Sustainable Engineering - 2024 entry

Sustainable engineering concerns the design or operation of systems with the aim of reducing energy demand, resource extraction and carbon emissions with the goal of minimising the impact on the environment. By transforming any sector to be more sustainable, it can play a major role in reducing the threat of climate change. But as a practising engineer you must also be aware of the wider role that sustainability plays for example in equality diversity and inclusion issues. This module discusses the interdependency between changes required across all activities of human life across all scales. This module will make you think across disciplines with the goal of evaluating sustainability on a whole system basis including resource supply and demand, energy supply and demand and sustainable management.
 

This module aims to provide you with an appreciation of the complexities which arise from considering sustainability and the need to tackle the issue from an interdisciplinary perspective. This module aims to provide some of the tools required to assess sustainability as well as the ability to critically analyse the extent to which a product, building, industry or service could be considered to be sustainable.
 

This is a constituent module of one or more degree programmes which are accredited by a professional engineering institution under licence from the Engineering Council. The following Engineering Council AHEP4 Learning Outcomes are taught and assessed on this module:

Module Specific Skills and Knowledge

1. Design solutions for complex problems that evidence some originality and meet a combination of societal, user, business and customer needs as appropriate. This will involve consideration of applicable health & safety, diversity, inclusion, cultural, societal, environmental and commercial matters, codes of practice and industry standard. (M5)

2. Evaluate the environmental and societal impact of solutions to complex problems (to include the entire life-cycle of a product or process) and minimise adverse impacts. (C7,M7)

Discipline Specific Skills and Knowledge

3. Discuss the role of quality management systems and continuous improvement in the context of complex problems. (C14)

4. Apply an integrated or systems approach to the solution of complex problems. (C6)

Personal and Key Transferable Skills/Employment Skills and Knowledge

5. Adopt an inclusive approach to engineering practice and recognise the responsibilities, benefits and importance of supporting equality, diversity and inclusion. (C11)

1. Introduction to sustainability: how sustainability can be defined: environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

2. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

3. Environmental impacts, potential impacts of climate change and business as usual

4. Legislative framework for sustainability

5. Integrated systems approaches to engineering problem

6. Sustainability frameworks, risk analysis, life cycle analysis: BS EN ISO 14040:2006+A1 2020. BS EN ISO 26000:2020

7. Sustainable management: Quality management systems, BS EN ISO 14001:2015,

8. Sustainable buildings.

9. Conventional Power generation – Fossil fuels, nuclear power.

10. Renewable power generation – Wind, Solar, Water, Biomass, Heat pumps.

 Reading list for this module:

Reading list for this module: