Key highlights:
- The article highlights how sustainable operations often rely on core process engineering principles like system optimization, automation and energy efficiency (not just new technology).
- It uses concrete examples from water/wastewater, energy storage and critical infrastructure to show how manual processes limit sustainability and how automation solves real operational challenges.
Many new technologies can enable sustainability, but as usual, their lasting success depends on a solid framework of long-term reliability, traditional skills, and efficient automation.
“As a controls engineer, I think of sustainability as a form of optimization. I’ve seen how inefficient legacy systems can create unsustainable working conditions for operations in the industries I’ve worked in, such as water/wastewater treatment, energy storage and critical infrastructure,” says Joseph Pallan, controls engineer at Enterprise Automation in Irvine, Calif., which is a Tetra Tech company and a certified member of the Control System Integrators Association. “At one facility, operators had to physically travel to the site, and manually operate pumps, valves and other control elements. Not only was this process time-consuming, but it also left little room for improvement, as operators constantly reacted to new problems. Their system was caught in a cycle of never-ending challenges without any time to improve conditions. To me, sustainability means breaking that cycle by automating and improving efficiency of operations.”
In these situations, Pallan reports that Enterprise Automation focuses on enabling automated control. By adding remote capabilities and automated control logic, it eliminates the need for manual operation, improving energy efficiency and overall system performance. These upgrades reduce the burden on operators, help avoid costly downtime, and prevent excessive energy use.
To improve energy storage and implement alternative energy sources like hydrogen, solar, and wind, Pallan adds that big enablers include MQTT-based, publish-subscribe communications, solar panels for onsite power, and redundant backup systems like uninterruptible power systems (UPS) for control architectures. These combine to enable more efficient energy use and better system resilience.
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“In addition, designing systems to be scalable, maintainable, and long-lasting is crucial to long-term sustainability,” explains Pallan. “One of the initiatives I’ve been part of involves municipal water production sites. These need to be designed for efficiency and long-term reliability. They should be able to withstand power outages, network disruptions and unexpected system failures given their critical nature.”
Likewise, Pallan recommends that end-users concentrate on from-the-ground-up approaches to develop and accomplish their sustainability objectives, rather quick fixes that rarely succeed in the long run. Sustainability isn’t just about saving energy,” adds Pallan. “It’s about building systems that last, are easier to maintain, and can adapt as conditions and requirements change.”
Pallan concludes that ML and AI will be integrated into sustainability efforts that they evolve because they’re tools that can process operational data in real-time to predict and prevent inefficiencies or failures. “However, beyond that, I think the future of sustainability lies in resilient design,” he says. “It needs systems that can adapt to evolving conditions, integrate new technologies with minimal overhaul, and give operators greater insight and control.”
