The Sustainability Initiative at UNH

by Filson H. Glanz, Professor of EE (emeritus)

An initiative in Sustainability has started at UNH. There are many definitions for Sustainability, but in a nutshell it means meeting the needs of the present without limiting the possibility of future generations doing likewise. Herman E. Daly, formerly a senior economist at the World Bank, and now senior research scholar at the University of Maryland School of Public Affairs, has expressed several laws of sustainability:

"Every renewable resource must be used at a rate less than or equal to the rate at which it is being regenerated.Every nonrenewable resource must be used at a rate less than or equal to the rate at which a renewable substitute can be developed.Our waste stream must be emitted into the environment at a rate less that or equal to that at which the earth can absorb, assimilate, or make harmless."

It seems obvious that these "laws" should be obeyed, even though few individuals and almost no industries follow them today! The idea of sustainability has been around for many years, but recently it has become more widespread due to several international movements.

But why is there interest in sustainability? The main reason has to do with the projection of diminishing resources (and increased pollution) in the light of increasing demand due to growth in population and standard of living, especially in developing countries. For example, three separate projections show that oil reserves will run out at current usage in about 2050 to 2075. Of course new oil reserves are found each year (thereby postponing the crisis date), and some countries will probably try to increase their standard of living and demand much more oil than they currently do (e.g. China with about 1.2 billion people),thus accelerating the ominous drastic rise in oil prices.

Other resources that are or will be strained in the near future are air, water, soil, land for building/recreation/wilderness, certain minerals, forests, upper atmospheric ozone, etc. Forest is disappearing fast enough to be a concern with regard to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Global warming is a real threat, so much so that the Group Chief Executive of British Petroleum America, John Browne, announced that his company thinks that world governments should act now to curb global warming. John’s company plans a new generation of solar cells that is more efficient and less expensive. To quote him:

"There is a lot of noise in the data. It is hard to isolate cause and effect. But there is now an effective consensus among the world’s leading scientists and serious and well-informed people outside the scientific community that there is a discernible human influence on the climate, and a link between the concentration of carbon dioxide and the increase in temperature. The time to consider the policy dimensions of climate change is not when the link between greenhouse gases and climate change is conclusively proven, but when the possibility cannot be discounted and is taken seriously by the society of which we are a part. We also want to transfer our distinctive technologies into production, to increase manufacturing capacity and to position the business to reach one billion dollars in sales over the next decade. The result of all this is that gradually, but progressively, solar will make a contribution to the resolution of the problem of carbon dioxide emissions and climate change."

Human behavior is such that we tend to deny a problem that will make itself felt more that ten years into the future. But many environmental and resource problems, although solvable, will require decades to solve. Examples of human societies that have collapsed due to lack of foresight are numerous and well documented in the history literature. Some examples:

The archaeological story of Easter Island (e.g. Discover, August ‘95) clearly shows the result of not living sustainably. Settlers about 400 AD found a lush forested paradise. The population grew to maybe 20,000 but because sustainability was not the way of life, resources dwindled and clan wars, starvation, cannibalism, and population crash resulted. A few thousand individuals and barren grassland were found when the island was rediscovered on Easter Day of 1722. The message is clear for Earth Island! Archaeologists have found Greek valleys, which had communities that developed, died off, and redeveloped over a 500 to 1000 year cycle because they over-utilized the available resources. Five or six such cycles have been documented. Indians in the South West, the Mayan civilization, etc. History repeats itself!

So, then, what is the nature of the UNH Sustainability Initiative? First, it is University-wide. There are interested and active people in all college faculties, in the student populations - both undergraduate and graduate, and in the staff. The numbers are not large in absolute terms nor in percentage, but they are growing. About 100 people came to one of the Saturday Sustainability Stakeholders meetings. All disciplines can contribute and should be involved. There is a need for people to look into the psychological reasons why humans deny the distant future, how people will be affected by living sustainably, etc. Arts, communications, economics, engineering, physics, health studies, biology, management, literature, history, philosophy, etc. can all solve some of the problems and make contributions. And, of course, education about sustainability can be taught by all disciplines.

Another aspect of the sustainability movement is the development of a sense of community. Everyone involved in everyday life is conscious of the isolation of people from other people (not physically but psychologically or spiritually), and of the inability to find time for family and community interactions in a quality way. Sustaining the spirit/psyche seems to be one very important aspect of the movement! As with anything that looks like a movement, not everyone who believes in sustainability agrees with all aspects or approaches suggested by any group or individual. Furthermore, there are many people who do not recognize, believe, or otherwise buy into the ideas of sustainability - especially because of the ambiguity of the term. But there is room for many points of view as long as we have a net motion toward solving the problems we face for the long run. Some believe that only more technology and marketing can solve our problems; some believe that more chemicals, high tech solutions, more investment, more capital, more wealth, etc. can move us in the right direction. Still, as a grass roots idea, flexibility, open mindedness, and diversity of approach are needed for success.

What are some details of the Initiative? A significant endowment has been established for sustainability education. There is available well over $200,000 annually for projects and personnel having to do with sustainability education. This past spring there was an international search for a Director of Sustainability to help lead the Initiative. Dr. Tom Kelly, formerly from Tufts University, was selected from a group of more than fifty impressive candidates.

There has been very great interest expressed by the staff of the University in this initiative - probably the highest percentage of interest among the various groups around campus! Who best knows the waste of materials and energy that goes on at UNH due to lack of interest or awareness? Staff are well represented on the committee that has drawn up a white paper to set goals for making the everyday operation of UNH more sustainable. That paper has been presented to the President of UNH and has been distributed around campus. There was even a course this spring taught by a member of the Natural Resources Department and the head of UNH Purchasing on purchasing policy. A number of large volume products were chosen for research into which products are most sustainable. These include both consumables and durable products.

Will industry respond to this idea? Many industries in the US have already responded to the sustainability idea for a combination of reasons including the principle, the profit, and the limited availability of resources (including places to dump wastes: air, water, landfills). As an example, the CEO of an international carpet manufacturer started a process of introspection and investigation that led to the sustainable practice of leasing carpeting so that used carpet is turned in to be remade into new carpet. A number of carpet firms now follow this practice, saving untold landfill volume and oil resources needed for the synthetic fiber.

Of course, less energy use means savings in electric generation infrastructure and land. Reduction in electric power usage is one of the easy ways to save. It has been projected that the US could easily save 25 to 50 percent of the electric power we now use at a cost that would not lower our standard of living nor require completely new capital equipment and structures.

How can engineering contribute to this effort? Because of research, experimentation, and development on solar energy and energy efficiency in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the energy demands of commercial buildings and homes went down enough to save a considerable number of barrels of imported oil each day. But then oil prices went down and people did not care about the energy savings, so the US did some backsliding in terms of continued savings. However, many of the buildings that were built then are still saving energy now. Projections show that much more imported oil could be saved, thus reducing trade imbalances and extending the time until oil prices go up drastically. There is still plenty of research and development left to be done to achieve more efficient use of fossil fuels, and engineering is one key component necessary to reach better efficiencies.

But there are many other ways we can engineer a more sustainable, economical future. Transportation is another energy/space consumer that has a long way to go to be as efficient as it can be. There is much wasted energy to gain back. For example, cars can be made much more efficient with the added advantage that polluting emissions will also be reduced. Our current autos are only a few percent efficient! Amory Lovins, who founded the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado, is working with a number of manufacturers on what he call the Hypercar. This car would be lightweight, store braking energy rather than converting it to heat, be designed for maximum passenger safety, and get from 100 to 400 miles per gallon. The first models should come out in a few years.

Other transportation projects that would save energy, space, pollution etc. have to do with rapid transit systems. High-speed magnetically levitated monorails have been in the demonstration stage for years, but the economical development of the infrastructure is yet to be accomplished. The American people must want and be willing to use rapid transit for it to come about!

Another area where engineering and science can contribute to a different way of life is photovoltaic (PV) electric power generation. Increases in efficiency and reductions in cost have been progressing over the last 15 years. Roofing that has integrated PV cells and looks like regular roofing is now available for homes. When the price comes down to be competitive with other forms of electric generation, a major change in our power systems will come about. The power system would become distributed with transmission lines used as a way of making the system more reliable and providing storage. Of course methods of storage other than lead acid batteries would have to be developed: flywheels, compressed gas, pumped hydro, electrolysis and storage of hydrogen, and other methods are being considered. Also there is a study that indicates that solar cell production has the highest rate of injury among all the energy sources (due to injury in mining the large volume of materials needed). As you can see, there is still much engineering to do!

A few engineering schools are researching and teaching sustainable design. Georgia Tech University has a Center for Sustainable Design (http://howe.ce.gatech.edu/Centers/CST/cst.html) which tries to orient design for recycling and reuse of parts among other things. Even GM is developing a fully recyclable car.

One project going on now in the ECE Department is the master’s thesis work of graduate student Garry Brown. Garry is working on a model of the electrical and thermal behavior of potentially sustainable living-learning facilities. The modeling program STELLA is being used for this project because of its ease of use and because it is one of the important systems modeling tools used widely. The model will include the possibility of various types of energy sources and usage such as solar energy, bioenergy, hydrogeneration, biogas (methane), fuel cell generation, etc. Furthermore, the model will be easily expanded to include other aspects of a sustainable facility such as food production, waste handling, and water usage.

The possibilities for engineering projects in sustainability are limitless. As more engineering departments accept the necessity of living sustainably, more ideas will emerge and more engineers will be trained to consider the sustainable aspects of their designs. Industry will recognize and eventually demand that engineers they hire be conscious of sustainability issues and be trained to design with sustainability in mind.

There is much at stake, and there is much that engineers can do to improve the chances of survival on earth of all forms of life, of the natural environment, and of the form of society that we all cherish.