Kermit’s Lament: It’s Not Easy Being Green

Sustainable development has become a catchphrase within engineering and corporate management, and green engineering is now viewed as the techniques applied in order to achieve sustainable development. In this paper, we first describe the origin and rationale for green engineering, and then describe the motivational forces behind the green engineering movement and the surveys of corporate leaders, concluding that most of the motivational forces are based on corporate profitability and are at best amoral (not morally admirable). We then report on a survey of corporate leaders on their attitudes toward green engineering and sustainable development and show that many engineers and managers do espouse to the principles of green engineering without a profit motive. Lastly, we consider why, all things considered, an engineer would want to engage in green engineering and conclude that the objective is best describes using the Aristotelian concept of eudaimonia, or the attainment of meaning and contentment with on...

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