A World Gone Green

8/14/2019 A World Gone Green

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Twenty years ago, global warming was as real as SantaClaus to many people.

It simply wasn’t a big deal. The discussion about it thenseemed limited to scientists and never made a discernable

impression on international policymakers. I extreme cli-mate change was understood at all by the general public,then it was accepted as a popular myth — propaganda usedby pro-environment groups to uel an anti-corporate agen-da in the inal years o the Cold War. Skeptical lawmakersruled global warming as a theory, one that was incapableo a ecting national in rastructures including technology and the economy.

Gas emissions rom manu acturing, vehicles, and homesdestroying the air we breathe? Allowing the sun to burn

brighter and heat up the planet? Destroying nature in the warmest and coldest geographies? It seemed ridiculous.

In hindsight, many could argue, ew people could have considered any risks outweighing the bene its o growing busines

and industry in a civilized — and now globalized — world. ThIndustrial Revolution that began in the United States at thestart o the 20th century surely was the right movement at thetime. The era gave birth to corporate manu acturing, production lines, and the modern means o meeting supply with de-mand, all o which spread around the world and dug deep intothe cultures o democracies, republics, and communist states— acilitating industrialized agendas, including war. The samera also gave way to modern health care, transportation, andthe use o industrial engineering.

28 Industrial Engineer

A world gone

green B y D a v i D B r a n D t

IE methods can curb global warming effects


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/a-world-gone-green 2/7September 2007 29

Eventually, though, there was an underlying ear that wasde tly associated with the myth: Civilization was slowly kill-ing itsel through chemical emissions, pollution, and unstableenergy sources.

The public perception o global warming has altered overtime, particularly in the past 20 years. Since then, Earth Day has been annually marked on calendars, recycling has growninto a common household practice, and business and industry are striving to become more eco- riendly.

One o the biggest drives to capture the internationalcommunity’s attention regarding global warming and climatechange has been the critically acclaimed documentary “AnInconvenient Truth,” based on a slideshow presentation cre-ated by Al Gore, the ormer vice president o the United Statesunder President Bill Clinton. In the ilm, Gore discusses thee ects o greenhouse gases and an absence o energy conser-

vation on the environment worldwide.These newly popular ears o a dying planet slowly evolvedinto what many people consider a doomsday scenario, nowbacked by acts and data. Mother Nature, it appears today,has revealed her cards. But the melting o polar ice caps, thegradual rise in global temperatures, and the ierceness o the2005 Atlantic hurricane season (which included the devastat-ing Hurricane Katrina) are all backed by scienti ic data andestimates or the uture.

R.K. Pachauri, Ph.D., chairman o the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change, said that the topic o climate changehas evolved rom the scienti ic curiosity it once was. Relatedevents in the past ew years, he adds, have been important inshaping public perception o related topics.

“Certainly, Vice President Gore’s ilm had an impact,” saidPachauri, who was trained as an industrial engineer. “But morerecently, I think the reports o the IPCC that really had a majorimpact, as well. And the media has picked up the indings o the report and really disseminated them on a wide scale allover the world.”

Something in the air According to an IPCC report released in April, current trends o global climate are becoming more likely to cause permanent e -

ects. Most land masses are experiencing warmer temperatures year a ter year, resulting in ewer cold days and nights and more

requent hot days and nights. These actors could give way to in-sect outbreaks, greater demand or cooling energy, lower air qual-ity, and increased human mortality. According to the IPCC, thelikelihood this trend will continue is greater than 99 percent.

“We’ve had an acceleration o warming trends becauseemissions o greenhouse gases have been going up,” Pachauri

said. “The concentration has increased substantially. As a re-sult, there’s been an escalation o changes in the climate in thpast eight to nine years, or I would say even longer.”

The report oretells a growing number o areas a ecteddrought, which could cause crop damage, death to livestockincreased risks o wild ires, and shortages o ood and waSome geographic areas may experience more precipitationthan suitable, resulting in soil erosion, water supply con-tamination, respiratory and skin diseases, and commerce andtransportation distruptions.

The report also eeds ongoing ears o increased intensiamong tropical cyclones and hurricanes. Destructive windsand looding, power outages, water shortages, and increasedrisks o injury and death are stinging reminders o the 2005damage path in the southeastern United States created by hur-ricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. The three storms resulted in

hundreds o deaths and billions in costs or recovery and rebuilding e orts that are still underway two years a ter the storm made land all. Rising sea levels, as high as 2,100 eabove sea level along coastal regions and urther inland, arconsidered a threatening possibility, according to the report.

“All o this has added to the perception o the public thasomething is happening [with respect to climate change],”Pachauri added.

With such catastrophic possibilities being considered, thequestion arises: How did it reach this point?

While blame is o ten tagged to various nations or industriesby policy critics and environmental activists, global warminghasn’t always been humanity’s creation. The Earth’s evolutionover millions o years — including eras o extreme cold and h— has played a role in depositing carbon dioxide and similargases into the atmosphere. But or more than 125 years, humanhave been trans orming ossil uels (oil, natural gas, coal, etand chemical vapors into operating energy. The resulting carbondioxide emissions have increased temperatures at certain levelso the atmosphere, thickening the planet’s ozone layer and trapping heat delivered to the Earth by the sun that would otherwise

leave the atmosphere in a single revolution.One o the most signi icant policies in the worldwide reduc

tion o carbon dioxide has been the Kyoto Protocol, a landmark agreement rati ied in 1997 by dozens o industrializecountries to reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 level by 2012 While many nations have been working to honor the policyothers have tried instituting their own global warming reduc-tion plans. Earlier this year, Germany proposed an agenda by which global atmospheric temperatures would not be allowedto increase by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahr-enheit) be ore being brought back down through conservation


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/a-world-gone-green 3/730 Industrial Engineer

initiatives. Scientists say that such a plan would mean a carbondioxide reduction o 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

The United States — arguably the global leader in greenhousegas emissions — has not rati ied the Kyoto Protocol or any otherinternational agreement or combating global warming. The costto initiate such an agenda in the United States o ten ills the debatebetween those who believe the superpower country should rati y itand those who don’t. Between 1990 and 2004, total greenhousegas emissions rose 16 percent, according to the most recent data

rom the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The dominantgas emitted was carbon dioxide at 19.6 percent, but hydro luo-rocarbons, per luorocarbons, and sul ur hexa luoride increasedby 58 percent. Methane emissions decreased by 10 percent andnitrous oxide emissions dropped by 2 percent.

Saving face

Regardless o a lack o global warming legislation, many Ameri-can businesses are investing in green initiatives that shape over-all business strategy, manu acturing processes, and energy useto comply with environmental standards. Doug Kiss, an energy kaizen expert with TBM Consulting Group, said that industries

are paying attention to societal changes and re ecting the growpublic popularity o pro-environment agendas. Moral lines sas eco- riendly business practices, he said, are playing a herole today in determining a company’s bottom line.

“To be green means we’re not wasting,” Kiss said. “Weusing our current assets. Right now is not a time when a lotpeople are spending a lot o capital.”

He added that green companies are also examining theown processes and expanding conservation o basic resoursuch as water and electricity so that they can curb the temption to pass on costs to consumers. “It’s about challenging thuse that we currently have and inding out rom our own within our own organizations — what is it we can do to reduthe consumption and the cost so that we don’t have to pass an increase to our customers?”

Globally, conservation and cost-cutting can be di icult to

ance, but hazardous waste totals — which include producti waste — have subsided in many countries. Data released in Aby the United Nations shows that non-recyclable and hazardomanu acturing, industrial site, and mining materials have steadropped between 1990 and 2005. Hazardous waste generatio

production waste around the world

The United Nations describes hazardous waste as materials containing toxic, infectious, radioactive, or flammable properties that

pose an actual or potential hazard to the health of humans, other living organisms, or the environment. Although countries are asked

to report annual data on hazardous waste totals, most countries are not able to do so every year. The totals shown here are the latest

data from industrialized countries that reported data for 2004.Source: United Nations

United States*34,238 tons

United Kingdom5,202 tons

Ukraine61,916 tons

Finland2,312 tons

Germany18,110 tons

Italy5,280 tons

Kyrgyzstan6,309 tons

China*11,436 tons

Spain3,478 tons

*2005 data volunteered to U.N.

s p e c i a l r e p o r t :turning down the heat



in the United States has dropped rom 272,957 tons in 1990 to34,238 tons in 2005. Under a new Waste Act signed into law in1998, the Czech Republic dropped rom 2,588 tons in 2000 to1,350 tons in 2005. Ukraine saw a reduction rom 127,596 tons in1995 to 61,916 tons in 2004 (the latest data available).

Other nations, however, have seen a jump in hazardous waste generation. China has leapt rom 8,168 tons in 2000to 11,436 tons in 2005; Germany increased rom 12,872 tonsin 1990 to 18,110 tons in 2004; and the United Kingdom rose

rom 2,890 tons in 1990 to 5,201 tons in 2004. A green-oriented image, Kiss said, is help ul to businesses and

policymakers alike because it re lects a social consciousness. Con-sumers eel better when they are purchasing green products or

rom a company that incorporates eco- riendly business process-es and operations, he said. More o ten today than 20 years ago, a

company can ind greater, more pro itable success i it can build areputation associated with such measures. But Kiss stressed thatspiraling energy costs also motivate companies to look or ways toreduce loss rather than build pro it expectations.

“For lack o better expression, this has been the land o milkand honey or cheap energy or a long time,” he said. “Thesimple example would be the con iguration o a hose nozzle.Did we ever look at gallons per minute when we bought thisthing? The pattern and the pressure behind it, how we’re usingit? Our own history o being the land o plenty comes back tohaunt us sometimes, I think.”

IE movesThe IPCC has identi ed measures that can be implementedin commercial and industrial sectors to produce long-term,eco- riendly results. For example, though resistance may maksuch goals difcult to reach, the reduction o ossil uel subsdies and taxes or carbon charges on ossil uels could help coserve the global energy supply. Renewable energy technologcould also contribute to conservation in markets where lowemission mechanisms can be used. Local availability o lowcost uel could also invigorate renewable energy incentives.

In goods distribution, parties could apply mandatory ueleconomy, bio uel blending, and carbon dioxide standards oroad transport, although partial coverage could limit a vehicle

leet’s e ectiveness. Countries developing new transportatisystems could bene it rom in rastructure planning and inves

ments in public and non-motorized transport stations. Newindustrial technologies could create opportunities or per ormance and energy benchmarking, standards, and tax credits, while voluntary agreements could provide success through cleatargets, third-party design and monitoring, and close coopera-tion between government and industry.

The IPCC notes that government support through inancialcontributions, tax credits, standard setting, and market creationis important or e ective technology development, innovatioand employment. But the expansion o globalization with respect to green technology largely depends on political agree

top ten u . s . carbon dioxide emissions

Carbon dioxide emissions in the United States as of 2003-04, highlighting the 10 highest states. Between 1990 and 2003, the EPA

says the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion by the United States rose by 17.4 percent, from

5,005.3 mmtCO2 (million metric tons of carbon dioxide) in 1990 to 5,877.7 mmtCO2 in 2003.Source: EPA

1 Texas

1990 = 586.82 mmtCO22003 = 694.08 mmtCO2

2 Cal ifornia

1990 = 361.21 mmtCO22003 = 384.04 mmtCO2

3 Pennsylvania

1990 = 260.34 mmtCO2

2003 = 266.83 mmtCO24 ohio

1990 = 243.04 mmtCO22003 = 260.67 mmtCO2

5 florida1990 = 186.35 mmtCO22003 = 241.67 mmtCO2

6 indiana

1990 = 201.25 mmtCO22003 = 228.24 mmtCO2

7 i ll in oi s

1990 = 192.17 mmtCO22003 = 226.63 mmtCO2

8 n ew yor k

1990 = 207.94 mmtCO22003 = 213.69 mmtCO2

9 l ou isi ana1990 = 191.02 mmtCO22003 = 188.67 mmtCO2

10 MiChigan1990 = 180.33 mmtCO22003 = 182.50 mmtCO2

8

672

4

10

59

1

3



ments and inancing. Pachauri, however, said he didn’t believepolitics was necessarily a dead end or green initiatives.

“I think, at the moment, what we really need to do is useexisting technologies to improve energy e iciency,” he said.“This applies to everything including auto-mobiles — which should be made ar more

uel e icient — homes that are overheated orovercooled, and all that can be done with ex-isting technology and know-how.”

He added that alternative uels will needto be developed to stave o an energy crisis.Biomass, bio uels, solar, wind, and even tidalenergy would need to be used on a much largerscale, he said, but none o those sources willbe used without higher prices associated withhigh-carbon uels. “It’s those prices which will

bring out technological innovation and dissemination o thosetechnologies,” Pachauri noted.

Kiss said that numerous industries are adopting green approaches to their manu acturing processes, especially in aerospace and de ense, ood, and general process industThe process industry, he said, tends to use more energy

large-scale plants, o ten with operations running around the clock seven days a week. Bamong industrial engineering methods, thebiggest movement toward combating globa warming emissions has been ound in totproduction maintenance within energy kai-zen, according to Kiss. For example, a piece manu acturing equipment is generally madup o metal, hydraulic, and electronic compnents. A building or acility is similar — a larsteel rame with heating and air ventilation

ire compression systems, and water supply.

“When we look at consumption, it’s not only rom a mchine point o view but also rom a acility point o view

When it comes to global warming, no one can tell R.K.Pachauri that he never saw it coming.

Born in Nainital, India, Pachauri irst became interested inclimate change in 1988, a time when the dangers o a warmingplanet were considered no more than a gossiped theory outside o a small portion o the scienti ic community. He was working onenergy and environmental issues but has since pursued his inter-est in climate change. As the years have passed and more scienti icdata has been collected to prove global warming exists, he notesthat there has been a substantial increase in public interest.

“We have much more scienti ic evidence now than 20 years

ago. We now have a wealth o in ormation, analysis, and litera-ture to validate what has been happening,” Pachauri said.

Much o Pachauri’s career has revolved around The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) or more than 25 years. He hasserved as its director general since April 2001. TERI holds an in-ternational presence as an in luential research organization. Witho ices located around southeast Asia, in London, and in Wash-ington, D.C., TERI aims to nurture innovative and cost-e ectivesolutions or energy, environment, natural resources, and sustain-able global development. The institute also provides support inthe areas o energy, environment, orestry, biotechnology, and the

conservation o natural resources to government departmentsstitutions, and corporate organizations worldwide.

“We have the means, we have the options by which people bring about substantial shi ts and reductions in the emissions greenhouse gases,” Pachauri said. “We also identi ied that i want to stabilize the concentration o these gases, thereby stabing the climate, we really have a short window o time in whiallow emissions to go and make sure they start declining.”

The window is smaller than most people may believPachauri said that the planet has a deadline o eight years which greenhouse gas emissions must start declining to pr

vent long-term e ects, such as major melting along the pregion and rising sea levels. “That means by 2015, emissioglobally must start declining.”

He added that ultimately, political negotiations that are takiplace or greenhouse gas reductions must clearly identi y needs to be done and how quickly. Despite his belie in socieability to solve the problem, Pachauri admits that politics playrole in making global warming combat methods a reality. He sthe role o science and scientists is to in orm politicians andpublic. I the public gets convinced that global warming is incing in intensity, he said, then politicians have no choice but to

32 Industrial Engineer

From IE to climate change guru

B y D a v i D B r a n D t

Pachauri says planet has eight years before greatest fears become reality

Doug Kiss

s p e c i a l r e p o r t :turning down the heat



on the will o the people. “I believe science has an extremely im-portant role [in combating global warming] and I believe it canin luence the course o politics.”

Pachauri’s career path has been di erent rom many indus-trial engineers. He began his career in manu acturing workingon diesel engines or Diesel Locomotive Works, where he alsoheld several management positions. He obtained a master’s

degree in industrial engineering in 1972 rom North Caro-lina State University. As he continued his education, Pachaurimaintained a minor in economics, a ield he appreciated somuch that he decided to obtain a postgraduate degree.

Pachauri earned a doctorate in industrial engineering in 1974and then a doctorate in economics rom the university, leadinghim to a aculty post in the department o economics and busi-ness. He spent a year in 2000 as a McCluskey Fellow at the Schoolo Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He has written 23 books, as well as several papers and articles.

Pachauri said his background in industrial engineering has

helped him understand the role o technology — how it can be d veloped and deployed. He said that technology plays a large part how other industrial engineers can participate in preventing con-tinued global warming. The ability to develop and manu acturdevices embodying eco- riendly technology at costs that woulmake them marketable will likely be the greatest challenge industrial engineers, he said. Project management is another area where Pachauri said engineers can implement a green mindset.

“I we want to bring about the shi t rom current in rastruture, equipment, and technology — something that would besmall and carbon- riendly — then industrial engineers wilhave an important role in translating those concepts into ac-tual results on the ground,” he said.

Though his term as chairman o the IPCC ends next yearPachauri said he’s not concerned with re-election due to the im-portance o matters at hand. Having seen e ects o global waing around the world irsthand, rom the melting arctic to th

rising sea levels along the coasts o his home country, Pachausaid he is ear ul or humanity’s well-being i it can’t alter negclimate trends. He predicts rising sea levels, resh water scarcitand risks to ood security may grow at a quicker rate i changaren’t made by governments and industries to curb the long-terme ects o carbon dioxide and pollution emissions.

“We’re all inhabitants o spaceship Earth,” Pachauri said. “Anthing that happens at any part o the globe has implications or ao us and we need to start thinking along those lines.”

“To the limited extent that I can help to bring about a shi tin thinking, I’m certainly going to do that.”d

R.K. Pachauri (left),

chairman of the

Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change, met

with U.N. Secretary

General Ban Ki-Moon

earlier this year to pres-ent a report on the status

of global warming.

said. “I think it’s an idea that’s paying back well orquite a ew companies.”

As the public debate over global warming has dras-tically become louder in the past ive years, businessand industry seem to be catching up with popularopinion. From the perspective o major corporations,a public ace as a green enterprise is more necessary tocompete in the marketplace. When it comes to booksin a bookstore, the cover can only convince a readerso ar as to how good the story is on the inside.

To stall the e ects o global warming and possibly re- verse the continuing trends, tomorrow’s governments,manu acturers, and distribution leets will have to answerthe ollowing question: Can we initiate a plan that lives upto our organization’s green promise?

“Is it the primary concern o the company?” Kiss asked.

“I guess it would require a judgment call on whether they even acknowledge global warming, wouldn’t it?”d

a stroke of lightingIn October 2006, the IIE headquarters near Atlanta added a touch

of green.

Overhead lights throughout the headquarter offices were re-

lamped with full-spectrum bulbs, which create the makeup of

natural light. The bulbs consume 80 percent less energy than

incandescent bulbs for the amount of light they produce and lastabout five times longer.

“We had been using a mixture of various brands of cool white

lamps, which are a phosphor mix that is not balanced to natural

light,” said Donna Calvert, IIE corporate operations manager.

Full-spectrum lighting can create better visual clarity, reduce

eye strain and fatigue, and decrease glare from monitors and com-

puter screens that may cause headaches in workers. Calvert said

the reduction in even minor health risks driven by the new lighting

has increased worker satisfaction and productivity in addition to

other benefits. “We will realize fewer maintenance efforts andfairly substantial cost savings, as well.”

A World Gone Green

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