Connections Without Command: ESW’s Service Learning Approach

Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) is a US-based non-profit network that designs and implements technical sustainability projects through a network of collegiate and professional chapters. Although founded around international development, today the organization focuses primarily on domestic projects situated within local campuses and communities. Similarly, ESW operates as a network rather than a hierarchical organization, an organizational model with its own lessons for service learning. This paper outlines the basic structure and function of ESW, and uses three case study projects combined with ESW’s recent history to emphasize the importance of service learning organizations on sustainability education. It examines lessons and the value of ESW and similar organizations at the individual level and for the university community, and examines challenges in replicating this model. We show that the diversity of members and autonomy of chapters in ESW’s network leads to several benefits, including lower costs per student and entry points for any discipline or career status. Nonetheless, this requires extra effort to build effective engagement and collaboration across chapters and needs continuous monitoring to balance support with control.