Progress in Sustainable Development: Sustainable Engineering Practices

Progress in Sustainable Development: Sustainable Engineering Practices provides readers with the latest research and best practices in sustainable engineering in the fields of urban, environmental, energy and sustainability sciences, reflecting a focus on state-of-the art insights and the latest developments. Chapters focus on the key engineering principles of effective resource use, reduction of excess waste, and taking advantage of natural resources to equip readers with the background information and practical considerations of successful implementations of sustainable technical solutions. Each chapter features detailed case studies and figures showing real-world applications of the latest technologies, ensuring they are reproduceable by the reader.

The multidisciplinary chapters include environmentally-friendly technologies and the application of novel initiatives in engineering for infrastructure, renewable energy generation, advanced materials and waste, among other areas, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and conservation of resources.

• Provides the most recent developments and novel practices in engineering for furthering sustainable development
• Takes an interdisciplinary look at sustainable engineering practices across the fields of urban studies, environmental science and energy
• Includes case studies to show how readers can implement the practical engineering solutions detailed

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Release date: Mar 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9780323958653

Book preview

Chapter 1

Engineering sustainable development—Realizing the UN's sustainable development goals

G.T. Reader

Department of Mechamical, Automotive and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada

1.1 Introduction

Twenty-fifteen (2015CE¹) was a pivotal year for United Nations' resolutions with almost universal adoption by its member states of the Paris Agreement on Climate (UNFCCC, 2015), the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, 2015a), and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (United Nations, 2015b). However, although each resolution has separate, associated publications there are many links and commonalities between the three, such as climate change, sustainable development, and the eradication of global poverty. By climate change, the United Nations (UN) means anthropogenic climate change in accordance with the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), that is, Climate change means a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (UNFCCC, 2015). Natural causes which alter local, regional, or global weather patterns in the short-term or on a temporary basis, for example, a few days to perhaps a year or so, are referred to as climate variabilities. However, depending upon the frequency of such events, that is, volcanic eruptions, periodic or seasonal changes in ocean and atmospheric circulations, wildfires caused by lightning strikes, hurricanes etc., it could mean that their individual influences are more pronounced in some periods than others.

How are changes in climate determined? In the 20th century, it was recommended by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that weather patterns over a 30-year period should be analyzed to discover if there was a change in climate and, if so, what caused those changes (WMO, 2017). The number may appear somewhat arbitrary but when the system was instigated there were only 30 years of data available. Although the 30-year approach remains in place, recent studies suggest that such a timeframe "is not generally the optimal averaging period (WMO, 2018). By this it is meant that a 30-year average is too long for accurate surface temperature predictions but not long enough for acceptable precipitation projections (WMO, 2018). Yet, these two factors are used by WMO in their modeling processes for accurately predicting future climate changes. However, in an effort to describe changing climates, without reducing climate change to only temperature, the WMO collect data on what they describe as relevant domains of climate change," namely temperature and energy, atmospheric composition, ocean and water, and the cryosphere.² The data come from measurements of a set of 7 key parameters identified as Global Climate Indicators, see Fig. 1.1 (WMO, 2021). It will be noticed that while surface temperature is one of the chosen indicators, precipitation is not apparently being considered as one of the subsidiary indicators. Maybe because of this situation WMO have continued with their 30-year approach.

Figure 1.1 WMO Global Climate Indicators ( WMO, 2021).

The WMO indicators are examples of the indicators and indexes that have been largely developed in the 21st century to measure, but also to inform the public and policymakers, the state of particular human rights as elucidated in the original United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and subsequent global agreements, dealing not only with the environment but also with the right to clean water, adequate food, adequate housing, and so on. What were considered human needs for survival are now specified as human rights by the member states of the UN, although surprisingly the need for clean air is absent from the lists of human rights. Nevertheless, decades before what may be described as this era of universal sustainable development goals and the formulation of measurable means of tracking progress, several indicators, and indexes, had been developed to indicate the local, national, and international environmental, climatic and societal situations being experienced, such as the Global Hunger Index (GHI), the Water Scarcity Index, the Air Quality Index (AQI), and so on (Air Now (n.d.) June 28, 2022; Damkjaer & Taylor, 2017; Global Hunger Index, 2022).

To these pre-2015 indexes and indicators, which are still in use, further indicators have been added, including 248 SDG indicators some of which overlap so that only 231 are unique (United Nations, 2022a). These particular indicators are associated with the 17 goals, and the 169 targets (126 national and 43 international) of the SDGs identified and defined in the UN 2015 publication Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2015a). The Sendai Framework has 38 indicators to measure the progress toward its seven goals, of which Goal G states: "Substantially enhance international cooperation to developing countries through adequate and sustainable support, while the Paris Agreement, which consists of 29 Articles, and is often portrayed as a commitment solely to holding increases in the global average temperature to below 2°C, includes several other international pledges with the objective, to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the context of sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty" (UNFCCC, 2015; United Nations, 2015b).

So, why are all these indicators and indexes now required and why have they been formulated, especially in the 21st century, to measure human progress? Arguably, the global community has become more altruistic and humanitarian since the founding of the UN and, particularly over the last three decades, with worldwide extreme poverty being reduced at the same time as access to electricity has increased, see Figs. 1.2 and 1.3 (Ritchie, Roser, & Rosado, 2020; Roser & Ortiz-Ospina, 2019).

Figure 1.2 Share of population living in extreme poverty ( Roser & Ortiz-Ospina, 2019).

Nevertheless, over 940 million people, almost three times the population of the United States, do not have access to electricity, 6.5 billion exist on less than $30 US per day, and more than 600 million live in extreme poverty on a daily income of less than $1.90 US. The richer countries, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, have greater access to electricity and far lower levels of poverty than poorer countries. However, in adopting UN's Agenda 2030, the member states pledged to ensure the principle of, that is, "no one will be left behind (LNOB) and to endeavour to reach the furthest behind first" (United Nations, 2015b). The UN's LNOB is reminiscent of the U.S. Military's sacred commitment to leave no one behind on the battlefield (Bjorkman, 2020). The general public may not be wholly aware of the association of Agenda 2030 with the LNOB mantra, but all of the SDGs include the codicil for all.

While the humanitarian approach embedded in the three 2015 resolutions will likely provide a high level of comfort to many in modern society it has taken some time for such attitudes to come to fruition. The same could be said for altruism which, when used as a societal ethical tenet, means that individuals are morally obliged to benefit others. Are these adopted principles because of a widespread shift in universal cultural values or could it be because it is now realized that rapid population growth and an increasingly aged population have magnified the challenges that global society faces everywhere and makes action by all for all necessary? Based on the data presented in recent years by such organizations as Our World in Data, the World Bank and the UN's various agencies, the world overall is, arguably, becoming healthier, wealthier, and better connected (International Committee of the Red Cross, 2018). So, perhaps a global cultural shift is taking place but perhaps not as, according to recent authoritative reports, the rates of humanitarian help are insufficient, not improving, and richer nations are not fulfilling their commitments to help poorer nations (International Rescue Committee, 2022). Regardless of the precise reasons for the global improvements that have been witnessed, which continue to be debated by social science and humanities researchers, there can be no argument that there has been a spectacular rise in global population especially since 1760 (usually credited as being the start of the first Industrial Revolution) to 2018, and which is projected to continue until the end of this century, (Fig. 1.4) (Roser, Ritchie, & Ortiz-Ospina, 2019).

Figure 1.3 Populations with increasing access to electricity ( Ritchie et al., 2020).

Figure 1.4 World population growth 1700–2100 ( Roser et al., 2019).

Indeed, there are now more than 12 people on Earth for each one living in 1760 and by 2100 the ratio will be over 14:1, albeit the rate of growth has been declining since the late 1960s. Moreover, the global average life expectancy has increased by over 150% from 1770 to 2019, 28.7 years to 72.6 years, respectively (Roser, Ortiz-Ospina, & Ritchie, 2019).

Although, the focus of this rest of this chapter are discussions about the possible connections between Sustainable Engineering and its various roles in achieving the SDGs, or at least some of the more obvious Agenda 2030 goals and targets, the overlaps with the Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework commitments are ignored especially in instances where there could be conflicting engineering requirements, for example, access to affordable energy and imposition of a renewable only approach. It is also highlighted that for many facets of engineering, embracing the philosophy of sustainability is counter to the long-held approach, particularly in the manufacturing industries, of planned obsolescence which has been prevalent since the arrival of commercial electric light bulbs (Hadhazy, 2016a).

Society in general, has doggedly used a make-use-discard mindset and Engineering is no exception. Nonetheless, for many reasons, including the increasing demands of population growth and the exhaustion of critical natural materials, this mentality itself needs to be discarded. But how and by what will it be replaced if no one is to be left behind? One answer appears to be by adoption of sustainable development, as originally defined in what has become known as the Brundtland report in 1987, that is, "to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (Brundtland, 1987). After decades of discussion following the submission of the report, UN member states endorsed a plan outlined in their Millennium Declaration of 2000 involving 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which formed the basis in 2015 for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 goals (Bettelli, 2021; United Nations, 2000).

To achieve sustainable development in the form proposed by Brundtland requires a myriad of issues to be considered, not least of which is the need to provide appropriate formative education and training in all academic and professional disciplines. The majority of the targets and indicators of the 15-year plan embedded in the Agenda 2030 SDGs now only have a further 8 years to be fulfilled. Will this short time-span be sufficient to meet the Agenda's objectives? It appears not according to the performance tracking methodologies devised for the assessment of the progress toward the goals (United Nations, 2021a). Is this because Engineering has not been as responsive to the needs of sustainable development as many would have expected or because the roles of Engineering in such endeavors have not been fully annunciated? To tackle these questions, it is considered necessary to identify how many SDG factors are directly impacted by engineering and, conversely, how do they impact the practice of engineering?

In the following section the Agenda SDGs are described along with their possible connections to Engineering. Subsequently, the challenges and barriers facing the engineering community are discussed, as well as some observations regarding the response of the community to these hurdles.

1.2 What are the SDGs and how are they monitored?

Every SDG has a defined a goal. For example, SDG 6 is to: "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" (United Nations, 2021b). Associated with each goal are a number of targets that collectively, if met, are meant to make sure that the goal is achieved. To determine if the targets are met, they each have one or more indicators. The targets, and the accompanying specific indicators, are aimed separately at national realization and international accomplishments, as shown in Table 1.1 (United Nations, 2022a). Overall, there are 126 national targets and 43 international targets. These targets are linked to 248 indicators of which only 231 are unique as some indicators are repeated for use with two or three different targets, albeit with slightly altered wording. Indicators are reviewed annually resulting in some being added, others deleted, and definitions amended, so the exact number of indicators changes. There are also 5-year comprehensive reviews of the indicator framework which can also lead to revisions.

Table 1.1

Although, as mentioned in the Introduction, the majority of SDGs are to be achieved by 2030 it should be noted that in Table 1.1 the SDG numbers followed by an asterisk (*) also have targets with a deadline of 2025, or that should have been achieved by 2020. For example, SDG target 3.6 was by 2020 to "halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents, the associated indicator to be used, 3.6.1, being the death rate due to road traffic injuries. Another example of an earlier deadline is that part of SDG 8.7 target is to by 2025, end child labour in all its forms" (United Nations, 2022b). Regardless of any particular deadline for satisfying the goals, targets, and indicators, without a meaningful way of measuring the indicators it will not be possible to gauge the progress being made in meeting the aims of Agenda 2030 (United Nations, 2022c). Hence, to determine if targets are being achieved, whether with timelines of 2020, 2025 or 2030, the related indicators have to be measured regularly and then analyzed.

The methodology for collecting and collating the indicator data has to adhere to the UN's Statistical Commission (UNSD) standards, the governing body for the whole of the global statistical system, which are given in the UN's Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics (UNSD, 2022) (UNSD, 2013). Among other responsibilities with respect to national and international data gathering for such matters as the global economy, population, environment etc., for particular initiatives, the UNSC also makes further recommendations on how the assembled data should be quantified. For instance, in the Agenda 2030 document not only are the SDG indicators identified but a recommendation is also provided that indicators "should be disaggregated, where relevant, by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability and geographic location, or other characteristics" (United Nations, 2022a). The collection of data concerning the 231 indicators and its subsequent disaggregation are huge tasks for any nation, especially those who may not have the wherewithal to perform undertakings. These issues are addressed by the UN as discussed in the next Section 1.2.1.

1.2.1 Indicator classification and custodians

The target indicators, eventually, should provide a wealth of data which will offer crucial insights into the state of the needs of humanity as LNOB becomes the global philosophy. In essence, scrutiny of the indicator results will provide gap analyses for all those political and professional bodies, such as the Engineering community, which are directly or indirectly involved in sustainable development. However, to ensure that the indicators were, and still are, universally applicable and acceptable a voluntary and country-led group, known as the Inter-Agency and Expert Group (IAEG) was formed in 2015, and tasked with developing and implementing the Agenda 2030's SDG indicator framework (United Nations, 2022c). The IAEG is sizeable with 27 members of national statistical offices plus an ex-officio chairperson and numerous expert observers providing multinational representation (United Nations, 2016). After just over 2 years of consultative effort the resulting IAEG document dealing with the framework was adopted by the General Assembly of the UN in July 2017 (United Nations, 2017). One crucial aspect identified in the IAEG-SDG submission was the need to qualify the standard of the methodologies to be used as many of the indicators had not been measured before on a regular basis or not at all. This resulted in the IAEG-SDG classifying measurement methodologies and data availability into three tiers (United Nations, 2022d) (Table