Sustainable Engineering

To prevent extreme weather events like the bushfires we’ve seen in Australia and now California, as well as rising sea levels, warmer temperatures and the depletion of food and water, we must rethink how we use our natural resources.

Sustainable engineering is a field dedicated to delivering low-energy design projects in the built environment. It focuses on finding ways that promote sustainable models of production and consumption, and has diverse applications in all areas of life. 

In this episode, Tom is joined by Professor Michele John and Associate Professor Wahidul Biswas. Michele is Director of the Sustainable Engineering Group at Curtin and Wahidul is an Associate Professor in Curtin’s School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering.

• What is sustainable engineering? [01:10]
• Current sustainable engineering projects [03:00]
• What will happen if we don’t embrace sustainable engineering? [05:46]
• Can developing nations afford to embrace sustainable engineering? [07:40]
• Is sustainable engineering expensive? [09:40]
• What are some of the roadblocks? [12.20]
• Could Australia become a world leader in this space? [13:50]
• What can individuals do? [16:40]

Learn more

• Professor Michele John
• Associate Professor Wahidul Biswas
• Sustainable Engineering Group
• SEG research focus
• A call to action for engineers on climate change
• 10 advancements in environmental engineering
• Top 5 sustainable buildings in Australia
• Climate change and coronavirus: Five charts about the biggest carbon crash

Got any questions, or suggestions for future topics?

Email [email protected].

Curtin University supports academic freedom of speech. The views expressed in The Future Of podcast may not reflect those of the university.

Music: OKAY by 13ounce Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Music promoted by Audio Library

You can read the full transcript for the episode here.