Incorporating sustainability in engineering education

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the ongoing shift in sustainable engineering and the approaches used by universities for engineering students. At the United Nations Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992, participating nations agreed to work together to achieve the goal of sustainable development. Twenty years on, great progress has been made, but many challenges remain and overcoming them and ensuring a sustainable future will require the knowledge, skills and input of engineering professionals. Ethics and costs have long been part of engineering, but broader understanding is now needed because the skill set those engineers will need has grown dramatically. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors describe the ongoing shift to sustainable engineering and discuss a variety of approaches that universities are currently using to introduce engineering students and practitioners to sustainability principles and practice and how those can be utilized in mining and petroleum high education institutions. Findings – The authors first place sustainability in an engineering context and vice versa, and then review alternative approaches to incorporating sustainability in engineering curricula, briefly highlighting a few key concepts and documenting an example. Research limitations/implications – The authors first place sustainability in an engineering context and then review alternative approaches to incorporating sustainability in engineering curricula, briefly highlighting a few key concepts and documenting an example. Originality/value – The challenge to educators is to ensure that new concepts addressing sustainability are not only instilled in the next generation of engineers but are also being communicated to practicing engineers. Incorporating sustainability into mining and petroleum engineering education is identified as a way to engage students, encourage their enthusiasm and interest them in pursuing engineering as a career that is not only interesting but also contributes to society. Distance education is identified as a way to education practicing engineers about sustainability concepts.