Integrating Sustainable Engineering Principles in Material Science Engineering Education

Background

In the early 1970s, a team of researchers lead by Professor Denis Meadows produced a report for the Club of Rome entitled “The Limit to Growth”, which predicted a future where industrial production will fall to zero and where the air, land and sea will be polluted beyond redemption (Meadows, Meadows, Randers, & Behrens III, 1972). The report warned about a future created by the unrestrained linear growth of resource exploitation, environmental devastation and the blind march of industrial growth, all of which would contribute to the inevitable calamity. About twenty years later, the sequel to this book, “Beyond the Limits”, was also published by the Club of Rome. The authors of the book argued that despite the over-exploitation of many of the world’s resources beyond their capacity to regenerate, the catastrophic future is not inevitable (Meadows, Meadows, & Randers, 1992). To avoid this calamity, Samarin (2005) suggested two necessary changes. The first is a comprehensive revision of policies and practices that perpetuate growth in material consumption and population. The second is a drastic increase in the efficiency of the use and consumption of materials. The proper selection of materials and production technologies therefore play a vital role in bringing about these two changes.