Support the Engineering Ethics and Sustainability Toolkits

Engineering can have a significant impact on society and the environment, both positive and negative. Harnessing the power of engineering to build a sustainable society that works for everyone requires engineers to navigate complexity, uncertainty, and challenging ethical and sustainability issues. The ability to develop globally responsible products, processes, and services is as vital to an engineer as maths or design skills, yet many UK higher education institutions fall short in effectively developing these abilities in future engineering professionals. The Engineering Ethics and Sustainability Toolkits solve this problem with a suite of interactive resources, guidance and teaching materials that aim to engage educators, and enable them to introduce ethics and sustainability into the education and training of every engineer, allowing the UK to position itself as a leader in promoting engineering as a force to improve the world for people and the planet.

Understanding ethical issues and behaving in an ethical manner underpins other behaviours such as inclusivity and sustainability, ensuring that individual practitioners, professions and organisations are globally responsible. To maximise positive impact these behaviours must become instinctive – golden threads running through everything that engineers think and do.

Our toolkits offer advice to educators who want to teach ethics and sustainability but are not sure where to begin, featuring ready-to-use classroom resources that are rooted in educational best practice and align with the Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes (AHEP) criteria, which are the conditions for courses to receive professional accreditation.  These case studies and other teaching materials highlight current and emerging real-world issues and can be used and adapted by anyone, allowing educators to embed ethics and sustainability teaching throughout the curriculum.

Contact us to discuss your support of the toolkits and collaboration with the EPC.

The Ethics Toolkit launched in December 2021 and the Sustainability Toolkit, which is still in development, will launch in March 2024, when more than 30 original items of content will be available, along with other third-party content and links.

Engineering educators and policy makers told us the Engineering Ethics Toolkit was a desperately needed resource, and user data confirms it: website engagement has more than doubled from 2022 to 2023. This makes the Ethics Toolkit the most visited resource on the EPC website.

The Toolkit keeps growing, as well. Thanks to our enthusiastic and dedicated community of engineering educators working in academia and industry, by February 2024, the Engineering Ethics Toolkit will include:

• dozens of teaching resources including case studies, learning activities, guidance for teachers, descriptions of practice and lessons learned;
• an educators’ pack to help integrate the Toolkit within modules, programmes, or departments;
• an interactive 3-D curriculum map, the Ethics Explorer;
• accreditation mapping through a Learning Landscape;
• a specialised search function to sort through the toolkit contents;
• a system for users to submit further content (with accompanying guidance for creating each type of content);
• a process for the review and publication of new content; and
• contributor biographies that demonstrate the crowd-sourced nature of the Toolkit.

This means we have exceeded our content goals for 2023. Another key achievement was the formation of a group of 35 academic volunteers called Ethics Ambassadors, who promote the toolkit through events and communications, and generate and review new content. The Engineering Ethics Toolkit has also been featured in panels, discussions, and workshops at multiple conferences in the UK and globally.

But there is more work to be done in order to respond to our stakeholder needs.

Contact us to discuss your support of the toolkits and collaboration with the EPC.

Background 

The Royal Academy of Engineering has supported the Engineering Ethics and Sustainability Toolkits since their inception, with the Sustainability Toolkit receiving extra support from Siemens. We are now looking for more expansive support for both toolkits, and we welcome offers of collaboration from all sectors.

For the next stage of each toolkit the EPC proposes to bring the two projects together to make better use of the intersections between them, and to better align with conversations now being held in higher education, which lean toward highlighting the overlapping elements of these two critical topics within engineering.

Next steps

Feedback about the Ethics Toolkit has been extremely positive, but it is important to gain a more formal understanding of how it is being used in practice and, to inform future work and determine what is most needed as the two toolkits develop further. The intention is that they will in future be developed as a single project, but will retain distinct identities with cross-cataloguing functionality to make best use of the benefits of a comprehensive, yet specialist approach.

To this end, the following work is proposed:

Impact study

A short turnaround independent impact study of the Ethics Toolkit will be commissioned by the EPC, to be completed early in 2024. This study will inform the further enhancement of the Ethics Toolkit, determining where attention should be prioritised, and will influence the ongoing development of the Sustainability Toolkit.

Promotion and dissemination

The budget provided for the Sustainability Toolkit to date (by RAEng and Siemens) was intended to fund the project to launch. Further funding will be needed to ensure the Toolkit reaches its intended audiences. Informed by the impact study, it is envisaged that this work would adopt a broadly similar approach to the successful model established by the Ethics Toolkit and would piggy-back on established systems and networks.

Further promotion of the Ethics Toolkit will also be informed by the impact study and it will focus on the key findings and recommendations of RAEng’s 2023 ‘Ethics in the Engineering Profession’ report. The EPC has already mapped the report’s recommendations to the Toolkit outputs and to future activities.

For both toolkits, the strategy for promotion and dissemination will focus on 3 priorities:

a.     Build awareness of the toolkit by highlighting the need/problem and the resource/solution;  

b.     Build understanding and engagement by helping educators to know and use the toolkit; 

c.     Motivate action by getting others to advocate for and champion the toolkits, and to submit further resources. 

In practice, that will mean:

• collaboration with PEIs and engineering departments; developing and deploying webinars, workshops, and a roadshow; a self-study module; and a system of rewards for contributors;
• continued support and guidance for the Ethics Ambassadors community and extension into a Sustainability Ambassadors community to ensure the toolkits become an ongoing, regular component of engineering teaching and highlighting excellence in integrating ethics and sustainability;
• continued support for systems to expanding the toolkits, including commissioning, creating and compiling resources, a network of reviewers, and a fast-track process from review to publication of content.

Portal

To maximise impact and effect change globally, the toolkit materials should not be confined to the EPC website. While this may be the ideal place for this content to reach UK engineering academics, a wider audience in other stages of education and internationally can be reached by developing a bespoke portal allowing the toolkits to reside and be updated on the EPC website, through an API on other sites (including RAEng’s own), and on a dedicated URL such as “engineeringsustainability” which would rank more highly on internet searches.

This is unlikely to be realised within a year, but funding is needed until the next phase of Siemens support is likely to be available in Q3 of 2024. Siemens may also be able to provide technical support in kind.

Integration with accreditation

The toolkits need to address the needs of accreditors as well as educators. Through the accreditation committees of the PEIs a framework will be established to help them better understand the toolkit resources and how they relate to the accreditation process of HEI courses. This could even involve developing training modules or short courses for accrediting personnel.

Continuing professional development  

Feedback from users of the ethics toolkit suggests a demand for an ongoing programme of professional development opportunities for both toolkits, potentially with sponsorship, or in partnership with leading organisations in the CPD field for the HE sector (such as Advance HE and/or the PEIs). Again, this is unlikely to be fully realised in a year, but a trial programme would be developed and piloted.

Educators and other stakeholders need to understand where and how changes can be made in the curriculum to embed ethics and sustainability, so that they can fully engage with the toolkit resources and delivering system change.

• See a more detailed plan for Phase 4 of the Engineering Ethics Toolkit
• See a more detailed plan for Phase 2 of the Sustainability Toolkit

Contact us to discuss your support of the toolkits and collaboration with the EPC.

Does your CSR policy include the following values or goals?

• Supporting carbon reduction and the race to net zero;
• Supporting sustainable and inclusive communities;
• Supporting a sustainable/circular economy;
• Supporting education for a better future;
• Supporting accessibility and inclusive design;
• Supporting diversity and inclusion;
• Supporting sustainability in business;
• Supporting ethical behaviour and decision-making in business.

By collaborating on our academic-led initiative to embed sustainability and ethics within engineering academia, you can achieve your CSR goals whilst helping to equip the next generation of engineers with the skills and knowledge to embody these values.

Supporting our Ethics and Sustainability initiatives can benefit you in the following ways:

• Gain an official badge, certifying your support of the toolkit, that can be used by your company and staff members, on your website, email, and other communications;
• See your company name published on the toolkit logo, which is displayed throughout toolkit contents and communications;
• Enhance the reputation of your business and brand by showing your support for an ethical and sustainable future;
• Increase trust in your business and brand as a company that cares;
• Provide opportunities for positive media coverage detailing your support of an innovative educational initiative.

Whilst your business remit doesn’t have to be engineering based in order to engage with and support our toolkits initiative, if it is, you’ll be equipping your next generation of staff with the skills to really stand out in the employment marketplace, and attracting high value talent to your company.

Contact us to discuss your support of the toolkits and collaboration with the EPC.

We know that drastic changes will need to be made if we are going to halt and reverse catastrophic climate change and make the world a safe and healthy place for humanity to live equitably.

The engineering profession can be part of the solution to the climate crisis, creating new and innovative technology that benefits all of humanity – but only if engineers are taught the right values and skills.

Our toolkits position ethics and sustainability as ‘golden threads’ that run throughout an engineer’s education, equipping them with the knowledge to explore and understand issues such as:

• Carbon reduction and the race to net zero;
• Sustainable and inclusive communities;
• A sustainable/circular economy;
• Education for a better future;
• Accessibility and inclusive design;
• Equity, diversity and inclusion;
• Sustainability in business;
• Ethical behaviour and decision-making.

By supporting our academic-led initiative to embed sustainability and ethics within engineering academia, you can help equip the next generation of engineers with the skills and knowledge to embody the values they need to create a truly ethical and sustainable future.

Contact us to discuss your support of the toolkits and collaboration with the EPC.

Does your institution have codes or policies that include the following values or goals?

• Carbon reduction and the race to net zero;
• Sustainable and inclusive communities;
• A sustainable/circular economy;
• Professional competence;
• Accreditation for better education;
• Accessibility and inclusive design;
• Equity, diversity and inclusion;
• Sustainability in business;
• Ethical behaviour and decision-making.

By collaborating on our academic-led initiative to embed sustainability and ethics within engineering academia, you will be helping to equip the next generation of engineers – and your next generation of members – with the skills and knowledge they need to embody these values and achieve these goals.

We want the toolkits to address the needs of accreditors as well as educators, and our plans for both toolkits include exploring how we can support accreditors in embedding ethics and sustainability into their approved qualifications, apprenticeships and CPD courses. We believe we could be of great value to you in developing training modules or short courses for accrediting personnel.

As well as support with accreditation, collaborating on our Ethics and Sustainability initiatives can benefit you in the following ways:

• Enhance the reputation of your institution by showing your support for an ethical and sustainable future;
• Increase trust in your institution as being forward-thinking and proactive;
• Provide opportunities for positive media coverage detailing your support of an innovative educational initiative;
• Gain an official badge, certifying your support of the toolkit, that can be used by your institution and staff members, on your website, email, and other communications;
• See your institution name published on the toolkit logo, which is displayed throughout toolkit contents and communications.

By engaging with and supporting our toolkits initiative you’ll be fulfilling your professional remit and equipping your next generation of members with the skills to really stand out in the employment marketplace.

Contact us to discuss your support of the toolkits and collaboration with the EPC.

Over the next three years, the EPC is planning to spend around £200,000 on developing our Ethics and Sustainability Toolkits, creating valuable resources that will change the engineering education. We need to raise all of that. We’re looking for contributions over the next one, two or three years from companies and organisations who want to work with us. These are collaborations, not just gifts: we want to involve you in these projects as partners and, while we hope you will provide funding, we want to explore how else we can support each other.

 With that in mind, no two collaboration arrangements will be identical, but we have grouped levels of support into four example packages. The guide costs are for annual contributions.

Headline sponsors (£25,000+)

We’re looking for headline sponsors who can make a significant contribution over the next one, two or three years. Headline sponsors are actively involved in the co-creation of the Ethics and Sustainability toolkits, with the opportunity to help define their components and direction, and ensure that sponsor aims are met along with ours. Headline sponsor arrangements will be bespoke and potentially exclusive. Among other benefits, you will receive:

• Free delegate pass and a stand at the EPC Congress;
• Your logo and links on key EPC Ethics and Sustainability toolkit web pages and toolkit materials;
• Involvement in toolkit-related events, including brand promotion and speaking opportunities;
• Recognition of your collaboration in the form of a digital badge that can be displayed on your website, emails, and social media.

Partners (£10,000-£24,000)

We’re looking for partners who can make a significant contribution over the next one, two or three years. Typical partner packages will include:

• Free delegate pass and a stand at the EPC Congress;
• Your logo and link on EPC Ethics and Sustainability toolkit web pages;
• Recognition of your collaboration in the form of a digital badge that can be displayed on your website, emails, and social media.

Supporters (£2,000-£9,000)

We’re looking for supporters who are willing to contribute over the next one, two or three years. Typical supporter packages will include:

• An invitation to be involved in relevant toolkit events;
• Your logo and link on EPC Ethics and Sustainability toolkit ‘Collaboration and cooperation’ web page;
• Recognition of your collaboration in the form of a digital badge that can be displayed on your website, emails, and social media.

Friends (£500-£1,900)

Any gift amount is welcome from companies and organisations who want to see ethics and sustainability embedded in engineering education. Friends get:

• An invitation to be involved in relevant toolkit events;
• Your logo and link on EPC Ethics and Sustainability toolkit ‘Sponsors and supporters’ web page.

Contact us to discuss how we can tailor our collaboration with you whatever your organisation’s interests.