Integrating the Environment and Sustainability Agendas into Engineering Education at Curtin University of Technology
Changes in public perceptions of the environmental and social acceptability of engineering projects have changed industry and society, and engineering schools have responded by adding predominantly environmental content to their engineering curricula. The critical task for engineering schools is to produce environmentally- and sustainability-literate graduates who are able to recognise potentially adverse impacts of engineering projects on the environment and the community, as well as contribute from a sound disciplinary background to the characterisation, minimisation and management of these impacts.
This paper provides a framework for integrating the environmental and sustainable development agendas into engineering curricula. At least four different course options exist: orientation courses; sustainability-integration in disciplinary courses; specialist courses; and sustainability-relevant interdisciplinary project work. Integration into core disciplinary courses, by means such as environmental examples and sustainability-related problem-solving cases and tasks, is critical to make environmental and sustainability literacy programs successful.
Curtin University of Technology rapidly improved and extended its sustainability-related course offerings, in each of the above categories. A prominent example is the inclusion of Engineering Sustainable Development (an ‘orientation’ course) as a core component of all undergraduate engineering curricula. Another example is the development, in addition to the existing postgraduate Cleaner Production program, of a Sustainable Technology specialisation that can be easily used in other postgraduate programs. This paper provides an overview of the design, content and delivery of these courses, and reflects upon lecturer and student feed back to date.