Discover 12 opportunities in sustainability

Based on all the available evidence, climate change is real and it is happening – the planet is experiencing rising temperatures, melting snow-caps, and increased numbers of floods, droughts, and wildfires. 2019 was the second warmest year ever and 2010-2019 was the warmest decade on the planet – ever. Limiting the global temperature rise to well below 2°C this century is one of the defining challenges from the Paris Agreement.

Although electric vehicles hold just 2.8% of the global market share of vehicle sales, they have the potential to change the world. As people are becoming more conscious of the global climate and how their action affects it, they are starting to scramble to do what they can to minimize their own impact. One way of doing so is to drive an electric vehicle, which produces far fewer emissions than a gasoline-powered vehicle.

Smart or intelligent materials are described as materials that can achieve a controlled, predictable, variation in one or more of their properties as a direct response to an external stimuli and/or a change in their environment. The external changes can be fluctuations in temperature, light, pressure, magnetic or electrical fields, surrounding moisture, or chemicals. Not all smart materials are the same. Some can change their properties due to more than one of the external stimuli at the same time, and some materials offer greater adaptability due to certain external changes than others.

Environmental engineers deal with the protection of the natural environment from harmful elements such as pollution and contamination. They may also work on industrial processes in various factory settings and can specialize in areas such as air, water, or waste management. In addition, environmental engineers should stay up-to-date on regulatory procedures and environmental guidelines. Attending conferences is one such way for professionals to stay up-to-date. Continue reading below for the top five environmental engineering conferences in 2019.

The definition of sustainability is the ability to sustain change in a balanced way. It’s most commonly applied to keeping a harmony between the earth’s resources and our material needs. It’s a way of ensuring that the human race doesn’t exploit the environment and ecology of our planet into a state of irreversible decline. It also covers economic and social issues, and the development of systems and processes that enable future generations to continue meeting their material needs, without destroying the ecosystem. This is also sometimes referred to as sustainable development.