sustainability rant....

sustainability: that new word... Like
Gentrification in the early 90’s everyone is talking about it. I guess
now Wal-mart is talking about sustainability in a big way and expect
everything in the next few years to be green (or look green). I am told
there is a bio degradable cash card that wal-mart offers. I'll look for
it online for a post here.





It is cool that even Wikipedia has a definition.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability





Even Autodesk is talking about it. http://www.autodesk.com/mini-sites/green/
I think it will take sometime before America’s toilets will flush with
multiple amounts of water like those greener Japanese toilets but we
are fast on our way. Maybe if buyers ask for greener john crapers then
the consumer will vote with their visa card. That is a good thing for
designers and engineers and that means more innovative products.
Does PTC talk about it? Do we care that they may not care? Is it really a trend?

http://www.core77.com/lightobjects/
Dassault Systems is even in there.





Who is making the plastic for the bio-degradable cellphone casings?
Nokia I think and it sells for 300 USD more than the polycarbonate one.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4227400




Who is the governing agent for sustainability and should there me one besides http://www.epa.gov/
? A non profit in the support there of. And i suspect that
sustainability in the next decade will be big marketing hype for more
consumeristic rubbish.




comments? don

I just wish I had a eatable cubie, I'm hungry.

Whatever becomes of sustainability, it won't work unless business is also sustained. Maybe Europe is content to bankrupt itself but we shouldn't be. The infrastructure just isn't there to implement those biomaterials on a macro scale but there has to be an economic incentive to build it.


There's been a system in place for industry to regulate itself in the area of air pollutants and they are starting to adopt CO2 requirements also: http://www.chicagoclimatex.com/


We need something similar for product design & development. This might be a stretch, but if you could somehow quantfy the environmental impact of materials, hardware, adhesives, etc, maybe you could start to implement a system of voluntary regulation, conservation, etc. OK, I know I'mdreaming now but its a thought.

Sustainability ... all smoke and mirrors. As long as economies rely on population growth for their sustainability there is no fix. I'm a Jeremy Riffkind (sp?) "Entropy" sorta doom sayer, if you haven't guessed.

mgnt8 said:

Whatever becomes of sustainability, it won't work unless business is also sustained. Maybe Europe is content to bankrupt itself but we shouldn't be. The infrastructure just isn't there to implement those biomaterials on a macro scale but there has to be an economic incentive to build it.

Click to expand...

But we're not bankrupting !


See. We pay extra for being environment friendly : something extra for the brickpack of milk, something extra for the batteries, something extra for the electronics, packaging, cars, ... That all comes out of our pockets. BUT ...


All this cleaning up and making things difficult creates jobs. So there's less people unemployed. And who pays the unemployed ? Right, also us. So actually it all boils down to the same expense into another account and you get a cleaner environment, so that our children will survive and be able to work for our pension.


But since all the above only relates to the European social system, your count may be different.


Alex


PS : Why don't you 'mericans' stop using all this fossile fuel so that the oil price may drop a bit again ...

AHA-D said:

PS : Why don't you 'mericans' stop using all this fossile fuel so that the oil price may drop a bit again ...

Click to expand...

hey they say by 2020 10% of our cars will be hydrogen (somehow )


anyway if you Belgians are going to expend so many jobs cleaning up our mess, where's the incentive for us to clean up?

now now boyz......

I am pissed that emissions are tightened on 2 strokes and
those busses put out what seams to be ridiculous amounts of smoke. Guess
that aint so bad because the smoke is so heavy that it sinks to the ground.

Well I don't know what this has to do with Pro/E, but what we need to do is get rid of those buses altogether. And the trains also while we're at it.

What we need is better mass transportation. We need to eliminate the 9 out of 10 cars that are driving to work each day with only person in them.

mgnt8: If we spur product development in some way then it has
something to do with Pro/E. Houston does not even have a mass
transit system. And oh boy are there allot of those fat cops.
I counted 10 in a 15 mile stretch doing training one trip.




As far as product development goes: there are plenty of mechanism in
tracking systems that follow direct sunlight. Not so many moving
parts with the photovoltaic (semiconductor devices that convert
sunlight into direct current (DC) electricity) but passive systems
there are good product problems to solve. Weight... There should
be more efficiency and cheaper prices for the products and that only
comes with visibility. Then more sales then cheaper prices
because of the numbers.





Edited by: design-engine

I really don't have time for an EPA who allows Wal-Mart to build
wherever they damn well feel like, but won't force my municipality to
put in public sewers. I live in a rural area built up during the
coal mining days and everyone's waste runs into the storm sewer.
Great for our fish, huh? The township takes my tax money and
gives it to Wal-Mart as an incentive to build here, but won't fix a
problem directly affecting me, a resident. I can't sell my house
because of this crap (pun intended).



They know of the problem but won't force the township to fix it.
They are hypocrites in my book. EPA stands for Economic
Protection Agency. What environment are they protecting?

Their wallet environment.


The US government along with others have come up with this master plan to get the largest Oil consumer, (us), wanting alternative solutions to Oil. They figure that Americans would not want to get rid of their SUVs nor would companies want to spend money to change to other solution unless they are forced by their costumers.


The plan is to have ridiculous prices at the pumps until the out cry starts changing the minds of the American people. The plan, as is it, is working. You have Auto companies that can't give SUVs and other big vehicles away. Motorcycles and Scooters are at their all time high in sales. You have companies that have been trying to get funding for developing alternative fuel sources without any success now have money puring out the walls. All this is due to the out cry of the population on oil prices.


If gas was at 98 cents a gallon and a company came out with a car that did not run on oil for 40,000 bucks do you think anybody would buy it? Do you think companies would build stations that catered to these new vehicles? Do even think that such a company would even get investors togive money to create such a vehicle?

And now they are hitting the motorcycle industry. Did anyone
notice all new 2007 Harley's will have EFI and lower emissions (even
the Sportster)? It isn't like my little motorcycle comes even
close to the pollution generated by an SUV, but now I cannot have a
carb on my bike or high performance exhaust. Granted, many like
EFI, but for those backyard tinkerers, a carb is much more user
serviceable. And for those looking to boost their HP a little,
one used to be able to jet the carb and change the pipes and air
filter. Now, with EFI, I must go to a shop and pay big bucks for
a new map. I wonder when they will go after the watercraft or ATV
markets (or have they already?).

Since we're off-topic anyway.


Fuel consumption would've gone down by as much as 15% here, according to some sources. That's with prices equivalent to between 6.38 and 8.53 $/gallon for leadfree and between 6.38 and 7.31 $/gallon for diesel fuel, taken across Europe. Even with my car getting an average 55 mpg (diesel) that's something to consider. Heating fuel is at about half the price of diesel so we're hoping for a warm winter.


Alex

phoxeoy their wallet environment...





thats funny. That is the same thing the Mayor of Chicago
thinks. Lets add 50 percent tax to the gas in Chicago and make it
the highest priced gas in the States and then that will teach them
dumies to take a train or ride a bike. You would think it
would be free to take a motorcycle thru the toll way but it is not.



It may be thru conversations like these that products make revolution.



Edited by: design-engine

<a href="http://www.design-engine.com/feature.php?feature=65" target="_blank">
http://www.design-engine.com/feature.php?feature=65</a> Just posted this from NY1 website. And Hey - I modeled it in 5 hrs. Art project where 10 of these devices are handed out and they were all printed using a 3d printer.

It is a sniffer device that detects ..
Nitrogen oxides or NOx
is a generic term for a group of gases that contain nitrogen and oxygen
in varying amounts. NOx results from combustion, and the primary
manmade sources are automobiles, electric utilities and other
industrial, commercial or residential sources that burn fuels. NOx
occur naturally as well. A common NOx is nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which
is one of the main ingredients in forming both ground-level ozone and
acid rain. Ground level ozone can trigger serious respiratory problems
in people and acid rain causes lakes and streams to become unsuitable
for many fish. NOx can be transported over long distances with the help
of strong winds, which means its effects are not contained to locations
near the polluting source.
Carbon monoxide (CO) is also a by-product
of combustion and is formed when the carbon in fuel is not burned
thoroughly. People with heart disease are most likely to suffer from
low exposure to CO and it can be deadly at extremely high levels. CO
contributes to the formation of smog, or ground-level ozone. [1]


Edited by: design-engine

I've just finished a course on sustainability as part of my Beng. It was a real eye opener. Basicaly we are all screwed due to 3 simple things


Global population is estimated to hit 9billion by 2050.


Standards of living and consumption rates are rising for everyone, especialy developing countries.


Any energy savings offered by technical innovations are lost on the rebound effect (eg a new engine offering greater MPG will be used to power a heaver or faster car thus negating any saving)

'Any energy savings offered by technical innovations are lost on the rebound effect (eg a new engine offering greater MPG will be used to power a heaver or faster car thus negating any saving)'


Absolutely..... last week I had to fix a bmw 330d 2002 (common-rail)....(not mine)


When the engine runs sweet its one of the best and very low emissions.


But this time it broke in a very smoky way...injectors stayed open. You would not believe how much smoke it made b4 it was fixed.....undoing all the low emissions it evermanaged over the last 86000miles. Cost