THE TWELVE PRINCIPLES OF GREEN ENGINEERING

Recently, there has been increased attention on ways of using the classical traditions of engineering expertise in ways that further the goals of environmental protection and sustainability. Approaches to green engineering have been noted in recent years (1-3) and have been demonstrated in a variety of ways in particular industry sectors and engineering disciplines (4-6). These approaches, while important advances have not been implemented comprehensively or systematically either across sectors or disciplines. As a tool for establishing a systematic framework for applying engineering to the goals of sustainability, the Twelve Principles of Green Engineering were introduced (7). The Principles are intended as a way for engineering at all scales, molecular, product, process, and systems and all engineering disciplines chemical, mechanical, electrical, environmental, and civil to have a common set of guidelines that can be useful in identifying sustainable design criteria.