Have you ever heard of a building that can withstand natural disasters? What about, a house that doesn’t require a supply of electricity from the local electric power plants for it uses solar energy? or maybe, a house that you can literally “call” home, for it is powered by voice control, which means you don’t have to do basic household chores anymore, such as closing the window curtains or turning your showers off. What a smart home indeed. Those are just some of the many examples of how innovation becomes truly mesmerizing, especially in this age of time where you can closely identify that innovation happens each, and every single day we get to open our eyes. According to Merriam-Webster, innovation refers to something new or to a change made to an existing product, idea, or field.
New York Times stated in their article entitled “What Was the Greatest Era for Innovation?” that as soon as the American Civil War ended by the year 1870 Transcontinental Railroad also known as the Pacific Railroad, was newly completed making an easy passage from the cities to the east coast of California, and with more points between. From then on, a lot of innovations happened from transportations to communications, everything that makes our lives easier is starting to arise even up until this moment. Aside from considering the 1800s as an era where great innovations started to happen, there is also an important occurrence that happened in the early 1800s and that’s where greenhouse gases started to warm the world’s oceans. Yes, the 1800s is also an era where human-caused climate change started to become an issue as the world started to enter the “Industrial Era”. Innovation set off a major happening without people knowing that it is already harming the planet’s ozone layer, as the chemistry of the atmosphere changes when humans keep on adding CO2 to the air. It’s verifiable how innovation becomes a major reason why this generation started to enjoy a life where going to school isn’t as adventurous as what our grandparents used to tell us, communication can happen in a snap of a finger even the distance were miles apart, and lives become easier compared to what our ancestors used to have before. Yet, this innovation also became the major contributor to how humans keep on losing the natural beauty of this planet, and at the same time the safeness of nature that keeps human beings alive. Now tell me, is innovation still mesmerizing or more damaging?
Mesmerizing still, if it wasn’t for the reason of innovation we might not be able to easily get what we will be needing in a grocery store that is usually produced by factories, and these factories emit the most carbon dioxide that caused major damage to the earth’s ozone layer. However, there is no way we can let go of changes as well as we can’t just stay still to the primitive life where hardships are just being endured all throughout their lives, even there are ways to make it even easier. How can we really embrace innovation without having to ruin our environment? There is an idea that started in 1987 where human societies are capable of living and meeting their needs without having to put risk on the future generation’s resources, supposing that we will just use resources continuously, there might come a time where it will be reaching its limit, and inadequate resources for the frequently increasing population. As Medium.com published in their article there is a total of 795 million people are hungry, and by the year 2050, there are two billion people are expected to sum with it.
Sustainable development is the best way to demonstrate how we can welcome innovation, and at the same time to assure the capability of submitting the next generation at ease by producing products, materials, and even a society that is eco-friendly. In the year 2012, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were created in the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro 2012, it carries universal goals that meet the urgent environmental, political, and economic challenges of the world.
As the world started campaigns of sustainable living there is a lot of product, materials, and even buildings that are known to be green buildings. Parkroyal Collection is one of the examples. It is located in the center of Singapore, designed to be self-sufficient, and consumes minimal energy by using solar cells, motion sensors, and rainwater collection for subsequent recycling. The famous Shanghai Tower as well in China, the world’s second-tallest building is known to be a sustainable construction for it is designed to collect rainwater, and recycle some of its wastewater for internal use. Also, there is an academy in San Francisco, USA that is completely constructed by the year 2008. It recycles rainwater, uses photovoltaic panels, contains one hectare of green roof that contains millions of plants, and it also uses natural lighting as well, it is known as the California Academy of Sciences.
Out of all those amazing buildings that favor blending in both modernizations, and protecting the environment, we can really claim that innovations come this far. We no longer have to choose between development or environment, considering that we can have them both. As engineering students, we wanted to showcase our talents in creating the credibility of every building’s foundation, and maybe as being the next generation of engineers might as well include the idea of sustainability. Imagine the future we can create: building skyscrapers as green as mountain forests, mainstreaming environment-friendly products, and using materials capable of preventing harm to our biodiversity.
This is the future we must create, and as future engineers, we establish the foundations of the society by constructing its contents. Let us not simply build to showcase comfortability, modernization, and wealth whereas we tend to ignore that while we are forming up these construction facilities for human beings’ sake we are giving much risk to the environment. Let us embrace the idea of building, as we innovate, without destroying nature while it still has something left. Let us be engineers of the future.
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