Engineering for Sustainable Development: Guiding Principles

Un-sustainable development or product manufacture can result from an action that,
while based on trying to act sustainably in a local context, creates more severe
development problems or social and environmental effects in a broader context, either
immediately or in the future.
Principle 2 – Innovate and be creative
A sustainable development approach is creative, innovative and broad, and thus does
not mean following a specific set of rules. It requires an approach to decision-making
that strikes a balance between environmental, social and economic factors.
This means that:
• we are not seeking a ‘holy grail’ of a single ‘correct’ solution
• alternative solutions can be identified that fit with the sustainable development
approach
• it is very difficult to predict with certainty how these alternatives will work into the
future, so we need to provide options and flexibility for change and other action in
the future
• there are no guarantees that our solutions will be truly sustainable – we therefore must
do our best with the skills, knowledge and resources we have at our disposal now
It is now scientifically acknowledged that
atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is
having an effect on global climate, including
the frequency of extreme weather.
Picture courtesy of Oxford University
Principle 3 – Seek a balanced solution
Approaches like the ‘three pillars’ and the ‘five capitals’ explained in Section 1 seek to
deliver economic, social and environmental success all at the same time, and so seek to
avoid any product, process or project that yields an unbalanced solution. This could be
one that generates significant environmental harm, that generates social disquiet or
that generates economic loss or spends public funds inefficiently, because each of
these should be characterised as un-sustainable.
Thus, in considering options and in our decision-making, we need to:
• not just seek to balance the adverse and positive impacts on economic, social and
environmental factors in the challenge we are addressing but seek gains in all three
26 The Royal Academy of Engineering