Sustainability in a common first year engineering program

Do the lifestyle and technology of today compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs? Since the Fall of 2005, first year engineering students at Michigan Technological University have been considering this question. They began by learning the definition of sustainability and then examined its importance to engineering through: (i) Researching and presenting the sustainability of 20th century engineering achievements. (ii) Investigating the ethical issues involved in sustainable technologies. (iii) Evaluating sustainability case studies using global Sullivan principles. (iv) Calculating their individual electrical energy consumption within their residence hall room and the resultant carbon dioxide produced. From this, they proposed methods to reduce their energy consumption.(v) Analyzing the sustainability of their semester design projects. From these activities, students learned that engineers need to evaluate the economic, environmental and social aspects of their designs in order to produce sustainable solutions. They investigated the differences of sustainable technologies in developing and developed countries. They determined the effect their lifestyle had on the environment by calculating both their carbon and ecological footprints. This paper will describe the incorporation of these sustainability activities into the Michigan Tech first year engineering program and the assessment methodology used.