[LINK] Engineering Education for Sustainable Development, 3 May, Canberra

Tom Worthington Tom.Worthington at tomw.net.au
Fri Apr 27 09:03:52 AEST 2007


Recommended seminar. To make this on topic for Link, I suggest the 
web can be a very useful medium for education on sustainable 
development and I have proposed a Green IT Special Interest Group 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/04/green-it-special-interest-group.html>:

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CSES SEMINAR SERIES

Engineering Education for Sustainable Development - New Challenges, 
Initiatives, and Opportunities 
<http://cecs.anu.edu.au/seminars/showone.pl?SID=429>
Michael Smith (Departmental Visitor ANU CRES and Research Director of 
the sustainability think tank - The Natural Edge Project (TNEP))

DATE: 2007-05-03
TIME: 15:00:00 - 16:00:00
LOCATION: Ian Ross Seminar Room

ABSTRACT:

2005 -2015 is the UN Decade of Education in Sustainable Development. 
This presentation argues that it is time we re-examined whether or 
not we can improve engineering education in sustainable development. 
It is widely acknowledged that engineers have a key role to play in 
sustainable development. The challenge to achieve ecological 
sustainability fast enough and on a scale large enough globally is 
significant.

This lecture argues that to achieve sustainability globally, OECD 
nations, like Australia, will need to aim to reduce environmental 
pressures by at least 75% by 2050. Far from being radical, such 
targets are in line with IPCC and other UN body?s recommendations. 
These sorts of targets are also being recommended by academics. The 
ANU Factor of 10 Symposium in 2001, which argued that environmental 
pressures needed to be reduced by a factor of 10 (or 90%) by 2050, is 
an example of this. (http://www.anu.edu.au/factoroften/index.php) 
Given these facts, this presentation asks how can engineering 
university courses (and ongoing professional development training) 
better equip engineers with the very latest to achieve Factor 4-10 or 
better now?

Achieving a Factor of 4 (75%) or better marks a significant new 
challenge for this generation of engineers. Michael Smith, The 
Natural Edge Project (www.naturaledgeproject.net) and partners are 
currently in the process of developing three significant engineering 
education programs addressing this issue funded by UNESCO and 
Engineers Australia, The Department of Environment and Water 
Resources and CSIRO's Energy Transformed Flagship respectively.

Drawing on these three training packages for engineers, this lecture 
will show how engineers and society already are achieving such large 
(Factor 4 plus) reductions in environmental pressures through 
re-thinking the engineering design of whole systems. The talk will 
overview what is novel about these new engineering educational 
packages, what they provide engineers and educators, which 
Universities are already using this work, and how it will add value 
to ANU?s existing engineering courses. In addition the presentation 
will overview other significant initiatives around the world - like 
the Netherlands Sustainable Technology Development program; a 
national program seeking to help the Netherlands achieve Factor 10-20 by 2050.

BIO: Michael Smith has worked on a range of sustainability focused 
initiatives for sometime. Michael and the team from The Natural Edge 
Project have developed a range of projects focused on education and 
training for sustainable development, working with Universities, 
Professional Bodies, Industry Groups, Government Agencies, Companies, 
Schools and touring international keynote speakers. 
(http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/KeyAchievements.aspx)

In 2005, TNEP was announced the winner of the Banksia Award for 
Environmental Leadership, Education and Training for their 
publication The Natural Advantage of Nations, and the training 
program, Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program. Already 20,000 
individuals a month are using the online educational resources on The 
Natural Edge Project?s web site. (www.naturaledgeproject.net) In 
addition, Michael represents TNEP on the editorial board for CSIRO 
ECOS:Towards A Sustainable Future magazine, Engineers Australia?s 
Sustainability Taskforce Committee and the Australian Council of 
Building Design Professionals. He has also served as PARSA rep on the 
ANU Green committee and is a recipient of the ANU Green Individual Award.

Michael H. Smith has joined the Department of Engineering for the 
next 9 months. In 2006, Michael was accepted as a Departmental 
Visitor to ANU?s Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies to 
develop an engineering sustainable energy solutions educational 
package, under funding from the CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship 
project grants in collaboration with Griffith University, The Natural 
Edge Project and Engineers Australia. The project will research and 
deliver an effective toolkit for capacity-building engineers and 
other key technical professions, in the skill of finding and 
implementing cost-effective low-carbon energy approaches and energy 
efficiency options.

The capacity-building training program will empower engineers to 
address these issues through the course of their professional life. 
The project will deliver peer-reviewed capacity-building modules for 
use by both practicing and undergraduate engineers (ie in the 
workplace and through universities and vocational institutions). 
Given the project's focus, the ANU Department of Engineering have 
agreed for him to undertake this program based as part of the ANU 
Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems for the duration of this work.
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My blog of the talk at 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2007/04/engineering-education-for-sustainable.html>.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                http://www.tomw.net.au/
Visiting Fellow, ANU      Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml  




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