Green Engineering Overview
"Green Engineering is broadly defined as minimizing environmental impacts across all life cycle phases in the design and engineering of products, processes, and systems," says Dr. Sean McGinnis, author and teacher. The official Environmental Protection Agency or EPA definition of Green Engineering is:
Green Engineering is the design, commercialization, and use of processes and products that are feasible and economical while:
- reducing the generation of pollution at the source
- minimizing the risk to human health and the environment
According to this blogger, it could be called Greengineering, but this has not caught on yet....
(Stay tuned!)
Green Engineering is Green Chemistry's kin
Green Engineering is the same concept as "Green Chemistry," as in California Green Chemistry, the Green Chemistry Council (GC3) out of Lowell, MA, and other groups. McGinnis writes about it well. In terms of function, he notes tools towards Green Engineering.
It helps if materials can be screened before they are ordered, in the new-product design phase. In such a case, a materials approval work-flow software is recommended, such as Gatekeeper for Greener Chemistry. In fact, a recent Wall Street Journal / News Corp. -owned paper mentioned the same phenomenon in a feature story on Actio, a software company innovating Green Engineering with a SaaS software platform.
With a sufficiently detailed level of product data management and mastery, supply chains are “greened,” children’s toys are non-toxic, product life-cycles from cradle-to-grave are managed, and of course: product design processes are streamlined and thus made more profitable. Greener supply chain principles apply to any product, from small bracelet charms to colossal military aircraft -- and everything in between. It even applies to items we don't normally think about what's inside, like delicate facial tissues, or even something on the blatantly noxious side, like cigarettes. (What's in those, again...?)
Software does help with Green Engineering. Specifically: software for materials data management down to the chemical and substance level.
The EPA website has a page dedicated to Green Engineering. Some schools have admirably set up academic focuses for Green Engineering: Virginia Tech, for instance.
Sean McGinnis' entire (lengthy but readable) article on Green Engineering is here: http://www.azom.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=5092
See Green Chemistry Overview from this blog: http://www.actio.net/default/index.cfm/actio-blog/california-green-chemistry-overview-and-answers/
Greengineering
Greengineering, anyone? :) Happy engineering.
Blog Articles
