Engineering for sustainable development
Sustainability
The commitment of European states to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlights the need for many changes in the current way of doing things, both by governments and businesses. However, the need to achieve objectives by 2030 and 2050 requires an action plan that will need the knowledge of many professional groups. I will focus on the field of engineering in all its specialties, undoubtedly one of the most significant contributors to the proper development of these obligations.
A recent UNESCO report highlights the world's need for and the decisive role of engineering in achieving each of the 17 SDGs, as an important factor for sustainable socioeconomic development.
In fact, engineers have contributed to human capacity to survive disasters and public health threats, to ensure food and water, communication and transport, and to innovate and create new products and services. We could summarize this by saying that wherever there is a problem, there is a need for engineering solutions.
Engineers are called to work in different specialties to turn innovative ideas into sustainability projects, benefiting everyone. No single discipline alone can present a solution to achieve all the goals. All of them are integrated, inseparable, and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental.
The recent pandemic, which has hit the world so hard, has highlighted the multifaceted contribution of engineering while exposing the failure of global inequalities.
This calls for a new paradigm for engineering, one that goes beyond the traditional division of disciplines and is multidisciplinary in its approach. It should work on climate change issues, encourage professionals to work on aspects of social responsibility, helping to build a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable world, leaving no one behind. We need to think about social impacts, but without neglecting environmental impacts to recover the health of nature and the planet we share, thus making engineering, along with other professions, an essential, equalizing, and accelerating factor in achieving the SDGs.
Finally, the engineering profession itself will need to be reformed to respond to today's urgent issues and should promote, among other things, a sense of global responsibility aimed at achieving the necessary innovations. Here we are presented with new challenges that must be addressed without delay.
And I end with a quote from the UNESCO Constitution itself: "Since wars begin in the minds of men and women, it is in the minds of men and women that the defenses of peace must be built."
