A Crazy Little Thing Called Sustainability

Achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 requires global collaboration between different stakeholders. Industry, and in particular engineers who shape industrial developments, have a special role to play as they are confronted with the responsibility to holistically reflect sustainability in industrial processes. This means that, in addition to the technical specifications, engineers must also question the effects of their own actions on an ecological, economic and social level in order to ensure sustainable action and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. However, this requires competencies that enable engineers to apply all three pillars of sustainability to their own field of activity and to understand the global impact of industrial processes. In this context, it is relevant to understand how industry already reflects sustainability and to identify competences needed for sustainable development. This article therefore first presents an explorative qualitative study that provides information on the extent to which sustainability is addressed by engineers in central management positions in German industry (focus on manufacturing sector). Results show a need for teaching concepts in which future engineers increasingly deal with sustainability concepts and the global impact of their own actions. The survey indicates that the social pillar of sustainability, in particular, is often left out of the equation and, consequently, is rarely considered in industrial sustainability efforts. Based on these findings, an interactive teaching concept is presented that uses the design thinking approach to sensitize future engineers to all three pillars of sustainability.