March 4 marks UNESCO’s World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development. This day reminds us that the world of engineering has powerful means, including those to choose, develop and put into practice sustainable, audacious and inventive solutions, for the good of the planet and living beings. Great powers, which also come with great responsibilities.
Engineers of all specialties are challenged by sustainability issues. The quest for progress is based more than ever on basic premises: protection of the environment, health, safety, respect for privacy, transparency, integrity and social acceptability — not to mention name only these. Their interventions generally being part of the long term, they must also know how to anticipate how their projects will evolve.
This means rethinking ways of doing things in terms of energy, mobility, resource management, data processing, city development and production methods. The project is therefore as vast as it is complex.
If the objective is to improve the human condition, the protection of the environment is a condition sine qua non. In a context where our world is heating up, where our resources are running out and where social fabrics are weakening, being aware is no longer enough.
The engineers of today and tomorrow must be able to make appropriate and informed decisions. In this sense, in many cases, the real revolution will be to turn our backs on enthusiastic techno reflexes.
Think of the clothesline. It has always done its job with certain efficiency and even greater accessibility. No matter how much we perfect all the dryers in the world, the exploitation of the resources necessary for their manufacture as well as the energy consumption required for their use will always remain brutally more harmful than the recourse to the ambient air.
What I mean is that progress should not reside in the object, rather it should manifest itself in the upstream thinking. When is it useful to use technology and when is it not? This is what should be taught to anyone wishing to practice engineering.
Technology does have its limits. They also have their consequences. However, our relationship with it — just like that with consumption in general — has twisted into a spiral of excess. However, more does not necessarily mean better. We must therefore work together with the communities, think about the source of the problem, the real needs, the uses, the impacts and, above all, flush out the hidden costs for the community. In short, it’s not the machine that we have to refine, it’s our way of thinking.
Our vehicles are getting bigger and bigger. Our devices last less and less. While there is no doubt that engineers have a role to play in raising society on sustainable foundations, they also share this responsibility with political decision-makers and citizen-consumers.
Is it normal that clotheslines are completely prohibited in certain places? Is it wise to let big corporations turn our wants into needs and impose our lifestyles? To ask these questions is to answer them.
Far be it from me to say that all technology is necessarily bad. My wish is simply that we learn to better distinguish good ideas from false ones. In my opinion, a technological solution must also be a social solution. Because, if it makes sense that sustainable engineering could reduce our environmental footprint, we can also reap the benefits of inclusion, justice and equality.
In this regard, I am convinced that the new generations of engineers will have the talents and knowledge necessary to act as true agents of change. Our duty is also to continue to improve and adapt engineering training so that it matches the openness and sensitivity of young people who have chosen this future path to change the world.