6. Environmental Impact and Sustainability Assessment

The world’s energy demand is ever increasing, and to fulfill that demand we often look for engineering solutions, that is, conversion of energy from one form to another. We convert one form of energy to another convenient form to use the energy better. This statement can better be understood by the following example: we convert chemical energy of fossil fuels to heat (thermal energy) first, and then the thermal energy is converted to electrical energy for our convenience to use it in our homes, offices, industries, hospitals, schools, etc. Such energy conversion activities come under engineering activities. Engineering activities are often associated with some environmental problems/issues, mainly the injection of greenhouse gas into the environment. Environmental damage caused by the greenhouse effect further causes global warming, which is responsible for climate change. Therefore, it is important to know how adversely engineering activities are affecting our environment. Environmental impact assessment is simply an indicator of these concerns.