Generally understood concept of sustainability will be highlighted by examples from the realms of household and national finance (economic), poverty in societies (societal), and pollution (environmental). Societal contribution to un-sustainability.

The genesis of the term “sustainability” in recent times. Brundtland Commission or WCED. The various global summits to heighten the issues behind sustainability. History of research on sustainability and its ramifications. The role of science in understanding it and that of engineering in doing something about it.

The earlier concepts of waste minimization, pollution prevention, design for environment and their evolution to sustainability. The role of environmental regulation.

Business involvement: various international agreements and reporting requirements starting with environmental compliance.

Compatibility of engineering disciplines with the concept of sustainability. Progress of engineering analysis of sustainability from industry and academia Sustainabilty as a systems approach involving interdisciplinary themes Sustainability as a multivariate complex system Industrial, community, ecological, agricultural, and technology systems Special topics: Energy, water, food, agricultural, climate change International issues helping or hurting sustainability: political issues Geographical and virtual systems.

Systems Classification
Sustainability metrics and their classification
Tools for sustainability: technology tools, analytical (mathematical) tools, cleaner chemistry etc.
Data Issues (especially LCA-based)
Methods of sustainability analyses for various types of systems
Decision Making

Relationship among factors that determine the sustainability: Basis for quantitative prediction.
Broad scope of environmental, safety, and health (ESH) impact as related to nano-manufacturing. Impact of introducing new materials on sustainability; increase in number and complexity of new materials used in advanced and high-technology industries, such as semiconductor manufacturing.
Overview of nano-materials in high-tech manufacturing; unique properties of nano-particles causing environmental challenges related to their emissions and waste treatment. Challenges in the usage of resources (particularly, water, strategic materials, and energy) in modern manufacturing processes. Importance of timing and system level approach in evaluating the sustainability and environmental impact.

Case study: Water and energy usage: Examples of sustainability challenge and opportunities in high-tech manufacturing.
Case studies: Comparison of the two major manufacturing approaches: the traditional “Subtractive” and the new “Additive” strategies. Subtractive processing and its inherent sustainability issues: case of deposition and patterning of thin films in high technology manufacturing; examples and advantages of additive processing; feasibility of additive processes approach and trends in its adoption for future nano-scale manufacturing.
Cast study: Examples of trends and breakthroughs to achieve more sustainable high-technology manufacturing.

Some examples will be provided that illustrate classifying in systems, choosing metrics, metrics classification and sorting, and doing exercises leading to decision making.