Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9501040013
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CATHRYN MCCUE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Here we are at 1995. Only five short years to the big 2-oh-oh-oh, the ``fin-de-siecle,'' the new millenia. The unknown.
We could end up just about anywhere on this wild ride of technology that has taken us from the dark ages to where we are now. So far, we've invented better tasting tomatoes, tiny TV cameras that take pictures inside blood vessels, and computer software that talks and sings.
But wait! That's not all. We're working on cars that will drive themselves, and pocket-size "personal communicators" that will trade information quickly and efficiently, saving us the trouble of having to actually speak.
No telling what the planet will look like in the year 3000.
But there's another technological endeavor taking place, a sort of complement to these Trekkie-esque developments, whose purpose is not to change the earth, but keep it like it is. Environmental technology aims to preserve clean air, clean water and other natural resources.
Don't dismiss this field as inconsequential, a passing phase, promoted only by left-wing eco-heads and garden club ladies.
It's a booming business. Some analysts predict that the global market for environmental technologies will double in the next five years - to $6 billion.
That grabbed the attention of the Clinton administration in 1993. That's when the Energy and Commerce departments teamed up with the Environmental Protection Agency to assess the domestic and international competitiveness of U.S. environmental technologies industries.
Their chief finding: The U.S. must strengthen its domestic environmental policy, and encourage technology development and public/private partnerships if it wants a piece of the environmental export pie. Government policies, not consumer preference, create the demand for environmental goods and services, the administration noted.
While the U.S. is one of the leading nations in terms of environmental regulations, much of our industrial sector is beginning to recognize the wisdom and economic benefit of maintaining natural resources.
The trend toward green thinking - and spending - also has grabbed the attention of Virginia Tech. In a 1993 special issue of "Engineering Now" devoted to environmental technologies, then-dean of the College of Engineering Wayne Clough said it is not enough that the university train environmental engineers to deal with wastes. Rather, engineers of all types must take responsibility to minimize environmental effects of their work.
The glossy magazine, printed on recycled paper, discussed ``green engineering'' - designing systems and manufacturing processes that prevent pollution, going one step further than simply controlling end-of-the-pipe pollution and disposing of wastes.
``Engineers don't want to be thought of as destroyers of the environment,'' said John Novak, civil engineering professor who heads up a green-engineering committee. Every engineer who graduates from Tech will have been exposed to green concepts within their engineering and design courses, Novak said.
And starting next fall, green engineering, and environmental sciences and policy classes will be offered as core courses, open to all students regardless of major.
``The shock to me has been the response of department heads and faculty,'' Novak said. Normally a staid group grounded in convention, the engineering faculty members are enthusiastic about the shift in focus, he said.
Previously, engineering problems were filtered through economic principles to see if they met a cost vs. benefit criteria. Now, Novak said, the idea is to filter engineering projects through an environmental lens to see if they'll meet a sustainable development criteria.
``We're looking at changes in how we do business in the future. The environmental mandate is driving what we're doing in engineering,'' he said.
Tech's corporate backers are likewise enthusiastic, he said, and he anticipates that students will be, too. As environmental compliance continues to influence the bottom line, businesses will continue to snap up student engineers who are environmentally savvy, Novak said.
On a broader scale, Virginia Tech is spreading its green mission throughout the university.
In 1993, then-Provost Fred Carlisle appointed a committee on environmental studies. The group, headed by hazardous-waste specialist David Conn, found that Tech offered a wide array of environmental studies, but the courses were uncoordinated and often slipped through the cracks of individual majors.
Conn was appointed special assistant to the provost to beef up Tech's environmental program, a unique position in Virginia's higher education system. He has established a two-prong initiative - to ensure that every Tech graduate is environmentally literate, and to better serve undergraduates who want to pursue an environmental major with greater social science or humanities content.
Conn hopes to have something in place for the fall, so that current freshman and sophomores can take advantage of Tech's green initiative, and be ready to enter the job market of the next millenia.
by CNB