Connections Between Chemical Engineering Principles and Sustainable Development – A Delphi Study

Engineers are crucial to operating a sustainable society. Enabling engineers to contribute to our sustainable society requires Engineering Education for Sustainable Development, including both generalist and discipline-specific knowledge. No framework for chemical engineering-specific knowledge for sustainable development currently exists. In this study, we answer the research question, "How do chemical engineering principles and concepts contribute to meeting sustainable development challenges?". By answering this question, we aim to develop an inventory of connections between chemical engineering principles and sustainable development. Such an inventory will enable meaningful integration of sustainable development into existing chemical engineering curricula. We employed the Delphi methodology to answer this research question with three survey rounds involving 18 participants across three participant groups. Ninety-six unique connections between chemical engineering principles and sustainable development were identified, and their importance was rated. Sixty-six of those were included in the inventory. Connections for three principles (Systems Thinking, Design, and Separations) are discussed.