Engineering Management for a Sustainable Future

Engineering Management for a Sustainable Future 1
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
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Engineering Management for a Sustainable Future 2
Engineering Management for a Sustainable Future
Subjugating global challenges, such as rapid population growth, environmental pollution,
depletion of natural resources and destruction of ecosystems, requires engineers to play a
leadership role by ensuring that they consider the environmental, social and economic impacts of
their decisions. This necessity has prompted focus on the role of engineering management in
achieving a sustainable future. The need to build a more sustainable, equitable and stable world
for the future generations in inevitable. Engineers have a very key role to play in achieving this
because they are the ones responsible for planning, designing, building, operating and
maintaining most of the physical structures used in our day-to-day activities. For many years,
engineers have created solutions with little consideration for their economic, social and
environmental impacts. Very little attention was paid towards integrating measures to minimize
the risk and scale of undesirable or unplanned perturbations caused by engineering systems. This
is why it is important to evaluate the role of engineering management in creating a sustainable
future. Several studies have shown that there is a positive and significant relationship between
engineering management and sustainable development (Carvalho & Rabechini, 2017).
Building a sustainable future basically means integrating social, economic and
environmental factors when designing, constructing, operating and managing or maintaining
physical structures (the built environment). It means developing the economy and society
without jeopardizing future generations’ life (Shobayo & Elumah, 2017). Whereas the definition
may sound to be easy, converting this concept into real application is very challenging. This is
because of the fact that available natural resources are not sufficient to support the global
populations’ needs and wants. Hence there is great need for understanding, participation,
collaboration and cooperation of all stakeholders, some of whom do not have any technical

Engineering Management for a Sustainable Future 3
knowledge about engineering or sustainable development. It requires engineers to improve their
leadership efforts and adhere to engineering code of ethics when making decisions because they
are the main agents that play an essential role on achieving a sustainable future. It has even been
confirmed that engineers has a very big role to play in achieving the United Nations’ sustainable
development goals (SDGs) (Create Digital, 2017). The main SDGs of the UN for engineers
include: resilient infrastructure; access to reliable, affordable, modern and sustainable energy;
foster innovation; sustainable and inclusive industrialization; and safe, resilient, inclusive and
sustainable cities.
Engineering management entails application of technological problem-solving aptitude of
engineering together with planning, organizational and administrative abilities of management in
overseeing and ensuring successful implementation of engineering projects. Creating a
sustainable future entails application of the abovementioned abilities with an aim of maximizing
and minimizing positive and negative environmental, economic and social impacts respectively.
Engineering management, just like project management, plays an essential role in successful
implementation of projects (Wang, et al., 2017).
There are numerous engineering management factors that can contribute to a sustainable
future. Some of these include the following: modern engineering technologies and new
innovation, use of recycled and recyclable materials, implementation of building information
modelling (BIM), lean production, nanotechnology, renewable energy, resource efficiency, code
of ethics, value addition, regulatory framework (policies, codes and standards).
Modern engineering technologies and new innovation have significantly revolutionized
the engineering field by improving the efficiency of project implementation and reducing the
cost of producing and using products. They have also made engineering a more fascinating