Sustainability Short Answer Questions

1) What does this guide define “sustainable development” to be?

Sustainable development is 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 seeks to reconcile human needs with the capacity of the planet to cope with the consequences of human activities.

(The problem of recognising the need to live within constraints and to ensure more fairness in access to limited resources, lies at the heart of the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development)

2) How does this differ from OR parallel the common Brundtland Report definition?
Definition of Sustainable Engineering in The Royal Academy of Engineering guide and Brundtland report are parallel for the most part, both emphasize on caring for generations to come and how they are going to meet their needs. Both definitions consider it possible and feasible if necessary measures are taken to address this issue.

3) What is sustainable development in terms of the “five forms of capital”?
This approach is about considering sustainable development as seeking to preserve and enhance what are sometimes called ‘the five capitals’ and then ‘living off the interest’. In this context ‘enhance’ often does not mean simply ‘increase’ but to improve matters, such as quality of life or quality of environment. The five forms of capital that determine the options available to future generations are:
• Human (the peoples of the world)
• Environmental (the wider environment, flora, fauna and resources)
• Social (our collective ability to govern ourselves and enhance human well-being)
• Financial
• Manufactured (all engineered products, built infrastructure and other physical assets)
Just like the three pillars, the extent to which the five forms of capital are interchangeable or substitutable is limited. So, on this model, a sustainable development is one that utilises human, environmental and financial capital to enhance or increase human, social, environmental, financial and/or manufactured capital.

4) What are the constraints that make sustainable development an imperative?
Sustainable development is imperative because of three constraints: ‘Techno-centric concerns’, which encompass techno-economic systems, represent human skills and ingenuity – the skills that engineers must continue to deploy – and the economic system within which we deploy them. ‘Eco-centric concerns’ represent the ability of the planet to sustain us – both by providing material and energy resources and by accommodating us and our emissions and wastes. ‘Socio-centric concerns’ represent human expectations and aspirations – the needs of human beings to live worthwhile lives, summed up by the phrase in the UK Government’s interpretation of sustainable development as ‘a better quality of life for everyone, now and in the future’.

5) What is inter-generational versus intra-generational equity?

Inter generational equity is about meeting our needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs or as politicians say : " ‘We don’t own the earth; we hold it in trust for our children’ (and, we should add, our grandchildren, and their children, and…)" On the other hand Intra-generational equity is about ensuring adequate quality of life for all the current inhabitants of the planet, which can sometimes seem more pressing and problematic

6) Why must engineers be key players in sustainable development?

Because sustainability means living within all three types of long-term constraints (Techno-centric concerns, Eco-centric concerns, Socio-centric concerns) and achieving sustainability through sustainable development will require some significant shifts in behaviour and consumption patterns. It should be engineers who lead processes of making decisions about the use of material, energy and water resources, the development of infrastructure, the design of new products and so on.

7) Choose at least six of the Guiding Principles for Engineering for Sustainable Development and review the 4C’s building design for evidence of the application of (or lack of attention to) these principles. Provide evidence from the paper or the web-sites to make your arguments. Do you believe this to be an example of sustainable development?

Look beyond your own locality and the immediate future
"Three distinct areas within the building were required: a food bank; an office and sorting room; and a retail area for a thrift store. Lot size and budget limited the building to a size of approximately 170 square meters on the interior. Figure 2 shows the floor plan of the 4C’s building. By the client’s request, a very simple rectangular design with a minimum of interior partitions was used." Checking the design and design process for this project shows they paid more attention to immediate future rather than evaluating other need to might have in future (Expansion for the project or change of occupancy)

Innovate and be creative
To construct exterior walls for this project,rather than using conventional masonry or concrete wall, they used load bearing plastered straw bale construction. It is environmentally sustainable and annually renewable resource that is locally available. This method needs minimal supervision and provides excellent insulation properties which is crucial for cold weather climates
Seek a balanced solution Report says: “Unfortunately, there is little data in the currently available literature regarding the structural performance of earth plastered straw bale walls. Thus, the project engineer, Anthony
Spick, of Blackwell Bowick Partnership of Toronto, Ontario requested that testing data be provided as a basis for load calculations.” Implementing new walls would optimize labour costs and add better insulation for the structure (As well as testing a new method on site) but it also caused extra laboratory work and expenses to test and confirm the results by code

Seek engagement from all stakeholders
This project was a modest collaboration between Queens University and Haliburton churches to provide food and second hand clothing for members of society who require support. University managed to test new sustainable methods and community got what it needed. It could be even better and use volunteers from the community to help completing the project or offering visits to the site to local residents and the general public.

Plan and manage effectively
University was planning to use 4C’s project to showcase sustainable building in a public structure, and thus to dispel the negative perceptions that may exist regarding alternative buildings. This goal was achieved with only 88% of suggested budget for the project

Practice what you preach
One of the main goals for this project was to demonstrate it is possible and economic to construct public buildings using sustainable materials, therefore in order to make the walls even more environmentally friendly, they decided to use earthen plaster as the render for the walls, as opposed to lime-cement plaster. The earthen plaster was created from a clay/silt soil that came from a nearby construction site and they used them on both sides of each bale.