ABSTRACT
Engineers designed for an infinite world: water was always available, and waste could be freely discharged. Engineer helps to re-engineer our human civilisation as we transition to genuine sustainability. Most leading companies are demanding that their engineers find sustainable solutions, reducing or even eliminating net greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy efficiency, and minimising natural resource consumption, while maintaining preferably increasing profits. These companies have found that people will pay more for products produced in a genuinely sustainable enterprise, and they also know that governments are likely to lurch unpredictably to tighter environmental regulation with every natural disaster linked with climate change. The challenge for many engineers will be to help clients take a leap of faith into this new world, rather than simply choosing the lowest cost option in accordance with the minimum permitted environmental standards. Engineers face similar challenges with health and safety standards, particularly in some Middle Eastern and Asian countries.
