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Top1. Introduction
The approach of sustainability was first truly appeared in the Brundtland Commission Report, published in 1987. This report was submitted to the United Nations 42nd General Assembly session. This report truly aimed to warn the countries about the negative environmental impact caused by economic development and globalization. The report further aimed to provide solutions to the problems arising from industrialization, urbanization and population growth (Brundtland Commission, 1987). The idea of sustainability developed in the early 1980s as reported in the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme can be defined as “meeting fundamental human needs while preserving the earth natural environment” (IGBP, 1999). Since the earth's population is increasing, it is putting pressure on the earth’s resources. According to the World Economic Forum, it is estimated that food production will need to double by 2050 to feed 10 billion people on the earth (WEF, 2018). Today, sustainability has three essential pillars including environmental protection, social development, and economic growth and sustainable development can be been defined as a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Sachs, 2015). The need for sustainable development is truly recognized by all countries and thus in 2015; the United Nations was able to introduce seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030 (UN-SDG, 2015; Umar et al., 2020). These goals along with its target and leading indicators that help to assess the progress of each goal are summarized in Table 2 in the Appendix. Most of the United Nations SDGs are closed to the engineering profession or in other words, the engineering profession and community have a wider role to achieve these goals. Many professional engineering organizations have already incorporated the requirement of sustainable development in professional engineering practices (Cruickshank and Fenner, 2007; Head, 2009). For instance, in 1994, the American Association of Engineering Societies issued a statement titled “The Role of the Engineer in Sustainable Development” which proclaimed that sustainable development requires “dramatic changes in the culture of engineering (McIsaac and Morey, 1998). Similarly, the Institution of Civil Engineers in the United Kingdom has incorporated the ‘Sustainable Development’ as one of the attributes which need is mandatory for Chartered Engineer registration. Under this attribute, the candidate required to demonstrate, (i) a sound knowledge of best practice in sustainable development, (ii) manage engineering activities in a way that contributes to sustainable development and (iii) lead continuous improvement in sustainable development (ICE member attributes, 2019).