Materials and the Environment

As concern for the environment grows, there is a corresponding trend among colleges and universities worldwide to incorporate sustainability into engineering education. Addressing this growing trend "Materials and the Environment," by renowned materials authority Mike Ashby, is the first book devoted exclusively to the environmental aspects of materials, a core subject area for undergraduate students in several engineering disciplines, including mechanical, materials, civil, aerospace, manufacturing and design. With in-depth coverage of such topics as material consumption and its drivers, the material lifecycle, eco-informed material selection, renewable materials and sustainability, along with eco-profiles of more than 60 widely used materials, this book will appeal not only to instructors of materials science and selection courses, but to professional materials engineers and product designers as well.

* The first book devoted solely to the environmental aspects of materials and their selection, production, use and disposal, by noted materials authority Mike Ashby.

* Introduces methods and tools for thinking about and designing with materials within the context of their role in products and the environmental consequences.

* Contains numerous case studies showing how the methods discussed in the book can be applied to real-world situations.

* Includes full-color data-sheets for 60 of the most widely used materials, featuring such environmentally relevant information as their annual production and reserves, embodied energy and process energies, carbon footprints, and recycling data.

* The tools developed in the text are implemented in the CES EduPack Eco Design Edition software and new Eco Audit Tool available from Granta Design.

1.Introduction - Material Dependence
2.Resource Consumption and its Drivers
3.The Material Life Cycle
4.End of First Life - A Problem or a Resource?
5.The Long Reach of Legislation
6.Eco-data - Values, Sources, Precision
7.Eco-audits and Eco-audit Tools
8.Selection Strategies
9.Eco-informed Material Selection
10.Sustainability - Living on Renewables
11.The Bigger Picture - Future Options
12.Data Sheets - Metals, Polymers, Ceramics, Composites, Natural Materials
Appendix - Units, Conversion factors, etc.