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Make it Last - Technology & Sustainable Development

Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the quality of future generations to meet their  needs, can be described as the simplest way to define sustainability. We talked about this in the previous post; balancing economic development, social equity and environmental protection help organisations move towards a sustainable standing.

What about sustainability on the global scale ?

Sustainability and sustainable development are about striking a balance between environmental concerns of natural resources, techno-economic systems and their development and societal concerns of human capital, and social expectations. A melange of all these systems leads to meeting our present needs without compromising on the needs of the future.

This definition forms the basis for defining all categories of sustainabilities in different areas of human activities.

Now, environmental sustainability may be seen as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain and progress ecological processes. It may also be seen as its ability to progress functions and productivity over time to promote human health and happiness, merging design, manufacturing, policy and economics.

Economy, Environment and Society must make a holistic approach to provide sustainable development - development, unlike growth, requires a multilateral and wholesome approach, and effort.  Unlike growth, it is also more stable and lasting.

In the corporate world, business sustainability must focus on increasing productivity and reducing the number of emissions, waste, consumed resources, maintaining product quality, dealing with competition and profits alongside growing financial returns. It must also satisfy social and environmental systems.

This three-centric approach is built on the concept of the three pillars of Economic Development, Techno-Centric Concerns and Socio Centric Concerns.

With an alignment of these three parameters, sustainable development could be a faster and more-realistic goal. But what ties it all to gather ? A techno-engineering approach.

Technology sustainment is associated with activities that

a.     Keep an existing system operational
b.     Provide multiple versions of the system that satisfy the original requirements (and)
c.      Support the manufacturing and supply of updated versions of the system that meet evolving performance requirements

There are many engineering activities such as system design, product, design, manufacturing process finalization, product performance testing, evaluation and storage life tests, that contribute towards meeting technology requirements. The operational performance and functionality/ maintenance phases are also hugely affected by engineering and design.

This only goes further to show that technology sustainment is nothing but meeting engineering activities that are carried out to sustain the product for its lifetime. i.e. under varying conditions ranging from 3-25 years or more.

Now, what purpose does this holistic view of engineering serve ?

a.     It provides a framework within which engineering design practices can be carried out.
b.     It emphasizes the fact that professional practises in engineering need to be performed with bigger and wider perspectives.
c.      It helps demonstrate that engineers addressing sustainable development issues in product design and supply is central to the way engineering decisions are taken



What defines a technologically manufactured, socially sustainable product ? Or should engineers channel their focus towards “needs” rather than “wants” when it comes to creating something sustainable ?

More on this in the next post : Zero Waste, Create & Innovate, Ensure exact needs & wants, Guidelines to oversee engineering processes that ensure sustainment.

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