Sustainable development as a meta-context for engineering education

At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, there is unprecedented awareness of the need for a transformation in development, to meet the needs of the present while also preserving the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. However, within engineering, educators still tend to regard such development as an ‘aspect’ of engineering rather than an overarching meta-context, with ad hoc and highly variable references to topics. Furthermore, within a milieu of interpretations there can appear to be conflicting needs for achieving sustainable development, which can be confusing for students and educators alike. Different articulations of sustainable development can create dilemmas around conflicting needs for designers and researchers, at the level of specific designs and (sub-) disciplinary analysis. Hence sustainability issues need to be addressed at a meta-level using a whole of system approach, so that decisions regarding these dilemmas can be made. With this appreciation, and in light of curriculum renewal challenges that also exist in engineering education, this paper considers how educators might take the next step to move from sustainable development being an interesting ‘aspect’ of the curriculum, to sustainable development as a meta-context for curriculum renewal. It is concluded that capacity building for such strategic considerations is critical in engineering education

An investigation into the options for increasing the extent of energy efficiency knowledge and skills in engineering education, Report to the National Framework for Energy Efficiency

Society is increasingly calling for professionals across government, industry, business and civil society to be able to problem-solve issues related to climate change and sustainable development as part of their work. In particular there is an emerging realisation of the fundamental need to swiftly reduce the growing demand for energy across society, and to then meet the demand with low emissions options. A key ingredient to addressing such issues is equipping professionals with emerging knowledge and skills to address energy challenges in all aspects of their work. The Council of Australian Governments has recognised this need, signing the National Partnership Agreement on Energy Efficiency in July 2009, which included a commitment to assist business and industry obtain the knowledge, skills and capacity to pursue cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities.2 Engineering will play a critical part among the professions, with Engineers Australia acknowledging that, ‘The need to make changes in the way energy is used and supplied throughout the world represents the greatest challenge to engineers in moving toward sustainability.

A Peaking and Tailing Approach to Education and Curriculum Renewal for Sustainable Development

Contextual factors for sustainable development such as population growth, energy, and resource availability and consumption levels, food production yield, and growth in pollution, provide numerous complex and rapidly changing education and training requirements for a variety of professions including engineering. Furthermore, these requirements may not be clearly understood or expressed by designers, governments, professional bodies or the industry. Within this context, this paper focuses on one priority area for greening the economy through sustainable development—improving energy efficiency—and discusses the complexity of capacity building needs for professionals. The paper begins by acknowledging the historical evolution of sustainability considerations, and the complexity embedded in built environment solutions. The authors propose a dual-track approach to building capacity building, with a short-term focus on improvement (i.e., making peaking challenges a priority for postgraduate education), and a long-term focus on transformational innovation (i.e., making tailing challenges a priority for undergraduate education). A case study is provided, of Australian experiences over the last decade with regard to the topic area of energy efficiency. The authors conclude with reflections on implications for the approach

Considering the economic value of natural design elements at city scale

With increasing signs of climate change and the influence of national and international carbon-related laws and agreements, governments all over the world are grappling with how to rapidly transition to low-carbon living. This includes adapting to the impacts of climate change that are very likely to be experienced due to current emission levels (including extreme weather and sea level changes), and mitigating against further growth in greenhouse gas emissions that are likely to result in further impacts. Internationally, the concept of ‘Biophilic Urbanism’, a term coined by Professors Tim Beatley and Peter Newman to refer to the use of natural elements as design features in urban landscapes, is emerging as a key component in addressing such climate change challenges in rapidly growing urban contexts. However, the economics of incorporating such options is not well understood and requires further attention to underpin a mainstreaming of biophilic urbanism. Indeed, there appears to be an ad hoc, reactionary approach to creating economic arguments for or against the design, installation or maintenance of natural elements such as green walls, green roofs, streetscapes, and parklands. With this issue in mind, this paper will overview research as part of an industry collaborative research project that considers the potential for using a number of environmental economic valuation techniques that have evolved over the last several decades in agricultural and resource economics, to systematically value the economic value of biophilic elements in the urban context. Considering existing literature on environmental economic valuation techniques, the paper highlights opportunities for creating a standardised language for valuing biophilic elements. The conclusions have implications for expanding the field of environmental economic value to support the economic evaluations and planning of the greater use of natural elements in cities. Insights are also noted for the more mature fields of agricultural and resource economics

Sustainable Development as a Meta-Context for Engineering Education

At the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, there is unprecedented awareness of the need for a transformation in development, to meet the needs of the present while also preserving the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. However, within engineering, educators still tend to regard such development as an ‘aspect’ of engineering rather than an overarching meta-context, with ad hoc and highly variable references to topics. Furthermore, within a milieu of interpretations there can appear to be conflicting needs for achieving sustainable development, which can be confusing for students and educators alike. Different articulations of sustainable development can create dilemmas around conflicting needs for designers and researchers, at the level of specific designs and (sub-) disciplinary analysis. Hence sustainability issues need to be addressed at a meta-level using a whole of system approach, so that decisions regarding these dilemmas can be made. With this appreciation, and in light of curriculum renewal challenges that also exist in engineering education, this paper considers how educators might take the next step to move from sustainable development being an interesting ‘aspect’ of the curriculum, to sustainable development as a meta-context for curriculum renewal. It is concluded that capacity building for such strategic considerations is critical in engineering education

Digital Engineering for Resilient Road Infrastructure Outcomes: Evaluating Critical Asset Information Requirements

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9 on building resilient infrastructure highlights the urgent need for enabling evidence-based decision making for Infrastructure Asset Management supported by targeted platforms such as digital engineering and digital earth. In this paper the authors argue that an Asset Information Requirement matrix is an essential decision support tool for authorities and practitioners to evaluate right time, right place use of infrastructure data for resilient outcomes. The authors present an exploratory study that synthesizes the experiences of senior asset management decision-makers from road research institutes, state and local government bodies based in South East Queensland, Australia. The findings are discussed in relation to: digital engineering for managing complex data; current practice and outlook; key asset information requirements; and data structures, interactions and interdependencies. The authors present an ‘Asset Information Requirement Matrix’ that categorises 66 data requirements across four key infrastructure data types (including 13 information categories), and asserts the relevance of these data requirements for the six key phases of planning, design, construction, acquisition, operations and end-of-life treatment. The authors also present an ‘Asset Interaction Matrix’ which depicts the temporal, spatial and logical relationships between the 13 information categories. The authors conclude the importance of these asset matrices to leverage digital engineering for resilience infrastructure outcomes. The two matrices create a common language platform for engaging in digital engineering conversations, wherein authorities and practitioners can establish clear arrangements for measuring and monitoring road infrastructure through its life cycle

The Performance Nexus - A framework for improving energy efficiency in existing commercial buildings by considering a whole-of-building approach

Efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the buildings sector have been focused on encouraging green design, construction and building operation; however, the business case is not very compelling if considering the energy cost savings alone. In recent years green building has been driven by a sense that it will improve the productivity of occupants, something with much greater economic returns than energy savings. Reducing energy demand in green commercial buildings in a way that encourages greater productivity is not yet well understood as it involves a set of complex and interdependent factors. This paper outlines an investigation into these factors and focuses on better understanding the performance of and interaction between: design elements, internal environmental quality, occupant experience, tenant/leasing agreements, and building regulation and management. In doing so the paper presents a framework for improving energy efficiency in existing commercial buildings by considering a range of interconnected and synergistic elements

Engineering education for sustainable development: A review of international progress

Since the late 1980s there have been increasing calls around the world for embedding sustainability content throughout engineering curricula, particularly over the past decade. However in general there has been little by way of strategic or systematic integration within programs offered by higher education institutions (HEIs). Responding to a growing awareness towards the issues surrounding sustainability, a number of professional engineering institutions (PEIs) internationally have placed increasing emphasis on policies and initiatives relating to the role of engineering in addressing 21st Century challenges. This has resulted in some consideration towards integrating sustainable development into engineering curricula as envisaged by accreditation guidelines. This paper provides a global overview of such accreditation developments, highlighting emerging sustainability competencies (or ‘graduate attributes’) and places these in the context of relevant PEI declarations, initiatives, policies, codes of ethics and guideline publications

Evaluating Barriers, Enablers and Opportunities for Closing the Loop through ‘Waste Upcycling’: A Systematic Literature Review

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aim to ‘do more and better with less’, with numerous calls to action arising from the business sector concerning the substantial reduction of targeted types of commercial and industrial waste. Emanating from the original work on closing material loops by McDonough and Braungardt in the 1990s, over the last two decades the concept of ‘upcycling’ has increased in popularity as a targeted intervention to reduce material and energy use in business processes. Essentially upcycling involves reusing, repairing, repurposing and upgrading waste material to avoid the conventional endpoint of ‘disposal’. However, upcycling is still considered a niche practice and many business enterprises remain unclear as to how to use upcycling opportunities for better management of their waste. In this paper, the authors propose a Tiered Approach to Waste Upcycling for Business, as a strategic way for businesses to close the loop within their industrial processes and production chains. The paper comprises a systematic literature review of opportunities and barriers for enabling business enterprises to close the loop through waste upcycling. The review highlights the ad hoc, champion-based and highly variable use of upcycling practices and uncovers opportunities for more systematic and streamlined practices to produce value-added products from waste material. Synthesising the findings, the authors establish three tiers of ‘macro’, ‘meso’ and ‘micro’ barriers and enablers that businesses can consider identifying upcycling opportunities for managing their waste. The authors also discuss key benefits of upcycling including improved quality and life of material, creating jobs and influencing positive consumer behaviour. The authors conclude the benefits of a structured approach to considering circular economy opportunities, towards improved waste management that is better for the bottom line, people and planet. With regard to future research in the field, the authors define a set of key theoretical constructs relating to waste upcycling, that can facilitate innovation and investigations into applying ideas