4: Framework for Sustainability

Question 1

What is sustainability?

Answer 1

Sustainability:
- The capacity of human civilization and the earth’s natural systems to co-exist indefinitely

Question 2

What are the three pillars of sustainability?

Answer 2

• environment
• society
• economy

The three above form a ven-diagram as circles overlapping each other

All are important and none are more important than each other

Question 3

Elaborate on the pillar of sustainability: Environment

Answer 3

Environment:
- maintaining the integrity of earth’s natural systems

including:
- clean air and water
- biodiversity
- conservation
- emission reductions
- management

Question 4

Elaborate on the pillar of sustainability: Society

Answer 4

Society:
- meeting the needs and respecting the rights of people

including:
- health
- safety
- human rights
- opportunity

Question 5

Elaborate on the pillar of sustainability: Economy

Answer 5

economy:
- production of goods and services allowing organizations and people to thrive

including:
- employment
- prosperity
- trade
- business
- innovation

Question 6

As the 3 pillars of sustainability form a ven-diagram, what are the regions of overlap called?

Answer 6

Bearable
- environment
- society

Viable
- environment
- economy

Equitable
- economy
- society

Question 7

As the three pillars of sustainability form a ven diagram, how is the stakeholder engagement process represented? What encompasses it all?

Answer 7

The stakeholder engagement process is represented as a 3-part ring around the ven-diagram
- engage
- learn
- synthesize

Encompassing it all is a context bubble, as all work is done within a particular context

Question 8

What is context in the context of our sustainability framework? What’s special about culture?

Answer 8

context:
- the relevant factors in a problem that influence stakeholder consultation and the sustainability of potential solutions

Note:
- culture connects to both the societal dimension and to context

Question 9

What is stakeholder engagement? What can doing this get us?

Answer 9

stakeholder engagement:
- an iterative process of engagement, learning, and synthesizing what we’ve learned

• continued interactions with stakeholders through the design process increases the changes that our final design captures the needs of our clients

Question 10

What did appropriate technology use to mean? What does it mean now?

Answer 10

previous meaning:
- once used in reference to projects in developing nations

Current meaning:
- now applied more broadly to speak to the local societal and economic contexts of a project

• local environmental impacts and natural resources should also be considered
• additionally, local communities should be directly involved in all stages of a project

Question 11

In the context of our sustainability framework and engineering as a whole, what are engineering competencies?

Answer 11

Engineering competencies:
- the skills, knowledge, and abilities that engineers need to perform the jobs successfully

ex/
- listening to stakeholders and citizens and incorporating their feedbacl
- understanding how engineering work interacts with society and the environment
- participate in policy work that helps move society towards more sustainable development