Digital Technology and Sustainability
Digital Technology and Sustainability

Author: Mike Hazas

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-11-22

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1315465957

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This book brings together diverse voices from across the field of sustainable human computer interaction (SHCI) to discuss what it means for digital technology to support sustainability and how humans and technology can work together optimally for a more sustainable future. Contemporary digital technologies are hailed by tech companies, governments and academics as leading-edge solutions to the challenges of environmental sustainability; smarter homes, more persuasive technologies, and a robust Internet of Things hold the promise for creating a greener world. Yet, deployments of interactive technologies for such purposes often lead to a paradox: they algorithmically "optimize" heating and lighting of houses without regard to the dynamics of daily life in the home; they can collect and display data that allow us to reflect on energy and emissions, yet the same information can cause us to raise our expectations for comfort and convenience; they might allow us to share best practice for sustainable living through social networking and online communities, yet these same systems further our participation in consumerism and contribute to an ever-greater volume of electronic waste.By acknowledging these paradoxes, this book represents a significant critical inquiry into digital technology’s longer-term impact on ideals of sustainability. Written by an interdisciplinary team of contributors this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of human computer interaction and environmental studies.

Sustainability, Technology and Innovation 4.0
Sustainability, Technology and Innovation 4.0

Author: Zbigniew Makieła

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-09-09

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1000439631

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Sustainability, Technology and Innovation 4.0 is a holistic perception and analysis of innovation at the level of public organisations, innovation in industry and innovation in HR. Its chapters collectively present a thesis that Innovation 4.0 signals a technological revolution that has the opportunity to prevent environmental degradation and, in particular, to stop climate warming, the effects of which may disrupt the process of sustainable development. Uniquely, this edited book offers a comprehensive and multi-faceted examination of Innovation 4.0, fulfilling methodical, empirical and utilitarian goals. The methodological objective is to present tools that allow the identification, analysis and assessment of the relationship between Innovation 4.0 and inspiration that will carry society towards a new economic and social order. Its empirical aim is to enable the analysis and evaluation of the role of public organisations, innovation in industry and innovation in HR in the process of building sustainable development of the global environment. The book’s utilitarian goal is a recommendation for global organisations of Innovation 4.0 as an instrument to stimulate an innovative economy. This is a high-level research book aimed at postgraduates, MBA students, researchers and academics from business colleges and universities, and may also provide a valuable strategic perspective for business executives.

Environmental Technology and Sustainability
Environmental Technology and Sustainability

Author: Basanta Kumara Behera

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2020-04-05

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 012819104X

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Environmental Technology and Sustainability: Physical, Chemical and Biological Technologies for Clean Environmental Management provides a dependable source of information on the fundamental scientific evidence involved in environmental protection and sustainable development. The book provides the basic natural sciences that underpin the understanding, development and application of environment technologies that support a clean inhabitable world that includes environmental technologies and sustainable, renewable energy systems. It considers the science and technology for environmental benefits, including the development of both smarter, cleaner technologies for environmental protection, conservation, and more. - Provides methods and processes for CO2 Sequestration - Focuses on technologies for reducing greenhouse gases and for biofuel production - Outlines issues surrounding contaminated water and provides solutions for water management - Describes problems facing air pollution, including sources and mitigation - Includes contaminated soil management

Greening through IT
Greening through IT

Author: Bill Tomlinson

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2012-02-10

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0262288354

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How the tools of information technology can support environmental sustainability by tackling problems that span broad scales of time, space, and complexity. Environmental issues often span long periods of time, far-flung areas, and labyrinthine layers of complexity. In Greening through IT, Bill Tomlinson investigates how the tools and techniques of information technology (IT) can help us tackle environmental problems at such vast scales. Tomlinson describes theoretical, technological, and social aspects of a growing interdisciplinary approach to sustainability, “Green IT,” offering both a human-centered framework for understanding Green IT systems and specific examples and case studies of Green IT in action. Tomlinson descrobes many efforts toward sustainability supported by IT—from fishers in India who maximized the sales potential of their catch by coordinating their activities with mobile phones to the installation of smart meters that optimize electricity use in California households—and offers three detailed studies of specific research projects that he and his colleagues have undertaken: EcoRaft, an interactive museum exhibit to help children learn principles of restoration ecology; Trackulous, a set of web-based tools with which people can chart their own environmental behavior; and GreenScanner, an online system that provides access to environmental-impact reports about consumer products. Taken together, these examples illustrate the significant environmental benefits that innovations in information technology can enable.

Sustainability Beyond Technology
Sustainability Beyond Technology

Author: Pasi Heikkurinen

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 0198864922

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"Current debates on sustainability are largely building on a problematic assumption that increasing technology use and advancement are a desired phenomenon, creating positive change in human organizations. This kind of techno-optimism prevails particularly in the discourses of ecological modernization and green growth, as well as in the attempts to design sustainable modes of production and consumption within growth-driven capitalism. This transdisciplinary book investigates the philosophical underpinnings of technology, presents a culturally sensitive critique of technology, and outlines feasible alternatives for sustainability beyond technology. By examining the conflicts and contradictions between technology and sustainability in human organizations, the book develops a novel way to conceptualize, confront and change technology in modern society. The book draws on a variety of scholarly disciplines, including humanities (philosophy and environmental history), social sciences (ecological economics, political economy, and ecology) and natural sciences (geology and thermodynamics) to contribute to sustainability theory and policy"--Publisher's description.

Green Information Technology
Green Information Technology

Author: Mohammad Dastbaz

Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann

Published: 2015-03-09

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 012801671X

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We are living in the era of "Big Data" and the computing power required to deal with "Big Data" both in terms of its energy consumption and technical complexity is one of the key areas of research and development. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that centralized computing infrastructures (data centres) currently use 7 giga watts of electricity during peak loads. This translates into about 61 billion kilowatt hours of electricity used. By the EPA's estimates, power-hungry data centres consume the annual output of 15 average-sized power plants. One of the top constraints to increasing computing power, besides the ability to cool, is simply delivering enough power to a given physical space. Green Information Technology: A Sustainable Approach offers in a single volume a broad collection of practical techniques and methodologies for designing, building and implementing a green technology strategy in any large enterprise environment, which up until now has been scattered in difficult-to-find scholarly resources. Included here is the latest information on emerging technologies and their environmental impact, how to effectively measure sustainability, discussions on sustainable hardware and software design, as well as how to use big data and cloud computing to drive efficiencies and establish a framework for sustainability in the information technology infrastructure. Written by recognized experts in both academia and industry, Green Information Technology: A Sustainable Approach is a must-have guide for researchers, computer architects, computer engineers and IT professionals with an interest in greater efficiency with less environmental impact. - Introduces the concept of using green procurement and supply chain programs in the IT infrastructure. - Discusses how to use big data to drive efficiencies and establish a framework for sustainability in the information technology infrastructure. - Explains how cloud computing can be used to consolidate corporate IT environments using large-scale shared infrastructure reducing the overall environmental impact and unlocking new efficiencies. - Provides specific use cases for Green IT such as data center energy efficiency and cloud computing sustainability and risk.

Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies
Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies

Author: Martin Abraham

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2017-07-04

Total Pages: 2276

ISBN-13: 0128047925

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Encyclopedia of Sustainable Technologies, Eight Volume Set provides an authoritative assessment of the sustainable technologies that are currently available or in development. Sustainable technology includes the scientific understanding, development and application of a wide range of technologies and processes and their environmental implications. Systems and lifecycle analyses of energy systems, environmental management, agriculture, manufacturing and digital technologies provide a comprehensive method for understanding the full sustainability of processes. In addition, the development of clean processes through green chemistry and engineering techniques are also described. The book is the first multi-volume reference work to employ both Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approaches to assessing the wide range of technologies available and their impact upon the world. Both approaches are long established and widely recognized, playing a key role in the organizing principles of this valuable work. Provides readers with a one-stop guide to the most current research in the field Presents a grounding of the fundamentals of the field of sustainable technologies Written by international leaders in the field, offering comprehensive coverage of the field and a consistent, high-quality scientific standard Includes the Life Cycle Analysis and Triple Bottom Line approaches to help users understand and assess sustainable technologies

Green Technologies and Environmental Sustainability
Green Technologies and Environmental Sustainability

Author: Ritu Singh

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-04-05

Total Pages: 494

ISBN-13: 3319506544

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In the present scenario, green technologies are playing significant role in changing the course of nation’s economic growth towards sustainability and providing an alternative socio-economic model that will enable present and future generations to live in a clean and healthy environment, in harmony with nature. Green technology, which is also known as clean technology, refers to the development and extension of processes, practices, and applications that improve or replace the existing technologies facilitating society to meet their own needs while substantially decreasing the impact of human on the planet, and reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. The concepts of Green Technologies, if endorsed and pervaded into the lives of all societies, will facilitate the aim of the Millennium Development Goals of keeping the environment intact and improve it for the civilization to survive. Green Technologies and Environmental Sustainability is focused on the goals of green technologies which are becoming increasingly important for ensuring sustainability. This book provides different perspectives of green technology in sectors like energy, agriculture, waste management and economics and contains recent advancements made towards sustainable development in the field of bioenergy, nanotechnology, green chemistry, bioremediation, degraded land reclamation. This book is written for a large and broad readership, including researchers, scientists, academicians and readers from diverse backgrounds across various fields such as nanotechnology, chemistry, agriculture, environmental science, water engineering, waste management and energy. It could also serve as a reference book for graduates and post-graduate students, faculties, environmentalist and industrial personnel who are working in the area of green technologies.

Sustainability Science and Technology
Sustainability Science and Technology

Author: Alejandro De Las Heras

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2014-04-01

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1466518081

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Sustainability Science and Technology: An Introduction explains the root causes of global failures in natural and human systems, as well as the most readily available technological solutions. The book dispels risky scientific and technological ideas that further complicate the current environmental and socioeconomic predicaments. It also bridges gaps among scientific and technological fields and systematically translates current findings for a wide technical and public audience. Written at a level accessible to all, the story is told one bite-sized chapter at a time, about the size of a scientific journal article. The chapters are self-contained, each grappling with a large topic. This provides more in-depth coverage of a topic than a standard encyclopedia article and promotes the widest possible dialog around sustainability issues and their solutions. Case studies from all continents and all technological development levels expound viable solutions for each of the planetary systems: water, soils, and atmosphere. In turn, the wider socioeconomic context of sustainable science and technology is examined. One of the first books to address the full scope of sustainability, it sets the stage for discussion and sustainability re(training) across professional divides. The editor and contributors take a balanced approach that is neither too technical nor too focused on any particular field. They highlight global and regional perspectives and the linkages between different planetary and human systems. The book helps you understand the thorny essence of sustainability issues—often fraught with ethical dilemmas, obsolete technologies, and lifestyle implications—and how to develop solutions to them.

Sustainable Construction Technologies
Sustainable Construction Technologies

Author: Vivian Y. Tam

Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann

Published: 2019-01-03

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 0128117508

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Sustainable Construction Technologies: Life-Cycle Assessment provides practitioners with a tool to help them select technologies that are financially advantageous even though they have a higher initial cost. Chapters provide an overview of LCA and how it can be used in conjunction with other indicators to manage construction. Topics covered include indoor environment quality, energy efficiency, transport, water reuse, materials, land use and ecology, and more. The book presents a valuable tool for construction professionals and researchers that want to apply sustainable construction techniques to their projects. Practitioners will find the international case studies and discussions of worldwide regulation and standards particularly useful. - Provides a framework for analyzing sustainable construction technologies and economic viability - Introduces key credit criteria for different sustainable construction technologies - Covers the most relevant construction areas - Includes technologies that can be employed during the process of construction, or to the product of the construction process, i.e. buildings - Analyzes international rating systems and provides supporting case studies