Dr. Md Akhtaruzzaman :
Engineering plays a vital role to sustainable development as a challenge to meet current human needs from natural resources in supporting industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and effective waste management while conserving and enhancing environmental qualities of our country. Sustainable development is not only the demand for the current situation of Bangladesh but also necessary for our next generation which can be achieved by professional engineers. Engineers should strive to enhance the quality of biophysical and socioeconomic urban environment and also to promote the principles of sustainable development. Engineers have obligations to the society to seek opportunities to work for the enhancement of health, safety, and social welfare for both local and global community through the practice of sustainable development. Since public health and safety is fully dependent on engineering judgments, risk assessments, decisions, and practices incorporated into structures, machines, products, processes, and devices, they should be responsible and accountable to their assigned duties.
Engineering is a professional art of applied science for the optimum conversion of the resources of nature. In another way, Engineering is the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and sources of energy in nature are made useful to the community. Engineers solve the problems based on mathematics and logic to make human life easy and comfortable. To solve a problem they have to consider many factors that imposed by legislated authority. Besides that they also need to consider sustainable development for designing goods and products.
Sustainability is the quality of being able to make development sustainable by ensuring the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Though, several actions have been taken to enhance sustainable development, it is recognized that many of the practices and lifestyles in our modern developing societies simply cannot be sustained indefinitely. We are exceeding our domestic capabilities to provide appropriate refinement of our emissions, as well as many of the local inhabitants cannot meet even their most basic needs. Recognizing the needs within constraints and ensuring more fairness in accessing limited resources are the main challenges that stay at the heart of the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development in Bangladesh.
Consistent with social, economic, and environmental aspects, sustainable buildings and highways are rapidly growing practices in modern construction and transport industries all over the world where green development has been adopted by engineers, designers, and builders. Lifecycle analysis proved that sustainable design and development make good economic sense for environmental impact. Most of the cases, owners intend to raise the standards of existing buildings and roads with green renovation to bring them up to the sustainable state. It is expected that this trend will be adopted and accelerated in Bangladesh through understanding the effect of sustainability and sustainable development where engineering must be practiced with the harmony of sustainable environment.
Sustainable development is the process of moving human activities to a pattern that can be sustained with perpetuity. It is an approach to environmental and development issue that seeks to reconcile human needs with the capacity of the planet to cope with the consequences of human activities. Sustainable development comprises three broad themes of social, environmental, and economic accountability, often known as the Triple Bottom Line concept. The constraints of sustainable development can be presented through a simple Venn diagram.
Society, environment, and economy are the most essential segments for living. The quality of these three segments ensures the class of life. To live healthy in society, good environment is must; good environment with economic competency is efficient for social growth; and a society with growing economy is just a society. The Venn diagram of Triple Bottom Line concept presents the interconnectivity among society, economy, and environment through which it is clear that the sustainable state is economically efficient, environmentally healthy, and socially justified in all aspects. Now a big question comes, how to define the state of Bangladesh? Or, what is the measure of our society? Is it just a society?
Law and Ethics are the fundamental way that deals with the meaningful life style. So this term is unavoidable and needs to be included as another essential component of the sustainable environment. Hence, the thought of Quadruple Bottom Line (QBL) concept needs to be conceived where ‘Laws and Ethics’ is considered as a new essential part in defining the state of sustainability.
There are no conflicts with the states named as Healthy and Efficient as stated in the Triple Bottom Line concept. Society with a good Environment is defined as Healthy. A good environment with progressive economy falls in the state of Efficient to the society. A society will be moral only if the laws and ethical values are established, through which the society will be more acceptable and reliable. Economy with ethical values is sensible which means the state is intellectually and intuitively perceived through sound judgment. The state of the society having interaction with Environment and Ethical values can be defined as Unstable because without economy, society will simply collapse. Wisdom can be defined as the ability of applying knowledge, experiences, understanding, commonsense, and insights which is possible if the Economy with ethical values is stable for the Society. The quality of doing right and productive while avoiding the wrong is the Virtue which can be established with the accumulation of Economy and Ethics having the proper knowledge and understanding to the Environment. Society and their Environment with efficient Economy make a state which can be defined as Sound. But in a comprehensive matter the Sustainable Environment is a state which is environmentally healthy, economically efficient, socially moral, and ethically sensible.
Again the big question is tickling by the QBL concept, how can we define the condition or state or quality of our life? Are we environmentally healthy? Are we economically efficient? Are we socially moral? Are we ethically sensible? Are we in the Sustainable State? If not, how can we enter into that?
Within the discipline of philosophy, ethics encompasses the study of the actions that a responsible individual ought to choose, the values that an honorable individual ought to espouse, and the character that a virtuous individual ought to have. For instance, everyone have to be honest, fair, kind, civil, respectful, and trustworthy. Besides these general obligations, professionals have additional obligations that arise from the responsibilities of their professional work and their relationships with clients, employers, other professionals, and general public. Professionals have special obligations because they have specialized knowledge and skills and they are granted licenses by the government to use their knowledge and skills to improve the quality of life of their clients significantly.
Engineering codes of ethics state that engineers should hold paramount for the safety, health, and welfare to public, above other obligations. This commitment echoes the public commitments of other professions: medicine to human health, and law to justice. Engineering and engineering societies must have sufficient guidance to prioritize the public benefits. When an engineer finds an immediate threat to public safety, he must notify the appropriate authorities. If the threat is not handled within the organization, the engineer is expected to raise the flag or blow the whistle.
Engineers are the providers of options and solutions to maximize social value and minimize environmental impact while they have to face a lot of challenges due to the adverse effects of depletion of resources, environmental pollution, rapid population growth, and damage to ecosystems. Since a purely environmental approach is inappropriate for the sustainable development, engineers are required to take a wider perspective including poverty alleviation, social justice, and local and global connections. Globalization brings important opportunities for engineers to promote changes through sharing experiences and good practices. Engineering leadership and influencing roles in achieving sustainability should also not be underestimated as these will be associated with multidisciplinary teams which include non-engineers and crosses national boundaries.
Sustainable development has become the accepted orthodox for global economic development and environmental protection since the end of the twentieth century where engineers play an important role.
Our environment is complex, made up of interacting systems of water, air, land, organic and inorganic matters, and living organisms. Maintaining a healthy environment for current and future generations requires the collaboration of citizens, organizations, businesses, and all levels of government. By using a balanced and coordinated approach, we can protect health, prosperity, and environmental integrity of our community. Individuals can conserve energy, choose environment-friendly products, and modify their behavior towards sustainable state. Organizations can develop environmental management plans, reduce emissions and wastes, and adopt environmentally responsible practices. Government has to lead by administering legislation; establishing public policy; delivering programs and services; participating in regional, national, and international environmental initiatives; and managing its own operations responsibly. Engineers and scientists are obligated to protect our environment in terms of inventing safe chemical substances, reusable products, and renewable energy resources to ensure a better quality of life for our future generation and also for us.
Engineering plays a vital role to sustainable development as a challenge to meet current human needs from natural resources in supporting industrial products, energy, food, transportation, shelter, and effective waste management while conserving and enhancing environmental qualities of our country. Sustainable development is not only the demand for the current situation of Bangladesh but also necessary for our next generation which can be achieved by professional engineers. Engineers should strive to enhance the quality of biophysical and socioeconomic urban environment and also to promote the principles of sustainable development. Engineers have obligations to the society to seek opportunities to work for the enhancement of health, safety, and social welfare for both local and global community through the practice of sustainable development. Since public health and safety is fully dependent on engineering judgments, risk assessments, decisions, and practices incorporated into structures, machines, products, processes, and devices, they should be responsible and accountable to their assigned duties.
Engineering is a professional art of applied science for the optimum conversion of the resources of nature. In another way, Engineering is the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and sources of energy in nature are made useful to the community. Engineers solve the problems based on mathematics and logic to make human life easy and comfortable. To solve a problem they have to consider many factors that imposed by legislated authority. Besides that they also need to consider sustainable development for designing goods and products.
Sustainability is the quality of being able to make development sustainable by ensuring the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Though, several actions have been taken to enhance sustainable development, it is recognized that many of the practices and lifestyles in our modern developing societies simply cannot be sustained indefinitely. We are exceeding our domestic capabilities to provide appropriate refinement of our emissions, as well as many of the local inhabitants cannot meet even their most basic needs. Recognizing the needs within constraints and ensuring more fairness in accessing limited resources are the main challenges that stay at the heart of the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development in Bangladesh.
Consistent with social, economic, and environmental aspects, sustainable buildings and highways are rapidly growing practices in modern construction and transport industries all over the world where green development has been adopted by engineers, designers, and builders. Lifecycle analysis proved that sustainable design and development make good economic sense for environmental impact. Most of the cases, owners intend to raise the standards of existing buildings and roads with green renovation to bring them up to the sustainable state. It is expected that this trend will be adopted and accelerated in Bangladesh through understanding the effect of sustainability and sustainable development where engineering must be practiced with the harmony of sustainable environment.
Sustainable development is the process of moving human activities to a pattern that can be sustained with perpetuity. It is an approach to environmental and development issue that seeks to reconcile human needs with the capacity of the planet to cope with the consequences of human activities. Sustainable development comprises three broad themes of social, environmental, and economic accountability, often known as the Triple Bottom Line concept. The constraints of sustainable development can be presented through a simple Venn diagram.
Society, environment, and economy are the most essential segments for living. The quality of these three segments ensures the class of life. To live healthy in society, good environment is must; good environment with economic competency is efficient for social growth; and a society with growing economy is just a society. The Venn diagram of Triple Bottom Line concept presents the interconnectivity among society, economy, and environment through which it is clear that the sustainable state is economically efficient, environmentally healthy, and socially justified in all aspects. Now a big question comes, how to define the state of Bangladesh? Or, what is the measure of our society? Is it just a society?
Law and Ethics are the fundamental way that deals with the meaningful life style. So this term is unavoidable and needs to be included as another essential component of the sustainable environment. Hence, the thought of Quadruple Bottom Line (QBL) concept needs to be conceived where ‘Laws and Ethics’ is considered as a new essential part in defining the state of sustainability.
There are no conflicts with the states named as Healthy and Efficient as stated in the Triple Bottom Line concept. Society with a good Environment is defined as Healthy. A good environment with progressive economy falls in the state of Efficient to the society. A society will be moral only if the laws and ethical values are established, through which the society will be more acceptable and reliable. Economy with ethical values is sensible which means the state is intellectually and intuitively perceived through sound judgment. The state of the society having interaction with Environment and Ethical values can be defined as Unstable because without economy, society will simply collapse. Wisdom can be defined as the ability of applying knowledge, experiences, understanding, commonsense, and insights which is possible if the Economy with ethical values is stable for the Society. The quality of doing right and productive while avoiding the wrong is the Virtue which can be established with the accumulation of Economy and Ethics having the proper knowledge and understanding to the Environment. Society and their Environment with efficient Economy make a state which can be defined as Sound. But in a comprehensive matter the Sustainable Environment is a state which is environmentally healthy, economically efficient, socially moral, and ethically sensible.
Again the big question is tickling by the QBL concept, how can we define the condition or state or quality of our life? Are we environmentally healthy? Are we economically efficient? Are we socially moral? Are we ethically sensible? Are we in the Sustainable State? If not, how can we enter into that?
Within the discipline of philosophy, ethics encompasses the study of the actions that a responsible individual ought to choose, the values that an honorable individual ought to espouse, and the character that a virtuous individual ought to have. For instance, everyone have to be honest, fair, kind, civil, respectful, and trustworthy. Besides these general obligations, professionals have additional obligations that arise from the responsibilities of their professional work and their relationships with clients, employers, other professionals, and general public. Professionals have special obligations because they have specialized knowledge and skills and they are granted licenses by the government to use their knowledge and skills to improve the quality of life of their clients significantly.
Engineering codes of ethics state that engineers should hold paramount for the safety, health, and welfare to public, above other obligations. This commitment echoes the public commitments of other professions: medicine to human health, and law to justice. Engineering and engineering societies must have sufficient guidance to prioritize the public benefits. When an engineer finds an immediate threat to public safety, he must notify the appropriate authorities. If the threat is not handled within the organization, the engineer is expected to raise the flag or blow the whistle.
Engineers are the providers of options and solutions to maximize social value and minimize environmental impact while they have to face a lot of challenges due to the adverse effects of depletion of resources, environmental pollution, rapid population growth, and damage to ecosystems. Since a purely environmental approach is inappropriate for the sustainable development, engineers are required to take a wider perspective including poverty alleviation, social justice, and local and global connections. Globalization brings important opportunities for engineers to promote changes through sharing experiences and good practices. Engineering leadership and influencing roles in achieving sustainability should also not be underestimated as these will be associated with multidisciplinary teams which include non-engineers and crosses national boundaries.
Sustainable development has become the accepted orthodox for global economic development and environmental protection since the end of the twentieth century where engineers play an important role.
Our environment is complex, made up of interacting systems of water, air, land, organic and inorganic matters, and living organisms. Maintaining a healthy environment for current and future generations requires the collaboration of citizens, organizations, businesses, and all levels of government. By using a balanced and coordinated approach, we can protect health, prosperity, and environmental integrity of our community. Individuals can conserve energy, choose environment-friendly products, and modify their behavior towards sustainable state. Organizations can develop environmental management plans, reduce emissions and wastes, and adopt environmentally responsible practices. Government has to lead by administering legislation; establishing public policy; delivering programs and services; participating in regional, national, and international environmental initiatives; and managing its own operations responsibly. Engineers and scientists are obligated to protect our environment in terms of inventing safe chemical substances, reusable products, and renewable energy resources to ensure a better quality of life for our future generation and also for us.
(Dr. Md Akhtaruzzaman is Assistant Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Uttara University).
