Integrating Sustainability in Chemical Engineering Practice and Education

Sustainability of the chemical manufacturing industry—Towards a new paradigm?

“…How should sustainability be incorporated into this curriculum and at what level? Mitchell (2000) described the concept of sustainability along the traditional lines of the TBL and turned this interpretation into one consistent with an engineering viewpoint as initially proposed by Clift (1998) who introduced micro/macro-thermodynamics, techno-centricity and micro/macro-economics into the three spheres of influence of the TBL (see Table 4). …”

“…Evidence for such a change was provided by various reports and communiqués in the late 1990's and recognition that practicing engineers needed not only technical expertise but also a set of broader social skills. This need was said to be recognised by the Institution of Engineers, Australia (IEAust) and the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET in the USA) but not so, at that time, by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) in the UK -as an example of a major European professional group (Mitchell, 2000).…”

Chemical engineering in an unsustainable world: Obligations and opportunities

“…Indeed, they also suggest that engineers should use their influence to help (Batterham, 2003). However, despite the initiatives outlined above, the work of the institutions in repositioning sustainability as a "core operating principle" (Mitchell, 2000) has not yet fully trickled down into programme accreditation documentation. Most accreditation guideline publications require sustainability to be covered along with a number of other non-core issues such as health and safety, economics, etc., but none, to the authors' knowledge, explicitly require that sustainability should actually permeate right through the programme; i.e.…”

“…A paradigm shift in engineering education is thus required to enable the complete implementation of these recommendations (Mulder, 2006), which would result in some degree of programme reform or at least a recalibration of focus (Mitchell, 2000;Gutierrez-Martin and Hűttenhain, 2003;Venselaar, 2004;Bucciarelli, 2008;Holmberg et al, 2008).…”

“…Sustainability informed practice would align with the latter mode, thereby bringing engineers into new, less familiar territories and into contact with other professions and stakeholders, and ultimately more in concert with the needs of society (Mitchell, 2000;Batterham, 2003; Symkowiak, 2003;Chau, 2007;Conlon, 2008;Jennings, 2009;Allenby et al, 2009). In this way the engineer can draw upon much more than just dispassionate objectivity; they can harness the additional store of "intuition, feelings and passion" that only comes thorough making both "physical and emotional connections" with the issue at hand, thereby achieving a degree of "dynamic objectivity" (McIsaac and Morey, 1998).…”