RIT Professor Promotes Growth of Life Cycle Engineering and Sustainable Design

Nabil Nasr, director of the National Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery at Rochester Institute of Technology will give one of the keynote addresses at the 13^th International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering May 31-June 2 at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Brussels, Belgium.

Professor Nasr’s address, Remanufacturing: A Key Enabler to Sustainable Product Systems, will outline how the use of remanufacturing processes and technologies can enhance competitive advantage while also promoting environmental quality and waste reduction efforts.

“Remanufacturing, the restoration of used products and parts to like new condition, is a key component of sustainable design and can promote both environmental quality and economic competitiveness,” Nasr says. “For too long these two principles have been considered mutually exclusive goals. Thanks to new technologies and scientific advancements in a host of fields we can now create industrial systems that can achieve both of these objectives.”

The International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering was created to increase international knowledge and collaboration surrounding environmentally friendly manufacturing, remanufacturing and sustainable development. The conference is sponsored by the International Institution for Production Engineering Research and this year’s event will provide information and present new research in the fields of eco-design, life cycle management and remanufacturing. Experts in science and engineering as well as representatives from a host of governments and industries from all over the world are scheduled to attend.

Professor Nasr will also be presenting a research paper on new scientific methods associated with remanufacturing processes during the conference.

“It is my hope that the continued development of sustainable design will assist government and industry in creating production systems that are economically efficient and profitable while also taking into account the equally important environmental goals of pollution prevention and the diversion of materials from landfills,” Nasr adds.

The International Institution for Production Engineering Research was founded in 1951 to promote the scientific understanding of production technologies and manufacturing engineering. It is currently one of the most prestigious engineering societies in the world with more than 500 members from over 45 countries.