Sustainability formula
Recent decades have made us realize that the territorial and raw material resources of our globe are limited. The development of civilization leads to significant environmental degradation and climate disturbances, the effects of which are becoming more and more visible. Questions began to be asked more and more often what the limits of growth were (Report of the Club of Rome - 1972) and what sustainable development should consist of.
The first significant definition comes from the Bruntland Report and was included in the WCED documents in 1987 and constitutes the simplest and most general formulation:
At the current level of civilization, sustainable development is possible , i.e. development in which the needs of the present generation can be met without reducing the opportunities of future generations to meet them.
It is assumed that the components of development are ecological sustainability, economic development and social justice within and between generations.
The idea that the world is heading towards an ecological catastrophe is becoming increasingly clear, as natural resources, including energy resources, are depleting and the population is growing rapidly. Over the last 100 years, the world's population has increased sevenfold, reaching 7 billion.
Meanwhile, there is a race of economic powers, both global and local, which do not take into account the prospect of ecological catastrophe, striving at all costs for economic advantage "here and now". The exploitation of resources leads to the degradation of the natural environment, and the warming of the atmosphere resulting from the emission of greenhouse gases from the combustion of fossil fuels causes climate destabilization. We increasingly observe these effects in our own environment as tornadoes, heavy rains and droughts that affect many areas of the globe. Social tensions related to this, including famines, often lead to local wars also related to access to energy sources and, in the near future, sources of drinking water. This is causing the migration of people from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe, resulting in social and political tensions. However, if we do not stop the global temperature increase in the coming years, which is forecast in many scientific studies and which subsequent Climate Conferences, including the last one in Paris in 2017, warn against, Europe will face the disaster of an influx of not a million refugees, but a billion!
Each of us has an impact on the destruction of the environment and climate, but how to convince millions of people to understand the problems of threat and support global and local movements to protect the environment and atmosphere?
A few years ago, after 4 years of conducting Experience Exchange Group workshops on energy efficiency of cities with the participation of representatives of local governments at the request of the Association of Polish Cities, I faced the problem of how to discuss the effects of the teams' work in a few minutes. Presenting over 180 different indicators basically made no sense, it was only important for specialists. How to explain the idea of rational management of material and energy resources using the simplest words? I then decided to return to the fundamental concepts of my Masters from the period of studies: "Everything can be defined by three concepts: matter, energy and information."
Let's imagine this using the simplest example, the production of a cup from ceramic clay. What is important is its function, obtained in various ways: kneading, shaping on the potter's wheel and firing. So we are dealing with matter (in this case, a natural raw material), the energy of shaping and burning, and the knowledge of what to shape and in what ways. Now that's information! In addition, there is the talent of the craftsman-artist, who gives the form the appropriate shape, both functionally and aesthetically.
So, to illustrate this mathematically, using the simplest formula for general numbers, we get the following equation:
Since the essence of sustainable development should be to achieve the effect with the least amount of energy and matter so as not to destabilize the climate and protect the environment from degradation, the Sustainable Development Formula, in which the inverse of energy consumption represents energy efficiency, presents it clearly. If we need more matter for development, we should look for ways to reduce energy consumption, i.e. increase energy efficiency. This is possible through inventiveness, innovation, or simply new technologies. Both in terms of energy and new materials.
And this is the most important task of designers, whose task is to improve the quality and comfort of our lives, assuming the principle of BALANCE, i.e. the superior formula of our ARTING 2017 competition.
An issue that cannot be ignored by designers is the reuse of materials through recycling or their energy utilization aimed at achieving a closed-loop economy effect, provided that the emissions of harmful components of combustion effects are significantly reduced.
In the above considerations, we are talking about energy coming from the combustion of fossil fuels that have been created on Earth for millions of years, and the current methods of their use introduce into the atmosphere the effects of their combustion over a period of several dozen or even several hundred years. This aspect has a significant impact on the quality of the air we breathe, and the need to combat low emissions, which in the form of smog has particularly dramatic effects on our bodies, has become very important in recent years. The energy consumption that appears in the above Formula concerns primary energy as a result of the combustion of fossil fuels in particular. Biomass, classified as a renewable energy source, is actually its essence, because I define other sources as inexhaustible energy sources, including solar energy, wind energy, water fall and movement, and geothermal energy. It is also a task for designers to use these non-emission sources as widely as possible, which radically reduces energy consumption in our Formula.
Of course, no model or formula solves the problem, but I hope that it allows you to understand the relationship between the three basic concepts defining not only the simplest products but also more complex multi-part or multi-system systems. Such a complex system may be a city or other analyzed area. The concepts of energy efficiency and innovation included in the formula are two of the basic development criteria in the European Union's policy. Sustainable development important for the economic competitiveness of our country and Europe.
Zbigniew Michniowski
He has been associated with the Bielsko local government for 25 years as the director of Galeria Bielska BWA and for a year as the Mayor of the city. For the last 15 years, he was the Deputy Mayor of Bielsko-Biała and the Mayor's Plenipotentiary for Sustainable Development. At the same time, as a representative of local government, he was a board member, including vice-president, of the European association "Energy Cities" for 14 years. To date, he serves as president of the Association of Municipalities Polish Network "Energie Cites" and the Beskidy Region Association. As an expert on the energy efficiency of cities, he participated in the work of many commissions and teams, both foreign, regional and national, such as the Regional Energy Council. Zbigniew Michniowski appeared as a speaker at many conferences and congresses, both domestic and foreign.