But, the net effect can be a greater reduction of pollutant emissions and effluents than treating each stack or pipe as an independent entity.
This is a foundation for most sustainable design approaches, i.e. conducting a life-cycle analysis, prioritizing the most important problems, and matching the technologies and operations to address them.
Green engineering recognizes that these processes are often inefficient economically and environmentally, calling for a comprehensive, systematic life cycle approach.
It is easy in retrospect to criticize these decisions, but many were made for noble reasons, such as fire prevention and durability of materials.
However, it does illustrate that seemingly small impacts when viewed through the prism of time can be amplified exponentially in their effects.
A life cycle analysis is a holistic approach to consider the entirety of a product, process or activity, encompassing raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, distribution, use, maintenance, recycling, and final disposal.
Once the quantities of various components of such a flow are known, the important functions and impacts of each step in the production, manufacture, use, and recovery/disposal are estimated.
[6] Residential sector itself uses 18%[7] of the total energy generated and therefore, incorporating sustainable construction practices there can be significant reduction in this number.