Visit the Community of Practice on Sustainable Engineering, part of the Technology and Society Division (http://cop.asme.org/COP/), where provocative and profound questions are discussed in light of their engineering implications — questions such as:

• Do we need new technologies or just a fundamental change in the way we perceive their use?
• Can all 9 billion people in 2050 be wealthy and live in harmony with nature?
• What kind of leadership is needed to confront the challenges of global warming and poverty?

Many of the quotes, quiz answers, and news from this month's anniversary feature on appropriate and sustainable technology appear on the Community of Practice on Sustainable Engineering. It's a forum where you'll find ongoing opportunities to explore one of the most challenging areas of future, one is that both multidisciplinary and global. Communities of Practice are free and open to all, but require login registration.
Visit the Community of Practice on Sustainable Engineering...

"Resolving the 4E +1: Engineering, Economy, Energy, Environment and Society" will focus on sustainable development at the National Manufacturing Week Technical Conference, March 7-10, 2005, Chicago. Topics for this track, sponsored by ASME's Technology and Society Division jointly with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, may include sharing best practices, world challenges and opportunities, multi-lifecycle production, corporate social responsibility and ethics, and accountability, transparency and reporting.

As part of its Professional Practice Curriculum, an introductory online module on sustainable development is currently available for engineering students and early-career members, and a second module on engineering tools for sustainability is underway. A three-year project in the making, these modules will help engineering students raise their awareness of professional issues and considerations that engineers will be called upon to deal with in their early careers. Also of direct service to faculty and colleges of engineering and engineering technology, this project will helping satisfy societal and professional-issues aspects of the ABET Engineering Criteria (EC2000) for accreditation and the ABET Engineering Technology Criteria (TC-2K) that will phase-in between 2001-2004.
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P3 — people, prosperity and the planet — is an intercollegiate design competition for U.S. college students, to research, develop and design sustainable solutions to environmental issues. Projects prepared by the first year's contestants will culminate in a demonstration event in Washington, D.C., spring 2005. ASME is partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other organizations, including the National Science Foundation.
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In cooperation with AIChE's Institute for Sustainability (IfS), ASME participates in the Sustainable Engineering Forum (SEF) and expects further collaboration for focus group meetings. Also with IfS, ASME will participate with student chapters on the Youth Council on Sustainability, an Washington, D.C.-based organization of young engineers that provides a forum for youth interested in relevant policy making and understanding the goals made in international agreements such as Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan on Implementation. Visit the Community of Practice on Sustainable Engineering (http://cop.asme.org/COP/).

ASME's Technology and Society's Sustainable Engineering Program Committee is currently revising ASME's general position statement "Designing for the Environment" (DFE), which originally was prepared by the Industry Advisory Board (IAB) and the Environmental Affairs Committee (EAC) of the Council on Engineering of ASME in 1994: http://www.asme.org/gric/Policies&Issues/SustainableDevelopment/DFE.html

Year 2005 begins the "Decade of Education for Sustainable Development," a nation-by-nation celebration led by the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The proposal for this decade was introduced in 2002 by Japan and co-sponsored by 46 countries, offering a conceptual basis that merges socio-economic implications and environmental and cultural connections, so that widespread learning of sustainability values, behavior and lifestyles reinforce the changes needed for a sustainable future.
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