Abstract:
Civil engineers play a critical role in the planning and design of the built environment around. As a
result, they wield enormous influence over the use of earth’s natural resources. At this pivotal juncture of
increased globalization and accelerated, widespread economic development, demand for earth’s natural
resources and the impact of development on our ecosystem are increasing rapidly. This is creating an
unsustainable scenario, and therefore, it is imperative for educators to prepare the future engineering workforce
to become stewards of a sustainable global society. This paper presents some reflections of the author based on
experience from developing and teaching a course titled “Material Systems for Sustainable Design” as part of a
civil engineering curriculum. The overarching course objective is to provide students with the knowledge on
sustainability and create an awareness of the tools that are both available and needed to apply sustainable
material selection practices in their future design work.
