Building a Sustainability Road Map for Engineering Education

Major environmental, economic, and social trends are transforming the application of sustainability thinking within the engineering profession and within organizations that hire engineers. These include the growing demand for new kinds of knowledge, skills, and abilities to respond to global megatrends; an increased awareness and understanding of sustainability challenges among engineering students; the application of quantitative engineering skills for business risk management; and further developing the entrepreneurship curricula to transform inventions into marketplace innovations and societal solutions. This feature article addresses the need for a sustainability roadmap in engineering curricula; identifies the major elements of such a framework; reviews collaboration strategies for engineering schools, the public sector, private companies, and non-governmental organizations; and presents specific recommendations for curricula development and expanding the influence of engineering professionals in developing solutions to growing societal challenges.