The concept of sustainability is embedded everywhere. Over the past couple of decades, an unprecedented awareness has arisen among private citizens, governmental bodies, and the business world that human activities continue to impart an enormous effect on the natural environment. Human activities are not only affecting the natural environment, but they are also affecting human health, well‐being, and mankind as a whole. Among the most striking environmental impacts are the rapid depletion of natural resources, pollution of environment (air, soil, and water), and global warming and climate change. As the natural environment is impacted, strains are placed on society and the economy.

Consider the manifestation of sea‐level rise resulting from climate change. With increases in mean sea level, coastline habitats can become inundated, and salt water intrudes into estuary environments, greatly disrupting flora and fauna in these ecosystems. The built environment is also significantly affected; ports, roads, bridges, and other shoreline structures and improvements are diminished in serviceability or lose function altogether. In many cases, these result in adverse economic effects, either through loss of jobs, associated profits and tax revenues, or required large expenditures to maintain operation of these systems. The lost economic value can have a direct adverse effect on society, leading to increased unemployment, decreased fiscal resources for ancillary social services, and an overall diminished quality of life.

In meeting these increasing challenges faced by humankind and planet Earth, there is an increased focus among engineers, technical and design professionals, government regulators, the business community, and the general public to seek alternatives of development that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This precise definition of sustainability is one that serves as the guiding premise of this book. Furthermore, as we look for sustainable solutions to these global challenges, the aforementioned stakeholders increasingly look for solutions that maximize the benefit when considered among environmental, economic, and societal dimensions. The maximization of these benefits or the minimization of the adverse impacts in these dimensions, commonly described as the “triple bottom line,” is also a recurring theme of this book. The dimensions or parameters of the triple bottom line may be further described as the following:

• Environmental – diversity and interdependence within living systems, the goods, and services produced by the world's ecosystems, and the impacts of human‐generated wastes (the planet)
• Economic – flow of financial capital and the facilitation of commerce (prosperity)
• Social – interactions between institutions/firms and people, functions expressive of human values, aspirations, and well‐being, and ethical issues (people)

Sustainable engineering involves the application of sustainability principles and concepts to design environmentally friendly, economically viable, and socially equitable projects, products and systems. It offers a means to develop designs that may positively affect social, economic, and environmental considerations across the entire life cycle of a project, product, or system. Currently, a common goal of sustainable engineering is to engineer systems that are flexible enough to adapt to a range of dynamic, external stressors imposed by the natural environment while prudently utilizing resources and minimizing waste generation and emissions.

This book is organized into four sections. Section I focuses on key drivers that identify the need to incorporate sustainability principles into engineering practices. The major concerns and challenges to minimize the impacts on the environment, the economy, and society – the three dimensions of the triple bottom line – are discussed. This section also highlights the importance of resiliency in engineering design and the key approaches to incorporate it in conjunction with sustainability in engineering project designs. Section II provides a comprehensive presentation of metrics and tools for the sustainability assessment of alternative designs for a project, product, or activity. Detailed explanations on several topics, including material flow analyses and material budgets, carbon footprint analysis, life cycle assessment and streamlined life cycle assessment, economic input and output models, environmental health risk assessments, and other emerging assessment tools are provided in this section. Section III details several sustainable engineering practices, including topics such as sustainable energy engineering, sustainable waste management, green and sustainable buildings and civil infrastructure, green and sustainable remediation, and climate geoengineering. Section IV provides a range of case studies demonstrating the application of sustainability assessment tools to assess sustainability in engineering project designs. These are grouped into several categories, including environmental and chemical engineering projects, civil and materials engineering projects, and infrastructure engineering projects. Each chapter concludes with questions that may be used for review, contemplation, or as coursework exercises.

This book is primarily intended as a textbook for graduate students interested in sustainability and sustainable engineering. However, the structure and the contents of the book make it a valuable reference source for engineers, technicians, administrators, and members of the public interested in the topic of sustainability. The authors have collectively amassed decades of research, teaching, and consulting experience and have strived to write this book so that it can be valuable to practitioners and academic professionals alike.

The authors offer their deepest gratitude to a number of individuals and organizations who have provided assistance, support, patience, brainstorming, and inspiration toward the completion of this book. Many students who have taken the Sustainable Engineering graduate course offered by Krishna Reddy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) provided motivation to undertake this book project, added to the content, and developed the example projects presented in Chapters 20-22. Their hard work is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are grateful to Girish Kumar, a doctoral student at UIC, for his immensely valuable assistance in preparing, reviewing, and editing of the chapters. The authors are also thankful to other graduate students at UIC, particularly Jyoti Chetri, who also reviewed the chapters. Claudio Cameselle is thankful for the Fulbright Fellowship that allowed him to visit UIC and undertake this book project. The support of researchers and staff at the University of Vigo, especially Susana Gouveia, has been vital in the completion of this book. Jeff Adams is immensely thankful to ENGEO Incorporated, particularly Uri Eliahu, Shawn Munger, Joe Tootle, Scott Johns, and Divya Bhargava, all of whom have thoughtfully provided love and encouragement. Finally, the authors thank Bob Esposito, Michael Leventhal and the entire Wiley editorial group (Beryl Mesiadhas and Grace Paulin) for their cooperation during this book project. We hope that this book will help students and professionals alike to learn and advance the concepts of sustainability and develop sustainable engineering projects.