Dilip Kondepudi is committed to bringing sustainability issues into the classroom.

Building a better world

Chemistry professor pushes sustainability issues

By Kim McGrath
Office of Creative Services

Dilip Kondepudi, the Thurman D. Kitchin Professor of Chemistry, joined the faculty in 1987. For over 20 years, he has been studying left-right asymmetry in nature, such as the prevalence of right-handedness in nature, from the way a vine wraps around a tree to the way our bodies are designed. He has written two books on Modern Thermodynamics and numerous articles that have been published in prestigious journals such as Science and Nature. This year, he is teaching a first-year seminar on energy and energy policy and is in the forefront of introducing sustainability issues into the curriculum.

What are the biggest changes you foresee in education and sustainability?
In the last four or five years, sustainability has become a basic goal for the whole world, and our education system must respond to this change. We are in the process of undergoing a big shift in education. It is a worldwide change. We must rethink the way we live. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has declared 2005-2014 as the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. This pronouncement is about cultivating a mindset of sustainability among all people at all ages, and education is the catalyst for this change.

What changes do you see in Wake Forest's curriculum?
Changes can be made in almost all parts of our liberal arts curriculum, and we can expect to see a wide range of changes in course content taking place though the initiative of our faculty. The courses in our environmental science and environmental studies minors, and a few other courses, already address sustainability to some extent, but we can do much more. I am enthusiastic about team teaching and about ideas for completely new courses on sustainability.

Why is thermodynamics important to sustainability?
Key aspects of sustainability have to do with the concepts of energy and entropy. Thermodynamics is a practical subject born out of the study of steam engines. It tells us about conversion of energy from one form to another, heat to mechanical motion, solar energy to electricity, and so on. The concept of entropy gives us a fundamental understanding of the inevitable loss of useful energy in any process. It gives us a framework to understand the effect our use of energy has on the environment. The study of thermodynamics helps us understand what kind of houses we should live in, what kind of transportation we should use and how we must structure our cities for sustainable living.

How might the outcome of the election affect sustainability efforts?
Government policies are very important for creating sustainable economies. We must ask what kinds of policies are needed to promote renewable energy use. Government policies have always supported energy and automobile industries; they certainly support companies that sell fossil fuels. The idea that government should support renewable energies is not new. We've already offered incentives for consumers to buy energy efficient homes, appliances and cars. This election will show how much Americans value sustainability and how willing they are to change the way they live.

Why are people so reluctant to make even small changes?
To give one example, in the U.S. there has been no incentive to replace plastic bags; they are cheap and disposable. They are cheap because the industry that makes plastic bags does not bare the costs of the environmental damage they do. Plastic bags are terrible for the environment; they pollute the soil and water. If the government can find a way to include environmental costs in their price, plastic bags won't be so cheap. Cities like San Francisco and Mumbai (Bombay) have simply banned plastic bags, and consumers are using non-disposable bags. Bangladesh, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and several other countries have banned plastic bags. India, Israel and other countries are considering similar legislations. China has banned free plastic bags. By taxing plastic bags, Ireland reduced their use by 90 percent.

What are some of the problems with renewable energy sources?
Renewable energies are locally generated, but we don't have good ways of storing this energy. For energy generated by large wind or solar energy farms, we don't have a grid for efficient distribution. Nevertheless, we already see it is possible to use renewable energies. We can put solar panels on a house and connect them to the energy grid. In effect, a consumer can sell energy to the electric company when it is not needed for the house. Renewable energies need policies that encourage investment from both consumers and business.

Where do you see continued growth in the industry?
Our country, along with much of the world, is going to create new kinds of jobs, the so-called "green collar jobs" and high tech jobs associated with sustainable technologies. The price of solar energy will go down in the future as demand increases. With gasoline, it is the opposite; prices go up when the demand goes up. The more people use renewable energy the less expensive it will become, and this will stimulate growth and create new jobs.

What do you hope students will take with them from your focus on sustainability in your classes?
It would be very gratifying if one of my students came back to me and said 'I'm building a house that doesn't look anything like the one my mom and dad built, and it uses 60 percent less energy.' If I were a young person today, I'd be a part of the "green rebellion." Our way of living is not sustainable for a world with over 6 billion people; I hope that my students will have the determination to rebuild it and make it sustainable.