tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83700448728032096312009-02-21T04:06:59.292-08:00engineering as if people and the planet mattered a sustainability and engineering blogOliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-21907959215202976772007-06-18T19:24:00.000-07:002007-06-18T16:47:54.874-07:002007-06-18T16:47:54.874-07:00

digg_url='http://www.responsibleengineer.com/2007/06/big-green-apple.html';New York has been making headlines lately by announcing its steps to make the city greener.Just a few weeks ago it announced that by 2012 it wants to make its cab driving greener by using hybrid taxis. Though taxis still create emissions (as opposed to electric cars like the Tesla) hybrid cabs are an ideal choice for New

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-92013330691406648162007-06-13T10:04:00.001-07:002007-06-18T13:15:13.108-07:002007-06-18T13:15:13.108-07:00

digg_url='http://www.responsibleengineer.com/2007/06/is-society-ready-for-robots.html';In one of Isaac Asimov’s books a couple of humans built a robot to live in a space station and autonomously take care of that station without human intervention. The robot parts were shipped to the space station, and these human engineers on board built it to a fully functional robot. Maybe too functional, the

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-14464972150630460812007-06-09T04:08:00.000-07:002007-06-10T03:40:29.130-07:002007-06-10T03:40:29.130-07:00

Yossi Sheffi, a professor at MIT, makes clear that engineering students need to do much more than engineering to succeed in the 21st century.The kind of engineer who can succeed and lead in this global market -- one that is increasingly fed by graduates of schools in China and India, notes Sheffi – may no longer be the type educated at MIT. The Institute is top-rated, but is mired in an approach

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-90538292090159598022007-06-08T05:13:00.000-07:002007-06-11T00:01:19.680-07:002007-06-11T00:01:19.680-07:00

(updated June 11th, 2007)There have been several developments in the past years that have taken place in the electricity and energy distribution area. These are some of the important ones (focused a bit towards Germany)* the liberalisation of the electricity market (it is now possible to change suppliers easily)* the growth of de-centralised energy supply (especially through renewable energy)*

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-43056308557195028292007-06-05T13:29:00.000-07:002007-06-09T00:07:54.150-07:002007-06-09T00:07:54.150-07:00

Due to global warming the United Nations has advised Germany to finally put speed limits on all its roads. Until now it was normal for a 210 km/h Porsche driver to overtake the 175 km/h BMW-driving businessman on the german "Autobahn". The debate has heated up in Germany and though the answers to this question are few (Yes/No/Maybe), the reasons for the different answers are plentiful.Many

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-15162255004688491992007-05-30T02:44:00.001-07:002007-06-09T00:06:19.782-07:002007-06-09T00:06:19.782-07:00

It's amazing what engineers and scientists and other bright minds will come up with if they really have to. Often technology thrives when crisis erupts, wars have often been cited as pushers of technology and innovation.Geo-Engineering against global warming is a very interesting feat of human kind and it does spruce up the mind and gives interesting and mind-blowing ideas. Here are some examples

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-51494372914403821062007-05-23T16:51:00.000-07:002007-06-09T03:34:10.846-07:002007-06-09T03:34:10.846-07:00

Isn't it beautiful? Intuitively you would say it's a gasoline burning, 0-100 km/h in 5 seconds CO2-monster. Others, who know it already, may have recognised that this is the electric car from Tesla Motors.The great thing about it is, that you don't need to pay off in performance what you make up in environmental costs. It drives 0-100 km/h in about 4 seconds, charges in several hours, no

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-8170134733580941412007-05-22T17:34:00.000-07:002007-06-19T02:03:21.186-07:002007-06-19T02:03:21.186-07:00

digg_url='http://www.responsibleengineer.com/2007/05/how-co2-is-stealing-show.html';News about climate change is increasing. And more and more the focus is set on the big bad Greenhouse Gas called Carbon Dioxide, also known as CO2. The focus of many studies is how we can reduce CO2 emissions, be it through more efficient technology, by consuming less, by driving less and so on. Study after study

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-55614330367010293872007-05-22T15:24:00.001-07:002007-06-10T16:10:41.954-07:002007-06-10T16:10:41.954-07:00

Why should engineers even care about sustainability? Because they have a lot of power (no pun intended).If you look at the inventions of the past 300 years, it is obvious that engineers often are the catalysts of something big. Let's take the steam engine, it was the key "enabling technology" for the industrial revolution. And things started getting really fast from then on. Without trains I

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8370044872803209631.post-60644555797678884632007-05-22T13:13:00.001-07:002007-06-09T00:11:14.447-07:002007-06-09T00:11:14.447-07:00

Welcome to the new Sustainability and Engineering Blog! Why does it even exist? Do we really need it? And do engineering geeks really need to know about sustainability?Short background storyI changed the department at my university and am now studying electrical engineering in Cologne, Germany. As luck would have it, there's a sustainability workgroup at my new university campus and a lecture

Oliverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14511819999891954330noreply@blogger.com0