Cite this article: Kattwinkel, D., Heide, L., Syré, A., Grahle, A., Bender, B., Göhlich, D. (2021) ‘Sustainability in
Engineering Education - Description and Comparison of Two University Courses’, in Proceedings of the International
Conference on Engineering Design (ICED21), Gothenburg, Sweden, 16-20 August 2021. DOI:10.1017/pds.2021.547
ICED21 2861
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING DESIGN, ICED21
16-20 AUGUST 2021, GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN
ICED21 1
SUSTAINABILITY IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION -
DESCRIPTION AND COMPARISON OF TWO UNIVERSITY
COURSES
Kattwinkel, Daniela (1);
Heide, Ludger (2);
Syré, Anne (2);
Grahle, Alexander (2);
Bender, Beate (1);
Göhlich, Dietmar (2)
1: Ruhr-Universität Bochum;
2: Technische Universität Berlin
ABSTRACT
Sustainable products are becoming increasingly important for companies in order to succeed.
However, the development of sustainable products poses a complex challenge, because alongside the
classical product development requirements, additional social, economic and ecologic requirements
arise. Despite the increasing relevance of this topic, sustainability is not yet fully integrated into the
product development processes and mindsets within companies. Simultaneously, the integration of
sustainability into engineering education is still insufficient and traditional teaching formats seem to
be inadequate to teach such complex and multifaceted topics. Within this publication, the
development, the contents and the implementation of two different university engineering courses for
sustainability and environmentally compatible product development are described and compared. The
different approaches to develop and incorporate sustainability into the engineering education and the
usage of innovative teaching concepts are demonstrated to encourage and inspire other universities.
Keywords: Sustainability, Ecodesign, Design education, Sustainability education, Teaching Concepts
Contact:
Kattwinkel, Daniela
Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum
Product Development
Germany
1 INTRODUCTION
Sustainability is an attribute that politics and society are increasingly demanding of technical products
and processes (Jensen,2019). The development of a sustainable product is a complex challenge, which
always involves weighing conflicting technological, economic, ecological and social aspects (Birkhofer
et al.,2018). Nevertheless, sustainability and related topics such as environmentally compatible prod-
uct development (Ecodesign) have not been fully adopted by the product development practice in the
industry. Developing sustainable products requires a new mindset, new design processes and dealing
with long term implications across a broad scope of impact categories, which cannot always be quan-
tified. One part of the journey to achieve these skills is to include sustainable product development in
engineering education. Especially such complex and multifaceted subjects call for didactically suitable
teaching formats, to achieve a long-lasting learning success.
However, in most engineering courses, traditional teaching formats still dominate, although they are
not in accordance with current findings of academic didactics (Preißler et al.,2010). The so called “shift
from teaching to learning”, that is part of the Bologna Process1, implies a change of paradigm away from
a teacher and input oriented instruction towards a teaching that focuses on the process of learning and
on the output in the form of competences. All different competence definitions that emerged from the
discussions relating to the Bologna Process result in the same and critical basic approach: a competence
based university education focuses on the active, self-regulated and self-responsible learning of the
students (Ouden and Rottlaender,2017).
In Germany, only a few universities with an engineering focus have taken up sustainability as a teaching
subject, so far (Kattwinkel and Bender,2020). Some of the existing courses such as “Blue Engineer-
ing” (Blue Engineering,2020), which is being taught at seven German universities, focus on creating
awareness but lack the practical tools and skills to improve the sustainability of products (Pongratz and
Baier,2015). Other more practical courses focus solely on selective solutions like sustainable energy
generation or resource efficient design without enabling a holistic view on sustainability.
For this reason, the following questions will be answered in this paper: Which contents should be
addressed in courses that both create awareness of sustainability in engineering and teach approaches
and tools in a practical manner? Which innovative teaching methods are suitable to communicate
these contents? How can such courses be developed? In this paper, we address these questions
using two recently developed courses at two German universities as examples: firstly, the course
“Entwicklungsmethoden für nachhaltige Produkte” (Development Methods for Sustainable Products)2
at Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) and secondly, the course “Umweltgerechte Produktentwick-
lung” (Environmentally compatible product development)3at Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB). By
means of this direct comparison of two innovative teaching concepts and the development work behind
them, we intend to encourage and inspire other universities and departments in the field of engineering
education to take up such projects as well. Evidently, education is an effective way to enable a young
generation of engineers to recognize sustainability challenges of today’s technology and to find solutions
to solve them.
2 THE COURSE “ENTWICKLUNGSMETHODEN FÜR NACHHALTIGE
PRODUKTE”
2.1 University and Chair
The course takes place at Technische Universiät Berlin (TU Berlin) (TU Berlin,2020), where around
33,000 students are enrolled. It is offered by the Department “Methods for Product Development and
Mechatronics” (MPM) (MPM Team,2020). In teaching and research, MPM was mostly concerned with
classical mechanical engineering design. In recent years, however, the exploration of new concepts of
electromobility became another focus of the department and with that, sustainability issues and life
cycle analysis came into scope.
1The Bologna Process describes the harmonization and updating of the European higher education.
2www.mpm.tu-berlin.de/menue/studium_und_lehre/master/entwicklungsmethoden_fuer_nachhaltige_produkte
3www.lmk.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/aktuell/akt00139.html.de
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2.2 Development
The initial motivation for the course results from a perceived lack of an advanced sustainable engineer-
ing design course available for engineering students. An analysis of the current courses at TU Berlin
shows this deficit in solving technical problems, while explicitly addressing sustainability holistically.
On the one hand “Blue Engineering” (Pongratz and Baier,2015) and other courses established in this
area provide engineering students with an introduction, showing the need for a sustainable future and
critically reflecting the role of engineering and technology in achieving such a future. However, they
tend to focus more on motivating the need for “better engineering” and showing the limits of engineering
solutions for social problems rather than presenting specific methods to design products. On the other
hand many departments from the area of environmental engineering offer specific courses addressing
certain aspects of sustainable design such as the design of wind turbines. However, those courses are
not embedding and generalizing sustainability topics into the engineering design process.
As a consequence, a multidisciplinary team of researchers at TU Berlin developed the course “Entwick-
lungsmethoden für nachhaltige Produkte”. Multiple workshops were held, going from abstract goals
to specific planning of the lectures. The overall concept is developed by addressing the perceived
shortcomings of current engineering teaching and the experience of the instructors.
During the development of the course, special consideration was paid to the atmosphere of the lecture.
With the “shift from teaching to learning” and the different perspective on engineering required for
sustainable engineering as outlined in the introduction, a different atmosphere to the usual engineering
lecture is necessary. We focus on an eye-level approach, teaching the methods not as “settled knowl-
edge” taught by experts but rather as pathways to solutions that will need to be refined and developed
further.
2.3 Learning Outcomes and Assessment
Based on the outcomes of the workshops, the following three phases of the course were conceived.
The first phase is dedicated to the recognition of problems: the students experience how to critically
question existing products or processes and learn methods to make the effects on the environment or
society measurable. In the second phase, they learn how the sustainability requirements create conflicts
with existing requirements. Approaches and the dealing with conflicts are discussed. In the third phase,
concrete tools are taught and applied in an exemplary manner, which concretely implements the previ-
ously described sustainability requirements in the products. The three phases are accompanied by the
ecological, social and economic dimensions of sustainability. This concept is visualized in Figure 1.
Social
Economic
Ecological
Evaluate
and
scrutinize
existing technology
Benchmark
sustainability
aspects and
recognize trade-offs
Utilize
sustainability tools
in the engineering
design process
Problems
Identified
Improved
Product
Sustainability
Requirements
Figure 1. Main phases and core concepts of the course “Entwicklungsmethoden für
nachhaltige Produkte”.
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The central learning outcomes can be summarized as follows:
After the completion of the course, the students will be able to...
•... remember and understand the three dimensions of sustainability.
•... analyze and evaluate the sustainability aspects of products – on a qualitative and quantitative
scale.
•... are aware of the possibilities and limits of achieving sustainability through technology.
•... apply skills in a teamwork based project to create an exemplary product.
The examination concept is developed based on the learning outcomes for the course. The categories
knowledge,skill and competency are used as defined by the European Commission for Education (Euro-
pean Commission – Education and Culture,2008). The key goals of this lecture are conveying skills and
competences, with knowledge being required but not a focus of this lecture. Based on this, a three-part
examination is created.
•Journal: Students individually write up their experience with each lecture, indicating both what
was taught but also what examples they can apply it to and whether they agree with the assumptions
of the lecture. The main goal of this examination part is the reflection of the course content itself
and the possible change in students’ attitudes.
•Project Report: In the project report, the knowledge and skills are to be applied to a given technical
product. For each lecture, sub-tasks are created that apply the key goals and methods of the course
to a given product – for the first iteration, the product is a smartphone.
•Presentation: Students are to present their report in a group, focusing on a specific part of their
solution so that different groups create substantially different presentations.
2.4 Content
The course is split into six modules: Technology and values; technology assessment; requirements anal-
ysis; energy and material; working environment; and construction methods. The subject area technology
and values introduces engineering students to core concepts of the philosophy of technology: Theories
on why technology is developed as well as Poser’s concept of Technodicee (Poser,2016), which tries
to explain the duality of “perfect” technology being impossible to achieve while “better” technology
is essential for humanity’s continued survival. Technology assessment deals with products and their
effects based on the VDI 3780 standard (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure,2000), explaining basic concepts
of technology assessment and the relationship between technology and society. Small groups of students
discuss the topics of moral values in the technical context, physical and societal boundary conditions
for technology development, and competing or instrumental relationships between development goals.
In the area of requirements analysis, the focus is on turning abstract development goals into measur-
able and achievable requirements. Existing technology is analyzed and reverse engineered in order to
demonstrate the trade-offs made in the real world. Energy and Material first deals with the basics of
material flow analysis (Brunner and Rechberger,2016). Then the methods life cycle assessment (LCA)
according to DIN EN ISO 14040 (DIN e. V.,2009), life cycle cost analysis (Dhillon,2009) and social
life cycle assessment (Benoît and Mazijn,2009) are presented. In the field of the working environment,
the working environments of both engineers and producers are covered. In the working environment of
the engineers both the social and economic responsibility of the profession and the personal well-being
under constantly increasing alienation and high responsibility with little flexibility to make decisions
is in the focus (Böhle,2017). Furthermore, concepts like corporate social responsibility are addressed.
Also the working environment of the producers is discussed. Here the focus is on the interaction of
design decisions and working conditions. In the area of design methods, the focus is on the sustain-
able design (Buchert et al.,2014) of products. This area consists of three topics: EcoDesign, Design for
Economy and Design for Social Sustainability. Several specific methods are taught in those three areas.
2.5 Implementation
Prior to the respective module, the lecturers provide input in form of articles, TED talks, podcasts and
videos. The students acquire the theoretical contents with the help of the provided materials in self-
study. During the course, first, the students discuss and summarize the theoretical content and answer
open questions, the lecturers act as moderators and join the discussion or give explanation if needed.
Subsequently, interactive elements such as group discussions, class quizzes and exercises are performed
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to practice the application of the taught methods. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the first run of the
course is held online, which was originally not intended. Therefore, the theoretical input is presented
with the help of a MOODLE-based (Moodle Contributors,2020) learning platform, the actual course is
held using video communication and visual collaboration tools. In the upcoming semesters, the intention
is to teach the course in presence as planned. However, the experience gained in digital teaching can be
further used, for example, to provide instructional videos for the preparation of the modules.
3 THE COURSE “UMWELTGERECHTE PRODUKTENTWICKLUNG”
3.1 University and Chair
The Ruhr-University Bochum is one of the largest universities in Germany with over 42,000 enrolled
students (Ruhr-Universität Bochum,2020). The Chair of Product Development (LPE) at the Faculty
of Mechanical Engineering educates engineering students in the subjects product development, design,
mechatronics and biomechanics. The LPE pursues the goal of training creative “problem solvers”, who
are able to analyze and abstract complex challenges with conflicting objectives (e.g. cost, time, qual-
ity, ecology) and to develop innovative solutions. To further support the education of students beyond
the classical engineering topics, the chair has therefore successfully applied for the project “EcoING -
Entwicklung und Umsetzung einer Ecodesign-Lernfabrik für die universitäre Ingenieurausbildung”
(Development and implementation of an Ecodesign Learning Factory for the university engineering
education) at the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU).
3.2 Development
The goal of the project EcoING is the development and implementation of an Ecodesign Learning Fac-
tory within a new course called “Umweltgerechte Produktentwicklung” (environmentally compatible
product development). The course targets the objective to enable students from the degree programs
Mechanical Engineering (MB) and Sales Engineering and Product Management (SEPM) to improve
ecological product properties without technically or economically impairing the products, within an
innovative educational concept. The quintessence is the transfer of the concept of a learning factory
(see Section 3.4) to the field of sustainable product development. The learning environment of the
learning factory allows students to gain essential environmentally relevant skills and competencies in a
problem-oriented manner within realistic settings. Due to the novelty and unique character of the learn-
ing factory for the area of product development, it is not possible to simply rely on standardized learning
environments. A new concept must include the specific settings of the course, the need for the course,
the prerequisites of the target group, the knowledge and the skills that should be taught, the time and
financial resources and the context in which the course takes place(Niegemann,2018). In addition to the
planning and design, the implementation and the evaluation regarding the learning outcomes must be a
part of the approach applied in the project. The established concept of instructional design according to
(Seel,1999) serves as a scientific basis for the conception of the learning environment of this course.
Instructional design (or didactic design) is a didactic science discipline that researches and teaches how
learning environments should be systematically designed on the basis of empirically founded theories
and findings (Niegemann,2018). The elements of instructional design are illustrated in Figure 2.
3.3 Learning Outcomes and Assessment
To derive the required competences for the development of Ecodesign products beyond domain specific
know-how (such as life cycle assessment) a literature analysis of the competences needed for product
development, sustainable development and Ecodesign (in comparison with a widely used competence
model) was conducted (Kattwinkel and Bender,2020). The findings in the literature study are supported
by interviews with representatives from the industry and well as members of the German-wide network
of the Scientific Society for Product Development (WiGeP). In addition, the professional competences
and the technical know-how are derived from another literature study, in which different procedure
models and approaches are analyzed to identify the relevant knowledge and capabilities for the imple-
mentation and use of environmentally compatible product development. The derivation of the final
competences and the formulation of learning outcomes for the course is still ongoing. The preliminary
central learning outcomes can be summarized as follows:
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