Sustainable practices implementation in the future careers of engineering students: an empirical study

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand how a group of undergraduate engineering students from Escola Universitària Salesiana de Sarrià, Barcelona, Spain, incorporate sustainability into their academic and professional journeys and the factors that influence their actions. Design/methodology/approach Leveraging the decomposed theory of planned behavior (Taylor and Todd, 1995), the study surveyed 275 students from diverse engineering areas and programmatic trajectories. Using structural equation modeling, this research aimed to understand the complex interplay between various factors influencing students’ attitudes and intentions toward sustainable practices. Findings The study’s findings indicate that a positive attitude and a strong subjective norm (a person’s perception of the social expectations to adopt a particular behavior) directly and positively impact an individual’s behavioral intention to act sustainably and responsibly in their future professional life. This validates two of the proposed hypotheses, examining the positive influence of a person’s attitude and subjective norm on behavioral intention. The results confirm that attitude is the most critical element among others so that universities can promote a positive attitude toward sustainability among students. Originality/value The final goal is to generate critical points for sustainability across the European Union, thereby showcasing originality and innovation beyond its geographical focus.