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Forum for the Future
The Engineers of the 21st Century
The Engineers of the 21st
Century Inquiry started from the perceived need to
‘accelerate change in the engineering profession to
enable it to respond fully and positively to the
challenge of sustainable development’. This first
phase of Engineers of the 21st Century began in
1998, with Forum for the Future engaging with a
number of engineering organizations to carry out an
inquiry to assess how sustainability was being
addressed within the profession. Forty three young engineers
from the various supporting companies, who delivered
a report with 47 recommendations for change, carried
out research. The report was supported by government
and formally launched by Lord Sainsbury, then the
Minister for Science and Innovation, in June 2000.
Following this phase, a review
was carried out to assess the level at which these
recommendations had been endorsed by companies. The
47 recommendations were condensed into 10 key
topics, against which performance was assessed,
again by a group of young engineers. The results
were poor, with scores ranging from 0 to 6 out of
10. This second report was published in 2003 and
identified four critical areas where change would be
needed if the profession is to ‘respond fully and
positively to the challenge of sustainable
development’; the Four Change Challenges.
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Choosing the
sustainability option must become cheaper and
easier for clients and contractors
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Sustainability thinking
and practices must be embedded into the culture
of organisations and across different
professional groups
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Specifying for
sustainability criteria in materials and
processes must become an effective tool for
change (at both demand and supply end of
procurement chains)
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The capacity of
teachers and trainers to integrate
sustainability into courses must be developed
quickly.
The third phase of Engineers
of the 21st Century began in earnest in 2005 with
the recruitment of Heidi Parkes as a full time
project manager. For this phase, again in
partnership with the profession, government,
engineer employers and the Gatsby Charitable
Foundation, Forum for the Future began a close
collaboration with The Royal Academy of Engineering
to run a series of projects, carried out by young
engineers, to explore different ways of meeting one
or more of these challenges. The projects delivered
interesting results that provoked debate and bought
a new awareness to well-known problems within the
engineering profession.
Building on this success and
recognising the new political consensus around the
urgency for change, in 2008 Forum for the Future, in
partnership with The Royal Academy of Engineering,
plan to scale up the impact of this programme.
Partners are invited to engage in a collaborative
venture that brings together not only promising
young engineers but also senior engineering managers
and directors. Guided by the Four Change Challenges,
small groups of partners will work together to
remove barriers or exploit opportunities for
delivering a more sustainable future through
engineering.
The projects will comprise or
include a significant step change towards
sustainability in a product, process or engineering
practice and will aim to promote and demonstrate
sustainability in all aspects possible. The results
of these projects will be promoted actively across
industry and the profession.
Together, cross-organisational
teams will work on projects to influence the removal
of barriers and to grow the opportunities implicit
in the previously determined Four Change Challenges.
More information on the programme can be found on
the Forum for the Future website.
For more information contact
Ian Bowbrick
[E-mail Ian Bowbrick]
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