Course details

Overview ?

Why Choose this Course?

This course provides insight into how engineering might change and how engineers can think differently about sustainability within their organisations, and about the challenges posed by ‘unsustainability’. It will enable participants to identify organisational risks and engineering changes required to increase organisational resilience, and to build prosperity, stability and security.

Future presents challenges and opportunities for engineers interested in sustainability and in achieving the capacity for long term continuity. Energy systems will look very different due to the impacts of constrained resources on nearly all aspects of life. Climate change also forces a consideration of different approaches to engineered systems.

This course will feature:

Historical context of Sustainability, Unsustainability, and Energy systems
Key challenges, risks and future scenarios for participants own organisations
Fundamentals of the “Transition Engineering” approach
Engineering tools for Transition Engineering
Opportunities presented by sustainability for your own organisation

What are the Goals?

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Articulate and evaluate key sustainability challenges to their own organisation
Apply the Transition Engineering process to organisations or activities
Identify business risks of unsustainable activities and external trends
Evaluate the costs and benefits of transition products and services
Use strategic analysis to develop business opportunities

Who is this Course for?

This course is suitable to a wide range of technical professionals but will greatly benefit:

Those who are involved at any level in functions of engineering, quality or environmental management, or in any energy-dependent functions of the organisation
Engineering and Technical Personnel involved in energy management, product development, logistics, procurement, transportation and energy efficiency.

How will this be Presented?

This course uses a variety of proven learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension and retention of the information presented. This includes a course manual, suggested reading before and after the course, tutor presentations, individual and group exercises, video, group discussion and homework, and workshop of guided problem-solving for the participant’s own organisations

The course will be highly interactive and will challenge delegates to think differently about sustainability and to change their frame of reference to transition. The tutor will facilitate and guide delegates to apply the learning, and their understanding of their own organisations, to synthesize solutions to old and new problems.

The Course Content

Day One

Introduction and historical background of Sustainability and Unsustainability

Sustainability; the capacity for continuity into the long term future
Safe operating spaces and “unsustainability”
The importance of energy in human systems
Historical background to current global challenges
Historical responses to un-sustainability
Overview of global problems of unsustainability

Day Two

Future Scenarios and Introduction to Transition Engineering

EX The unsustainability challenges facing my organisation.
Examples and use of future scenarios
The challenge of energy return on energy invested (EROI)
The problem of exponential growth
The relative usefulness of existing future scenarios for my organisation
Introduction to the Transition Engineering approach

Day Three

Engineering, Change, and thinking differently

The role and responsibility of engineers in the change process
Path break concepts; envisioning a sustainable future
Sustainable models for economic activity and capital
Achieving resilience to external change
Examples of organisations that have made path-break changes for sustainability
Back-casting – working out how to get to where you want to be

Day Four

Making it happen - planning a program of change

System thinking for change towards sustainability
The survival spectrum
Sustainability Principles - The Natural Step
Value Analysis
Creating a vision of future success
Trigger Events – external and internal events that help avoid undesirable inertia