Sustainable Technology: Examples, Benefits And Challenges

What Is Sustainability?

      The concept of sustainability is intuitive when you consider the original meaning of the word, but is is perhaps too         often boiled down to lowering carbon footprint. Sustainability concerns practices that are sustainable, viable in the       long term because they do not cause undue environmental damage. The inference here is, of course, that much of         the way society operates at present is not sustainable.

What Is Sustainable Technology?

      Sustainable technology is that which can aid in improving the environmental impact of societies, companies and           households. It can involve reducing the carbon footprint of the tasks in which it is involved, or be made using             greener techniques. Or, ideally, it can do both.

      Sustainable technology is found at all levels of green projects and policy. On a small level, there are "greener" phone       companies like Fairphone. At the other end of the scale, green technologies are used across agriculture and city         planning to have a much wider impact.

Sustainable Technology Examples

      Look close at just about any industry and you'll find sustainable technology. It's used in homes, in                  manufacturing, in consumer tech, agriculture, fashion and healthcare.

      One example of sustainable technology has already been mentioned, Fairphone's smartphones. They use           removable batteries to avoid e-waste. They are made with 70% recycled or "fair" materials, including             "recycled aluminium, tin, rare earth elements, nickel, zinc, copper, magnesium, indium, and plastics."             Fairphone promises unusually long software support, to ensure its phones can be used safely and securely for       many years.

      In August the company claimed the Fairphone 5 was "most sustainable phone in the world right now." The         Fairphone 5 still has an environmental impact, but seeking to minimize it is admirable. In agriculture,           sustainable technology is used to monitor the water level and health of crops, in order to increase yield and         optimize water usage. Drones can also be used to monitor crop health with cameras and machine learning-        based vision AI. Drones can even apply fertilizer. These can have a much lower carbon impact than tractors,       and do not cause damage to the underlying soil like a seven ton piece of heavy machinery will.

      In architecture and house-building, future-looking sustainable technologies include systems that harvest       rainwater for use as, for example, toilet flushing liquid. Electrochromic glass, which darkens to respond to         outside conditions, can drastically reduce the energy consumption of HVAC systems. Then, of course, there       are more familiar sustainability technologies like solar panels, used in 3.7% of US homes in 2020 according to       Consumer Affairs. Recycled materials can also be used for building insulation, as a rather more simple             example of textiles           technology in action.

      In healthcare, electronic health records (EHRs) are used to obviate the need for paper documentation,         while also       making the information far easier to transmit between healthcare providers. Telemedicine,       remote   appointments         held over the phone or a webcam, naturally result in lower carbon               emissions — even if an over-reliance on them is         itself contentious.

      Fashion, too, an area with a checkered past and present in this area, makes good use of sustainable tech. There
      are virtual try-on services, which can dramatically reduce returns and waste. These virtual representations of
      clothing can also be used in the retail buying process, avoiding the need to so many physical samples to be ferried         about. There are now also many more eco-friendly alternatives to polyester in the manufacture of clothing.
      Polyester will eventually end up sitting in a landfill for decades as it is not biodegradable. Bamboo, hemp,
      TENCEL and soy cashmere have all reached a level of development where they are perfectly suitable for use in           clothing.

      In city infrastructure, sustainable technology is used in street lighting, along with a switch to LED             lighting — also referred to as solid state lighting (SSL) — which consumes far less energy, smart sensors can         alter the level based on the ambient light or even how busy the area is.

      City-level sustainable tech also has some responsibility in fostering the transition from the combustion engine
      to electrified transport. That means infrastructure for charging of EVs, as well as increase use of electrified         public transport vehicles, such as buses.

Sustainable Technology Benefits

      The surface benefit of sustainable technology is in reducing harmful environmental impacts. But this can also       lead to better efficiency, lower costs and reduced use of water in some cases.

      Sustainable technology can also make environments more pleasant places to be. That can have a particular         impact in cities that double as tourists destinations, in work places, and even ordinary homes.

      In some countries there are also tax benefits to adopting sustainable tech. It is often the smart fiscal move in       the medium to long term.

Sustainable Technology Challenges

      Sustainable technology often involves increased use of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and devices, which       are ideal for optimizing efficiency in many areas. But these come with security challenges of their own.

      Once a system becomes connected over the web, it is on some level at risk of being compromised or hacked.

      This tech also has its own energy footprint, meaning a practical and dispassionate approach is required to           ensure the overall benefits are as compelling as they may initially appear. Similarly, sustainable technology can       have an e-waste issue, particularly if it relies on IoT sensors with a limited functional life.

      A 2022 study published in nature also examined inequality issues that could potentially be exacerbated           through the deployment of sustainable tech.

What Is The Future Of Sustainable Technology?

      Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is one of the more exciting avenues for further research and development. In         November 2023, Virgin Atlantic flew a plane from London to New York powered by SAF.

      It is produced using cooking oils and recycled carbon, and other waste products. The International Air             Transport Association (IATA) suggests it can reduce aviation's fuel carbon footprint by as much as 80%.           However, as Aviation Week noted in 2022, SAF is relatively expensive to produce and demand could easily       outstrip supply.

      As with any kind of sustainable technology, the realities of employing it in a real-world situation need to be         considered.

      The use of AI in healthcare is likely to bring dramatic results sooner than SAF, employing its skills in pattern       recognition to search for anomalies in scans. It's a tangential candidate as sustainability tech, for its potential       to significantly improve efficiency in diagnostics.

Refference: https://www.forbes.com