Digital Technology and Sustainability PDF Download

Author: Jo Dewulf
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470022434
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Sustainability is a key driving force for industries in the chemical, food, packaging, agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors, and quantitative sustainability indicators are being incorporated into company reports. This is driving the uptake of renewable resources and the adoption of renewables. Renewables' can either be the substituted raw materials that are used in a given industry, (e.g. the use of biomass for fuel); the use and/or modification of a crop for use in a new industry (e.g. plant cellulose), or the reuse of a waste product (e.g. organic waste for energy production). This is the first book in the Wiley Renewable Resources series that brings together the range of sustainability assessment methods and their uses. Ensuing books in the series will look at individual renewable materials and applications.

Author: Mike Hazas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315465957
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This book brings together diverse voices from across the field of sustainable human computer interaction (SHCI) to discuss what it means for digital technology to support sustainability and how humans and technology can work together optimally for a more sustainable future. Contemporary digital technologies are hailed by tech companies, governments and academics as leading-edge solutions to the challenges of environmental sustainability; smarter homes, more persuasive technologies, and a robust Internet of Things hold the promise for creating a greener world. Yet, deployments of interactive technologies for such purposes often lead to a paradox: they algorithmically "optimize" heating and lighting of houses without regard to the dynamics of daily life in the home; they can collect and display data that allow us to reflect on energy and emissions, yet the same information can cause us to raise our expectations for comfort and convenience; they might allow us to share best practice for sustainable living through social networking and online communities, yet these same systems further our participation in consumerism and contribute to an ever-greater volume of electronic waste.By acknowledging these paradoxes, this book represents a significant critical inquiry into digital technology’s longer-term impact on ideals of sustainability. Written by an interdisciplinary team of contributors this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of human computer interaction and environmental studies.

Author: Joydeb Sasmal
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811008957
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This book uses sound theoretical frameworks and econometric techniques to rigorously analyze and explain the conditions of sustainable growth in agriculture. It further investigates how management of natural resources and technological advances can enhance productivity and ensure sustainable growth in agriculture. Optimal control theory, dynamic optimization problems and theory of risk and uncertainty are extensively used to create theoretical models for analyzing agricultural growth. The results demonstrate that crop diversification, rainwater harvesting and the use of organic fertilizers can ensure growth in agriculture from a dynamic perspective. Further, they show how excessive depletion of ground water, intensive farming and overuse of chemicals in connection with the adoption of modern technology in agriculture have placed tremendous strains on natural resources like land and water, and have called into question the sustainability of growth in the farming sector.

Author: John Randolph
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781642830347
Category : Environmental education
Languages : en
Pages : 637

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Book Description
Despite a 2016-18 glut in fossil fuel markets and decade-low fuel prices, the global transformation to sustainable energy is happening. Our ongoing energy challenges and solutions are complex and multidimensional, involving science, technology, design, economics, finance, planning, policy, politics, and social movements. The most comprehensive book on this topic, Energy for Sustainability has been the go-to resource for courses. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to inform and guide students and practitioners who will steer this transformation. Drawing on a combined 80 years of teaching experience, John Randolph and Gilbert Masters take a holistic and interdisciplinary approach. Energy for Sustainability can help techies and policymakers alike understand the mechanisms required to enable conversion to energy that is clean, affordable, and secure. Major revisions to this edition reflect the current changes in technology and energy use and focus on new analyses, data, and methods necessary to understand and actively participate in the transition to sustainable energy. The book begins with energy literacy, including patterns and trends, before covering the fundamentals of energy related to physics, engineering, and economics. The next parts explore energy technologies and opportunities in three important energy sectors: buildings, electricity, and transportation. The final section focuses on policy and planning, presenting the critical role of public policy and consumer and investor choice in transforming energy markets to greater sustainability. Throughout the book, methods for energy and economic analysis and design give readers a quantitative appreciation for and understanding of energy systems. The book uses case studies extensively to demonstrate current experience and illustrate possibilities.

Author: Joseph Murphy
Publisher: Earthscan
ISBN: 1849771510
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
In a world of growing complexity and dwindling resources, the relationship between technology and sustainability is a pressing issue of concern at the highest levels. This book improves our understanding by examining the ways that people, technology and governance shape each other with implications for sustainability. It is the first book to link technology studies and governance research to this problem.Contributions from leading environmental social scientists are included, with each chapter reporting on new research and tackling complex, but vital issues. Drawing on examples such as wave and tidal power, wind power, micro-generation, community waste recycling and eco-housing, the book provides powerful new insights into the governance of technology for sustainability. A detailed introduction and conclusion discuss existing research directions and identify the contribution that the book makes in advancing our understanding of the people-technology-governance nexus and its implications for sustainability.This is essential reading for all those in academia, government and industry working at the critical interface between how we develop, deploy and govern technology in the pursuit of sustainability.

Author: Anand Chauhan
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819972507
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description

Author: Robert A. Meyers
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9780387894690
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 12555

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Book Description
The Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology (ESST) addresses the grand challenge for science and engineering today. It provides unprecedented, peer-reviewed coverage in more than 550 separate entries comprising 38 topical sections. ESST establishes a foundation for the many sustainability and policy evaluations being performed in institutions worldwide. An indispensable resource for scientists and engineers in developing new technologies and for applying existing technologies to sustainability, the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology is presented at the university and professional level needed for scientists, engineers, and their students to support real progress in sustainability science and technology. Although the emphasis is on science and technology rather than policy, the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology is also a comprehensive and authoritative resource for policy makers who want to understand the scope of research and development and how these bottom-up innovations map on to the sustainability challenge.

Author: Jefferson W. Tester
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262201537
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 884

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Book Description
Evaluates trade-offs and uncertainties inherent in achieving sustainable energy, analyzes the major energy technologies, and provides a framework for assessing policy options.

Author: Lorenz M. Hilty
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319092286
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 465

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Book Description
ICT Innovations for Sustainability is an investigation of how information and communication technology can contribute to sustainable development. It presents clear definitions of sustainability, suggesting conceptual frameworks for the positive and negative effects of ICT on sustainable development. It reviews methods of assessing the direct and indirect impact of ICT systems on energy and materials demand, and examines the results of such assessments. In addition, it investigates ICT-based approaches to supporting sustainable patterns of production and consumption, analyzing them at various levels of abstraction – from end-user devices, Internet infrastructure, user behavior, and social practices to macro-economic indicators. Combining approaches from Computer Science, Information Systems, Human-Computer Interaction, Economics, and Environmental Sciences, the book presents a new, holistic perspective on ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S). It is an indispensable resource for anyone working in the area of ICT for Energy Efficiency, Life Cycle Assessment of ICT, Green IT, Green Information Systems, Environmental Informatics, Energy Informatics, Sustainable HCI, or Computational Sustainability.

Author: Mohammad Dastbaz
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
ISBN: 012801671X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
We are living in the era of "Big Data" and the computing power required to deal with "Big Data" both in terms of its energy consumption and technical complexity is one of the key areas of research and development. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that centralized computing infrastructures (data centres) currently use 7 giga watts of electricity during peak loads. This translates into about 61 billion kilowatt hours of electricity used. By the EPA's estimates, power-hungry data centres consume the annual output of 15 average-sized power plants. One of the top constraints to increasing computing power, besides the ability to cool, is simply delivering enough power to a given physical space. Green Information Technology: A Sustainable Approach offers in a single volume a broad collection of practical techniques and methodologies for designing, building and implementing a green technology strategy in any large enterprise environment, which up until now has been scattered in difficult-to-find scholarly resources. Included here is the latest information on emerging technologies and their environmental impact, how to effectively measure sustainability, discussions on sustainable hardware and software design, as well as how to use big data and cloud computing to drive efficiencies and establish a framework for sustainability in the information technology infrastructure. Written by recognized experts in both academia and industry, Green Information Technology: A Sustainable Approach is a must-have guide for researchers, computer architects, computer engineers and IT professionals with an interest in greater efficiency with less environmental impact. - Introduces the concept of using green procurement and supply chain programs in the IT infrastructure. - Discusses how to use big data to drive efficiencies and establish a framework for sustainability in the information technology infrastructure. - Explains how cloud computing can be used to consolidate corporate IT environments using large-scale shared infrastructure reducing the overall environmental impact and unlocking new efficiencies. - Provides specific use cases for Green IT such as data center energy efficiency and cloud computing sustainability and risk.