Green Engineering can be defined as environmentally conscious attitudes, values, and principles, combined with science, technology, and engineering practice, all directed toward improving local and global environmental quality.
Green Engineering encompasses all of the engineering disciplines, and is consistent and compatible with sound engineering design principles.
Green Engineering focuses on the design of materials, processes, systems, and devices with the objective of minimizing overall environmental impact (including energy utilization and waste production) throughout the entire life cycle of a product or process, from initial extraction of raw materials used in manufacture to ultimate disposal of materials that cannot be reused or recycled at the end of the useful life of a product.
Green Engineering is one facet in the broader discussion of sustainability. It provides some answers to the question - "How can engineering practice and technology help to move the products, processes, and systems developed by society toward sustainability?"
While Green Engineering strives to address environment impacts in the design phase of product, processes, and systems since the benefits increase as one moves upstream in a life cycle, it also embraces incremental improvements in materials, energy use, and machine efficiencies which can often be implemented more quickly than novel design approaches.
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