Session: 09-04-01: Sustainability, Efficiency, Competencies for Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0, Learning Factories, Ethical Dimensions, Safety and Complexity Issues

Paper Number: 141461

141461 - Engineering for One Planet: How to Rapidly Integrate Sustainability in Core Curricula 

Climate change and environmental degradation are creating unprecedented suffering and social crises. Furthermore, historically marginalized communities have been and will be most negatively impacted by these crises. Environmental justice hinges on sustainable, regenerative engineering practices and robust educational preparation.

While colleges and universities are increasingly offering courses and programs to teach students about the climate crisis and sustainability, the demand from students to deepen their understanding of sustainability is not being met, and, as reported by LinkedIn and others, the employer demand for green skills across functions will soon outpace the supply.

What lessons can be learned from efforts to integrate sustainability in diverse engineering courses and programs? What does it take to facilitate and accelerate these curricular changes?

Catalyzed by The Lemelson Foundation and VentureWell in 2020, Engineering for One Planet (EOP) (www.engineeringforoneplanet.org) is a multi-disciplinary, multi-sector effort to transform engineering education. The vision of EOP is that sustainable engineering will simply be how good engineering is taught and practiced.

EOP was co-developed with input from hundreds of diverse stakeholders from academia, industry, and the social sector, who believe that curricular resources on sustainability must be made widely available and be as adaptable and adoptable as possible to enable curricular change to advance as quickly as possible. The strategic approach of the EOP initiative reflects stakeholder feedback for what is needed to foster curricular change and continues to be informed by academia and industry.

A cornerstone of the EOP initiative is the EOP Framework, a menu of 93 core and advanced learning outcomes to help faculty infuse sustainability skillsets and mindsets (e.g. environmental literacy, systems thinking, etc.) and professional skills (e.g. critical thinking, communications, and teamwork) into existing or new courses. All learning outcomes in the EOP Framework are written using Bloom’s Taxonomy and mapped to ABET’s accreditation requirements (i.e., Criteria 3: Student Outcomes). The EOP initiative also provides grants, awards, events, and supports communities of practice and collaboration. EOP-related grant opportunities include a co-funded Dear Colleague Letter in partnership with the National Science Foundation and the American Society for Engineering Education’s (ASEE) EOP Mini-Grant Program, both supported by The Lemelson Foundation.

To date, EOP has enabled hundreds of faculty to modify or create hundreds of courses across engineering disciplines impacting more than 15,000 students. Fueled by collaboration, EOP is working with professional associations, corporations, funders, and academic associations who share EOP’s goal of ensuring all engineers are equipped to protect and improve our planet and our lives.

This interactive presentation will share lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid when fostering successful curricular change, opportunities to get involved in EOP and related efforts, and will invite participants to collaborate in the future growth of the EOP initiative.

Presenting Author: Cynthia Anderson Alula Consulting

Presenting Author Biography: Cynthia (Cindy) Anderson (she/her/hers), Engineering for One Planet (EOP) Strategy Consultant with The Lemelson Foundation, is honored to be a collaborative partner on the EOP initiative since its inception, co-author of the EOP Framework and companion teaching guides, and an active EOP Network Member. Cindy is the founder and CEO of Alula Consulting which specializes in innovative sustainability-focused research and curriculum projects for academic institutions, non-profits, government, and corporations. She has taught thousands of people through courses and workshops, around the world and online, in the fields of biology, sustainability, and biomimicry. Cindy holds a MS from Oregon State University, a MEd from Griffith University (Queensland, Australia), and a BSc in biology from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada).

Authors:

Cindy Cooper The Lemelson Foundation
Cynthia Anderson Alula Consulting