INTRODUCTION

It is the collection of technological processes which are used to conserve the

natural environment and resources inspite of making full use of those resources.

 Sustainable technology requires the exploitation of the environment through

creation and extraction of resources, and the exploitation of people through
labor.

 It aims to make the system environmental friendly.

 It includes all technological processes utilizing substrates from nanoparticles

upto huge particles.
Aims of sustainable technology:-

 It uses less energy, fewer limited resources, do not deplete natural

resources.

 Sustainable technology do not directly or indirectly pollute the

environment, and can be reused or recycled at the end of their useful
life.

Drawbacks of sustainable technology:-

 Sustainable technology may have high cost or maintenance

requirements that make it unsuitable.

 In this modern era of industrialization and competition it is very

difficult to have hand on sustainable technologies as everybody wants
its work to get completed in just in a blink of eye.

Sustainable technology may be divided into 4 main categories.

These include:-

1) Green technology.

2) Nanotechnology.

3) Appropriate technology.

4) Renewable energy technology.

1) Green technology/ clean technology:-
 Green technology or greentech or environment technology as envirotech
or clean technology as cleantech is the application of the environmental
science to conserve the natural environment and resources and to curb the
negative impacts of human involvement. It works on 3R- reduce, reuse &
recycle. Greentech involves all those technological processes which are
beneficial for human beings taken in concern the environment. It includes
following aspects:
a) Sustainable agriculture.
b) Organic farming.
c) Recycling.
d) Water purification.
e) Air purification.
f) Sewage treatment.
g) Environmental remediation.
h) eGain forecasting.
i) Energy conservation.
Sustainable agriculture :- it is the practice of farming using principles
of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their
environment .It aims :-
 Satisfy human food and fiber needs.
 Make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources.
 Sustain the economic viability of farm operations.
 Enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.

b) Organic farming:- It is agriculture

the form of agriculture that relies on
techniques such as crop rotation, green
manure, compost and biological pest
control to maintain soil productivity and
control pests on a farm. It excludes or
strictly limits the use of manufactured
 fertilizers and pesticides, plant growth regulators such as hormones,
livestock antibiotics, genetically modified food etc.

C) Recycling:- It is a worldwide phenomenon which is a basic application

towards Greentech. It shows and encourages people to reuse items that can
be reusable. Items like saving cans, paper, bottles etc are recycled for further
use. It protects the environment and reduces pollution.

d) Water purification:- It is the whole idea of having dirt/ germ/ pollution free
water flowing through the environment .In 2006, water pollution is estimated to
cause 1.8 million deaths each year. Green tech options in water treatment include
both community- scale and house hold- scale point of use (POU) designs. The
most reliable way of water purification is to heat water to a rolling boil. Other
techniques like, filtration, chemical disinfection, exposure to ultraviolet radiation,
porous ceramic filtration etc are also used.

e) Air purification:- for air purification the basic and common green plants can be
grown indoors to keep air fresh because all plants remove carbon dioxide and
convert it into oxygen. The best examples are Dypsis lutescens, Sanseveria
trfasciata and Epipremmum aureum.

f) Sewage treatment:- It is somewhat related to water purification . Sewage

treatment purifies water of its pollution. The more the water is polluted; it’s not
used for anything, the least polluted water is supplied to places. It may lead to
concepts of various other concepts of environmental protection, sustainability etc.
 Sewage treatment plant

g) Environmental remediation: is the removal of pollutants or contaminants

for the general protection of the environment. This is accomplished by
various chemical, biological and bulk movement methods, in conjunction
with environmental monitoring.

Pit airbrush used in environmental remediation

h) eGain forecasting: It is a method using forecasting technology to predict
the future weathers impact on a building by adjusting the heat based on
weather forecast, the system eliminates redundant use of heat, thus reducing
the energy consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases.

i) Energy conservation: It is the utilization of devices that require smaller

amounts of energy in order to reduce the consumption of electricity. It
involves:-

 New solar technology:- it includes treated silicon solar cells. An

untreated silicon solar cell only absorbs 67.4% of sunlight i.e., 1/3 rd of
that sunlight is reflected away and thus unharvestable. After a silicon
surface was treated with nanoengineered reflective coating, the
material absorbed 96.21% of sunlight shone upon it. This technology
could increase solar output by 20-30%.
 New antireflective coating increases solar output

 Tree power:- it defines about the trees that produce electricity.

Researchers found that plants generate a voltage of upto 200 mill volts
when one electrode is placed in a plant and other in the surrounding
soil.
 Scientists working on trees producing electricity

2) Nanotechnology
It is also known as nanotech and is the manipulating matter on an atomic and
molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with structures sized
between 1-100 nanometer.

Nanotechnology is very diverse, ranging from extensions of

conventional device physics to completely new approaches based upon
molecular self assembly.
i) Nanomaterials :-The properties of materials changes when its size
decreases ,e.g.) the quantum size effect , where the electronic properties of
solids are altered with great reductions in particle size. However quantum
size effect becomes dominant in nanometer size range typically at distances
of 100 nanometers or less, the so called quantum realm.
 Nanomaterial structure

ii) Nanoionics :- where fast transfer of ions take place.

iii) Nanomechanisms:- Mechanical properties of nanosystems are of interest

in the nanomechnics research. When materials are reduced to nanomaterials
they show different physical properties compared to what they exhibit at macro
scale .e.g.) opaque substances become transparent (copper); stable materials
turn combustible (aluminum); insoluble materials become soluble gold. Gold
which is inert at normal scale turns chemical catalyst at nanoscales.
Approaches of nanotechnology :

i) Bottom –up approach.

ii) Top-down approach.

i) Bottom-up approach:- This seek to arrange smaller components into
more complex components .
 DNA nanotechnology utilizes the specificity of WATSON CRICK
base pairing to construct well defined structures out of DNA and other
nucleic acids.
 Nanotechnology aims to design molecules with well defined shape.
E.g.) bis –peptides.
 It involves concepts of supramolecular chemistry and molecular
recognition to arrange single molecular components into some useful
conformation.
 Atomic force microscope tips can be used as a nonoscale”write head”
to deposit a chemical upon a surface in a desired pattern in a process
called dip pen.
 Nanolithography: - this technique fits into the larger subfield of
nanolithography.

Image of DNA biochip

ii) Top down approaches: It leads to the creation of smaller devices

using larger ones.
 Solid state silicon methods for fabricating microprocessors are now
capable of creating features smaller than 100nm.
 Giant mangetoresistance based hard drives are the examples of this.
  Solid state techniques can also be used to create devices known as
nanoelectromechanical systems or NEMS, which are related to
microelectromechanical systems or MEMS.
 In transmission electron microscopy focused ions beams can directly
remove material, or even deposit material when suitable gases are
applied at the same time.

Image of nanocrystal

Applications of nanotechnology:-
a) Nanocars.
b) Bionanotechnology.
c) Molecular nanotechnology.
d) Nanorobotics.
e) In industrial sector.
f) Medical science.
g) In daily use items.
h) Electronics.

Implications / drawbacks:-

a) Untraceable weapons of mass destruction.

b) Nanocameras.
c) Nanotoxivology.
d) Nanoparticles kill useful bacteria.
 e) Effect of nanoparticles on animals.
f) Effect of nanoparticles on humans.

Regulation:-
Tighter regulation of nanotechnology related to human health and safety
risks is needed. Some agencies have taken control over it. Some agencies
have taken control over it .Some regulatory road map for administrations
are necessary to oversight. The nanoparticles being released during
disposal, destruction and recycling, and recommended to fall under
responsibility regimes. It is our responsibility to play a meaningful role in
the development of these standards.

3) APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY:

It is the technology that is designed with special considerations to the environment,

ethical, cultural, social, political and economical aspects of the community. With
environmental and ethical goals in mind, claims their methods require fewer
resources, are easier to maintain, and have less of an impact on the environment
compared to techniques from mainstream technology which they contend is
wasteful and environmentally polluting.

Appropriate technology founders:-

 It is supposed to commence from Mahatma Gandhi.
 E.f.Schumacher influenced by Gandhiji took it to international level.
 Steward Brand popularized it and contributed major role towards it.

Appropriate technology is divided into further types:-

 Intermediate technology.

 Soft technology.

 Hard technology.

 Intermediate technology:- Term was coined by E.F.Schumacher. It

refers specifically to tools and technology that are significantly more
effective and expensive than traditional methods.

 Less expensive, easily affordable by poor class.

 More compatible with the laws of ecology.

 Gentle in its use and serves to human person.

 Soft technology:- it deals with

 Social structures, human interactive processes, and motivation
technology.
 It is the structure and process for social participation and action
by individuals and groups in analyzing situations, making
choice that brings about change.
  Contribution of political parties and celebrations are against
this.
 Hard technology:-
 Engineering technology.
 Physical structures and machinery that meet a need defined by
a community and utilize the material at hand or readily
available.
 It can be built, operated and maintained by local people with
limited outside assistance.
 Related to economic goal.

Appropriate technology covers following fields:-

a) City construction:-
 Green building material.
 Building structures.
 Cost effectiveness.
 Public housing approach.
 Decrease costs of operations (heating, cooling) technology.

City constructed in according with appropriate technology

b) Energy:- It includes renewable energy technology and non renewable

energy technology resources.

 Photovoltaic (pv) solar panels.

 Human powered hand wheel generators.
 Zero emission generation methods.
  Bioethanol, biodiesel and straight vegetable oil can be appropriate,
direct biofuels in areas where vegetable oil is readily available and
cheaper than fossil fuels.
 Anaerobic digestion power plants.
 Biogas is another potential energy source when there is abundant
supply of waste organic matter.
 Animal excreta is also used for obtaining organic matter eg) urine.

c) Transportation :-

 Megabus :- it is double decker than holds 79 persons in comfort. It

gets 6-7miles/gallon ie) 474-553 pasengers/ gallon.

Megabus

 Human powered vehicles:- it include ,bicycle , that provide human

powered transportation at a lower cost of ownership than motorized
vehicles.
 Human powered vehicles

a) Sanitation:- Water born diseases are estimated to cause 1.8 million deaths
each year, marking the importance of proper sanitation systems. Ecological
sanitation is the major process dealing with human excreta. It works by
incorporating following steps:-

i) Containments

ii) Sanitization

iii) Recycling

The objective is to protect human health and the environment while

limiting the use of water in sanitation systems for hand washing only and
recycling nutrients to help reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers in
agriculture.

 Composting toilets: they are the most environmental form of

excrement disposal system. In fact toilet design follows the nutrients
to be reused and is also cost effective.
 Composting toilet
 Treatment ponds and constructed wetlands: - They consist mostly
of plants and therefore require only little power. Certain other options
as slow sand filters, UVfilters may also be employed.
b) Food production: urban gardening, indoor cultivation, forest gardening are
the methods of food production under appropriate technology. Crop
production tools are best kept simple techniques. Tools can include animal-
pulled plows, dibbers wheeled augers, kirpis, hoes. Greenhouses are also
sometimes included.
c) Cooking: fossil (nonrenewable) and biofuels (renewable) for cooking cause
more pollution. Other old methods are more wasteful and less effluent.
 Solar cookers are appropriate to something depending on climate and
cooking style. They are emission less and low cost.
 Hot plates are 100% electrical, fairly low coast and are mobile.
 Rocket stoves and certain other wood stoves improve fuel efficiency,
and reduce harmful indoor air pollution.

Solar cooker used to cook food

d) Refrigeration :
  Solar and thermal mass refrigerators reduce the amount of electricity
required. Also they donot use haloalkanes but use heat pumps or
mirrors instead.
 The pot-in-pot refrigerator is an African invention which keeps things
cool without electricity. It provides a way to keep food fresh for
longer time.

Refrigerator based on appropriate technology

e) Healthcare: according to Global Health Council the use of professionally

schooled doctors, the training of villagers to remedy in towns in developing
world is encouraged. Trained villagers are able to eliminate80% of the health
problems. Herbalist medicines are appropriate medicines, as they can be
freely made at home and are almost as effective as their chemical counter
parts.

4) RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

It is that energy which can be replenished easily. For years using sources like
wood, sun, water, etc, for means for producing energy. Energy that can be
produced by natural objects like wood, sun, wind, etc. is considered to be
renewable.
Renewable energy is critical to our fight against climate
change. We simply must shift our world to a low- carbon economy and away
from oil and coal. Experts suggest that there is a need renewable energy to
replace fossil fuels now.
Renewable energy technology tends to be located outside
crowded urban areas, helping smaller, local economics which reducing reliance
on fossil and foreign energy resources. Renewable energy carbon offset projects
met the toughest industry standards and are third party verified to ensure the
highest quality.

a) Bajaj Finserv Wind Project

 Location: Maharastra, India
Project type: Wind Energy
Standard: Chicago Climate Exchange

Carbonfund.org supports the Bajaj Finserv Wind Project because it provides

renewable electricity, supports local businesses and is a prime example of how
wind projects can significantly contribute to a nation’s energy portfolio.

Bajaj Finserv Wind Project

b) Fujian Nanridao Wind Project of China

Location: Nanri Island of Putian City, Fujian Province of China
Project type: Wind Energy

The nineteen turbines that make up this wind project have a total generation
capacity of approximately 16.15 megawatts. In addition, this project promotes
sustainable development by expanding local employment opportunities.

Fujian Nanridao Wind Project of China

 c) Gujarat Wind Projects

Location: Gujarat, India

Project type: Wind Energy
The Aggregated Wind Projects of Gujarat have made it possible for 52 owners to
combine their 65 wind turbines into a single project. Each of the turbines has a
capacity between 0.35 megawatts and 1.5 megawatts and collectively, they
produce 59 megawatts of renewable electricity.

Gujarat Wind Projects

d) Kalani Wind Farm

Location: Rajasthan, India

Project type: Wind Energy
The Kalani Wind Farm was the first private wind turbine project to be constructed
in the state of Rajasthan. This project consists of 12 turbines, each with a capacity
of 0.23 megawatts, for a total output of 2.76 megawatts.

 
 Kalani Wind Farm

e) Chino Basin Dairy Farm Biodigester

Location: Chino Basin, California

Project type: Waste-to-Energy Biodigester
The Chino Basin Dairy Farm Biodigester Project generates clean electricity from
local manure. Carbonfund.org helps this renewable energy project successfully
reduce more than 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year and support local dairy
farms.

Chino Basin Dairy Farm Biodigester

f) Freund’s Farm Dairy Methane Project

Location: East Cannan, Connecticut

Project type: Waste-to-Energy Biodigester

It helps to reduce heat-trapping methane emissions which in turn, lessen the

impact of global climate change. Freund’s Farm installed a 62-foot anaerobic
biodigester that receives approx 3,600 gallons of manure each day from 240 cows
and reduces up to 1,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions each year.
Biodigesters capture methane generated by manure and transform it into a clean,
renewable energy source.
 Freund’s Farm Dairy Methane Project

g) Gardner Sanitary Landfill Methane Project

Location: Gardner, Massachusetts

Project type: Methane Destruction

As landfills harbor methane from trash, the project destroys the landfill methane,
which is approximately 23 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon
dioxide.

Gardner Sanitary Landfill Methane Project

h) Neria Small Hydroelectric Project

Location: Karnataka State of India

Project type: Hydroelectric Energy
As a run-of-river hydroelectric project, this project provides a sustainable source of
renewable energy that does not require the displacement of people nor a dam. The
project is located near the famous Dharmasthala temple village on the River Neria.
 Neria Small Hydroelectric Project

i) New Hope View Dairy Methane Project

Location: Homer, New York

Project type: Methane Destruction

Carbonfund.org supports the New Hope View Dairy Methane Project because it
helps to reduce heat-trapping methane emissions which in turn, lessen the impact
of global climate change. Biodigesters essentially capture methane generated by
manure and transform it into a clean, renewable energy source.

New Hope View Dairy Methane Project