Article ID: CBB113118773

Exploring Engineering and Sustainability: Concepts, Practices, Politics, and Consequences (2014)

unapi

Engineers deliberating over how to incorporate sustainability concerns into their practices should consider three issues. First issue: what is sustainability, anyway? A response can be catalyzed by examining different meanings of this ambiguous term, from which a spectrum of possibilities can be sketched. Second issue: after identifying a range of meanings, it is necessary to consider how each affects engineering practice. Here two difficulties arise. Initially, the perpetual nature of sustainability results in severe, perhaps unreasonable, restrictions on engineering as it is currently practiced. Relaxing these restrictions adds complexity and uncertainty to an engineer's decision-making process. Another difficulty is that static assumptions used to determine the overall landscape of production, consumption, and disposal of materials are contrary to the dynamism present in engineering innovation. Finally, third issue: cognizant of a range of options and of their corresponding difficulties, engineers need to deliberately determine courses of action. One option is to include sustainability, with its ambiguities, in codes of ethics. Another is to add descriptive phrases that express some aspects of sustainability. Importantly, however, engineers can contribute to sustainability in several other ways. Recognizing that sustainability is a political quality expands the range of possible responses and may entail new responsibilities.

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Authors & Contributors
Robert McCaughey
Thursby, Marie C.
Rider Foley
Josep Maria Basart
Adam Kirn
Motse Serra
Concepts
Education, engineering
Engineering
Professional qualifications; status; remuneration
Ethics
Engineers
Sustainability
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
19th century
Early modern
Renaissance
Medieval
Places
United States
Italy
China
Texas (U.S.)
Institutions
Encyclopadia Britannica
Chalmers tekniska högskola (Göteborg)
Texas A&M University
Columbia University
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, New York
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
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