SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING The process of using energy and resources at a rate that does not compromise the natural environment.

The role of an engineer is to …

  design a product or process that is functional   design a product or process that is profitable   design a product or process that minimizes it’s

environmental impact.

A product can impact the environment in four ways:

Carbon Footprint Total Energy

Water Eutrophication Air Acidification

The Design Process

  At every step of the engineering design process, engineers have to consider how the environment is being impacted by each design decision.

  They need to think about the affect the product has on air and water, how much energy is consumed, and the product’s carbon footprint.

Life Cycle Analysis A method to quantitatively assess the environmental impact of a product throughout its entire lifecycle, from the procurement of the raw materials, through the production, distribution, use, disposal and recycling of that product.

Process Set

Baseline

Modify Inputs

Modify Design

Find Similar

Materials

Sustainability & SolidWorks

Input

Material

Manufacturing Process

Manufacturing Region

Transportation & Use

Output

Carbon

Energy

Air

Water

Sustainability & SolidWorks

Let’s try it out … Build this part in SolidWorks

Units: Inches