From environmental technology to environmentally friendly technology

The past ten or twenty years have seen dramatic changes in public attitudes to the environment and environmental protection. This is partly due to major environmental disasters such as the Exxon Valdez grounding in Prince William Sound in Alaska and the Chernobyl catastrophe in Belorus, and partly to a rise in the general level of consciousness in this area. One result of this has been a significant amount of research dedicated to phasing out harmful products and processes. In this issue of Gemini, we will try to give readers an impression of the wide range of environmentally oriented research projects in progress at NTH and SINTEF.

"Environmental technology" is often used to refer to a group of products and services that are intended to clear up environmental problems caused by human activity, production systems and patterns of consumption. However, it is no longer true that technologists create problematic technologies while environmental activists point out the problems. The development of integrated solutions is now a core aspect of the work of NTH and SINTEF. To an increasing extent, the role of the technologist is to develop technologies that integrate environmental considerations into production processes and patterns of consumption in such a way as to prevent environmental problems from arising.

The 1991 Strategic Plan for Norwegian Environmental Research gives priority to five areas of research in environmental technology: environmentally friendly industrial processes, waste, life-cycle analyses, monitoring technology and environmentally friendly energy technology. All of these require interdisciplinary solutions. NTH and SINTEF can point to considerable potential in all of these fields of research, but this potential is still far from being fully exploited. There are two main reasons for developing environmental technology. The overriding consideration is environmental protection itself, which is thus the prime motivating factor in this connection. However, the development of environmentally friendly products and processes can also provide our national industry with a competitive edge.

A growing realization that industrial activities are capable of damaging both the local and the global environment and, in the process, of damaging the health and development of human beings, also means that all types of commercial activity will have to adopt new attitudes in line with the Brundtland Commission's ambitions for sustainable development.

1. Environmentally friendly products will be needed to meet market demands
2. The environmental market will move from environmental technology as such, in the direction of environmentally friendly technology. This will require new products and processes.
3. Industry will have to find new cost-effective technologies that will prevent environmental problems from arising. This process will require R & D cooperation.
4. National and international regulations will accelerate the process of developing and implementing new environmentally friendly technologies.

Thor O. Olsen
President, SINTEF

Emil Spjøtvoll
Rector, NTH