Sustainability Across Industries
Discussion:
Almost all the business organizations across the world are now becoming increasingly involved in undertaking sustainable development. Developing sustainably has become one of the core values of most of the business organizations and other areas such as education. Particularly, the role played by the engineers in the promotion of sustainability cannot be undermined. As per the views of Jonkar and Harmsen, “There is no alternative to sustainable development” (Jonker & Harmsen, 2012). In addition to this, the innovation trajectories can be found to be connected with sustainability. However, the definition of sustainability is different for different professions and as a matter of fact, it differs from industry to industry. One such profession in which sustainability is focused upon greatly is the engineering profession. Presently, engineers play a central role in practicing sustainability (Abraham, 2005). The authors further claim that engineering as well as the engineers matter the most in the present day world. Engineers can be found working in every corner of the society. However, majorly they work in industry as the producer of goods and in the last decade they are also increasingly offering their distinguished services. In other words, engineering profession can be defined as a profession of practitioners working in a technological surrounding. This automatically incorporates sustainability (Portney, 2015).
The change in the thinking can be easily witnessed through numerous examples in the surrounding such as movement of business organizations from being profit oriented to being customer oriented. Now the business organizations increasingly focus upon improving labour conditions and at the same time taking care of the environment in which they are operating (Jonker & Harmsen, 2012). This brings us to the concept of stakeholder theory. Promotion of sustainability is closely related to stakeholder’s theory. This means that the involvement of all the stakeholders is essential for developing sustainably. From employees to customers to suppliers to top management of a business organization, participation of all is equally important. Engineers working in the service industry organizations, in particular, require to practice sustainability as they are the ones who have the requisite information and knowledge that can be greatly used to influence the buying behaviour of the customers (Hörisch et al., 2014). In addition to this, engineers are also deeply involved in designing and they are battling with innovating designs of business models in a manner that promote sustainability (Jonker & Harmsen, 2012).
Another concept that has emerged in the recent years is the concept of green engineering. Most of the organizations are witnessing a paradigm shift to this concept. The agenda of engineering is getting evolved in the direction of sustainable development and is focused upon climatic change mitigation. Other than this, the agenda also includes various societal concerns such as reduction of poverty and generation of more job opportunities to resolve the issue of unemployment in the county. Furthermore, ethical use of resources is also being focused upon greatly because of rapid depletion of non renewable resources (UNESCO, 2010).
The Significance of Engineers in Promoting Sustainability
Apart from the business organizations and professions such as engineering profession, the government of a country also plays a significant role in promoting the concept of sustainability for attaining overall development of the economy. The government of Australia has issued certain code of ethics with respect to the promotion of sustainability in the country. The code of ethics so enumerated state that the engineers in Australia must work upon creating and developing such designs of the projects that promote sustainability and which are environment friendly designs (Maczulak, 2010). The projects which are being undertaken in Australia must be undertaken in a manner which is not detrimental to the future needs of the country. Such an initiative by the government of Australia is praiseworthy and it requires the engineers to perform their work in a manner which brings about development and at the same time does not harm the environment. Furthermore, laws like this brings a wave of positivity in the people of the country as they are formulated purely for societal benefits keeping aside the personal or sectional interests (Engineers Australia, 2018). Any breach of the code of ethics can lead to serious consequences as the code clearly provides a framework which is to be used by the members of Engineers Australia while exercising judgement during the practice of engineering (Engineers Australia, 2018).
Another manner in which the knowledge and information about undertaking sustainable development can be propagated is through schools and universities. It is necessary to present engineering as a solution to resolve matters related to undertaking sustainable development (UNESCO, 2010).
Promotion of sustainability is essential for the long term survival of the human kind and the role played by the engineers is significant. However, the manner in which knowledge of engineering can be applied in bringing about sustainable development has not been much highlighted yet (Reay et al., 2013). There are several major constraints which restrict the use of engineering in promoting sustainability across the world (Stephens et al., 2008). The use of new technology and change is rather reluctantly accepted by the business organizations across the world, as this change might lead to increase in costs and decline in revenues for a short period of time. In addition to this, it also brings about certain level of discomfort to the people and hence it is mostly tried to be avoided. However, with the help of education, the use of engineering can be explained easily (Chitchyan, 2016).
The Role of Government in Promoting Sustainability
The soaring temperatures of the earth have resulted in the melting of glaciers which has increased the danger of land getting submerged under water. This is a result of severe changes in the climate of the earth. This explains the graveness of the situation and depicts a clear picture of the importance of undertaking development sustainably. This unnatural change in the climatic conditions have been felt by all the people and thus, advocators of undertaking sustainable development are taking initiatives to create new ideas and are also spreading knowledge about its significance (Maczulak, 2010).
Conclusion:
The idea of sustainability is certainly not a new one but its usage has increased in the past three decades significantly. Sustainable development cannot be said to be the responsibility of a set of people such as government and business organizations, but it is equally a responsibility of all the people residing on the face of the Earth. Hence, in order to take care of the requirements of the future generations while undertaking development in the present, it is essential to innovate such designs of processes which use less resources and produce more. This is where the significant role played by the engineers is highlighted. Engineers with their knowledge can help build a sustainable world, provided they perform their role ethically. Imparting education is essential for creating some exceptional change agents who will contribute to a great extent in promoting sustainability. Apart from the environment protection, sustainable development also includes societal development which is based on equality, fairness and justice for all, irrespective of the castes, creed, sex, religion and cultures. Although, with the help of engineering, changing the world becomes easy, but it is slow and conservative and hence, it is necessary to incorporate this into the education being imparted in schools and universities.
In the present day world, the concept of sustainability is not an unknown term. In fact the term sustainability is being used in every form of activity that is being carried out from education sector to engineering sector to construction sector. However, sustainability cannot be based on a naive idealism but in reality it is more than endorsing a better world. Sustainability is a concept that is required to be practised. There are two important factors to be considered while discussing about sustainability. Firstly, sustainability involves practice. Secondly, it is something that we ought to pursue but can never undertake it perfectly. Sustainability is practiced in the same manner as a musical instrument is practised. Since, we can never perfect it, there always remain a room for improvement.
The world in which we are living is ever changing and sustainability seeks to strike a balance between economic, social and ecological welfare. However, it is certainly not a static process but a dynamic one. Sustainability has resulted into various lifestyle changes for people and has also led to many innovations in the design, agriculture, laws and engineering and has led to entering into various international agreements to promote sustainability worldwide. This concept is now being advocated by all the people, educational institutions, governments, corporations, political parties and civic organizations across the world (Segalàs et al., 2009).
But what exactly does the term sustainability means? The term sustainability can be defined as undertaking developmental activities in the present while not undermining welfare of the future generations (Thiele, 2016). It also has an ethical angle to it. In other words, sustainability does not only require preserving resources for future, it means bringing about an ethical change in a manner which leads to creativity and conservation both. Sustainability in engineering is one such area which needs to be focused upon. Promoting sustainability in engineering by following a set code of ethics is essential to survive in the long run.
References:
Abraham, M.A.A., 2005. Sustainability Science and Engineering: Defining Principles. Elsevier.
Chitchyan, e.a., 2016. Sustainability Design in Requirements Engineering: State of Practice. In Software Engineering Companion (ICSE-C), IEEE/ACM International Conference. Austin, TX, USA, 2016. IEEE.
Engineers Australia, 2018. Code of Ethics. [Online] Available at: https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/ethics.
Hörisch, J., Freeman, R.E. & Schaltegger, S.., 2014. Applying stakeholder theory in sustainability management: Links, similarities, dissimilarities, and a conceptual framework. Organization & Environment, 27(4), pp.328-46.
Jonker, G. & Harmsen, J., 2012. Engineering for Sustainability: A Practical Guide for Sustainable Design. Elsevier.
Maczulak, A.E., 2010. Sustainability: Building Eco-friendly Communities. Infobase Publishing.
Portney, K.E., 2015. Sustainability. MIT Press.
Reay, D., Ramshaw, C. & Harvey, A., 2013. Process Intensification: Engineering for Efficiency, Sustainability and Flexibility. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Segalàs, J. et al., 2009. What has to be learnt for sustainability? A comparison of bachelor engineering education competences at three European universities. Sustainability Science, 4(17).
Stephens, J. et al., 2008. Higher education as a change agent for sustainability in different cultures and contexts. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(3), pp.317-38.
Thiele, L.P., 2016. Sustainabilit- Key Concepts. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
UNESCO, 2010. Engineering: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for Development. UNESCO.
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