Practical Integration of Sustainability Into Engineering

Abstract

The broad terminology around sustainability is an excellent catalyst for discussing the technical and social impacts of projects in an engineering classroom and for improving decisions made in team-based designprojects. When an exploratory hands-on methodology is applied, the introduction of the various aspects associated with sustainability allows instructors to engage students to SEE (identify) Social, Economic, and Environmental impacts and quantify the relevancy of generic criteria to specific projects. The P5TM Impact Analysis tool (GPM Global) was used to identify relevant criteria for ranking design projects. Whereas the methodology is reproducible, the decisions made by students can vary when there is no clear answer. With a range in results, the instructors can then have the students perform additional analyses to reflect on the complexity of ranking alternatives and to view the results based on various circumstances. The outcome is that the students gain a broader understanding of how SEEing different perspectives matters and addsvalue to the decision making process.