Discussion

Application of the advanced technology has been seen in various aspects of the business. The application of engineering the lifestyle of people easier and also improves the livening standard through its use. Sustainability can play a crucial role in the management and maintenance of the environment through improving existing practices for nurturing the environment. The definition of sustainability is to manage the social and environmental betterment while accomplishing the better and sustainable methods of the engineering those can limit the usage of the natural resources and restrict the pollution level (Kutscher, Milford and Kreith 2018). Various factors such as, consideration of the entire system in which the processes or objects will be used, consideration of the non-technical and technical issues synergistically, problem solving strives for ‘infinite’ future, consideration of the global context, acknowledgement of the interaction of the experts in many topics, and many more (Czarnecki 2017). The paper will conclude that a decision-making process which will maintain a vital role in maintaining sustainability. The primary objective of this paper is to reflect on the current engineering practices focusing on sustainability and environmental management factors.

I acknowledge that sustainable practice can be highly complex practice in the present world where most of the resources being utilized for daily operations to release wastes and pollution. We get to know that adoption of the sustainability in the engineering practices can be efficiently and effectively made through following the principles mentioned below in the figure:

Figure 1: Classification of sustainable engineering principles versus environmental, social, and economic criteria

(Source: Kutscher, Milfod and Kreith 2018)

Considering the past engineering practices, I can state that most of the engineering practices were concerned about delivering the requirements of the project. Those projects were not concerned about environmental and social sustainability. According to de Vriend et al.(2015), nowadays, engineering practices maintain sustainability factors. According to Bakshi, Ziv and Lepech(2015), the sustainability factors are managed by the decision-making during the engineering project development. The sustainability factors must consider the three aspects including economic, social and environmental factors of the engineering practices.  We have to judge the level of sustainability from these three factors.

There are various advantages to maintain sustainability in engineering practice. One of the benefits of the sustainable development in the engineering is that the outcome of the project delivers the cost-effective result and it maintains the economic balance of the budget of the project Apart from that management, the sustainability in engineering also helps to maintain environmental sustainability, which alternatively supports the use of renewable resources and energy conservation (Hanes and Bakshi 2015). Moreover, it is also concerned about maintaining social sustainability.

The concept of sustainability can be used in the various practices of engineering. It can be used in the development through the mechanical, electrical engineering practice. Apart from that, the concept of sustainability can be used in the use of information technology. In the case of information technology we can witness the use of idea for the development of the products and services that can help to reduce the e-waste and can consume less energy for the operation (Jense 2016). There are various applications and the products of sustainable development in engineering practices. We have seen the use of the electric car which is a product of the viable method of the applying the advanced technology and it merges with the application of different engineering sectors including automobile engineering and IoT (Internet of things).

Importance of maintaining sustainability

We have seen that the engineering practices in the earlier days did not follow the sustainable development. According to me, such ignorance towards the environment can have a profoundly bad impact on the present and future generations. While understanding the paper presented by Halbe, Adamowski and Pahl-Wostl (2015), we get to know that the increased temperature of the earth and the shortage of energy are concerning issues in present world. It drives us to think about maintaining sustainability in the engineering practice. We have also seen that using the non-renewable energy is increasing the pollution level of the earth .  All these concerns are becoming significant issues for future development.  

Concerning other sectors, the wastage of the water resources has been noticed in many cases, which is not desirable considering the sustainable option. From the articles of the engineering practices, I have seen that many engineering practices like recycling of the resources and usage of machines driven by green technology which are related to mechanical and electrical engineering, where the usage of water is needed. In this case, for most of the time, the wastage of water takes place along with increasing the level of pollution in the water.

From the economic view, it can be stated that the level of sustainability needs to be maintained. If we can see the development process and documentation of the previous engineering practices, we will see that the budget of those projects is very high. The use of non-renewable energy and the wastage of the resources can also be identified. The sustainable development through engineering practice allows the development of the system in such a way where the components and the outcome of the system can be recycled after the use. However, it also supports the use of renewable energy and the mitigate the overhead cost. It maintains the economic balance of the project.

The use of engineering maintaining sustainable management can be seen in the development of smart cities and the development of electrical engineering. A smart city is a concept that will support the use of renewable energy and the functioning of the city those with semi-automatic system operating functionalities the emerging technologies.  

In case of electrical engineering, production of the electric is the primary process. The most conventional use of electrical engineering is producing power from coal or water that are non-renewable sources of energy. In this case, the sustainable development of engineering is supporting the practices of producing electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar energy (Renzel et al.2017). This practice will promote environmental sustainability.

The concept of asset management is related to sustainable engineering practice.  The asset management can be done by utilizing the renewable sources of energy and recycling attribute of the materials. From the perspective of sustainable engineering, I can say that recycling of the product can mitigate the waste production (Jones, Michelfelder and Nair 2017). It will eventually bring the down the pollution rate of the environment. In this context, I come to know about the term ‘sustainability’ is the whole of life asset management.  This framework helps in asset management through defining specific steps for the control of the asset through the sustainable engineering practice. The first step regarding this is the identification of need which is followed by the utilization part (Wong 2016). The utilization part is all about the creation of the new product and recycling of the used material or products. It enables the use of the recycled components for building the new material.

Application of sustainable management

According to Hering, Nunnenmacher and von Waldow(2018), presently, the organization requires a solution, which will lower the emission of carbon along with engineering practices. It will also allow the engineering practice to be able to deliver the reliable supply chain cost-effectively.

The primary challenge of the implementation of sustainable practice in engineering is its implementation. According to Hanes and Bakshi(2015), most of the organization are using the equipment that is compatible with the traditional way of the process. To develop sustainable practice the use of emerging technology is needed (Salman, Riley and Javed 2016). The implementations of new machines are required which will increase the production cost for the organization.

Apart from that, another constraint in the development of sustainable engineering is the limited number of experts available in the industry. It has been seen that most of the employees and workers in the organization are comfortable in working with the traditional system. However, to implement the disruption in the organization, experts are needed for handling the newly implemented system (Mulder 2017). Moreover, the training of the employees is required so that they can be familiar with the new system.

The future development of sustainable engineering can be evaluated through the “Design Thinking” (Jensen 2016). Design thinking is dependent on the perception of human behaviour, learning, and adopting new ideas for future developments soon as possible. Design thinking is sometimes called “thinking by doing”. According to Bridges, Banks and Chasten(2016), design thinking includes energy conservation techniques and solutions for the next 50 years. The assumption is made from the incidents occurring in the energy industry at present days.

Conclusion

The discussion is regarding the sustainable development practice in engineering. I tried to find out the practices and their impacts regarding maintenance of the sustainability in the engineering.  From this discussion, I can say that sustainable engineering practice will allow the various enterprises and the companies to adopt efficient, sustainable practices those could contribute in the environment better living. It means initially the organization has to spend large amount of money for the implementation and development of the sustainable engineering. However, this investment will help to reduce the overhead production cost in future.

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