Integrating Professional Credentialing in Sustainability into Civil Engineering Curriculum: A Case Study
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Authors
Kipfmiller, Timmy
Tucker, Alexander
Reeves, Charles
Parker, Nicholas
Tucker, Alexander
Issue Date
2024-06-23
Type
Conference presentations, papers, posters
Language
Keywords
Sustainability , Civil Engineering , Professional Credential
Alternative Title
Abstract
The concept of sustainable development rose to prominence with the publication of Our Common Future as an output of the United Nations’ Brundtland Commission. Recently, increased emphasis on the impacts of climate change and globalization has reinforced the need for the civil engineering profession to address the complex challenges of designing, operating, and maintaining civil works infrastructure that is both sustainable and resilient. This need is reflected both within the Engineering Accreditation Commission’s General Criteria and the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Civil Engineering Program Criteria required for undergraduate programs in Civil Engineering to be ABET accredited. By the time of graduation, students must have the ability to apply the engineering design process to arrive at solutions that are more than just technically sound. Their solutions must also serve to protect the public health, safety, and welfare of society, as well as address the triple bottom line of sustainability by considering environmental, social, and economic factors. This paper presents a case study on using professional credentialing in sustainability as a mechanism to help educate students on these sorts of considerations within the engineering design process. Students studied for, and earned, the Envision Sustainability Professional credential through the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure in partial fulfillment of an elective within their undergraduate engineering curriculum. The credentialing process requires completion of an online course that equips students with a framework to consider making systematic changes in planning, design, and delivery of civil works infrastructure. The Envision framework consists of sixty-four sustainability and resilience indicators organized within five categories: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate & Resilience. The framework specifically encourages stakeholder engagement and acceptable risk analysis to help ensure engineers both “do the right project” and “do the project right.” This case study presents a crosswalk between the Envision framework to the General Criteria and Program Criteria required for an ABET accredited Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering program.
Description
Citation
Kipfmiller, Timmy, Alexander Tucker, Charles Reeves, Nicholas Parker, and Scott Katalenich. 2024. "Integrating Professional Credentialing in Sustainability into Civil Engineering Curriculum: A Case Study." Paper presented at the 2024 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, OR, June 23-26, 2024. https://peer.asee.org/.
Publisher
American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)