Cambridge University Engineering Department: News item

Professor Charles Ainger, Dr Heather Cruickshank,
President of ICE, Quentin Leiper, Dr Dick Fenner,
Professor Peter Guthrie

A sustainable framework for engineers
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Dr Dick Fenner, Dr Heather Cruickshank, Professor Peter Guthrie from the Department's Centre for Sustainable Development and former visiting Professor Charles Ainger (Head of Sustainable Development for MWH (Europe)) were recently presented with the George Stephenson Gold Medal by the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Quentin Leiper, at the ICE Awards ceremony in London. The medal was awarded for the second best paper overall in the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers for 2006.

The title of the paper is: "Widening engineering horizons: addressing the complexity of sustainable development" and it is intended to help practising civil engineers answer the question "Am I being sustainable?" during different phases of project delivery. This is achieved through a set of questions based around an 8 point framework (shown in the diagram) which can be applied during the design, construction and operation of an engineering project. The value of the questions is tested against a case history of a wastewater treatment project and their use leads to the consideration of a wider problem boundary than that traditionally adopted by civil engineers.

The George Stephenson Medal was instituted by the council of the ICE in 1881 and is one of the Institutions most prestigious awards for best papers published in the Proceedings.

The full reference for the paper is: Fenner R.A., Ainger C.A., Cruickshank H.J., Guthrie P. (2006) Widening horizons for engineers: addressing the complexity of Sustainable Development. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Engineering Sustainability Journal , Volume 159 ES4 pp 145-154.

Update: The team from the Centre for Sustainable Development delivered a prestige lecture at the Institution of Civil Engineers on 24 September 2008, based on the award winning paper: Widening Engineering Horizons: addressing the complexity of sustainable development. Dick Fenner, Charles Ainger, Heather Cruickshank and Peter Guthrie reviewed their original document in order to provide a reflection on how the paper has been updated since its publication in December 2006. In addition the application of the paper's 8 point framework to new case studies was presented and feedback on the framework's use from practitioners and non-engineering professional groups was reported. The event was chaired by Professor Chris Rogers from Birmingham University and attended by an audience of 130 people as well as being watched by a similar number over a live internet web-cast.

"Widening engineering horizons: addressing the complexity of sustainable development" lecture slides can be downloaded as a 1.9 MB PowerPoint presentation here. The lecture can also be heard here.

	Department of Engineering