Is Sustainability Just Good Engineering?

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My Sustainable Encounter with Mehrdad Vard

by Albert Schiller

Systems, Not Slogans

Some people speak of sustainability in symbols.

Mehrdad Vard speaks in systems.

As a Chemical Process Engineer, his world is pipelines, power loss, safety valves, and balance equations. But what he’s really building is a quieter kind of resilience—one measured not in slogans, but in flow rates and failure probabilities.

“We define a sustainable process using five points.”

Simple criteria. But rarely applied.

Precision Over Perfection

Mehrdad’s daily work involves modeling material and energy balances, designing equipment, selecting materials that won’t corrode or fail, and building in risk mitigation—always with an eye on what might go wrong, how likely it is, and how bad the fallout could be.

This is sustainability as risk engineering.

Not just what we build—but whether it can hold.

But the technical side isn’t his biggest frustration.

“The challenge,” he said, “is convincing managers to look beyond short-term profit.”

He explained how companies often reject more efficient, customized systems because they cost more upfront. Instead, they buy dozens of smaller packaged units—easier to install, cheaper now, but wasteful and unsafe over time.

That line stuck with me, not for its drama, but for its resignation. The science is solid. The system is flawed.

But Mehrdad doesn’t only think in plant design. He thinks about consumer behavior too.

“Don’t buy big cars. Avoid products where packaging costs more than what’s inside—like spray cans or aluminum cans. Buy from local farmers in bulk. Support repairmen, tailors, and small businesses.”

Each of these choices, he says, is a practical equation. Not about guilt. About system efficiency.

Not about doing without. About designing for enough.

Sustainability isn’t about perfection. It’s about precision.

Mehrdad’s approach offers a refreshing lesson:

Mehrdad doesn’t sell ideology. He offers something sturdier:

Logic. Data. And a design language that respects limits.

He reminded me that sustainability doesn’t start with saying “no.”

It starts with asking the right questions.

And sometimes, the smartest question is simply:

Is this built to last?