Engineering Management for a Sustainable Future

This report explores the principles of sustainability and the 17 UN sustainability goals in the context of engineering management for a sustainable future. It discusses the economic, environmental, and social factors that contribute to sustainable development.

Engineering management for a sustainable future

Engineering management for a sustainable future 1
Introduction
The sustainability is all about deliberating the requirements of the present without negotiating
the capability of the upcoming generations in order to meet their requirements. Sustainability
is tranquil of 3 pillars such as economic, environmental and social which is offhandedly
identified as profits, planet and people. The sustainability pursues people to lead healthy and
fulfilling lives without harming the environment. This report includes the four topics
rationale for the sustainability, principal of sustainability, 17 UN sustainability goals and
impacts of three pillars which have been critically reviewed.
According to Lele, 1991, a dramatic transformation has been viewed in the environment
advancement debate. The sustainable development has become active in global aid agencies,
conference themes, guff of the development developers and in the motto of the
developmental and international campaigners. The method in which phrase of sustainable
development is utilized varies so much as it is contradicted in terms. The term of sustainable
development is even interchanged with environmentally sustainable or ecologically sound
development. It is even inferred as ‘sustainable growth’, ‘sustained change’ and ‘successful
development’ in some cases. The sustainable development is all about the development
which can be continued for the definite or indefinite period of the concern. On the other side
development is equated with the GNP growth and is a procedure of the directed change. The
term ‘sustainable’ has been simply used at the place of ‘successful’ (Lele, 1991).
The notion of sustainable development came into distinction in 1980 with the aim of attaining
through the preservation of living resources. The sustainable development reconciles the
concern of the developer community with the environmental program. It has been observed
that the insights like lessening the long term capability of the natural environment to offer
goods and services push towards operational consensus of sustainable development. It even
pushed towards social and environmental phenomena. The perception of sustainable
development is grounded on evidences like environmental deprivation, traditional
development objectives, and process. Environmental deprivation reduces the well-being of
humans across the globe (Kang, et al. 2016). It is generally caused by poverty and
interspersed with environmental problems. On the other hand, traditional development
objectives are all about offering basic requirements and enhancing the productivity of all the
resources in emerging nations. It even maintains the standard of living in the emerged

Engineering management for a sustainable future 2
nations. When it comes to the process, then it should be participatory to succeed. The process
of the development attains the traditional objectives and executed in a partaking manner.
The limitation of the sustainable development is realized as it constrains expansion or the
development essentially means environmental pollution. The sustainable development
movement has weakened due to the incapability to advance a set of notions, principles, and
policies which are clear. Sustainable development also suffers when there is not sufficient
knowledge and certainty. The supporters of the sustainable development faced dilemma
which puts impact on any program of the political deed and social revolution. So here need is
to take stances on the ultimate distresses and the prerequisite to change political approval and
sustenance.
Sustainability meets the current needs without negotiating the capability of forthcoming
generations to meet their own requirements. There are 3 aspects of sustainability like
economic, environmental and social. Economic sustainability should be able to generate
goods and services on a constant basis in order to preserve manageable altitudes of the
government and outside debt. It evades the safe sectorial discriminations which harm
agricultural or manufacturing protection. On the other side environmental sustainability has
role in maintaining a stable resource base by evading overexploitation of the renewable
resource system and exhaustion of the non-renewable resources up to the edge an investment
made in the suitable substitutes. It comprises atmospheric constancy, biodiversity and some
other ecosystem purposes which are not regarded as economic resources. The third aspect of
the sustainability, social should attain substantial provision of the social services comprising
gender equity, health, and education, political responsibility and contribution. This aspect
also focuses on distributional equity (Harris, 2000).
The sustainability from the economic perspective is stated in the standings of the expansion
of the welfare over time. The identification of the maximization of welfare can be simplified
with the maximization of the utility ensuing from the ingesting. It has been criticized on the
basis of the oversimplification as it certain comprises several significant aspects of human
welfare such as housing, clothing, transportation, health and more. It even has the systematic
gain of decreasing the difficulty to the assessable single-dimensional pointer (Lozano, et al.
2018). Another issue concerned with the economic perspective is concern of the natural
capital. It comprises all the natural resources and environmental facilities of the planet.

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The ecological perspective on the sustainability compromise restrictions on the population
and consumption levels. Such restrictions execute to all the biological systems. Although
humans can seem to avoid them for a time they should consent the limits of a restricted
planet. However, this proclamation of the limits does not properly seizure the involvement of
ecologists over the concern of sustainability. The implication of the ecological perspective is
increasingly apparent due to the serious problems faced by humans rise from the failure of
ecological pliability. The renaissance of the diseases because of the advancement of the
antibiotic resistance, several ecological threats concerned to climate change have affirmed the
impact of the increasing human economic activity.
The social constituent of the development has been identified as a vibrant part of the new
paradigm. it validates the implication of the quite older perspective. The human development
approach focuses on the concerns of the elementary needs and equity is well centered in the
history of the economic theory. The stages of the growth theory have been significant in
designing the development policy for almost half a century. The greater scale of economic
activity has changed the needs of sustainability.
According to Barbier and Burgees, 2017, there is an association between the systems
approach to sustainability and 17 UN Sustainability goals. the sustainable development goals
(SDGs) were officially adopted by the General assembly of the UN in 2015 as agenda of
sustainable development for 2030. 17 development goals including the objective is a complex
system including 169 targets and almost 230 indicators. The outline of UN concentrates on
the interlinkages and united nature of the development goals as these are critically significant
in the realization of sustainable development (Barbier and Burgees, 2017). The SDGs are
recognized mainly in the economic, environment and social system goal. The UN’s SDG
targets are deliberated as a depiction of the structures advanced to sustainable economic
development. The SDGs can be attained by harmonizing the trade-offs among the several
goals of 3 systems, economic, environmental and social system. The sustainable development
includes a procedure of the trade-offs among the several goals of 3 systems. It is because it is
not conceivable to make the most of these objectives all the time. In order to exploit the goals
for one system or two sustainability cannot be attained due to the costs levied on other
systems are not taken into consideration.
The UN sustainable development goals have been adopted with the aim of setting achievable
targets which can attain 2030 schedule for sustainable development. The goals will set targets

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which can be attained as a 2030 schedule for sustainable development. The aims will
encourage action over the coming fifteen years for the aspects require vital significance for
humanity and the planet. The SDGs are inter associated and incorporation is made sure across
seventeen goals are critical to attains sustainable development. Add on, every SDGs can be
categorized as a goal mainly contributed to any system goals like environmental, economic
and social (Chawla, Chanda, Angra, and Chawla, 2018).
The 17 SDGs includes goals such as no paucity, zero hunger, quality education, good health
and health, gender equality, clean water and hygiene, affordable and clean energy, good jobs
and economic growth, industry invention and infrastructure, abridged inequalities, sustainable
cities and communities, accountable consumption and production, climate action, life below
water, life on land, peace, justice and robust institutions and associations for the goals. Each
of the UN SDGs specifies a fixed endpoint which is attained by the enhancement in some
measures to attain that aim over the specific period of time. On the other side, limitation
realized from the SDGs is no guidance for the trade-offs among the goals of the several
systems must be made. A standard theoretical framework has been adopted as theory of
choice and welfare in order to evaluate the welfare effects raised from one SDG.
As per the opinions of Purvis, Mao, and Robinson, 2019, the three pillar conception of the
sustainability (social, economic and environmental) are indicated by 3 intersecting circles
within the overall sustainability at the center. Sustainability is considered an open concept
with numerous understandings and context-specific indulgent. The three pillars were clearly
embedded in the formulation of UN. The three pillars have attained prevalent traction. The
UN conference on human environment deliberated human impacts on the environment out of
which first attempt is to reconcile economic development with environmental integrity
(Purvis, Mao, and Robinson, 2019).
After the completion of the Second World War, the critical need of the international efforts
was realized for the assistance of development of the less advanced nations. So the concept of
economic development progressed from the exploitation of natural resources in the expatriate
context. It stated to rise in material wellbeing indicated by the increase in the flow of the
goods and services. Since, 1950, economic development became significant and synonym
with economic growth. Meanwhile, progress has been ensured by the early economic growth
based development programs. On the other side, the enunciation of the diverse social,
economic and environmental features of the sustainable development were perceived in

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agenda 21 along with the existence of the cultural and political-institutional aspects (Meyer
and Weigel, 2010).
UN formed the commission on the sustainable development preceding the 1992 Rio Summit
as for the establishment of the guidance and monitoring of the progress in the implementation
of agenda 21. Three principal phases of the sustainability indicators were reviewed with the
intention of working towards a core set. The economic, social, and environmental aspects
were focused towards a core set of the indicators with the inclusion of institutional aspect
being left. it has been contended several times that the enclosure was mainly due to the
institutional facet being essential to addressing concerns of the unsustainable development
practice. The three-pillar paradigm inspired maximization of the goals of 3 systems and
subjected to implied trade-offs. The three pillars can be clearly distinguished in two ways
such as indicating the distinct individual dimensions and interrelated perspectives.
Conclusion
The sustainability is incorporated in the engineering in the practice of products, procedure,
technology and services. It means integration of the environmental, economic and social
factors in the evaluation of the designs. Four topics discussed in the report have helped in
understanding rationale, principal, and 17 UN sustainability goals along with the impacts of
three pillars. The sustainability has become priority of the world influencing economic,
environment and social advancement.

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