Engineers And The Environment

1. Engineering Codes and the Environment

Engineering responsibility for the environment is necessarily closely related to the laws
governing environmental matters. Usually, however, no single individual was
sufficiently harmed by pollution to be motivated to bring suit against a polluter. To a
certain extent, the government is ineffective in controlling pollution. In some government,
like the Congress of US, they enact "a national policy which will encourage productive
and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment...." One of the best-known
provisions is the requirement for an environmental impact statement, which enumerates
the effect of a project on the environment.

In the light of widespread skepticism on the part of managers, what are the
responsibilities of professional engineers with regard to the environment? The first canon
requires engineers to "hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public in the
performance of their professional duties." Insofar as environmental issues have a clear
relation to human safety and health, therefore, the engineering profession has already
committed itself to a concern for environmental protection and perhaps even
improvement. For example, engineers already have an obligation to concern themselves
with pollution, when it affects human health.

The codes give little direction, however, as to how this concern should be implemented.
What kinds of policies with respect to the environment should engineers advocate? If
engineers have an obligation to promote a clean environment in order to protect human
health, how do they determine what is "clean"?

A still wider issue is raised by the fact that some environmental problems do not raise
issues of human health. Suppose an engineer is asked to participate in the design of a dam
that will destroy a section of "wild river" and flood thousands of acres of farmland. He
may believe that this is an unwarranted destruction of a natural state and even bad social
policy. If an engineer objects to such, should she do so as an engineer or as a concerned
citizen? In other words, should the objection to environmental degradation not involving
dangers to human health be a matter of professional ethics or personal ethics?

Consider another example. An engineer may be asked to design a condominium project

that will be built in a wetlands area. She may be concerned about the resource depletion
that will be accelerated by a chemical process, or the destruction of plant species that will
result from an engineering project. Can an engineer object to such projects on the basis of
her role as an engineer, or should she make clear that she is objecting as a citizen? Again,
should such objections be made on the basis of professional ethics or personal ethics?

One of the most explicit statements on environmental matters to be found in an

engineering code is in the code of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE). The first canon of the code commits IEEE members:

1
...to accept responsibility in making engineering decisions consistent with the safety,
health, and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the
public or the environment.

The fact that there is an explicit reference to endangering the environment in addition to
endangering "the public" might be taken to indicate that environmental concerns go
beyond a concern for human health. This inference might, however, be unwarranted. The
concern for the environment might be intended to refer only to matters affecting human
health.

Furthermore, IEEE members are obligated only to "disclose" possible dangers to the
public and the environment. Should such dangers be disclosed only to one's immediate
superior? What if one's superior is part of the problem? And does an engineer have any
right as a professional to refuse to participate in projects to which she has strong
objections from an environmental standpoint? Again, the codes are silent.

2. Engineering Responsibilities to the Non-Human Environment

Contemporary technologically advanced civilization has made massive changes in the

environment. Western society has tended to conceive of nature as passive, as the fit
object of human manipulation and control. This view of nature as passive is amply
reflected in our language about the natural world. Land is to be "developed." "Raw" land
is to be "improved." Natural resources are to be "exploited" and "consumed." Trees are to
be "harvested." The rivers are to be "harnessed" to produce electrical power. The
wilderness must be "managed." Nature, like the rest of the non-human world, is to be
subservient to human purposes.

The environmental movement, so influential during the last twenty-five years, is a

reaction against this attitude toward nature, but there is still a question as to whether the
concern for non-human nature should be a part of professional engineering ethics rather
than an engineer's personal ethics. What are some of the arguments for and against
including a concern for non-human nature in the professional codes of engineers?

Those who believe that professional engineering obligations to the environment should
not be extended beyond a concern for factors that endanger human health could make the
following arguments.

First, the judgments that would have to be made in this area fall outside the area of
professional engineering expertise and as such might be considered a violation of
professional responsibility. Suppose an engineer is asked to participate in the design of a
condominium which will be built on a wetland area. The engineer objects because she
believes that the wetland area is especially important for the ecology of the area. This
judgment is not a professional engineering judgment, but rather one more appropriately
made by a biologist.

2
Second, an extension of professional responsibility for the environment into areas not
clearly related to public health or safety might cause considerable problems for
engineering societies. Along with other members of society, engineers disagree over
environmental issues, especially where human health is not directly involved. Forcing
members of professional societies to take policy stands on such issues will introduce a
new source of divisiveness into professional societies.

3. Environmental impact

Environmental impact is governed by three major factors:

• Population (number of people)
• Development (wealth, energy resources)
• Environment (air, land, water, human)
They suggest that three major death traps confronting humanity today::
• The demographic trap, as a consequence of the population explosion.
• The supply trap, as a result of shortages in nonrenewable resources.
• The disposal trap, due to the general problems of the environment, eg greenhouse
effect, depletion of the ozone layer, deforestation, rise in pollutants, build-up of
waste, loss of biological diversity.

4. Conflicting Environmental Views

There are basically two opposing views concerning the impact of these factors on the
environment. The first view is a rather pessimistic view which suggests that the
avoidance of the deterioration of the environment and the preservation of a healthy
environment can only be achieved if humans apply limits to the growth of population,
development and environmental pollution.

The second view is an optimistic one and is that technological and economic
development will be the resolution to all environmental problems and see growth as a
stimulus rather than an impediment to environmental health. Table 1 presents the two
views in detail.

3
Table 1 Opposing environmental views

5. Profile of environmental education in engineering

It has become clear in recent times that engineering has been taught completely outside
the environmental context. Students were educated for a particular engineering discipline
with emphasis on technical aspects of the discipline and with no relevance and reference
to the environment. This has become an impediment to the development of a complete
engineering education, In particular, it was realised that changes to engineering curricula
were needed in order to inject environmental and sustainability concepts, topics and ideas
into engineering theory and practice. Thus, subjects dealing with issues of the
environment and sustainable development needed to be introduced to engineering
curricula in order to provide engineers with the knowledge, skills, awareness and

4
attitudes to participate in the resolution of environmental problems and, in the first
instance, to avoid creating such problems themselves. The following is an attempt to
specify the meaning of these qualities and attributes in relation to the environment:

• Knowledge: to help social groups and individuals gain a variety of experience in,
and acquire a basic understanding of, the environment and associated problems.
• Skills: to help social groups and individuals acquire skills to identify and solve
environmental problems.
• Awareness: to help social groups and individuals acquire an awareness and
sensitivity to the total environment and its allied problems.
• Attitudes: to help social groups and individuals acquire a set of values and
feelings of concern for the environment and the motivation to actively participate
in environmental improvement and protection.
• Participation: to provide social groups and individuals with an opportunity to be
actively involved at all levels in working towards the resolution of environmental
problems.

6. Sustainable development and environmental engineering education topics:

• Awareness of global environmental problems.

• Offering courses that deal directly with the overall environment and how to solve
environmental problems.
• Issues of environmental pollution and ways to prevent it.
• Integrating key environmental problems/issues within engineering courses.
• Sustainable development/Environmental engineering, with specific emphasis on:
- Providing workshops and tutorials on the importance of sustainable
development and to practise this in engineering.
- Subjects on environmental engineering and integrating this in general
engineering.
- The ability to develop sustainable development projects.

• Energy issues, with a focus on:

- More subjects on renewable energy, eg solar energy.
- Efficient use of resources.

• Technology/design issues, such as:

- Application of environmentally-friendly technology to minimise harm to the
environment.
- Better engineering designs.
- More emphasis on energy-efficient design.
- Awareness of different environmental problems.
- Knowledge of the impact of engineering technology on the environment and
of solutions.
- More chemical/industrial visits to get a better appreciation of engineering
equipment and technology used.

5
• Engineering practice/processes, which includes:
- Impact of engineering systems/practices on the environment.
- Understanding the impact on the environment of waste generated from
engineering processes.
- Re-engineering procedures to consider the environment.

• Waste /recycling issues, including:

- Handling of by-products and waste minimization in engineering.
- Recycling and reuse of materials used in engineering.
- Handling of radioactive materials and how to safely dispose of the waste-
material.
- Waste management, recycling and handling of hazardous materials.

• Management issues, such as:

- Project, environment and human resources management issues.
- How effectively to manage/run a plant.