Sustainable Engineering Practice: An Introduction

Prepared by the Committee on Sustainability of the Technical Activities Committee of ASCE. This report provides a broad, fundamental understanding of sustainability principles and their application to engineering work. It is intended to fill a need for a primer on sustainability that can be introduced early in an engineer's career. It brings together all the basic dimensions of the history, concepts, and applications of sustainable engineering and, through a variety of examples and references, inspires and encourages engineers to pursue and integrate sustainable engineering into their work on a life-long basis. The report includes: background summary of the role and accomplishments of engineers in sustainable development, including the complete report, Engineers and Sustainable Development; summary of the major commitments made and implementation activities agreed upon at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002, and the initial steps taken by the U.S. engineering community and its global partners; a wide spectrum of examples that describe how sustainability principles can and are being integrated and applied in engineering education, research, and practice; sustainability definitions, policy statements, and principles providing a broad sense of the visionary and ethical goals and strategies of sustainable engineering practice; and references, resources, and tools containing additional information that can be used to pursue the basic materials in the Report in greater depth and detail. Both young and veteran engineering professionals and engineering students will benefit from this primer on sustainable development and its concepts and applications.