Developing Sustainability-Focused Competencies in Civil Engineering Technology Students

As the world tackles climate change impacts, studies have shown a growing gap in green skills and green talent, emphasizing the need for higher education curricula to be aligned with sustainability goals to prepare students to address and mitigate these impacts. Consequently, there is a critical need to enhance sustainability education to equip the future engineering workforce with the knowledge and skills necessary to tackle these challenges and combat the adverse effects of climate change. By enhancing sustainability education, we can better prepare future engineers to lead the charge in creating a more sustainable and resilient world, especially considering the critical role that civil engineers play in shaping the built environment. This study investigates the impacts of incorporating sustainability-related learning outcomes into an undergraduate civil engineering course - structural steel design offered at a higher education institution in the United States in Fall 2022 and 2023. By assessing student learning outcomes mapped to sustainability-related learning outcomes listed in the Engineering for One Planet (EOP) framework and curricular modifications, new course materials and activities were developed to enhance student literacy in sustainability and emphasize its importance in civil engineering. Students' feedback suggests that they exhibited an improved understanding of sustainability concepts and feel more confident and empowered to address sustainability challenges following exposure to coursework aligned with sustainability-related learning outcomes. The insights gathered from this research will be beneficial to engineering educators interested in integrating sustainability principles into their curriculum.