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Educating Undergraduate Engineering Students on Sustainability Current Status and a Body of Knowledge Michael Robinson, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Abstract The engineering community, both professionals and educators, have an ethical responsibility to address sustainable development in their practice and in the education of future engineers. The American Society of Civil Engineers through the first Fundamental Canon in its Code of Ethics creates an ethical responsibility for civil engineers : Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties. The American Society for Engineering Education creates an ethical responsibility for engineering faculty by stating that Engineering students should learn about sustainable development and sustainability in the general education component of the curriculum as they are preparing for the major design experience. Many educational leaders through endorsement of either the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (426 signatories) or the Talloires Declaration (350 signatories) have created an ethical responsibility upon their institutions to incorporate sustainability into their curriculum. Although a noble goal, the devil is in the details. Sustainability within a curriculum can range from creating student awareness (knowledge of the problem) to providing students sufficient knowledge to incorporate sustainability into their decision making process (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of solutions to the problem). There is no consensus as to what level of student learning on sustainability is optimal. Within engineering programs there may be significant differences among various disciplines. Several attempts have been made by organizations over the last few years to determine the status of sustainability within the engineering curriculum. Despite this there has been increased activity, especially at the graduate level, to provide students educational and research opportunities related to sustainability. However, at the undergraduate level there is much less activity. This paper will provide a review of the current status of sustainability within engineering curriculums in both undergraduate and graduate programs and research programs / centers. More importantly, the paper will provide discussion of a proposed body of knowledge for sustainable engineering at the undergraduate level. A body of knowledge defines both student learning outcomes and associated cognitive levels of learning for each outcome. The idea of defining a body of knowledge for an engineering discipline has seen increasing interest among many engineering disciplines. By proposing a body of knowledge for sustainability in engineering, perhaps better termed sustainable engineering, a more systematic view of what engineering faculty need to do to meet their ethical responsibility to educate tomorrows engineers on sustainability will be achieved.
Key Words Educating for Sustainable Energy, Engineering Curricula
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Educating Undergraduate Engineering Students on Sustainability
Current Status and a Body of Knowledge
Michael A. Robinson, Ph.D., P.E.
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Introduction
Sustainable development is in its broadest sense economic prosperity with social equity
and environmental stewardship. Sustainable development, or the shorter term
sustainability, has received broad support from the engineering community as an essential
component of an engineering curriculum. Incorporating the constraint of sustainable
development into the engineering design process requires a trans-disciplinary systems
approach.1 Consequently, teaching sustainable development within an undergraduate
engineering curriculum presents many significant challenges. The first challenge to an
individual faculty, a department, or to a college in addressing sustainable development
will be to accept an applicable definition of sustainable development. This definition
should specify both the role of the engineer in sustainable development and the role of
sustainable development in the engineering design process.
With a clarifying definition, the next challenge is to define the knowledge and skills
necessary to apply the principles of sustainable development to the engineering design
process. The creation of these educational outcomes, what an engineering student is
expected to know and be able to do, is critical to successfully adding sustainable
development to a curriculum. Unfortunately, within the engineering disciplines the
knowledge and skills of sustainable development are not well characterized. With its
broadest definition of economic prosperity with social equity and environmental
stewardship, sustainable development draws from all the traditional disciplines:
humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, and engineering. So broad is this required
knowledge that the argument for the creation of a new meta-discipline in sustainable
science and engineering has been put forth.2
Inherent in the educational outcomes is an associated level of cognitive achievement
what should an engineering student be able to do with the principles of sustainable
development. Blooms taxonomy of the cognitive learning domain provides a convenient
hierarchy of learning.3 In the development of its body of knowledge, the American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has adopted Blooms taxonomy to describe the level
of cognitive achievement within each of its educational outcomes.4 At the lowest of the
six levels within the taxonomy is knowledge a student can recognize, list, and define
the principles of sustainable development. Each additional level requires increases
student learning. For example, the next level within the domain, comprehension, requires
a student to not only recognize and list the principles but to also be able to discuss and
explain them. Identifying the level of cognitive achievement attained within the
undergraduate curriculum is important but may be ultimately be beyond the control of an
individual faculty, department, or college desiring to teach sustainable development.
Client demand, governmental regulation, or limited physical resources may all be more
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important in determining what role sustainability has in the undergraduate engineering
curriculum.
Support within the Engineering Community
There is broad support within the academic and engineering community for the inclusion
of sustainable development into the engineering curriculum. The presidents of over 460
American colleges and universities are signatories to the American College and
University Presidents Climate Commitment.5 As signatories they have obligated their
campuses to pursuing climate neutrality for the purpose of re-stabilizing the earths
climate as it relates to global climate change (global warming). For many signatories,
global climate change is the defining challenge for this generation of college students. As
leaders in higher education, the signatories believe colleges and universities have an
ethical responsibility to exercise a leadership role in addressing global climate change.
As a signatory university to the Climate Commitment, a universitys facilities and
activities must be climate neutral, that is create no net greenhouse gas emissions.
Receiving less attention than the campus climate neutrality aspect of the Climate
Commitment is the obligation of signatory schools to integrate sustainability into their
schools curriculum and to make it part of their students educational experience. This
aspect of the Climate Commitment has significant implications on a schools educational
mission in that faculty must provide their students the skills and knowledge needed to
address the challenges of sustainability.6
We believe colleges and universities must exercise leadership in their
communities and throughout society by modeling ways to minimize global warming
emissions, and by providing the knowledge and the educated graduates to achieve
climate neutrality. Campuses that address the climate challenge by reducing global
warming emissions and by integrating sustainability into their curriculum will
better serve their students and meet their social mandate to help create a thriving,
ethical and civil society. These colleges and universities will be providing students
with the knowledge and skills needed to address the critical, systemic challenges
faced by the world in this new century and enable them to benefit from the
economic opportunities that will arise as a result of solutions they develop.
The American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment is not the only
organization advocating the inclusion of sustainable development into the engineering
curriculum. Most professional engineering societies have policy statements, many within
their code of ethics, requiring their members to adhere to the principles of sustainable
development, Table 1. Similar to the Climate Commitment, the American Society for
Engineering Education (ASEE) calls for the inclusion of sustainable development into the
curriculum. Engineering faculty, as members of these engineering societies, have an
ethical obligation to prepare their students to practice engineering within the code of
ethics established by their respective engineering society.
Although neither the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) nor the Institute
for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) specifically address sustainable
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development within their code of ethics, they both require protection of the environment.
As sustainable development is established within the engineering profession, the
principles of sustainable development will become the default standard processes by
which engineers protect the environment.
Table 1. Statements relating to sustainable development by various professional
engineering societies.
Engineering Society Statement on Sustainable Development / Sustainability American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE)
Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the
public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable
development in the performance of their professional duties. 7
American Society of Mechanical
Engineers (ASME)
Engineers shall consider environmental impact and sustainable
development in the performance of their professional duties. 8
American Institute of Chemical
Engineers (AIChE)
Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and
protect the environment in performance of their professional duties.9
Institute for Electrical and
Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
to accept responsibility in making decisions consistent with the
safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly
factors that might endanger the public or the environment10
National Society of Professional
Engineers (NSPE)
Engineers are encouraged to adhere to the principles of sustainable
development in order to protect the environment for future
generations.11
American Society for
Engineering Education (ASEE)
Engineering students should learn about sustainable development
and sustainability in the general education component of the
curriculum as they are preparing for the major design experience. 12
ABET, the national accreditation entity for engineering programs, in its 2007 2008
criteria for accrediting engineering programs includes sustainability as a program
outcome for all engineering programs.13
Criterion 3 part (c) states that a student by the
time of graduation should have an ability to design a system, component, or process to
meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social,
political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability.
A Definition of Sustainable Development
The first challenge to teaching sustainable development is the acceptance of a definition
from which the necessary skills and knowledge can be built upon. Sustainable
development as an international issue came to predominance with the issuance in 1987 of
the United Nation report entitled Report of the World Commission on Environment and
Development: Our Common Future.14
The report, commonly referred to as the
Bruntland Report after the Commissions chairman Gro Harlan Bruntland - former Prime
Minister of Norway, introduced the most widely used definition of sustainable
development: Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs. The definition, although inspirational as seen by its widespread
adoption, provides no context by which one can interpret the meaning or requirements of
sustainable development.
The report provides further narrative, but with little additional context, on the definition
of sustainable development: sustainable development is not a fixed state of harmony,
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but rather a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of
investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are
made consistent with future as well as present needs. And finally within the report the
definition greatly expands upon the intergenerational concept of sustainable development
to meeting the basic needs of all humanity: Sustainable development requires meeting
the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a
better life.
The ambiguity and lack of specificity in this definition has challenged many
organizations, including academia, to determine how best to address sustainable
development.
In response to the ambiguity, many organizations have developed alternate definitions of
sustainable development. A definition of sustainable development applicable to
engineering should specify both the role of the engineer in sustainable development and
the role of sustainable development in the engineering design process. The American
Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) proposed an answer to the role of engineers
in sustainable development15
:
1. Engineers must be trained and engaged more actively in political, economic, technical and social discussions and processes to help set a new direction for the
world and its development.
2. Engineers need to use environmentally sensitive and responsive economic tools, in order to integrate environment and social conditions into market economics.
3. In planning for sustainable economic development, engineering should become a unifying, not a partitioning, discipline. Engineers need to look at systems as a
whole, as opposed to looking at fragmented or single parts.
4. Engineers and scientists must work together to adapt existing technologies and create and disseminate new technologies that will facilitate the practice of
sustainable engineering, meet societal needs, improve resource use (including
energy resources) and minimize waste generation.
5. The knowledge, skills and insights of the physical as well as the social sciences, together with all engineering disciplines must be brought together in a new
collaborative partnership.
6. Engineers must cultivate an understanding of environmental issues, problems, risks and potential impacts of what they do.
The civil engineering profession, perhaps more than any other engineering profession,
has addressed the importance of sustainability to the profession. In defining what
sustainable development is to the civil engineering profession, the ASCE adopted the
following definition:
Sustainable Development is the challenge of meeting human needs for natural
resources, industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and effective
waste management while conserving and protecting environmental quality and the
natural resource base essential for future development.7
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In an effort to encourage strengthening and broadening the education of civil engineers in
the principles of sustainable development the ASCE further clarified the role of the civil
engineer in sustainable development. The statement begins to address both the role of the
civil engineer in sustainable development and the role of sustainable development in the
civil engineering design process.
Promote broad understanding of political, economic, social and technical issues
and processes as related to sustainable development. Advance the skills, knowledge
and information to facilitate a sustainable future; including habitats, natural
systems, system flows, and the effects of all phases of the life cycle of projects on
the ecosystem. Advocate economic approaches that recognize natural resources
and our environment as capital assets. Promote multidisciplinary, whole system,
integrated and multi-objective goals in all phases of project planning, design,
construction, operations, and decommissioning. Promote reduction of vulnerability
to natural, accidental, and willful hazards to be part of sustainable development.
Promote performance based standards and guidelines as bases for voluntary
actions and for regulations, in sustainable development for new and existing
infrastructure.16
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the AIChE introduced
the concept of green engineering.16
With a much narrower focus than sustainable
development, the EPA and AIChE are focused on educating the next generation of
chemical engineers with the knowledge and skills to design environmentally beneficial
processes. Green engineering is defined as: the design, commercialization, and use of
processes and products that are feasible and economical while reducing the generation of
pollution at the source and minimizing the risk to human health and the environment.17
More recently the definition of green engineering was more broadly defined as green
engineering is transforming existing engineering disciplines and practices to those that
lead to sustainability.18
Perhaps due to the narrower focus of green engineering, the principles of green
engineering have been somewhat formally established: 18
1. Engineer processes and products holistically, use systems analysis, and integrate environmental impact assessment tools.
2. Conserve and improve natural ecosystems while protecting human health and well-being.
3. Use life-cycle thinking in all engineering activities. 4. Ensure that all material and energy inputs and outputs are as inherently safe and
benign as possible.
5. Minimize depletion of natural resources. 6. Strive to prevent waste. 7. Develop and apply engineering solutions, while being cognizant of local
geography, aspirations, and cultures.
8. Create engineering solutions beyond current or dominant technologies; improve, innovate, and invent (technologies) to achieve sustainability.
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9. Actively engage communities and stakeholders in development of engineering solutions.
The distinction between the principles of green engineering and of sustainable
development is subtle. Green engineering is seen as a design protocol for engineers to
utilize in moving towards sustainability.19
Although there is a convergence among many constituencies on the importance of
sustainable development the challenge of developing a concise, global definition of
sustainable development remains. This may be expected as the concept is comparatively
new, complex, abstract, and is based on both factual and ethical components. Not
surprisingly, a study of engineering faculty in Australia found significant differences in
the interpretation of sustainability and the importance of the environmental, social, and
economic aspects20
. The authors of the study argue that such differences are inherent in
the concept of sustainable development and can be used within an undergraduate
curriculum to engage students awareness of how and why a diversity of values,
viewpoints and actions might assist them in developing as flexible, creative practitioners,
with the capacity to enact sustainability in the diverse array of professional contexts.20
As with the civil engineering profession, it may be necessary for each engineering
discipline to develop an appropriate definition onto which that discipline can define the
essential skills and knowledge of sustainable development and how they are integrated
into the profession. Because of the varied definitions and how engineering faculty
interpret sustainable development, there is a need to identify a core body of knowledge
that is appropriate to incorporate into the undergraduate engineering curriculum.
A Body of Knowledge for Sustainable Development
A body of knowledge is the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that define a discipline.
Within the engineering profession, the effort of the ASCE to develop a body of
knowledge required for professional civil engineering licensure is well recognized. The
ASCE body of knowledge consists of a series of outcomes and an associated level of
cognitive achievement for each outcome. Because sustainable development is a very
broad concept and only recently entered into the engineering curriculum, a body of
knowledge will aid engineering faculty who wish to teach sustainable development.
The draft of a second version of the ASCE body of knowledge includes an outcome on
sustainability, Table 2.21
As currently proposed, an undergraduate civil engineering
curriculum would need to prepare students to apply the principles of sustainability to the
design of traditional and emergent engineering systems. Although the principles of
sustainability are not stated within the body of knowledge, a cognitive level of
achievement is specified. An engineering student must not only be able to recognize, list,
and define the principles of sustainable they must be able to apply those principles to the
design process. An additional achievement level is required for professional licensure,
analysis; this is achieved through work experience.
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Table 2. Description of Level of Achievements for Sustainability Outcome in ASCE
BOK 2
Level of Cognitive
Achievement
Knowledge
(achieved in undergraduate
curriculum)
Define key aspects of sustainability relative to
engineering phenomena, society at large, and its
dependence on natural resources; and relative to the
ethical obligation of the professional engineer.
Comprehension
(achieved in undergraduate
curriculum)
Explain key properties of sustainability, and their
scientific bases, as they pertain to engineered works and
services.
Application (achieved in
undergraduate curriculum)
Apply the principles of sustainability to the design of
traditional and emergent engineering systems.
Analysis (achieved through
work experience)
Analyze systems of engineered works, whether
traditional or emergent, for sustainable performance.
The broad definition of sustainable development as economic prosperity with social
equity and environmental stewardship creates the broadest body of knowledge
encompassing much of the liberal arts and sciences. A former president of Cornell
University argues for sustainability as the ultimate liberal art (and science) and
contends that students should have significant exposure to the sciences of geology,
natural resources, ecology, and climatology; some understanding of social interaction,
sociology, economics, and history; some extensive familiarity with the issues of human
inquiry, self-reflection, and moral consideration; and some review of the practical arts of
technical discovery and invention.22
This view moves sustainable development away
from an educational objective in the engineering curriculum and towards its own
engineering discipline.
Over time sustainable engineering may grow into its own engineering discipline. Amid
increasing citizen concern over the impact pollution was having on the environment, the
creation and growth of the EPA and the development of federal environmental
regulations, environmental engineering emerged as a distinct engineering profession.
Within the field the masters degree has always been considered the first professional
degree traditionally building upon an undergraduate education in civil engineering. Until
recently, there were few programs that offered a bachelors degree in environmental
engineering but within the profession there is an effort for an undergraduate degree in
environmental engineering being the preferred path into the graduate degree. This will
further solidify environmental engineering as its own discipline. Within the field of
sustainable development, sustainable engineering may follow a similar path and emerge
as a distinct engineering discipline.
Sustainable development in its ambiguity and its emphasis on social equity creates a
significant challenge to engineering education. Much of what many view as sustainable
development is based on values open to valid ideological interpretation. For example, for
some sustainable development is synonymous with limiting consumption of resources or
providing access to humanitys basic needs. This social equity aspect of sustainable
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development is present in how engineering programs address sustainable development.
Engineering programs emphasizing a project-based learning to sustainable development
often partner with organizations such as Engineers Without Borders.23,24,25
These projects
in developing countries are tremendously rewarding and should be highly recommended
for what they can offer: a cultural awakening to the lack of basic human needs that a
large percentage of the worlds population experience daily. They do not provide, in most
cases, a rigorous background in the principles of sustainable development.
The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering addressed the need
to include sustainable development within the engineering curriculum.26
Their
recommended changes and key issues agree with many other such efforts and are
provided as a summary work. Among their recommendations were to modify the general
undergraduate engineering curriculum to:
include additional environmental studies.
broaden conventional engineering education by introducing relevant subjects from other disciplines such as the social sciences, economics, law, and even politics.
make life cycle analysis and design the basis for sustainable engineering practice.
adapt conventional economics and traditional system analysis courses to be more applicable to sustainable development.
Among the key issues they recommended to be covered were:
resource constraints and conservation
environmental management and policy
waste prevention and minimization environmental economics and law
alternative resources and approaches
political and social impacts
cleaner production knowledge based alternatives
Recognizing the practicality of limited credit hours in most engineering curriculums the
Academy concluded that Some of this material can only be touched upon and detailed
studies have to be left for development at post-graduate level.27
To better define the body of knowledge a review of existing programs promoting
sustainable development was completed. This review is not comprehensive and indeed
the golden nugget may have been overlooked in this review. In addition, claims of
incorporating sustainable development into engineering curriculums can be overstated
based on the broad and vague definition of sustainable development. For example, a
southwest university claims to have over 160 sustainability-relevant courses across 27
departments in 10 colleges with over 19 centers and programs working on sustainability
research.28
The review provides a glimpse into the approaches engineering programs have
adopted to introduce sustainable development into the curriculum and the topics
considered to be relevant to those efforts.
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Several efforts to integrate sustainable development across an undergraduate engineering
curriculum have been documented. An initiative at the University of Texas-El Paso (El
Paso, Texas) sought to permeate the existing curriculum with the concepts of sustainable
engineering so as to educate students with minimal additional credit-hour graduation
requirements.29
Faculty of selected courses were asked to incorporate sustainable
engineering into their courses through class examples, course projects, special topics,
team projects, or homework. The objective of the initiative was to increase students
understanding of 1) environmental issues and the global impact of engineering solutions;
2) the legal framework that guides engineering solutions and protects the environment
and resources; and 3) the need for efficient and effective resource conservation and
energy utilization. Such an approach would be classified in level 1 - knowledge in
Blooms taxonomy of cognitive achievement. Beyond this two specialized elective
courses, Environmental Regulations and Life Cycle Analysis, can be taken to earn a
certificate in green engineering. Unfortunately, a recent search of the Universitys
website found minimal information on the success of this initiative.
Rowan University (Glasboro, New Jersey) has integrated sustainable development into its
unique curriculum by introducing the concept into specific required courses using a
project based learning approach and a capstone international design experience.23
The
freshman course, Issues in Sustainable Development, is intended to increase awareness
about sustainability, to explore appropriate frameworks for thinking about the
institutional foundations of sustainability, to understand different institutional actors
involved in and to understand the environmental impacts of development and the role of
appropriate technologies. The sophomore course, Sophomore Clinic II, is focused on
engineering practice and design through a project to develop a plan to reduce the
universitys greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) emissions predominantly through energy
analysis. In the junior and senior years sustainability is emphasized through an Engineers
Without Borders project.
Although students graduate with a significant awareness of sustainability (level 1 -
knowledge in Blooms taxonomy) there appears to be no course where students apply the
principles of sustainability to the design of traditional and emergent engineering systems
(level 3 application in Blooms taxonomy). Although the sophomore level course
directly addresses an important aspect of sustainable development it is but an application
of energy and mass balances. As discussed previously within this paper, international
projects as offered in the junior and senior years offer significant educational experiences
to students but often provide little in regards to the technical aspects of sustainable
development.
Within the chemical engineering program at Rowan university additional emphasis has
been placed on the concept of green engineering by integrating the topic throughout the
four-year chemical engineering curriculum. 30
As with the effort at the University of
Texas El Paso the approach was to introduce specific green engineering concepts into
existing courses. In addition to the courses described earlier the students are exposed to a
broader range of topics including life cycle assessment, pollution prevention strategies,
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green chemistry, pollution prevention strategies, risk assessment, and pollution
prevention modeling and control.
Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, New Jersey) has developed a Green
Engineering Minor. Courses within the minor include Sustainable Engineering,
Sustainable Energy, and Sustainability: Economics, Ethics and Policy.31
The stated
objectives of the minor are to:
Provide a holistic, systems perspective to the impact of human activity on the environment, including the role of engineering.
Educate students in the concepts of sustainable development and industrial ecology.
Provide insight into sustainability tools and metrics such as life cycle analysis and ecological footprint.
Show how engineering decisions, particular with regard to design, can support sustainability goals.
Develop awareness of the ethical, economic, social and political dimensions that influence sustainability.
Arizona State University (Tempe , Arizona) has developed sustainability into its own
discipline offering through its School of Sustainability a Bachelor of Science in
Sustainability beginning in Fall 2008.32
In addition, the school currently offers graduate
degrees (Masters and Doctorate) in sustainability. The learning outcomes for the
undergraduate program include:
Understand the concepts and methods of environmental economics, ecology, environmental biology, hydrology, environmental chemistry, engineering, earth-
systems management, and other disciplines relevant to the sustainable use of
environmental resources
Apply these concepts and methods to developing sustainable strategies for water, land, air, and urban management at the local to global level.
Evaluate the sustainability of technology, the built environment, and their environmental regulations and policy
Several additional schools are developing graduate programs that address sustainable
development. Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY) is developing a
Doctorate in Sustainable Production through its Golisano Institute for Sustainability, a
research center focusing on research, education, and technology transfer. Beginning Fall
2008, the program will be a mixture of new courses, such as industrial ecology and
sustainable design, with existing courses in public policy, environmental management,
business, and engineering. The program, target at engineering students, will cover topics
such as life cycle assessment, environmental risk and impact assessment, design for the
environment, pollution prevention, closed loop supply chain management, and product
life assessment.33
Proposed Body of Knowledge
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Given the ambiguity and lack of specificity in the definition of sustainable development a
body of knowledge suitable for undergraduate engineering curriculums would prove
useful. The level of achievement specified in the ASCE body of knowledge, students are
able to apply the principles of sustainability to the design of traditional and emergent
engineering systems, is the correct level expected by many of the organizations
advocating the inclusion of sustainability into the engineering curriculum. This initial
effort to develop a body of knowledge is a broad net approach pulling best practices from
many different programs. The body of knowledge should address three themes: the
humanities and social sciences, the physical sciences, and the sustainability sciences.
As previously discussed in this paper, the humanities and social sciences are necessary to
provide students an understanding of the social component of sustainable development.
Humanity courses at many engineering programs often do not directly compliment the
technical component of the curriculum. Students often fulfill their humanities and social
science requirements by completing a hodge-podge of courses that are taken with
minimal thought to their long-term usefulness. A more useful approach to the general
education component would be to thematically link the humanities and social science
courses to the technical curriculum; that thematic link being sustainability. 34
Emory University through its Piedmont Project35
has brought Emory faculty from
multiple disciplines together in a workshop format to develop new courses or modify
existing courses with environmental and sustainability themes. Departments represented
by faculty participation include anthropology, biology, chemistry, environmental studies,
Russian and East Asian languages and cultures, philosophy, religion, English, art history,
mathematics, history, music, women's studies, physical education and dance, economics,
visual arts, neuroscience and behavioral biology, and sociology. This diversity fosters the
merging of the social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainable development.
Courses drawn from the participants in the Piedmont Project are provided as examples of
how sustainable development can be thematically integrated into the humanities, Table 3.
Table 3. Example courses developed through the Piedmont Project at Emory University.
Department Course /
English & ILA:
Romanticism
The Ecological Imagination
English Thoreau for the Twenty-First Century
Utopian literature in environmental perspective
Philosophy Water: In Science, Philosophy and Literature
Spanish / Portuguese The Brazilian Rain Forest:
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Environmental Issues
Visual Arts Sculpture: Ecologically based sculpture and contemporary
environmental art
The underpinning sciences of the environment are the physical sciences: chemistry,
biology, and geoscience. Fundamental to understanding sustainable development is
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knowledge of the natural ecological systems and the interconnected complexities of the
natural and built environments. Unfortunately, many engineers graduate with no other
science course except chemistry. Exposure to the sciences should be expanded to include
geoscience and biology. A rigorous course in environmental science could serve as a
substitute to individual courses. Topics students should learn include ecological systems,
biogeochemical cycles (carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous), the hydrologic cycle, and
species interactions and biodiversity.
The sustainability sciences are the areas of knowledge that constitute the principles of
sustainable development. Among the topics within the sustainability sciences are
contextual sustainable development, environmental impact assessment, environmental
economics and accounting, environmental management and indicators, natural resource
accounting, evaluation of environmental impacts, and environmental and social
assessments and methodologies and life cycle assessments.
Many of the programs previously reviewed in this paper include, as they should, some
exposure to life cycle assessment. Environmental life cycle assessment is a systematic
analysis of the environmental burdens associated with a product, process, or activity by
determining the energy, materials, and wastes from cradle-to-cradle (recyclability) and to
evaluate and implement opportunities for improvement. Life cycle assessments are
necessary to prevent environmental impacts from being shifted upstream to raw material
suppliers or downstream to customers, that is to other stages of its life cycle.
Life cycle assessment, or alternatively analysis, is a critical tool used in industry to
measure environmental performance and increasingly to determine sustainability. A life
cycle assessment consists of four components:36
1. Goal Definition and Scoping - Define and describe the product, process or activity. Establish the context in which the assessment is to be made and identify
the boundaries and environmental effects to be reviewed for the assessment.
2. Inventory Analysis - Identify and quantify energy, water and materials usage and environmental releases (e.g., air emissions, solid waste disposal, waste water
discharges).
3. Impact Assessment - Assess the potential human and ecological effects of energy, water, and material usage and the environmental releases identified in the
inventory analysis.
4. Interpretation - Evaluate the results of the inventory analysis and impact assessment to select the preferred product, process or service with a clear
understanding of the uncertainty and the assumptions used to generate the results.
Common topics covered in a course on life cycle assessment (LCA) are shown in Table
4.37
The topics are from a 15-week multidisciplinary environmental life cycle analysis
course taught at Virginia Tech. Because of their complexity and extensive data
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requirements, most life cycle assessments of multi-dimensional engineering problems
require the use of commercial software. The instructors at Virginia Tech made use of
SimaPro, the most widely used commercial life cycle software. Unfortunately, the
software requires significant up-front learning by students and presented a challenge to
the course instructors. However, the use of such software is essential to engineering
students understanding LCA.
Table 4. Topics covered in upper-level engineering course on life cycle analysis at
Virginia Tech during the Spring 2006 semester.
Introduction
Week 1
Product Life Cycle, Materials
Selection and Design
Weeks 2 through 7
Life Cycle Analysis
Week 8 through 15
product life cycle
life cycle analysis
environmental impacts
extraction
manufacturing/processing
packaging
transportation/distribution
use
end-of-life / recycling / landfill / incineration
materials selection
product design
process design
design for environment
life cycle analysis framework
life cycle methods and software
inventory analysis
impact assessment
data location and integrity
sensitivity snalysis
LCA interpretation
LCA weighting
LCA limitations
life cycle cost analysis
six sigma, lean manufacturing
In some ways the life cycle assessment embodies much of the knowledge needed to apply
the principles of sustainability to the design of traditional and emergent engineering
systems. For example, the impact assessment stage of the LCA requires knowledge of the
physical sciences. Although application of a LCA is complex and requires the use of
commercial software, the concept provides an excellent educational avenue to explore
sustainable development.
Conclusion
Sustainable development is in its broadest sense is economic prosperity with social equity
and environmental stewardship. The ambiguity and lack of specificity in this definition
will challenge engineering faculty to determine how best to include sustainable
development into the engineering curriculum. There is broad support for its inclusion
ranging from professional engineering societies to ABET. The ASCE has within the
second draft of its body of knowledge set the bar for the level of achievement that
students must obtain they must be able to apply the principles of sustainability to the
design of traditional and emergent engineering systems. This corresponds to the
application level of cognitive achievement in Blooms taxonomy. Many of the
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engineering programs reviewed do not achieve this cognitive level within their
undergraduate engineering curriculum.
To achieve this cognitive level of achievement will require exposure to the social,
economic, and environmental aspects of sustainable development. Thematically linking
the humanities and social sciences to the technical curriculum can provide courses that
meet the humanities requirement of the engineering curriculum while broadening the
students view of sustainability. Additional coverage of the physical sciences, especially
biology and geoscience, will be required. Students will also require exposure to the
principles of sustainable development. Perhaps unifying the concept of sustainable
development for an engineer is the life cycle assessment. Its application to an engineering
project embodies much of the knowledge previously discussed.
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Michael A. Robinson, P.E., Ph.D. is an assistant professor of civil and environmental
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Center for Sustainable Development at Rose-Hulman.
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