To Be Green Or Not To Be Green? Ethical Tools for Sustainability Engineering

Engineers are increasingly being asked to design products and process that reduce the overall impact society has on the environment as more people realize the rising need to develop sustainable resources and to be responsible when using existing resources. In order to adequately prepare students to enter this ever increasing demand for sustainable engineering, students need to have an understanding of the technical needs of society as well as the human component in design, be it the use of local resources, the lack of surplus resources, the change in societal values, and expectation of justified answers from the public, business, and individuals. Set within the framework of an introductory course to sustainability engineering, students from multiple engineering disciplines are introduced to the code of engineering ethics and to the application of engineering ethics to sustainability dilemma within a series of group activities. During the activities, students address the questions of “Who has to die?”, “Paper versus Plastic?”, and “How much house do I need?”, where there is not a clear conclusion to a “good” choice. In “Who has to die?”, the changes and difficult choices stemming from the a lack of resources form the basis for discussion of changes in acceptable practices in society and how a society might decide who will have access to the resources. The students themselves represent the members of society and the class discusses some of the underlying issues that influence how a person could reach a conclusion of who survives. At the start of the “Paper versus Plastic”, students tend to be apathetic about the choice between paper and plastic bags until they are placed in competing groups. Once placed within a group that must defend a selection, students begin to increase their level of participation and their advocacy on a particular choice. At the end of this activity, students present a short message to persuade the entire class of paper or plastic. Afterwards, group discussion includes not only the technical merits of each choice but the change in levels of advocacy the class has undergone. In “How much house do I need?”, students are asked to consider their housing needs and desires and to weigh them against housing requirements of previous generations and extreme green living examples.