Aims

The aims of the course are to:

• Introduce some of the key engineering challenges to promote global sustainability

Objectives

As specific objectives, by the end of the course students should be able to:

• Recognise the scale of the global challenges in energy production and control of climate change, and the importance of identifying, quantifying and pursuing developments which will have significant impact.
• Understand a range of opportunities to reduce energy consumption and to implement lower carbon technologies, in different sectors of engineering, in both developed and developing economies.
• Complete a technical investigation into an aspect of Sustainable Engineering.

Content

Students follow up 5 lectures with an individual assignment over the Christmas vacation, submitted as a poster. This is will be followed by a presentation and discussion during Lent term.

1. 28 October. Dr André Cabrera Serrenho — Climate Change Mitigation: an Engineering challenge

• Climate Change: review and targets
• What makes a difference and what progress has been made to date?
• What does this mean for transport, buildings, and industry?

2. 4 November. Dr André Cabrera Serrenho — Technology implementation to step up climate change mitigation

3. 11 November. Prof David Cebon — Sustainable Freight Transport

Long-haul road freight is said to be one of the ‘difficult to decarbonise’ sectors of the economy.  Heavy vehicles require large amounts of power for long periods of time, making battery electric technologies challenging. There are two main alternatives to battery-electric vehicles:  fuel-cell electric vehicles powered by hydrogen and ‘electric roads’ technology: like electric trains or trolley buses.  The heavy vehicle industry is currently divided over which technology to back.  The government is planning to spend £500m on demonstration trials to help it decide which way to go.  This talk will consider the basic numbers associated with these issues and will show that one option makes sense, while the other doesn’t.

4. 18 November. Peter Harris — Sustainable Logistics

• How to move goods around the world in a way that is consistent with the long-term success of both society and business?
• The top priorities in making logistics sustainable: emissions and equality — the problem, examples, and goals

5. 25 November. Dr Kristen MacAskill — Sustainable Development Goals

• Historic review of international coordination and policy
• Responsibilities for achieving Sustainable Development Goals and implications for the engineering profession
• Examples of evolving engineering practices in response to the sustainability agenda