

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• Students need to realise that technology does not
  speak for itself and the world doesnt
  necessarily beat a path to the door of the
  inventor of the better mousetrap
• Students must see their technology in the context
  of economic,environmental and social factors

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Trap to avoid

• Students moving quickly from the general to the
  specific, the specific being dealing with
  technical complications
• instead of grappling with complexity

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Learning Outcomes will be

• The ability to create an sustainable development
  impact assessment of a product or service from
  first principles.
• The ability to express the technological
  opportunities for the improvement of a product or
  service in the context of social, economic and
  regulatory factors.

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The governing impulse of the consumer is "I
want."   The governing impulse of the citizen
is "we need.How do we change consumers
into citizens ?What will trigger a change in
behaviour ? A critical factor is RISK
PERCEPTION.
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Perception of Risk

• Social psychologists have found that citizens
  judge the tolerability of risk on two dimensions
  voluntariness and catastrophic potential.
• Where risks are entered into voluntarily then
  tolerance is higher than for risks which are
  somehow imposed.
• genetic modification of crops vs mobile phones

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Psychographic Targets
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Vitality Targets by Demographic Group

• Groups of high relevance for Vitality
• Young Adults
• Pregnant Women
• Single Parents
• Low Income Families
• High Income Families
• Mid-Life Women
• Mid-Life Men
• Empty Nesters
• Healthy Elders

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The Design Challenge
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Some Technology-driven Approaches

• Design for X (DFX) specific function
  assembly,dis-assembly, recycling etc.
• Green Design specific environmental issue
  no CFCs in hair sprays.
• Eco-DesignEnvironmentally-Conscious
  Design Effects on the environment are considered
  (ECD) early and at each stage in the process
• (not cost-led)
• Environmentally Conscious Design and
  Manufacturing (ECDM) Progression of ECD into the
  Supply Chain
• Sustainable Design Sustainability as a direction
  rather than an action.
• Sustainability Ultimate goal complete
  renewable cycle

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Instruments of environmental policy

• Awards/recognition
• Public Information/Education
• Life-cycle assessment
• Environmental accounting/reporting
• Eco-audits/management
• Products Labelling
• Right to Know
• --------------------------------------------------
  --
• Negotiated agreements
• Demand-side management
• Regulatory reform
• Liability rules
• Subsidy removal
• Marketable permits
• Eco-taxes/ tax reform
• Environmental impact assessment
• --------------------------------------------------
  ----
• Trade restrictions
• Ambient/emissions standards

• Information-based strategies to correct the lack
  of information
• Incentive-based instruments to change incentives
• Directive-based regulations to force specific
  behaviour

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