The role and impacts of surface engineering in environmental design

The aim of the paper is to consider the role that surface engineering has to play in the area of environmental design and to highlight some aspects of the surface engineering technologies which need to be considered from a lifecycle viewpoint, but are rarely explicitly discussed. The benefits of surface engineering are addressed by consideration of case studies stressing different performance enhancements and consequential environmental benefits. The lifecycle aspects are largely drawn from the authors own experience, and again use case studies identifying a series of issues. Overall the authors believe in the importance of surface engineering within environmental design but stress the need for lifecycle analysis in order to justify its use.