WP12A Studies on Social Impacts
C120-122
1:20 PM - 4:40 PM, Wednesday
() LCA in Engineering Education.
Ünal, S1, Can, Z2, Genç, S3, 1 Marmara University Department of Chemical Engineering2 Marmara University Department of Environmental Engineering3 Marmara University Department of Materials Science Engineering
ABSTRACT- Of all professions engineering is the one which is most actively involved in the utilization of earth's resources, creation of waste and pollution. On the other hand, for the sake of a sustainable biosphere, and therefore sustainable development, all engineers must a)be environmentally aware and knowledgeable; b)be equipped with skills to design and operate processes that are resource and energy efficient, and mirror the limits of the biosphere; c)percieve waste as resource out of place and aim at zero-pollution; d)conceive sustainability as a second nature of engineering. In view of the objectives-based course content synthesized in an earlier study by the current workers, instruction for LCA tools and techniques is vital for meeting the SKILL objective of ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) for engineers. Without that assessment skill, the engineer cannot put much of his/her knowledge to practice. A survey of engineering curriculums- limited to English web sites- reveals that those offering environmental literacy courses which include instruction for LCA within their mainstream undergraduate curriculum are not many in number. Out of the 129 universities from English speaking countries on the Talloires Declaration signatory list and 77 universities in Turkey, the number of universities offering engineering courses with syllabi including LCA appear to be extremely limited. Education of engineers-to-be for LCA cannot be approached merely as a topic of instruction: the learners have to be aware and knowledgeable as to why they need to include LCA in their engineering activities. They need to be equipped with knowledge about the workings of the biosphere which they are trying to simulate by applying the principles of industrial ecology. This study is about the development of a model for LCA instructions in engineering education from a sustainability perspective.
Key words: Engineering, LCA