Integrating sustainability in chemical engineering practice and education: Concentricity and its consequences

This paper begins by reviewing representations of sustainability, and suggesting a revised concentric model which places techno-centric (micro economic and micro thermodynamic) concerns at the core, limited by socio-centric (macro economic) concerns, which in turn are ultimately limited by eco-centric (macro thermodynamic) concerns. This new model has important consequences for how the context and impact of engineering practice might be viewed, and therefore what engineering education priorities ought to be. Accepting this new model requires a paradigm change in engineering education: sustainability cannot be presented as an add-on in engineering curricula. The new model dictates that sustainability is presented as a way of thinking, integrated throughout the course. Accreditation processes can facilitate or stifle the use of models such as that proposed in this paper because they are important drivers for course content and delivery in professional degrees such as engineering. Recently, there have been significant changes in engineering accreditation practices in Australia and North America. A critique of current accreditation documentation shows that UK-based chemical engineering processes lag Australian and North American institutional reforms for their capacity to promote sustainability as an overarching theme.