Innovation for sustainable development: from environmental design to transition management

Society needs to adapt in order to provide the wealth that an increasing part of the world population is getting used to. We are on a track to ecological and resource collapse if actions are not taken soon. Technology will have to play a key role in the process of changing industrial society. But innovation has to be embedded in social and organizational innovation. We need sociotechnical change. Environmentally conscious design has been practiced in engineering design for more than a decade. Its merits are sometimes blamed as futile, as the world has not witnessed a significant contribution to the solution of the larger (global) problems. This paper first sketches a scheme of the various levels of technological change, ranging from: (1) incremental optimizations of single artifacts, to (2) major change of artifacts, (3) systems change, and (4) technological transitions (involving changes in production and consumption). It outlines the stakeholders involved in these types of innovations and the parties that could orchestrate the innovation process. In this paper, It is argued that the most encompassing level of technological innovation, the level of transition, is crucial for achieving long-term sustainable development, as it has the largest potential for improvement. However, transition is not very well manageable. The paper contains a review of the literature regarding the occurrence of technological transitions. After a transition has occurred, the new system is often not efficient. Its gains in terms of diminished resource consumption or pollution have to be enlarged by less encompassing innovation strategies, such as systems innovations and product optimization. Transitions for sustainable development are often impossible, as the new systems have to compete with fully developed and optimized systems that have far advanced at the learning curve, i.e., are optimized by various systems and incremental innovations. Less encompassing levels of innovation, even those that aim at more sustainability, can counteract transitions that have more potential for sustainable development by improving the competing (unsustainable) technology. The paper will give several examples of this dilemma and some guidelines for developing government policies as well as corporate strategies. On the policy level, it is argued that it is especially important to develop (scope for) market niches for new sustainable systems and products as they create scope for experiments that could lead to transitions.

Heidegger and Being at the Hanford Reservation: Standing Reserve,Enframing, and Environmental Communication Theory

This essay examines the potential of Heidegger's phenomenology as a foundation for environmental communication theory, emphasizing his critiques of modern science, technology, humanism, and metaphysics. A phenomenological approach to environmental communication provides resources for recognizing metaphysical assumptions that endanger both humans and nature. The Hanford nuclear reservation serves as an illustrative text, exemplifying Heidegger's reading of nuclear energy as a culmination of both Western metaphysics and the instrumental stance that he calls “enframing.” In Heidegger's view, the ordering and control accomplished through enframing obscures the mutually constitutive relationship between humans and nature, and in doing so, diminishes the possibilities for authentic human existence. The chapter examines how both representational and constitutive models of communication contribute to those conditions, and adopts a set of concepts from Heidegger's phenomenology as a foundation for an alternative, “bounded constitutive” model.     

关于重点排污单位名录制定和使用过程中存在的问题及建议

2017年11月,原环境保护部办公厅发布《关于印发重点排污单位名录管理规定(试行)的通知》,对重点排污单位的基本管理要求和筛选条件作出了详细规定。重点排污单位是国家重点监控企业的替代和延续,成为当前排污许可制度尚未完全成熟阶段环境管理的重要抓手。重点排污单位名录聚焦影响环境质量的主要污染物、排污大户和重大风险源,由设区的市级地方人民政府生态环境主管部门确定,有利于压实地方环保责任。在名录制定和使用过程中存在着部分指导性文件存疑、名录重点不突出、部分重点排污单位无法安装自动监测设备、不能满足新的环境监管需求、名录更新时间滞后、缺少罚则等问题,本文就此进行了深入分析并提出了几点建议。     

蒸汽直埋管道结构型式的改进与应用

蒸汽直埋管道的安全与节能技术近年来日趋成熟,但在南方高水位城市应用中还存在诸多缺陷。本文结合工程实践,针对这些缺陷进行了技术改进,并在多项工程中推广应用,取得了良好的效果。     

三销齿轮高速冷镦挤工艺及模具设计

分析了摩托车变速器三销齿轮的成形工艺。采用了高速令镦挤成形工艺，可提高三销齿轮的质量、减少机械加工及降低产品成本。对三销齿轮成形工艺和模具设计作了详细探讨。     

产品开发中绿色技术的评价、选择和创新

对产品开发中的绿色技术进行了研究分析 ,从技术的审核、技术的选择、技术的过渡以及技术的创新等方面提出了相应的问题和解决方法 ,并对有关内容建立了分析模型     

重庆的国家重点保护植物研究

基于《中国植物红皮书》第一、二册名录，重庆有国家重点保护植物７７种，隶属于４７科，７１属。根据第一批公布的国家重点保护植物，重庆有５２种４９属３２科；其中一级５种，二级２４种，三级２３种，濒危６种，稀有２１种，渐危２５种。水平分布有三个中心，即大巴山南缘地区、武陵山区、大娄山北缘地区。论文最后提出了珍稀濒危植物的保护措施。     

实施科技兴安战略的思考

科技兴安战略是安全生产工作的指导思想之一,安全生产以"管理为基础,科技为支撑",不断增强安全生产科技进步与创新,是安全发展的动力。我国安全科技发展存在安全科技人才匮乏、安全科技研发投入少、安全基础理论研究滞后、科技研发成果和技术装备推广应用进展缓慢、安全技术支撑平台不健全等突出矛盾和问题。坚持超前感知安全生产科技发展方向、"大、微、智"安全技术装备发展方向,大力实施科技兴安战略,加快安全生产科技研发、推广应用、技术监督三大体系是当前安全科技工作的迫切任务。     

Long-term perspectives on world metal use—a system-dynamics model

In this paper, a system dynamics model is described, which simulates long-term trends in the production and consumption of metals (i.e. iron/steel and an aggregate of metals of medium abundance) in relation to impacts such as ore-grade decline, capital and energy requirements and waste flows. This metal model can be of assistance in exploring the issue of sustainability of metal resource use. Application of the model to historical trends shows it to be fairly capable of reproducing the long-term trends in the 1900–1990 period, among others on the basis of two intensity of use curves applied to 13 world regions. For future trends, a set of perspective-based long-term scenarios has been constructed that represent the major paradigms in resource use. These scenarios highlight some of the uncertain factors in the relation between economic growth, metal resource exploitation and use, and energy and environmental consequences. They also indicate that apparently similar metal flows in society may be the result of quite different and sometimes contrary assumptions on metal demand, production patterns and resource base characteristics. Such analyses contribute to a more open and transparent discussion on the issue at hand by adding quantitative explications to qualitative views.     

改良系统成熟度法定量评估污水LOT技术应用潜力——以水专项及相关技术组合为例

随着污水处理满足再生水品质的需求日益提升,对污水中污染物的去除也逐渐向极限技术 (LOT) 发展,亟需探索适合我国国情的技术选择方式。基于现有技术成熟度法 (TRL) 通过算法矩阵构造改良的集成系统成熟度 (SRL) 评价法,对依托“十一五”、“十二五”和“十三五”期间国家水体污染控制与治理科技重大专项相关课题的LOT备选技术、组合及国内外其他满足LOT备选技术组合,进行综合定量评估,梳理我国LOT技术发展现状、并筛选出12项LOT备选技术组合。其中,“A²O+反硝化深床滤池技术”、“A²O+MBBR+混凝沉淀技术”、“A²O+活性自持深度脱氮技术+BAF技术”的SRL可达0.8~1,达到生产、操作和维护阶段,可直接进行生产应用并面向市场产生较高应用效益,但3项技术组合的TN、TP单位质量去除成本较高,其核心处理功能工艺主要为传统反应器类技术。大部分单项技术TRL的等级大于7,改良SRL为0.6~0.8,处于系统发展验证阶段,相关技术组合正在为真正的市场推广进行产品稳定性提升,且大部分备选技术组合充分利用了植物和湿地等生态技术的优势,既实现了较强的同步脱氮除磷,又具有运行和维护成本低的市场优势,符合减污降碳协同增效的政策背景,故更具有推广价值。备选LOT技术组合基本实现了成本优化和低碳低耗的技术运营模式,可满足污水的资源化及生态环境的优化需求。本研究结果可为低碳低耗污水处理技术的成熟度评估和筛选提供参考。