EERI 473

Engineering and the environment

Lecturer: Prof Johann Holm
PhD Eng

Date: 16 August 2018

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 Sustainability

Trees do not grow up as fast as they are cut down…

+ Politics…

As from “Companies and Environmental Impact: Identification and Visualization of Key Ecological Indicators” by Martin
Knura, Diplomica Verlag, 2014

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 What we get from nature

• Categories of benefits provided by the ecology (or rather: Mother Earth):

• Provisioning – water, food, raw materials, energy and fuel, genetic resources,
medical resources and ornamental resources
• Regulating – climate regulation, disturbance regulation, water regulation, soil
retention, waste treatment and biological control
• Support – habitat and refugium, biogeochemical cycles, soil formation and
nutrient regulation
• Cultural and amenity – aesthetic information, recreation and tourism, inspiration
for art, folklore, spiritual information, science and education

You cannot make grass grow faster by pulling on it…

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 Interaction with the environment

• Enterprises have two main interfaces with the environment:

• Provisioning – using energy and raw materials from the environment

• In the case of Houers, identify the provisioning elements from nature

• Regulating – producing waste, emissions and products

• In the case of Houers, what waste elements, emissions and products are
present?

It is easier to struggle than to think…

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 Key environmental indicators (KEI’s)

KEI’s are used to measure, communicate and control interaction with the environment:

Society

Effort / Money

Products Society
Nature Raw materials
Enterprise
Energy / water
Waste / emission Nature

Worry about nature and society – the economy will take care of itself…

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 Key environmental indicators (KEI’s)

KEI’s are used to measure, communicate and control interaction with the
environment:
Communicate
KEI’s
Management
Control Control Measure
loop loop
Control

Society
Nature Enterprise
Nature

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 Sustainability control loops (NB)
Must be a closed-loop control system that references standards to ensure sustainability
Government (Environmental affairs) / International bodies (EPA)
Business management / Environmental control

Economy Society Ecology

Deviation Deviation Deviation

Factory
Measure Measure
Reference Reference Reference

Economic targets Social targets / Ecological targets

/ governance standards / Standards
ISO 26000 Social ResponsibilityISO 14001 Environmental Management

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 Key areas of concern (natural environment)
The following natural considerations are important:
• Energy (e.g. electricity)
• Material intensity (e.g. paper / wood)
• Water
• Land
• Emissions (direct and indirect – consider carbon footprint)
• Atmospheric (acidification, global warming, human health, ozone depletion,
photochemical ozone)
• Aquatic (acidification, oxygen demand, eco toxicity, eutrophication)
• Land (toxic waste disposal, non-toxic waste disposal)

Knura, Martin. Companies and Environmental Impact: Identification and Visualization of Key Ecological
Indicators, Diplomica Verlag, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, Created from northwu-ebooks on 2018-08-15
22:24:21.

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 Full life cycle view
The environment is always considered from a full life cycle perspective (i.e. a
Systems view)
Machine Acquisition Machine Use
Machine Machine Construction
Machine Use and
Requirements Procurement and
Phase-out
Specification and Logistics Integration

Machine Life Cycle

• Transport (indirect emissions)
• Supplier factors
• Construction (waste etc.)
• Energy
• Products (recycling)
• Waste
• Emissions (direct / indirect)
• Old machine (recycling)

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 For EERI 473 – submission on 23 Aug 2018
• Each individual:
1. Economic impact of the natural environment on Houers
1. Define 5 key natural environmental factors that may have effect on Houers (e.g. drought)
and link them to production factors (material cost)
2. Perform a sensitivity analysis on the profitability of Houers with respect to those key
factors – show how % changes affect revenue and profit (5 graphs)
3. Document your findings in an Excel spreadsheet and graphs (you must use your own
economic analysis spreadsheet from your group) in report format

2. From a full life-cycle perspective, what ecological impact did the machine replacement
project have (consider maintenance as well)? List phases and indicate types of effects.

3. How does a company like Houers (production) compare to an open-cast mine (mining) in
terms of sustainability? Draw up a performance comparison table (the template is
provided) and present as two tables on a sheet. Defend your scores (very briefly).

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