Welcome to the third issue of 2013. In this issue we present eight papers that address aspects of: environmental management; sustainable construction; energy; and reuse, recovery or remanufacture. In the first of two papers concerned with environmental management matters we present a paper by Gnoni and Elia that proposes a decision support system for estimating and assessing the environmental performance of a specific printing product. The authors present a prototype software tool that can be used in the design and control phases to improve the product's sustainability level. In his paper, Ratnayake addresses the concerns of stakeholders that asset-intensive organisations should achieve a balanced and sustainable performance of such assets over their life cycle. The author describes the application of publically available specifications and proposes a framework to evaluate the human factor in managing the integrity of physical assets for sustainable performance.
In the paper relating to sustainable construction, Bakhoum and Brown consider the sustainable selection of materials for the construction industry. By considering several analytical techniques, including the analytical hierarchy process, they developed an objective, systematic and comprehensive method for the sustainable ranking of materials that links with structural element design.
In the first of three papers devoted to energy, Evrard et al present ‘Synergico’, a design method to better consider the energy consumption of electrical and electronic products during the use phase. The authors present a case study to show how the integration of three tools (an assessment tool, an improvement tool, and an environmental check tool) works and they discuss their findings. In the paper by Yadev and Bajpai it is the use of solar power that is featured, with specific reference to a solar powered desiccant dehumidifier. The authors report their experimental work to determine the optimum regeneration performance of a desiccant wheel with evacuated solar air collector. The third energy-related paper also has a solar energy theme. Sagade presents a comparative experimental analysis of the effect of natural and forced convection heat losses on the performance of a prototype parabolic dish water heater with coated and non-coated receivers.
The papers on a reuse, recovery or remanufacturing theme commence with that by Masoud and Azadivar in which the authors consider the cost versus quality comparison when the supply of a given demand is satisfied with a combination of primary and remanufactured products. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate the use of the proposed solution for optimising quality when there is a limit on primary production size. In a quite different theme, Barimany et al address the siting of a fluting paper mill close to a supply of agricultural waste with the potential to serve as a raw material for the paper mill. They evaluate the prospect using a number of economic indices.
Finally, we present a review of a book that addresses ‘the making of green engineers’.