Industrial Automation

Should Engineers Be Green Heroes?

Yes...

Yup, you got it in one... I'd guess a hell of a lot of innovative engineering is done in spite of rather than because of management....
Del

(PS was it Hewlett Packard who used to expect their engineers to spend a percentage of their time 'playing' with stuff? I bet we don't see much of that sort of thinking from management these days)

I suspect the engineers are the only ones doing anything practical to combatGW. All the politico/media section of society does about global warming is flap their jaws.

Fanatically "YES"

Engineers use state of the art technology to reduce costs by making the best use of energy and reducing the amount of materials required.

Doing well by doing good is not a new concept.

Engineers should always be Pro-Active. We have the knowledge, resources, and determination so why now use it. Some of the problems that I see in todays society has been the "can't teach old dogs new tricks". It's a problem that causes corporations and governments to hold back. Many people don't like change and to be enviromentally friendly you have to change. Everyone speaks of change and says they except and challenge anyone that has a better process but when a better process is researched and found they refuse or put up roadblocks to prevent it from happening. Therefore the process is refused and the reason it is refused is due to the fact that they would have to change what they do which would initially require more work for them.
As new generations arise, change is required and demanded so some day those changes that were once researched and found will be forced into society. Till then we wait though with waiting all you can do is be disgusted because of the people that refuse to change but preach of change...

This is a "no brainer". I'm glad to see we're all on the same page.

If is not Engineers who are to be the green heroes, who then???? Politicians?! Management?!

Developing environment-friendly solutions is just part of the equation that one can never afford to neglect (it never should have, but seems that up to now the lobby from oil companies has had their way). They have convinced half of the USA that global warming is a farse.

A product or service can never be considered "acceptable" if it not cost-effective or quality standard. Why would any engineering activity ignore the environment impact, while not the latter?