Sustainability
Date
2013
Authors
Fadi Abubasha
Nashaat Al Othman
Haidar Safadi
Motasem Kmail
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The recent emergence of various environmental problems has been drawing the attention of the global community; these issues highlighted the importance of finding means of protection of our planet leading to the concept "Sustainability" which defined as The development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. As such, it was decided that efforts toward proposing solutions should be promoted and encouraged. We, as Palestinians, face many issues when offering products and/or services. Many environmental impacts appear every day in warehouses, food, and random waste-disposal areas. Taking into consideration the assessment of awareness levels on the issue, a plant in our region will be chosen as a case study to demonstrate the impact of sustainable engineering on our real life activities. A research methodology was developed to assess the awareness and to set up recommended solutions. The methodology relies mainly on conducting a series of interviews targeting industry, academia, and government. This is the qualitative part of the study. Moreover, a survey was conducted to investigate the perception of the university students with regard sustainability. After generally studying the awareness in Palestine, a case study was taken to diagnose the current situation with regard to sustainability and to propose potential solutions in order to improve its level. The Stone and Marble industry was considered as a case study. This industry; in Palestine, suffers a non-efficient usage of resources; materials, water, energy etc. As a result a checklist was developed to assess the current level of the facility with regard to sustainability, then, a resource-efficient model was built to improve the facility's level by suggesting "To-do lists" which were developed, ease of implementation was the key to determine the terms in each list. Depending on studies previously conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and analyzing their results, problems in water were found, energy, materials and environment and pollution where as shown in the studies that 52.1% of Palestinian families (35.5% in West Bank and 83.8% in Gaza Strip) dispose their wastewater by sewerage networks, and 45.5% of Palestinian families use cesspits as a way to dispose its wastewater, 1.7% use septic tanks to dispose wastewater. (PCBS P. c., 2009) Studying energy levels, the total estimated amount of solar energy produced was 4,471 Terra Joules (8.67% of the total consumed energy). (PCBS T. P., Press Release on World Environment Day, 2012). The material waste studies showed that 85 thousand tons and about 6 thousand cubic meter of solid waste produced monthly in the establishments, which is an amount that should be taken into consideration. (PCBS T. P., Environmental, 2004) The two most familiar ways to dispose waste in the Palestinian Territories in 2009 were throwing waste in the nearest waste container (73%), and the second way was burning it (21.3%). (PCBS P. c., 2009) By looking to the results above, all these problems are indicators of a lack of awareness in sustainability in governmental, industrial and academic institutions. Moving to the Stone and Marble industry, it has a severe impact on the environment; quarries and cutting plants. In quarries, the rock extraction process is a companied with dust polluting air besides to the wide excavations that leave severe effect on landscape and soil. In cutting plants, the problem of dust is dealt with partially by adding water to the cutting process which reduces air pollution but on the other hand, it causes water pollution and forms big basins of mud that need to be dealt with. Keeping in mind that water in Palestine is a scarce commodity and should be use efficiently. The powder extracted out of this mud can be used in constructions materials especially concrete mixtures. Cutting process is noisy and therefore cutting plants must be located away from the local community clusters, and noise safety measures should be taken by the workers. On the other hand, large amount of energy is required for the quarrying machinery and later for stone cutting processes. Electrically driven motors are used for the cutting tools and electricity prices are high in Palestine reaching 0.2 $/kWh in some locations. (Ahmed Abu Hanieh, 2012) The results of this initial study with regard the sustainability awareness level was not as poor as it was expected considering the very special political conditions of Palestine and being one of the very developed countries. The level of awareness can be qualitatively considered low as the practical activities (i.e. sustainability laws, projects, initiatives, etc.) considered very limited when compared to other countries in the region. The sample of the young educated community, represented by the university students, showed passive perceptions towards sustainability and lack of awareness as well. However, the special condition and difficult challenges in Palestine can be a source of innovative sustainability solution to compensate for resource scarcity especially in the situation where advanced technology is not necessarily required. The culture of reuse ideas was a good example. These solutions can be publicized globally where appropriate since normal environment as the case in developed countries may not ignite the same level of creativity in finding new sustainable solutions. Regarding the Stone and Marble industry, the sustainability level, in general, was poor due to the lack of awareness, resources, random disposal of waste; mainly sludge, the financial issues due to the decreased demand in many areas and finally the occupation which cause limited resources; water, materials, equipments and transportation. In general, the southern areas; Bethlehem and Hebron, suffers a low water level, so facilities in these areas concentrate on the efficient use of water more than any other resources, while the northern areas apply techniques to enhance energy consumption. Middle areas such as Ramallah, in general, have a good level of water and energy compared to other areas. Finally, the Stone and Marble industry should improve its current level by implementing the proposed lists in order to reach an efficient-use of available resources which will lead to higher profit that will contribute in improving the whole industry.