Do engineers still move mountains? A 'new world' appraisal in light of ethics, engineering, economics & the environment

The preamble to the Washington Accord stipulates that engineering must be carried out responsibly and ethically, and be environmentally sound and sustainable. Without these criteria being met, engineering programmes will not be accredited. As a profession, engineers enjoy high social status and the privileges that flow from this; in turn engineers are expected to discharge their duties in a responsible, ethical fashion. That ethical behaviour is discussed on six separate sections in the 15-page document of the Accord¿s graduate attributes should give us cause to contemplate the importance that our profession places on ethical behaviour. This paper reviews why ethical awareness is so much a focus in the accreditation of undergraduate degrees in engineering; it then outlines a course on professional ethics that has been successfully taught for two decades in Australia, Germany and New Zealand. When initiated, this course was designed to serve the environmental engineering undergraduate but is now used in a plethora of programmes, including management and the humanities. It has also served a useful purpose in international benchmarking of the engineering curriculum. Over two decades, course handouts have evolved too - into texts, the latest of which, 4 Es: Ethics, Engineering, Economics & Environment is in its second edition. The paper then reflects upon how our profession has changed in the last few decades and whether we can, in light of environmental constraints, still contemplate the moving of mountains.