Principles of Sustainable Development for Engineers

Course title

8M426000

Course content

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in September 2015, lay out a 15-year vision for building a more sustainable world by tackling global poverty, inequality, and climate change. All fields of engineering play an important role in developing solutions to tackle these issues, so it is critical that current and future engineers develop the necessary background knowledge on sustainable development to help them explore sustainability challenges in their engineering field.

Purpose of class

This course is intended to provide students with a fundamental background on the concept of sustainable development and how to consider sustainability in engineering systems. The basics of sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals - spanning the environmental, social, economic, and governance dimensions - will be introduced, along with examples of modern issues. Means for assessing sustainability will also be presented through the use of indicators to represent both simple and complex systems. Finally, the role of engineering in achieving a more sustainable society will be discussed, with sustainable infrastructure used as an example of how civil engineers are approaching the challenge of balancing social and environmental impacts with socio-economic benefits.

Goals and objectives

Students can explain and discuss the concept of sustainable development, its aspects, and issues
Students can understand and select appropriate indicators for assessing the sustainability of a system
Students can identify and discuss sustainability issues in engineering systems
Students can propose and conduct independent research on a sustainability-related topic
Students can prepare a paper and presentation in English on their research topic

Relationship between 'Goals and Objectives' and 'Course Outcomes'

	In-class exercises	Assignments	Final presentation	Final paper	Total.
1.	10%	10%	0%	5%	25%
2.	5%	10%	0%	5%	20%
3.	5%	10%	0%	5%	20%
4.	0%	0%	5%	5%	10%
5.	0%	0%	5%	20%	25%
Total.	20%	30%	10%	40%	-

Language

English

Class schedule

	Class schedule	HW assignments (Including preparation and review of the class.)	Amount of Time Required
1．	Guidance and icebreaking	Review materials	30minutes
2．	Basics of sustainable development: paradigms and definitions	Review materials	30minutes
2．		Report 1	300minutes
3．	Basics of sustainable development: achieving sustainability	Review materials	30minutes
4．	Basics of sustainable development: representations of driving factors	Review materials	30minutes
5．	Basics of sustainable development: factors governing sustainability	Review materials	30minutes
6．	Basics of sustainable development: determinants of sustainable development	Review materials	30minutes
6．		Report 2	300minutes
7．	Basics of sustainable development: Operationalization by frameworks	Review materials	30minutes
8．	Quantification and assessment: introduction to indicators	Review materials	30minutes
9．	Quantification and assessment: individual and composite indicators	Review materials	30minutes
10．	Quantification and assessment: sustainability indicators exercise	Review materials	30minutes
10．		Report 3	300minutes
11．	Sustainable engineering systems: from SD to sustainable engineering	Review materials	30minutes
12．	Sustainable engineering systems: experiences with concrete sustainability (1)	Review materials	30minutes
13．	Sustainable engineering systems: experiences with concrete sustainability (2)	Review materials	30minutes
14．	Final presentations	Final presentation	240minutes
14．	Final presentations	Final report	900minutes
Total.	-	-	2430minutes

Evaluation method and criteria

Students will be evaluated based on their demonstrated achievement of the course goals through: In-class participation (20%), Assignments (30%), Final presentation (10%), Final paper (40%).

Feedback on exams, assignments, etc.