This project will support travel by a diverse group of US researchers to participate in a workshop intended to identify frontier research directions and potential international collaborations in the general area of sustainability engineering. The workshop will be held immediately after the International Conference on Sustainability Engineering and Science, 'Talking and Walking Sustainability,' 20-23 February 2007, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. The workshop participants should benefit from participation by the international conference participants, and is supported by the conference organizers.
Eight US participants who would have leadership roles in the workshop have been identified and will serve as the workshop organizing committee. The remainder of the participants will be identified through general solicitations and application reviews. The project will be administered at Carnegie Mellon University.
Sustainability engineering is a profound challenge to the US for the coming century. Vital resources are of limited supply, energy costs have been rising, and global environmental effects are being observed. Major engineering planning, decision making, and implementation will need to address sustainability in the future. Engineering approaches that integrate sustainability are urgently needed for many specific areas, such as water use and re-use, energy efficient and non-toxic product design, new construction materials and methods, and underground processes. Considerable work has been done in the area, both in the US and abroad, but numerous intellectual challenges for new processes and technologies exist.
Sustainability is a global challenge, and international collaboration will be critical to making US research relevant and novel. This workshop will aid the maturity and research priority setting of the US sustainability engineering research community. More broadly, the successful development of sustainability engineering should result in better management of limited resources and development of alternatives to existing, non-sustainable processes.
