Strengthening Sustainability in Engineering Education Through Collective Action: SEFI SIG Sustainability Workshop 2025

Invited Workshop Recommended citation: Sundman, J., Vonk, C., Guerra, A., & Baier, A. (2025). Strengthening Sustainability in Engineering Education Through Collective Action: SEFI SIG Sustainability Workshop 2025. In Kangaslampi, R., Langie, G., Järvinen, H.-M., & Nagy, B. (Eds.), SEFI 53rd Annual Conference. European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), Tampere, Finland. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17631717. This Conference Paper is brought to you for open access by the 53rd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) at Tampere University in Tampere, Finland. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License. Strengthening sustainability in engineering education through collective action: SEFI SIG Sustainability workshop 2025 J Sundman a, C Vonk b, A Guerra c, A Baier d1 a Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, 0000-0003-2590-632X b TU Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, 0009-0009-6641-1551 c Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, 0000-0003-0800-4164 d TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 0000-0002-4382-5788 Conference Key Areas: Sustainability and society in engineering Keywords: sustainability, collaboration, collective action ABSTRACT Addressing sustainability in engineering education calls for collective action, community-building, and knowledge sharing across institutional contexts. The SEFI special interest group (SIG) Sustainability provides a platform for this exchange, yet as a relatively young initiative, its potential for broader impact remains underdeveloped. This workshop invites educators, students, researchers, and collaborators to co-create practical strategies that strengthen the reach and effectiveness of the SIG. Participants will reflect on their roles, share experiences and aspirations, and form small “action committees” around shared interests. Each group will identify concrete steps to implement over the coming year in areas such as teaching, research, practice, and outreach. The workshop is open to participants with varying levels of experience in sustainability education and emphasizes participation and peer exchange. The results will inform future SIG activities and support a more coordinated approach to advancing sustainability in engineering education. 1 SEFI Special Interest Group (SIG) on Sustainability. A Baier - Co-Chair [email protected] 1 BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE The SEFI special interest group (SIG) Sustainability provides a platform for individuals across the SEFI community to advance sustainability in engineering education through shared principles and diverse perspectives. However, as a relatively young SIG, its full potential for greater collective action and impact remains underutilized. Building upon the previous SIG workshops on strategies to integrate sustainability in engineering education, this session will stimulate discussion on and identification of practical, actionable measures that the participants can implement through their own circle of influence. Ultimately, the workshop contributes to a more coordinated and impactful approach to sustainability in engineering education across diverse institutional contexts. 2 WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES 2.1 Target audience This workshop is relevant to all educators, students, researchers, curriculum developers and external collaborators with an interest towards advocating sustainability within engineering education either as individuals or along with others. The workshop is open to participants with varying levels of prior experience in sustainability education, from those exploring the topic for the first time to those with established expertise. 2.2 Expected learning outcomes The overarching aim of the workshop is to co-create strategies to enhance the impact and outreach of SIG Sustainability. More specifically, the workshop aims: ● to reflect on personal opportunities to contribute to sustainability education ● to get to know all participants with regard to their institutional and professional background and interest in sustainability in engineering education ● to exchange ideas within the SIG community on a. why they (want to) engage in sustainability in engineering education, b. how they are are already doing so, c. what is desirable for them in this field, and d. how they would want to engage to fulfill their needs ● to form small “action committees” according to a topic of participants’ interests and to identify concrete steps which they want to implement in the next 12 months ● to share and invite others to join actionable initiatives that advance sustainability in engineering education across research, practice, teaching, and community engagement 3 WORKSHOP DESIGN 3.1 Time plan The run time of the workshop is 60 minutes and is structured around the “me-we-us” framework, where participants first reflect on themselves individually (“me”), then share and build ideas in small groups (“we”), and finally co-create actions as a SIG (“us”). In practice, participants will get to know each other through an interactive ice-breaker, identify shared interests and needs to form thematic groups, and collaboratively develop one actionable idea per group for the Sustainability SIG. The group work is supported by the “how might we” method - a collaborative framing tool that turns shared needs and interests into concrete solutions for the SIG community. The workshop concludes with the presentation of the initiatives and agreeing on the next steps for each of them. Minutes Activity Details 0-10 Introduction and round of introduction The facilitators introduce the Sustainability SIG and share the general outline and purpose of the workshop. Each participant states in two sentences who they are and why they engage in the field of sustainability in engineering education. 10-25 Ice-breaker / Speed dating Speed dating by all participants to get to know other colleagues in the field and explore common interests 25-30 Cluster forming Identify shared topics of interest and form groups 30-50 Work on cluster topics in groups The formed groups are instructed to summarize their needs for the Sustainability SIG community, based on which they will design one actionable item for the SIG using the “how might we” method. The groups identify concrete measures which they would like to do in the next 12 months. 50-60 Wrap-up Each group shares in the plenary their plans for the community and what actions/measures they want to implement. The workshop leaders call for a follow up in the next online SIG meeting. 3.2 Interactivity This one hour workshop is designed as a collaborative, inclusive and participatory session where participants co-create actionable initiatives for the SIG Sustainability. 4 WORKSHOP RESULTS The workshop outcomes will be actionable and concrete measures to follow up in the SIG in the next 12 months with regard to research, practices, teaching and community outreach. The next online SIG meeting will be used to update and further elaborate on the implementation of these outcomes.