Week 3: Water & Energy Use

1) According to Paula Kehoe and Sarah Rhodes, in their article "Water Efficiency: Innovations for water in urban areas require rethinking and reuse," water consumption has tripled over the last 50 years and by 2050 the world's population will be more than 9 billion people. With that being the case, fresh water will become an increasingly scarce resource and in order to ensure all people have access to it, we need to rethink our consumption and overall use of water. With that being the case, we can use the built environment to capture, monitor and reuse water that would otherwise be wasted. For example non-potable water can be used for applications that include irrigation, cooling, heating, and uses in fixtures such as toilets.

2) I would agree that energy is a design problem. As we increasingly look to the future of our world and the environment, it is clear that if we continue to build in a manner that depletes natural resources and harms the environment, we will do irreparable damage to the world. With that being said, through technological innovation we have the opportunity to responsibly confront these problems. Solar, electric, and overall energy saving measures are within our grasp and should play a more central role in the design process. We see programs such as LEED, the Energy Stretch Code in Massachusetts as ways that we can begin to confront these problems. It is our job to continue to push the bar higher in the face of a challenge with such grave consequences.

3) I would agree that water is a design problem. Water is an integral and necessary feature of the built environment, however for the most part it is a commodity that we take for granted. I believe that much like how we see people and businesses move toward the use of solar and capturing energy to be used in the grid, we will move in a similar direction with water, finding ways to become more self-sufficient and economical.