Integrating Education for Sustainable Development into the Mechanical Engineering Curriculum

Practice Paper Recommended citation: Carrell, J. (2025). Integrating Education for Sustainable Development into the Mechanical Engineering Curriculum. In Kangaslampi, R., Langie, G., Järvinen, H.-M., & Nagy, B. (Eds.), SEFI 53rd Annual Conference. European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), Tampere, Finland. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17631556. This Conference Paper is brought to you for open access by the 53rd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) at Tampere University in Tampere, Finland. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. INTEGRATING EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INTO THE MECHANICAL ENGINEERING CURRICULUM J Carrell 1 The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom, https://orcid.org/0000-00024459-1346 Conference Key Areas: Sustainability and society in engineering, Curriculum development Keywords: Curriculum development, Education for Sustainable Development ABSTRACT This paper looks at integrating education for sustainable development (ESD) into the Mechanical Engineering curriculum. A total of nearly 200 students were surveyed to obtain their views on integrating sustainability into the curriculum. Key members of staff were interviewed. Using thematic analysis, text responses were coded. The themes that emerged from this were: topics to introduce, concerns that integrating sustainability into the curriculum would increase workload, and a lack of understanding of the subject. There are three ways to integrate ESD into the curriculum discussed in this work: in design modules, intertwined into every module, or as stand-alone modules. Integrating ESD into design modules is the easiest and quickest to deliver effectively. In this paper, additional learning outcomes are detailed, as well as recommendations for a sustainability curriculum vertically integrated through the programme. Key topics of interest were proposed by students, covering areas such as life cycle assessments, the social construct of technology, social sustainability, advocating for sustainable solutions in the workplace and sustainable careers advice. 1 Corresponding Author J Carrell [email protected] 1 INTRODUCTION The need to create a more sustainable world is becoming more urgent as scientists predict that we are heading towards catastrophic climate change. Engineers are at the heart of this action. The World Economic Forum suggest that climate change adaptation will be the third-largest contributor to growth in global jobs by 2030. Environmental and renewable energy engineers are one of the top 15 fastestgrowing jobs (World Economic Forum, 2025). Therefore, engineers of the future must be well-educated in sustainability so that they can be part of the solution rather than the problem. Longitudinal research also shows that students who took modules with an ESD (education for sustainable development) focus developed an increased willingness to participate in solving societal and environmental problems and were better change agents (Rowe, 2002). This is the ultimate goal of ESD, the goal of accrediting bodies, and the desire of the many higher education students. The Faculty of Engineering has an established structure for sustainability management and accountability, born from the university’s sustainability strategy. The University’s Sustainability strategy (The Unviersity of Sheffield, 2020) shows the university's commitment to ESD, it does not show programmes how to implement this. There are aspects of ESD in the curriculum, but this has not been designed at programme level. There is still an opportunity to develop an ESD curriculum integrated into the Mechanical Engineering programme. To develop such a curriculum, key skills for ESD and topics to cover need to be identified, and the most suitable placement within the programme. Literature on the subject of integrating ESD in mechanical engineering is limited, there have been some good suggestions for topics to teach (Abd-Elwahed & Al-Bahi, 2021, Hadjamberdiev, 2004, Vinodh & Agrawal, 2019). Much of the literature with an engineering focus is relatively old, or from the point of view of senior management rather than at the curriculum implementation level. Accrediting bodies, such as the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, who follow the Engineering Council Standards and Guidance, Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes, currently in edition four (Engineering Council , 2020), are important to consider as they have identified key criteria students require and associated learning outcomes. With criteria such as ‘The Engineer and Society’; the learning outcomes in this that are relevant include sustainability and ethics, as well as risk, security, equality, diversity and inclusion. The latter are particularly relevant when considering social sustainability, an area of sustainability often overlooked in engineering (Lozano, Barreiro-Gen, Lozano, & Sammalisto , 2019, Thürer , Tomašević , Stevenson, Qu, & Huisingh, 2018, Martinez-Marroquin, Senadji, Male, & Wood, 2024), where the focus is more on the technology, potentially at the expense of good design. Engineers risk overlooking the social implications and needs of what they are designing. There are many examples of design that has not considered it users properly, whether it is sexist car safety and racist soap dispensers or a focus on one social group slowing the development develop technologies, such as with bicycles. The World Economic Forum Future Skills Report analyses the job market’s evolving skills requirements, and these skills link well with ESD. It lists analytical thinking as the top skill required, a core skill developed by engineering degree programmes by default. Resilience, flexibility and agility; leadership and social influence; creative thinking; motivation and self-awareness, complete the top five skills employers think their workforce needs. Lozano et al. (Lozano, Barreiro-Gen, Lozano, & Sammalisto , 2019), Wiek et al. (Wiek, Withycombe, & Redman, 2011) and D’Escoffier et al. (D'Escoffier, Jiang, Guerra, Valderrama Pineda, & Abou-Hayt, 2024) looked specifically at skills needed for ESD. Lozano et al. detailed 12, 8 of those felt most relevant are listed in Table 1. An attempt has been made to align the skills from the three sets of work across rows. There is agreement with key skills in interdisciplinary work, collaboration and systems thinking, these could be seen as the basis for ESD and align with the WEF top skills of analytical thinking and social influence. Table 1. Skills Needed for ESD Lozano et al. Wiek et al. d’Escoffier et al. Critical thinking and analysis Systems thinking Systemic thinking Interdisciplinary work Collaborative and participatory problem solving Interdisciplinarity Empathy and change of perspective Stakeholder collaboration Collaboration Justice, responsibility and ethics Normative (ability to assess, specify, reconcile, and negotiate sustainability values) Strategic action Strategic Anticipatory thinking Anticipatory (future thinking) Tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty Supply chain and LCA Considering the collaborative nature of the skills needed for ESD, project-based group work is an appropriate setting to develop these. There are several approaches to integrating ESD discussed in literature; Rowe (Rowe, 2002) proposed having at least one in-depth module on the environment and a module that focuses on social responsibility. Another is integrating sustainability across the curricula, as Peet et al. (Peet , Mulder, & Bijma, 2004) proposed and implemented at Delft, alongside some basic sustainable development courses to ensure all areas of sustainability are covered. This option would lead to a robust ESD curriculum, but obvious barriers are related to lecturer buy-in, subject knowledge, confidence and workload concerns. Taking the integrated approach, each subject would demand a slightly different take on ESD, depending on whether the module is technology driven (such as thermodynamics) or society driven (design). This could be considered the gold standard for ESD, with maximum impact on student learning, but also timeconsuming for academics, who are already feeling the pressure in an age of high workloads. Thȕrer et al. (Thürer , Tomašević , Stevenson, Qu, & Huisingh, 2018) and Fini et al. (Fini, Awadallah, Parast, & Abu-Lebdeh, 2018) found that project-based learning (PBL) was the most popular and effective method for teaching ESD. Particularly for developing higher order skills, as detailed in Table 1, such as critical, system and anticipatory thinking. One shortfall of PBL raised is that it can create issues with the evaluation of individual learning accomplishments. There may be value in adding in some individual assessment into an ESD curriculum. Design modules offer the perfect opportunity for ESD because they are based on PBL but also allow some academic freedom to students, which means there is an opportunity for them to achieve these higher-level skills and go above and beyond via their own motivation to learn. The flexibility in projects can also be an opportunity for inclusion, as there is potential to tailor design specifications for specific groups of people and needs. The real question then becomes, how do you ensure that ESD is not just a ’bolt-on’ to projects or a disjointed afterthought? ESD must be planned from a programme level, with a spiral curriculum, building on the previous year’s ESD knowledge. There is a clear need for a more integrated ESD in the curriculum in Mechanical Engineering. There is a desire from many stakeholders, the university, students and professional bodies. There are two main approaches to consider: integrating ESD within the design theme through all degree years or integrating in all modules. There are resources available for suggestions for topics to include in the engineering ESD curriculum, but there is a lack of details for the curriculum structure. This paper presents a curriculum developed based on literature, subject knowledge and student and staff feedback. 2 METHODOLOGY A short survey was developed to understand students’ views on ESD. The survey consisted of four yes/no questions, intentionally not giving the option for ‘don’t know’, as an example, to elicit a distinct answer. Five text questions were also included, aimed at bringing qualitative insights from students to gain a deeper understanding of their opinions that could not be captured with closed questions. The survey was sent to 891 students, of which 182 completed it, giving a 20% response rate. Students from all 5 years of the degree programme were surveyed, from the foundation year to 4th year (integrated masters). The qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis to generate codes and themes. A general limitation of this data collection method is that it was voluntary; those motivated to complete the survey are more likely to have strong opinions, positive or negative, about the subject, so there may be subjectivity in the data. Key staff members were interviewed, including the programme lead for Mechanical Engineering and staff delivering the design and professional skills stream. The interview format was informal and centred around the feasibility of the ideas proposed in Section 3. 3 RESULTS AND INSIGHTS The first three questions of the survey related to motivation to learn, inspired by Race’s work (Race, 2019). Across all years, 92% felt it was important to learn about sustainability in the context of their design projects. On average, across all years, 69% wanted to learn more and 78% enjoyed learning about sustainability. In text comments, a theme emerged related to concerns about introducing more ESD to the curriculum. There were concerns about workloads, the work already being challenging and difficulty getting good designs without sustainable consideration. Students clearly understand that learning about sustainability is important; this ties in with what is known about this generation of students, being more informed and engaged than previous generations (Iqbal, 2020). What is unexpected is a lower desire to learn more about sustainability, and considered in the context of the theme from text comments, it becomes clear that this is linked to concerns around workload. Mechanical Engineering students have some of the highest teaching contact hours at the university, so this concern is credible. There is little space to add significant additional content, existing teaching is closely aligned to learning outcomes set by accrediting bodies. It is important to design the sustainability curriculum to complement existing learning rather than add an additional burden. Students were asked where they would like to see ESD added, 38% wanted sustainability intertwined in every module, 29% in design projects, 16% as standalone modules, and 17% did not want more ESD added. Intertwining sustainability into every module is the ‘gold standard’ as discussed in Section 2. It should be the ultimate goal. A good starting point and a quicker way to implement effective ESD, is to start with design projects, and there is a consensus that PBL supports the development of the skills required ESD, as discussed Section 1. Feedback from key staff members echoed these sentiments, they also suggested it would be good to get ESD right in the design stream first. Social aspects of engineering are often overlooked in teaching, with more focus on technical solutions, as discussed in Section 1. When asked, 96% of students thought social sustainability was important for engineers to learn about and consider in their design projects. Free text comments showed a lack of understanding of what social sustainability means, with a significant proportion stating they didn’t know what this meant. This formed the theme of ‘lack of understanding’. Other comments from students talked about moral responsibility, impact on society and inclusivity improving outcomes. Some students have a better understanding of this than others. When asked if there could be any negative consequences linked to sustainability and ethics from their design projects, responses showed a varied understanding of this. Many focused on traditional sustainability topics (materials use, transport, end of life etc), lack of sustainability in engineering education (wasteful prototyping or labs for example) or state there were no ethical concerns. The latter shows students cannot link their knowledge of ethics (covered in Y1) to practical engineering projects. This highlights that there is an opportunity to develop a more structured education around the social impact of engineering and ethics beyond what is already taught. Students were asked about the sustainability topics they wanted to learn about. Table 2 details these topics. On the left, are topics most associated with technological skills, and on the right, topics related to social, financial, ethics and professional skills. Many of the technical topics are covered in the degree, particularly in the final year, with modules such as Advanced Energy and Power and Sustainable Materials Manufacturing, which students may not be aware of. Areas the degree does not cover as well, from a technology perspective, are the sustainable design process and life cycle assessments. Topics related to social, financial, ethics and professional sustainability need to be better incorporated, with an opportunity to link with the well-established professional skills framework. Table 2, Topics students want to learn about Technological Sustainability Social, Financial, Ethics and Professional Sustainability Sustainable Manufacturing, Eco Audits. Energy and Net Zero. Carbon Reduction and Capture. Material and Life Cycles Of. Transport. Sustainable Design Process. Social Aspects. Financial Sustainability. Sustainable Jobs, Placements, and Guest Lectures. Ethics Of Defence. A curriculum plan has been developed for integrating ESD into the Mechanical Engineering programmes in the design stream, based on literature, student and staff feedback. There are two parts to this; new learning objectives added to design stream, and a sustainability curriculum. Table 3 shows the learning objectives to be implemented so that ESD is assessed every semester. Bloom's taxonomy levels are indicated at the top of each box, the levels increase or ‘spiral’ each semester, with repetition of some levels to reinforce skills. Normative skills are developed, additionally to collaboration (through PBL) and systems thinking. Students complete a dissertation project in their final year (or final semester for BEng). After discussion with colleagues, the overwhelming majority felt that adding a learning objective related to sustainability would not be feasible or fair to implement. This is because of the broad range of projects covered, meaning some students would be better able to demonstrate an understanding of sustainability than others. Y1 and Y2 are design and build design projects, integrating the engineering science covered in those years. Students will be able to calculate the carbon footprint of their prototypes as well, as a parallel project is looking at giving carbon emission details for all materials available in the student makerspace. In semester one, students will be assessed in stage gate presentations. In semester two for both years, students do an individual reflection, to assess individual students on their understanding. In Y3, semester one’s design project is predominately a desktop design exercise, with most of the design detailed in a final report, which will now include an aspect on sustainability. In the second semester, there are approximately 20 industrial collaboration projects that students work on, project are very varied but are designbased. A learning objective to cover this wide range of projects has been included. A range of questions related to sustainability will be given, and students will answer the most relevant one to their project. Questions such as ‘What part of the design has the highest environmental impact and how could this be reduced?’, ‘How could you change the design for design for disassembly?’ or for projects with less clear links to sustainability; ‘It's difficult to assess sustainability directly from your project, how does the wider industry your project sits in address sustainability.’ Anticipatory skills are not addressed well in this curriculum and are an area for future work. Table 3 – Learning objectives, Blooms and Assessments Semester 1 Semester 2 Y1 S1 Reaching aid S2 Water bottle rocket Understand and apply Evaluate the environmental impact of materials and the artefact's whole life cycle Apply and Analyse Identify and critically evaluate the key sustainability issues with their design (in terms of materials, energy usage, CO2 footprint, endof-life management etc). Describe how the design could be modified to overcome some of these issues. Y2 E-Bike Understand, analyse and evaluate Identify how, at the design stage, changes could be made to a design to reduce life cycle emissions of the artefact Analyse and evaluate Determine the social groups who will use the artefact and reflect on how they influence the design Y3 S1 Amusement attraction S2 Industrial collaboration Analyse, evaluate, and create Produce a sustainability audit for the design and suggest adaptions to improve social and environmental sustainability Evaluate and create Reflect on the design and propose how it would change considering sustainability Table 4 details the sustainability curriculum, which will consist of workshops that run within the design and professional skills stream and help students meet the learning objectives outlined in Table 3. The first year builds on an existing workshop on ethics, developing justice, responsibility and ethics skills (Section 1, Table 1), and will also include a general overview of sustainability and measuring sustainability using the Eco Audit tool in Ansys Edupack. Year two builds on this by looking into sustainable design processes in more detail, looking at how to consider sustainability right from concept generation to across the whole life cycle with cradle-to-cradle design. The second semester introduces the topic of social sustainability and the social construct of technology. The aim is to get students to think about the wide range of social groups who will interact with the artefacts they design and how to design for these social groups. Year 3 focuses on guest lecturers talking about their experiences and sharing examples of sustainability in practice. Finally, in year 4, the curriculum links with the professional skills module ‘Preparation for Practice’, a compulsory module aimed at supporting students' professional development. Students have expressed a desire to understand how to find ‘green’ and ‘ethical’ jobs, and an optional workshop will support students interested in this. The final workshop is on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in engineering. A topic students look at in the first year with the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity Impact programme (The University of Sheffield, 2021). This workshop aims to prepare them for the workplace, having a focus on the specific issues in engineering (lack of diversity and the impact of this), recruitment processes, allyship and positive action. Part of the inspiration for this workshop stems from students saying they do not know how to advocate for sustainability in the workplace, which is covered with positive action. As this links well with EDI issues, it is fitting to cover these topics together. The sustainability curriculum is transferable not only to other mechanical engineering programmes but to any subject with minor adjustments to content. Table 4 Sustainability Curriculum Semester One Semester Two Y1 Ethics and sustainability workshop Measuring sustainability workshop sustainable design Y2 Sustainable design process, intro to circular/cradle-to-cradle design SCOT and bike example, social users for sustainability, how do engineers influence social sustainability Y3 Revisit Life Cycle Assessments and guest lecture to inc. sustainability Guest lecture to inc. sustainability Y4 Overview of ethical, sustainable jobs. EDI and the workplace, removing bias from recruitment and promotions, allyship, and positive action. 4 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS There is a lack of literature on integrating ESD into mechanical engineering curriculums. While integrating sustainability into every module should be the ultimate goal for engineering educators, a quick and impactful way to start is through design projects. This work presents an easy to implement vertically planned sustainability curriculum with examples of learning outcomes linked to design projects, which are easy to adapt for a range of different types of engineering design projects. The curriculum was developed based on student and staff feedback. Key themes emerging from surveying students were topics to introduce, concerns about introducing more ESD to the curriculum, and a lack of understanding of the subject. These have been addressed by introducing new workshops in key areas of life cycle assessments, the social construct of technology, social sustainability, advocating for sustainable solutions in the workplace and sustainable careers advice. The curriculum will be implemented, and its success will be reviewed by surveying students and staff at the end of the academic year. Future plans will also look to integrate sustainability into some key modules where staff are keen to do this.