How To Use New Tools To Integrate Sustainability Into Engineering Teaching

Recently, three projects have addressed the challenge that while many excellent resources on sustainability education exist, there aren’t many that explicitly guide engineering educators to integrate these into their teaching, or indeed that are intended to upskill engineering academics to be able to deliver this teaching. These projects are the Reimagined Degree Map project undertaken by Engineers Without Borders UK (sponsored by the Royal Academy of Engineering), the Sustainability Toolkit project undertaken by the UK’s Engineering Professors’ Council (sponsored by Siemens and the Royal Academy of Engineering), and the Engineering for One Planet Framework and two companion guides, co-created by hundreds of engineering education stakeholders (sponsored The Lemelson Foundation). All aim to build the capacity of educators to embed sustainability knowledge, skills and mindsets in their modules, courses or curriculum that will enable students to become competent in globally responsible engineering practice. In cooperation with academic, industry, and advocacy group leaders, these projects have resulted in the development of several educational tools that are presented in the workshop

Barriers to handpump serviceability in Malawi : life-cycle costing for sustainable service delivery

The implementation of handpumps has contributed to increased improved water access. However, 'universal access' as the metric for success within Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, potentially conceals fundamental barriers for sustainable services and hinders SDG 6 target success. Tariffs, in the form of household contributions, are the most common form of financial provision for the maintenance of rural water supplies. However, the annualised financial resources significantly vary across local contexts. Four tariff scenarios (collected per month, when required for repairs, per year and no tariff) were investigated across the life-cycle of 21 997 Afridev handpumps in Malawi. Known local costs for Afridev components from suppliers in Malawi were used to determine the potential shortfall in financial resources over the handpumps' 15 year design life. Domains that influence functionality, such as the operations, maintenance and quality of infrastructure, were also investigated to identify significant factors impacting the sustainability of the handpumps. Logistic regression indicates sub-standard installations (i.e. seasonality and poor water quality), structural damage to civil works, no preventative maintenance, lack of spare parts on site and a shortfall in potential financial resources were significantly associated with the poor status of infrastructure (broken or worn components) over the life-cycle of the Afridev. The findings highlight the burden placed on rural communities of maintaining inherently unsustainable assets that inevitably hinders lasting service delivery and benefits for rural communities in the SDG period and beyond. This journal i

Momentum Towards Incorporating Global Responsibility in Engineering Education and Accreditation in the UK

CONTEXT Engineering is uniquely placed to help address global challenges such as those surrounding the climate crisis, and the sustainable use and management of resources. However, studies have found UK engineering companies that have adopted sustainability strategies do not have enough staff with the skills to achieve them. There is an urgent need to upskill the current workforce and prepare future generations to operate in a responsible and ethical manner in tackling today\u27s challenges. Recent updates to the standard of engineering accreditation in the UK provide notable opportunities to transform university curricula to create globally responsible engineers. PURPOSE This preliminary study explores the integration of global responsibility areas of learning and skill sets in engineering education accreditation. Recent revisions to accreditation are to be implemented at the end of 2021. The purpose of this study is to highlight how global responsibility principles are integrated and framed in engineering accreditation in the UK today. APPROACH This paper explores patterns within the recent updates made to engineering accreditation in the UK. The previous third edition and newly published fourth edition of the Engineering Council Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes (AHEP) are central to this research. Forward looking strategies from prominent voices in the sector including the Royal Academy of Engineering (2020-2025) and Engineers Without Borders UK (2021-2030), are viewed through the lens of Bloom’s Taxonomy, a hierarchical model for categorizing learning objectives into levels of complexity, to generate preliminary findings. ACTUAL OUTCOMES Addressing sustainability, global responsibility and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires more complexity in a students’ learning process than engineering curricula currently provide. Sustainability, ethics, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to engineering education and enable inclusive design solutions and outcomes. The most notable change to AHEP is refining how global responsibility is presented and evolving the way it is taught. Changes incorporated in the new AHEP4 recognise the responsibility and skills needed of engineers to create positive change to society and global challenges. Yet by the time AHEP4 is realised the SDGs will be halfway through the Decade of Action. Achieving crucial SDG benchmarks will require both curricular change embedded in accreditation standards and a notable shift in the culture of engineering that embeds a professional commitment to behave more responsibly, individually and collectively. SUMMARY Incorporating global responsibility into engineering accreditation is necessary to prepare students to address global challenges. Newly updated accreditation standards frame engineering education around principles of globally responsible engineering while encouraging more complexity within the curricula, such as through problem-based learning approaches. This provides a strong starting point for engineering curricula and educators to prepare emerging engineers to act responsibly in the face of the urgent and dynamic global challenges

Reflecting SDG 6.1 in rural water supply tariffs : considering 'affordability' versus 'operations and maintenance costs' in Malawi

Local tariffs in the form of household contributions are the primary financial mechanism to fund the maintenance of rural water supplies in Malawi. An investigation was conducted into the tariffs set by rural service providers to sustain drilled boreholes equipped with Afridev handpumps. A binary logistic regression analysis identified significant explanatory variables for the most common identified considerations when setting tariffs, ‘affordability’ and ‘operations and maintenance (O&M) costs’. The results demonstrate tariffs collected less frequently and usage above the design limit of the Afridev (300 users) had lower odds of considering affordability and higher odds of considering O&M costs, than those collected per month and within the design limit. The results further suggest a recognition by service providers of an increased maintenance challenge. High usage, acquiring spare parts, and the collection of tariffs when repairs are required indicate an increased likelihood of considering O&M costs, conversely to considering affordability. The balance of affordability and sustainable maintenance is a perpetual challenge under decentralised service delivery. Investment into ongoing support and supply chains is required for the financial and operational requirements of water supply, to ensure payments for services does not prevent access to clean water at the local level and to achieve the 2030 agenda

The cost of a sustainable water supply at network kiosks in peri-urban Blantyre, Malawi

Empirical insights were made into the challenges of supplying water to communities within low-income areas of peri-urban Blantyre, Malawi. A networked public water supply is provided to those without a domestic tap via communal water kiosks managed by community-based Water User Associations (WUAs) under a government mandate. There has been considerable debate surrounding the tariff charged for water supplied to such vulnerable communities. However, research has largely failed to consider the costs of WUAs operating the kiosks and the impact on the kiosk tariff. The determination of kiosk tariffs is critical to ensuring lifeline access to a sustainable water supply under Sustainable Development Goal 6. We provide evidence of this from our experience in the field in Blantyre. In particular, we argue that sustainable kiosk running costs cannot be born solely by the end user. A number of reforms are needed to help reduce the kiosk tariff. To reduce WUA costs and the kiosk tariffs, WUAs need more training in financial record keeping and cost management, WUAs should not inherit outstanding kiosk debt upon taking over their operations, and water boards should build kiosk costs over which they have fiscal responsibility into integrated block tariff calculations and subsidize them accordingly

Understanding the functionality and burden on decentralised rural water supply : influence of millennium development goal 7c coverage targets

The sustainability of rural groundwater supply infrastructure, primarily boreholes fitted with hand pumps, remains a challenge. This study evaluates whether coverage targets set out within the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) inadvertently increased the challenge to sustainably manage water supply infrastructure. Furthermore, the drive towards decentralised service delivery contributes to the financial burden of water supply assets. A sample size of 14,943 Afridev hand pump boreholes was extracted from a comprehensive live data set of 68,984 water points across Malawi to investigate the sustainability burden as emphasis shifts to the 2030 agenda. The results demonstrate that the push for coverage within the MDG era has impacted the sustainability of assets. A lack of proactive approaches towards major repairs and sub-standard borehole construction alongside aging infrastructure contributes to reduced functionality of decentralised supplies. Furthermore, costly rehabilitation is required to bring assets to operational standards, in which external support is commonly relied upon. Acceleration towards the coverage targets has contributed towards unsustainable infrastructure that has further implications moving forward. These findings support the need for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) investment planning to move from a focus on coverage targets to a focus on quality infrastructure and proactive monitoring approaches to reduce the future burden placed on communities

Local scale water-food nexus : use of borehole-garden permaculture to realise the full potential of rural water supplies in Malawi

Local-scale opportunities to address challenges of the water–food nexus in the developing world need to be embraced. Borehole-garden permaculture is advocated as one such opportunity that involves the sustainable use of groundwater spilt at hand-pump operated borehole supplies that is otherwise wasted. Spilt water may also pose health risks when accumulating as a stagnant pond. Rural village community use of this grey-water in permaculture projects to irrigate borehole gardens is proposed to primarily provide economic benefit whereby garden-produce revenue helps fund borehole water-point maintenance. Water-supply sustainability, increased food/nutrition security, health protection from malaria, and business opportunity benefits may also arise. Our goal has been to develop an, experience-based, framework for delivery of sustainable borehole-garden permaculture and associated benefits. This is based upon data collection and permaculture implementation across the rural Chikwawa District of Malawi during 2009–17. We use, stakeholder interviews to identify issues influencing uptake, gathering of stagnant pond occurrence data to estimate amelioration opportunity, quantification of permaculture profitability to validate economic potential, and critical assessment of recent permaculture uptake to identify continuing problems. Permaculture was implemented at 123 sites representing 6% of District water points, rising to 26% local area coverage. Most implementations were at, or near, newly drilled community-supply boreholes; hence, amelioration of prevalent stagnant ponds elsewhere remains a concern. The envisaged benefits of permaculture were manifest and early data affirm projected garden profitability and spin-off benefits of water-point banking and community micro-loan access. However, a diversity of technical, economic, social and governance issues were found to influence uptake and performance. Example issues include greater need for improved bespoke garden design input, on-going project performance assessment, and coordinated involvement of multi-sector governmental-development bodies to underpin the integrated natural-resource management required. The developed framework aims to manage the identified issues and requires the concerted action of all stakeholders. Based on the probable ubiquity of underlying issues, the framework is expected to be generalizable to the wider developing world. However, this particular application of permaculture represents a fraction of its greater potential opportunity for rural communities that should be explored

Beyond coverage as a metric for SDG 6 success in the decade of action (2020-2030), the sustainability burden of rural community handpumps in Malawi

Access to reliable and safe water has been recognised as a fundamental human right across the last 20 years of global goals. Handpumps have played a fundamental role in increasing the number of people with access to safe water for rural populations in low-income countries. However, monitoring indicators and investments based solely on increasing coverage alongside the challenge of maintaining handpumps across their intended life-cycle, may risk hiding low and inherently unsustainable services for rural communities in low-income regions.;This thesis addresses the need to move beyond coverage as a metric for success in the global goals. By investigating the sustainability burden on decentralised rural water supply in Malawi, through a comprehensive national monitoring dataset.;First, the impact a focus on drinking water coverage in global goals and Malawian rural water supply policy is addressed. The acceleration to meet targets, coupled with challenges of community based management, risks unsustainable infrastructure and a loss of the intended benefits. Second, the variation of tariffs to maintain water supply infrastructure are investigated. Significant explanatory variables associated with considering affordability and operations and maintenance costs are identified through regression analysis. Finally, the principles of life-cycle costing are adopted to determine the capacity of rural service providers sustaining infrastructure across their intended life-cycle.;Findings show low costing repairs are prioritised while high costing repairs are left until the complete failure of the asset. Regression analysis further identifies significant variables that increase the likelihood of handpump breakdown.;As the global goals move into the decade of action (2020-2030), increased efforts towards capacity building, localising the goals, significant explanatory factors and identifying risks relating to sustaining services are required. True representation of rural service provision may be misrepresented if the lessons of the global goals to date are not fed back into monitoring strategies and investment appraisal.Access to reliable and safe water has been recognised as a fundamental human right across the last 20 years of global goals. Handpumps have played a fundamental role in increasing the number of people with access to safe water for rural populations in low-income countries. However, monitoring indicators and investments based solely on increasing coverage alongside the challenge of maintaining handpumps across their intended life-cycle, may risk hiding low and inherently unsustainable services for rural communities in low-income regions.;This thesis addresses the need to move beyond coverage as a metric for success in the global goals. By investigating the sustainability burden on decentralised rural water supply in Malawi, through a comprehensive national monitoring dataset.;First, the impact a focus on drinking water coverage in global goals and Malawian rural water supply policy is addressed. The acceleration to meet targets, coupled with challenges of community based management, risks unsustainable infrastructure and a loss of the intended benefits. Second, the variation of tariffs to maintain water supply infrastructure are investigated. Significant explanatory variables associated with considering affordability and operations and maintenance costs are identified through regression analysis. Finally, the principles of life-cycle costing are adopted to determine the capacity of rural service providers sustaining infrastructure across their intended life-cycle.;Findings show low costing repairs are prioritised while high costing repairs are left until the complete failure of the asset. Regression analysis further identifies significant variables that increase the likelihood of handpump breakdown.;As the global goals move into the decade of action (2020-2030), increased efforts towards capacity building, localising the goals, significant explanatory factors and identifying risks relating to sustaining services are required. True representation of rural service provision may be misrepresented if the lessons of the global goals to date are not fed back into monitoring strategies and investment appraisal