Sustainability and Design for Environment

ME415, ENVIR 415, and CEE 495

Winter Quarter 2008

Syllabus    Homework and Lab    Project Description

UWME Design for Environment Homepage

Favorite Songs

Sustainability describes industrial development and supporting technologies that meet the needs of the present while sustaining the quality of the environment so that future generations may meet their own needs. Related engineering efforts that incorporate the consideration of sustainability into product and process design are called Design for Environment (DFE). DFE promotes pollution prevention, resource conservation, and extended product responsibility by including their consideration within concurrent engineering design. Trends within this emerging area of research and business practice include industrial environmental management standards, life cycle partnerships, product takeback, and environmental declarations (annual environmental reports, ecolabels, etc.). This course will use DFE to introduce students to the concepts and methodologies of sustainability, industrial ecology, pollution prevention, Life Cycle Assessment, Total Cost Assessment, and Design for Product Disassembly and Recovery. We will examine the practice of, opportunities for, and the role of the engineer in DFE.

Instructor: Associate Professor Joyce Smith Cooper (cooper@me.washington.edu); office hours Thursdays 10-noon and by appointment in MEB 304

Teaching Assistant: Elliott Schmitt (schmie11@u.washington.edu); office hours Mondays 4-6 and by appointment in MEB G20

Lectures: M W 2:30-3:50 in MEB 248 and given by Associate Professor Cooper and visiting lecturers 

Reading materials and lecture materials will be posted on the syllabus  as available

Grading: homework (45%), lab (20%), project (35%)

For more information, contact Associate Professor Joyce Smith Cooper at cooper@me.washington.edu