In training and the work of young engineers, sustainable energy and circularity should play a bigger role than they do now. That is the main outcome of a survey by the Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI). 'Young professionals have a great need to do something good for Mother Earth.'
Young engineers (<35 years old) feel that they do not deal with sustainability and circularity enough in their work now. Of the 160 people surveyed - representative of the young professionals - 38% say they are not or hardly concerned with sustainability at all, for circularity, at 54% it is even more than half. The results of the survey were published in the latest issue of De Ingenieur.
Optimism
There is clearly a desire to be greener; this is true for almost half of young engineers in both subjects (49% for sustainability and 48% for circularity). The percentage for which it is not necessary is 20% for sustainability and 17% for circularity. At the same time, there is optimism about the future: young engineers think there will be more room for both topics.
'The desire to be more involved with sustainability and circularity is close to the expectation that this will actually happen,' says KIVI's ir Daniël Poolen. 'It means that the subject is alive at work and at the same time that it is important for engineers' motivation and commitment that the company or government institution fulfils the desire.' One respondent put it this way: 'I would really like to do more with sustainability and circularity, but have searched for six months in vain for such a job. Good and fun jobs are simply too few.'
Sectors that colour very 'green' are chemistry and energy, with sustainability scoring better than circularity. The computer science, education and industrial design sectors score clearly below average on being involved in sustainability or circularity at work.
Not in training
The young engineers were also asked whether sustainability and circularity were done much in their education. Of the respondents, 80% said those topics were covered in subjects, lectures or study projects. Yet dissatisfaction with them is high, especially with circularity. Of the respondents, 58% felt that circularity played little or no role at all in the study programme, while the figure for sustainability was 32%. This should have been much better, 62 % think for circularity and 55 % for sustainability.
'The results from the survey endorse a problem that has been brewing at universities and especially colleges for years,' says Poolen. 'There is a lack of thorough courses on sustainability and circularity. Young professionals not only have a great need to do something good for Mother Earth, society simply requires engineers to work on these topics.'
Response
One respondent even openly revealed that he finds it incomprehensible that so little attention is paid to sustainability at Dutch universities. He writes: 'What I noticed during my studies at TU Delft was that taking courses on sustainability was optional. Nor was it made easy for you to get a certificate in it. In contrast, during my intermediate studies at the American University of North Carolina at Charlotte, I was bombarded with compulsory courses on sustainability. I learned more about sustainability during my short stay in the US than I did in the Netherlands at college (2005- 2009, Avans Tilburg), the Academy of Architecture (2008, Rotterdam) and TU Delft (2009-2013) combined. For a country that claims to be a knowledge economy, the content is pretty disappointing.'
Prefer no Shell
Het Financieele Dagblad published an article last week confirming that young engineers value sustainability and circularity. For instance, according to the newspaper, it appears that Shell is no longer among the favourite employers of TU Delft students. It dropped from place three to six in a few years. Shell has been in the news several times in recent years for its sustainability policy, or rather the lack thereof. 'Many engineers no longer want to identify with this type of companies. 'You are not contributing to a better, more sustainable world there,' the newspaper quotes a headhunter from Page Group Netherlands as saying. And cum laude mechanical engineering graduate Michel Bots says about it in that newspaper: 'Shell is more of an inhibitor than a booster of the energy transition. That is why it is a less interesting company for me.'
By: Kelly Bakker
Source: The Engineer
Photo: Engineering Image Bank
