• Question: Do you feel the world really has a chance of using sustainable and renewable engineering ideas in the future?

    Asked by reginafan1997 to Ed, Keith, Tish, Nicola, Rachel on 19 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Edward Taylor

      Edward Taylor answered on 19 Mar 2013:

      In honesty I think it will have to! There will definitely come a time when the renewable energy ideas that already exist today get the money they need to be built, tested and put into action.

      Unfortunately right now it is still much cheaper to use dirty energy sources like coal and oil. But soon it will become more expensive as the availability starts to run out and governments start to place heavy fines on companies and countries making too much pollution! When that starts to happen, the renewable sources will become the cheaper option and a lot of money and resources will be put into them instead. Lets just hope we don’t ruin the world too much before that happens!

    • Photo: Natasha Watson

      Natasha Watson answered on 20 Mar 2013:

      Yes I do. There is an increasing awareness of the fact that we can’t go on using our resources like we do, and emitting pollution and greenhouse gases like we do. We only have one world and we need to look after it.

      But more than this, there is an increased economic advantage to being ‘green’. With social media, customers want more transparency to their companies and for them to be more socially responsible; we are increasingly seeing companies as an ‘identity’, more like a ‘person’, and no one wants to be friends with someone who is shady and doesn’t care about polluting or damaging the environment. This does mean that some companies are going ‘green’ so that they can keep their customers and have a one-up on their competitors.

      THere is also the element of ‘showing off’. I am currently working on a project in Saudi Arabia where their want to create the most innovative and sustainable city in the world, but why?? Saudi Arabia has loads of oil? They don’t need to invest in renewables! Why are they spending money when other countries will need them sooner? It’s because they want to show the world that they are the best at cutting edge sustainable techonology.

      Might sound a little bleak, but that’s how I believe sustainable and renewable technologies have a chance to be adopted.

    • Photo: Nicola Lazenby

      Nicola Lazenby answered on 20 Mar 2013:

      I don’t think we have any other choice but to adapt to using LESS energy and RENEWABLE energy……!! Fossil fuels can only last so long before they’re all used up, it might be more expensive at the start to install all these technologies, and people mightn’t like wind turbines near their homes, but we really need to start now if we are going to be effective!

      On the other side of the coin, people need to look at how much energy they use, and how much is wasted….as if we use less energy, we have to produce less energy meaning that installing renewable technologies will cost us a lot less 🙂 Things like insulating our houses more, walking 2 minutes down the road instead of using the car, simple things like recycling our rubbish all help towards using less energy!

      Fingers crossed renewable energy appears sooner rather than later…..I wouldn’t want us to run out of energy and be plunged into darkness!! eeekkk!!! 🙂

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