Special Issue on Sustainability Engineering Education: Keeping Up with the World!

Sustainability engineering education was only a decade ago a concept that few educators had considered or incorporated into higher education. Then it started to grow, with more and more case studies, modules, and dedicated courses. Now, it is no longer just a special topic that might be introduced, but instead, sustainability education is becoming an integral part of the engineering curricula at many institutions of higher learning.

Three years ago, this journal had both a special issue and follow-up special section on advances in sustainability engineering education. The research presented then focused on many techniques for possible offerings. The questions researched were primarily related to the when, the where, the what, and the hows of sustainability engineering education. This follow-up special issue presents research that expands on these questions in a more holistic fashion and extends to the who, the how much, the how effective, and other impacts.

Articles by Lewis et al. and Lu provide more examples of the what, where, and when of sustainability engineering education incorporation. Lewis et al. combine two growing technologies—building information modeling (BIM) and energy modeling—into a module format usable for various design and construction courses. Lu focuses on how sustainability engineering can fit into the more traditional “Introduction of Environmental Engineering” class, with reviews of three offerings without this focus and four offerings with intentional integration of sustainability.

With this solid basis established for sustainability engineering education techniques, four of the articles then expand into more holistic case studies and evaluations for sustainability engineering education in a 4-year higher education curriculum. Brown et al. look at the varying levels of sustainability adoption by various faculty members based on their experience with sustainability, their views of the importance of the topic, and also their personal views of the concept of sustainability, showing that there will be a range of faculty involvement from cautious skepticism to high levels of adoption. Thus, when incorporating sustainability into an engineering curriculum, one needs to consider who might be the faculty members most applicable to facilitating this addition. Fernandez-Sanchez et al. focus instead on what other skills within an engineering curriculum might facilitate higher competencies for student awareness of sustainability. These include critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, interdisciplinary teamwork, and adaptation to change. They found that critical thinking and adaptation to change were the most important to stakeholders and experts. Thus, the effective incorporation of sustainability education into the engineering curriculum might also include reevaluating the basic skills taught in addition to the sustainability topics.

The last two articles with a curriculum focus looked at the how much and provided effective methodologies for holistic incorporation into the typically full engineering curricula. Christ et al. overviewed a framework for this incorporation using a combination of techniques from previous research, incorporating sustainability engineering at multiple points and in different formats at the U.S. Air Force Academy in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Similarly, Weatherton et al. provided effective examples of doing this across three departments: Civil, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering. The approach was again multifaceted, with key elements being modules for all student levels, internship opportunities, and senior design project incorporation. Additional emphasis was also placed on the inclusion of three pillars of sustainability: the environment, society, and economics.

With these techniques and methodologies for sustainability engineering education, the question then arises as to what the impact is beyond the college classroom. Beiler and Evans research how sustainability-related topics attract the future generation into engineering by focusing on two topics—general sustainability, and a partner to sustainability, resilience—in a module on earthquakes and liquefaction. The two modules were used in a summer camp setting for high school students. In contrast, Kekilova et al. focus on the impact of sustainability engineering education on the practitioners, in which the college students interfaced with practitioners in service learning projects, with their deliverables including ideas for sustainability implementation for these partners. This study found that the manufacturing partners focused more on suggestions relating to pollution prevention, whereas other businesses and public agencies typically also incorporated social considerations. Of all the sustainability actions suggested by the sustainability engineering students, those relating to preventative maintenance received the highest rate of implementation.

With this expansion of sustainability engineering education, there is a developing need for rubrics to measure the effectiveness of the innovations. McCormick et al. developed a method to evaluate the application of sustainability principles by students within the setting of engineering design and problem solving. The methodology used challenge questions within two different scenarios. The rubric was used to determine characteristics of students and student experiences that achieved higher scores, showing that a student’s ability to apply sustainability principles in engineering design did not correlate with that student’s interest in sustainability engineering. Langfitt et al. focus on one aspect of sustainability knowledge: energy literacy. Instead of a questionnaire format, this rubric could be used by outside raters to look at the energy literacy aspects from a project, competition, or course deliverable. In the specific case study, the raters evaluated both abstracts and posters submitted to a high school energy competition. Thus, the rubric by McCormick et al. provides a means to measure a specific person’s sustainability literacy, whereas the rubric being developed by Langfitt et al. addresses the level of sustainability literacy with respect to energy knowledge within a finished product or deliverable.

The challenge now is to further expand sustainability engineering education incorporation and assessment to keep up with the rapidly growing world and the impacts on its resources, its environment, and its peoples. This will provide the next generations of engineers and the engineers of today with the skills, knowledge, and resources to effectively engineer solutions and technologies for a bright and sustainable future. Thank you for all the input from the many authors and for this special issue editorial work by John Kevern, the University of Missouri, Kansas City.