Sustainable Materials without the hot air

Author: Julian Allwood
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1906860491
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 798

Book Description
Now in its second edition, Sustainable Materials shows how we can greatly reduce the amount of material demanded and used in manufacturing, while still meeting everyone's needs. Materials, transformed from natural resources into the buildings, equipment, vehicles and goods that underpin our remarkable lifestyle, are made with amazing efficiency. But our growing demand is not sustainable. Production of just five materials – steel, aluminium, paper, plastics and cement – accounts for 55% of industrial emissions, and demand for materials will double by 2050. Can we continue to live well but use less materials? So far people have considered the problem with only one eye open, hoping for a magic solution (such as carbon capture and storage). But with both eyes open we have a whole new set of options. Rather than making more materials, we can use them more wisely – with less material, keeping them for longer, re-using their parts and more. These options make a huge difference: we really could set up our children with a more sustainable life, without compromising our own. Sustainable Materials faces up to the impacts of making materials in the 21st century. Drawing on their experiences working with innovative materials as well as the facts and findings of their research, Julian Allwood and Jonathan Cullen provide an evidence-based vision of change that will allow us to make our future more sustainable. Packed with hundreds of colour photos and helpful graphs and diagrams, Sustainable Materials provides a thorough analysis of the problems that we face through wasteful attitudes and the growing demand for materials, as well as an evaluation of practical and achievable solutions for the future. The first edition of this optimistic and richly-informed book was listed as one of Bill Gate's top reads in 2015, and was also chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title by ACRL Choice magazine. This up-to-date, revised edition is perfect for anyone with an interest in sustainability.

Sustainable Energy

Author: David J. C. MacKay
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description

Sustainable Materials - with both eyes open

Author: Julian Allwood
Publisher: UIT Cambridge Limited
ISBN: 9781906860073
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This is a follow-up book to the author's Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, which had a large influence on both government policy and public opinion of how we should plan our energy for the future. This book faces up to the impacts of making materials in the 21st century. We are already making materials well, but demand keeps growing and we need to plan for a sustainable material future. The steel and aluminium industries alone account for nearly 30 per cent of global emissions, and demand is rising. The world target is to reduce industry's carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050. However, projections are that world demand for materials will double by 2050, so to meet our emissions target, we have to achieve a 4-fold reduction in emissions per unit of material used: industry will have to make huge changes, not just to the processes involved, but to the entire product life-cycle. This book presents a vision of change for how future generations can still use steel, cement, plastics etc., but with less impact on the environment. First it is a wake-up call, then it is a solutions manual. The solutions presented here are ahead of the game now. By providing an evidence-based vision of change, this book can play a significant role in influencing our energy future.

Food and Climate Change Without the Hot Air

Author: Sarah Bridle
Publisher: without the hot air
ISBN: 0857845039
Category : Agricultural industries
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A quarter of carbon emissions is from food. This accessible, quantitative description of how food and climate change are connected, inspired by the author's former mentor David Mackay (Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air), steers clear of emotive words to focus on facts.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster

Author: Bill Gates
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385546149
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.

Sustainable Fossil Fuels

Author: Mark Jaccard
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139449052
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Book Description
More and more people believe we must quickly wean ourselves from fossil fuels - oil, natural gas and coal - to save the planet from environmental catastrophe, wars and economic collapse. In this 2006 book, Professor Jaccard argues that this view is misguided. We have the technological capability to use fossil fuels without emitting climate-threatening greenhouse gases or other pollutants. The transition from conventional oil and gas to their unconventional sources including coal for producing electricity, hydrogen and cleaner-burning fuels will decrease energy dependence on politically unstable regions. In addition, our vast fossil fuel resources will be the cheapest source of clean energy for the next century and perhaps longer, which is critical for the economic and social development of the world's poorer countries. By buying time for increasing energy efficiency, developing renewable energy technologies and making nuclear power more attractive, fossil fuels will play a key role in humanity's quest for a sustainable energy system.

Ten Technologies to Save the Planet

Author: Chris Goodall
Publisher: Greystone Books Ltd
ISBN: 1553655257
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
"We face the dual crises of peak oil and climate change. How will we meet future global energy demands? Goodall combines cutting-edge analysis and fascinating stories of the inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs developing real-world technologies."--Back cover.

Low Energy Cooling for Sustainable Buildings

Author: Ursula Eicker
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780470744062
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Book Description
This long-awaited reference guide provides a complete overview of low energy cooling systems for buildings, covering a wide range of existing and emerging sustainable energy technologies in one comprehensive volume. An excellent data source on cooling performance, such as building loads or solar thermal chiller efficiencies, it is essential reading for building services and renewable energy engineers and researchers covering sustainable design. The book is unique in including a large set of experimental results from years of monitoring actual building and energy plants, as well as detailed laboratory and simulation analyses. These demonstrate which systems really work in buildings, what the real costs are and how operation can be optimized – crucial information for planners, builders and architects to gain confidence in applying new technologies in the building sector. Inside you will find valuable insights into: the energy demand of residential and office buildings; facades and summer performance of buildings; passive cooling strategies; geothermal cooling; active thermal cooling technologies, including absorption cooling, desiccant cooling and new developments in low power chillers; sustainable building operation using simulation. Supporting case study material makes this a useful text for senior undergraduate students on renewable and sustainable energy courses. Practical and informative, it is the best up-to-date volume on the important and rapidly growing area of cooling.

Making the Modern World

Author: Vaclav Smil
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118697960
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 263

Book Description
How much further should the affluent world push its material consumption? Does relative dematerialization lead to absolute decline in demand for materials? These and many other questions are discussed and answered in Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization. Over the course of time, the modern world has become dependent on unprecedented flows of materials. Now even the most efficient production processes and the highest practical rates of recycling may not be enough to result in dematerialization rates that would be high enough to negate the rising demand for materials generated by continuing population growth and rising standards of living. This book explores the costs of this dependence and the potential for substantial dematerialization of modern economies. Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization considers the principal materials used throughout history, from wood and stone, through to metals, alloys, plastics and silicon, describing their extraction and production as well as their dominant applications. The evolving productivities of material extraction, processing, synthesis, finishing and distribution, and the energy costs and environmental impact of rising material consumption are examined in detail. The book concludes with an outlook for the future, discussing the prospects for dematerialization and potential constrains on materials. This interdisciplinary text provides useful perspectives for readers with backgrounds including resource economics, environmental studies, energy analysis, mineral geology, industrial organization, manufacturing and material science.

Energy for a Sustainable World

Author: Vincenzo Balzani
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 3527633618
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Book Description
An easy read, balancing the pros and cons, this book surveys the energy issue from a broad scientific perspective while considering environmental, economic, and social factors. It explains the basic concepts, provides a historical overview of energy resources, assesses our unsustainable energy system based on fossil fuels, and shows that the energy crisis is not only a tough challenge, but also an unprecedented opportunity to become more concerned about the world in which we live and the society we have built up. By outlining the alternatives for today and the future, it gives an extensive overview on nuclear energy, solar thermal and photovoltaics, solar fuels, wind power, ocean energies and other renewables, highlighting the increasing importance of electricity and the long-term perspectives of a hydrogen-based economy. An excellent source of updated and carefully documented information on the entangled aspects of the energy issue, this book is a guide for scientists, students and teachers looking for ways out of the energy and climate crisis, and the problems and disparities generated during the fossil fuel era.