Environmental sustainability and industry

Increasing population and living standards cause consumption rate to grow and cannot do forever. Finding ways to use materials more efficiently is a prerequisite for a sustainable future. Recent global attention to the issues and challenges of sustainable development is forcing industries to conduct self-assessments to identify where they stand within theframework for sustainability, and more importantly, to identify opportunities, strategies and technologies that support achieving this goal. Design for environmental sustainability is the long-therm view: that of adaptation to a lifestyle that meets present needs without compromising the needs of future generations. Technological development to be sustainable, it need to take account of social and ecological factors, as well as economic ones. In this paper a brief overview of the wide range of technological issues at an industry level was made emphasizing the need for an integrated approach and understanding of the different components of a sustainable system. Technology plays a very important role in sustainable development because it is one of the most significant ways in which we interact with our environment; we use technologies to extract natural resources, to modify them for human purposes, and to adapt our man-made living space. It is through use of technology that we have seen drastic improvements in the quality of life of many people. Large areas of land worldwide are converted for agricultural production. The increasing use of technology, fuels and chemicals has dramatically increased crop production, but has also created the chronic agricultural impacts. Sustainable agriculture and food production combines the goals of environmental and economic health and social equity. Sustainable technologies use less energy, fewer limited resources, do not deplete natural resources, do not directly or indirectly pollute the environment, and can be reused or recycled at the end of their useful life.