Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies

While technological advancement leads to societal benefits in terms of economic growth, it also brings with it challenges in its impact on the environment or human health. Sustainable development seeks a uniform means of comparing the economic benefits with the environmental and health costs associated with the implementation of a new technology. This revised encyclopedia investigates sustainability initiatives across a range of industries, providing insight into future opportunities for technological development. A broad spectrum of human challenges have only become more intense since publication of the first edition. For example, climate change is now observed across the globe as a contributor to large scale weather events, including extreme drought in Australia, intense wildfires in California, and flooding along the great rivers of Africa, North and South America. Land in the Amazon rain forest is destroyed to provide increased cropland, contributing to climate change. Expansion of the use of biomass as a raw material in chemical processing leads to food shortages. In many cases, these challenges have the greatest impact on the poorest nations, and the most polluting manufacturing facilities are located in the poorest communities, demonstrating social justice challenges. This encyclopedia provides a comprehensive analysis of the challenges of modern technology, and the innovations that are leading to better use of limited resources and improved resiliency as we learn to adapt to a changing world. Each chapter examines in depth a technological solution to support a specific human need, evaluates it relative to its impacts on the environment and human health, and considers the social justice issues underlying its development. The new edition provides a stronger link between manufacturing and climate change, updates on new technologies for the generation, distribution and storage of energy, new concepts in resiliency and modularity that have changed manufacturing and chemical processes, and emphasizes the trade-offs required to obtain desired products while minimizing environmental impact.