"Implementing Engineers Australia Code of Ethics: Promote Engineering Sustainability to meet crucial UN SDGs in the context of Nepal"
AMIT POKHREL, M.S, MIEAust, P.E
Professional Engineer | Executive Advisory Commitee Member and Assessor-Fast Infra Label | Contract Manager-Hydropower, Solar and Construction | Construction Supervision | Project Controls | CAPM?
Implementing Engineers Australia Code of Ethics: Promote Engineering Sustainability to meet crucial UN Sustainable Development Goals in the Context of Nepal
To advance the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), engineers now have a clear agenda about their roles and responsibility in helping emerging cities and communities live more sustainably. There are 17 SDGs followed by the nations which were adopted by all UN Member States declared in 2015 as part of an emergent call for action by all countries-developed and developing-in a global collaboration.
The SDGs address many global impacts including climate change, environmental degradation, inequality, poverty, prosperity, peace, and justice. Therefore, Professional Engineers have a significant role to meet sustainability. They work to enhance welfare, health, and safety, with the minimal use of natural resources and paying attention to the environment and the sustainability of the resources.
Professional engineers are the providers of better options and solutions to maximize social value and minimize the environmental impact. There are some pressing challenges due to the adverse effects of environmental pollution, depletion of resources, rapid population growth, and damage to our ecosystems. Therefore, professional engineers are required to take a wider perspective including sustainable development goals.
Therefore, engineering skills are the utmost necessity and are in demand which includes clean water and sanitation for all (Goal 6), availability of sustainable energy sources (Goal 7), and creating strong and resilient infrastructure (Goal 9) and liveable cities (Goal 11). Fortunately, there are other goals such as responsible consumption and production (Goal 12) or quality education (Goal 4) that will also deepen key engineering skills even if this is not immediately obvious for the society in future.
The key principle of the Engineer’s Australia Code of Ethics mainly focuses on demonstrating the ability, to practice competently by exercising the leadership role to promote sustainability to foster the health, safety, and well-being of the community and the environment to balance the needs of the present with the needs of the future generations in identifying sustainable outcomes consider all options in terms of their economic, environmental and social consequences and aim to deliver outcomes that do not compromise the ability of future life to enjoy the same or better environment, health, wellbeing and safety as currently enjoyed.
With such a comprehensive scope, the engineering community shall think and act now to reach the major key milestones and unite to eradicate some of the most worlds severe problems. We are engineers with different backgrounds working all over the world in different sectors with experiences in managing all kinds of projects where many communities think about how engineers help the world to reach these key goals without reacting to overcome such critical issues which have affected globally due to climate change and environmental degradation even other critical factors can cause severe impacts to the global community.
We do not have a common platform to share regional and geographic ideas and was never implemented for better outcomes mostly in a country like Nepal even though we talk a lot about ethics and social responsibility which are only aligned in paper terminology. We need to ensure that we have to take such an approach in our community to make it self-sustainable for which we need to uplift from the regional level to establish the greater community to foster economic growth to empower the use of sustainable means where skills are the key factor for the future generations.
There is a variety of ways to resolute the solutions which shall be one of the best practices to influence through knowledge sharing, policymaking, and upgrading policy reforms to focus on terms of addressing the sustainable development goals. Our Professional Engineers and our intellectual minds shall be utilized in reforming societies to address the potential problems which are the current threat to human civilization and the global environment.
Being a Professional Engineer and member of the professional engineer from the Institution of Engineers Australia, my first and foremost duty is to govern and follow the Engineer’s Australia Code of Ethics to foster and promote sustainability.
There is a remarkable achievement in recent years in terms of fostering economic growth and revenue generation in Nepal as most of the developers have focused on energy sectors to support social imbalance, and poverty alleviation by creating lots of opportunities for the socially affected areas based on the SDGs modality. Being professional members, we are aware that sustainability is part of the Engineer’s Australia Code of Ethics.
The Code of Ethics asks all Engineers to engage responsibly with the community and other stakeholders, practice engineering to foster the health, safety, and well-being of the community and the Environment” and “balance the needs of the present with the needs of future generations”.
In the present context in Nepal, we have practiced the sustainability issues based on the IFC Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability to foster and sustain the hydropower development in Nepal. To further encourage engineers to understand their key responsibilities and continue to enhance sustainability, we shall need to step fast to balance our community on implementing development ideology to identify the gaps between environmental, social, and economic conditions to suppress the inequality and social disparities to push and encourage new generations to meet their needs by encouraging them involved in developing a strategy which targets all the liveable regions to address the important key of the SDGs so that we can build a better society.
领英推荐
However, the trend of globalization differs in different geographic and regional areas where globalization brings an important opportunity for professional engineers to promote many aspects of experiences and good practice. The leadership role of engineers in achieving sustainability should not be underestimated.
It is the engineers who construct and execute their professional ideology through their detailed designs which are sustainable by nature. It is the engineer's ideology that develops without compromising the quality of life for future generations. Sustainable development stands on two concepts, needs and limitations imposed by the state of technology and the present and future demands.
Professional Engineers have a responsibility to maximize the value of their activity towards building a sustainable world which also plays an important role in identifying zones of opportunity and monitoring progress toward SDG Goal 6 by collecting data for the agreed indicators and processing and analyzing data sets to provide actionable insight on progress.
Engineers should also effectively communicate the information produced by the data to politicians and government officials to ensure that decision-making is data-driven. Therefore, engineers have the responsibility to explain often complex Water issues in easily understood terms and help the general public trust science.
Furthermore, engineers also play a crucial role in understanding both energy and water needs to help close the gap between the financial and implementation.
Today’s development challenges are dynamic, interconnected puzzles of multidimensional risk that require systemic solutions. Multilateral cooperation is vital in addressing these shared challenges that cross the boundaries of geography and time. No country has yet achieved the combination of very high human development with a light ecological footprint. The impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss are growing. In this complex, uncertain landscape, the SDGs and the Paris Agreement offer clarity of purpose and a way forward. Delivering results at the speed and scale needed to reach Agenda 2030 depends on close partnerships with a diverse range of actors working towards common goals where professional engineering also facilitates international cooperation contributing to the revitalization of global partnerships for sustainable development (SDG 17).
I believe that professional engineers will only be able to contribute meaningfully to the achievement of SDG Goal 6 if they employ a human rights-based approach. In conclusion, professional engineering can be viewed as an accelerator in the effort to achieve the objectives of SDG Goal 6 which will create an opportunity to learn from our experience, to do things differently, and to aspire to greater shared goals.
We use our knowledge and skills for the benefit of the community to create engineering solutions for a sustainable future. As members of Engineers Australia, we commit to practice by Engineers Australia’s General Regulations regarding competency, continuing professional development, and the Code of Ethics.
Reference