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The environmental, nutritional, and socio-economic issues in the globalised agro-industrial food system are at the center of political agendas, reform programmes, and sustainable curriculums in higher education institutions to accelerate the sustainability transition of food sociotechnical systems. Despite the societal importance of these issues there is little proposals aiming to address sustainable development goals in food science and engineering curriculums. However, promoting project-based learning by students on how to develop eco-designed business models and eco-innovated food products seem to be an essential lever for the sustainability transition. This paper describes how a consortium of French agri-food engineering colleges implemented sustainable development goals via the governmental Idefi-EcoTrophelia programme. Through two cases, we show how the students used engineering and managerial knowledge to eco-design business models and to develop entrepreneurial capabilities to establish green ventures to commercialise their innovation. To analyse these projects we propose a sustainable business model canvas that describes the processes through which food eco-innovations were developed and transferred from the research institutions to industries and consumers. This model facilitates understanding how the sustainable development goals transform food sociotechnical systems to create societal values., [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to report on how programme directors address sustainability within engineering education at Swedish universities and engineering colleges. Design/methodology/approach: The study was performed as a survey with follow-up interviews around the following core questions: to what extent do programme directors possess a deep understanding of the subject of sustainable development? Which are the core competencies in sustainable development that programme directors identify as important for their engineering students to acquire during their basic training? To what extent are those competencies integrated into engineering education today and what kind of support do programme directors receive from their department to integrate these competencies into the curriculum? Findings: Programme directors believe that learning for sustainable development is important mainly based on their personal convictions. However, out of 10 potential learning objectives extracted from the literature, only four-six are implemented in degree programmes. Learning objectives and activities are not always aligned, as students are required to learn about interdisciplinary collaboration without working with students from other faculties. The programme directors receive some support from the department, but they express a need for additional support. Examples of support that they suggest are faculty training, efficient teaching material and incorporation of sustainability in the quality assessment instruments for degree programmes. Originality/value: This study is the first comprehensive, national survey of what programme directors think about sustainability in higher education. Their views are important in the attempt to accelerate the integration of sustainability in higher education curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a report titled "Sustainability in Engineering Education and Research at U.S. Universities," by researcher Cynthia F. Murphy and colleagues. The focus of the study was to investigate how well the principles of Green Engineering, which is engineering for sustainability, have been incorporated into engineering education and research. In December 2003, "Environmental Science & Technology" published a special issue on these principles, using a framework that paralleled the 12 principles of green chemistry. Topics include findings from the benchmark effort in two major categories such as courses, course modules, and curricula, and the amount of money allocated to research in sustainable engineering.

The work provides guidelines for instructors who wish to incorporate green engineering concepts into a typical non-green engineering course without diluting course content or modifying the course syllabus by identifying 5 critical elements necessary to the successful integration of green engineering concepts into any traditional, design-oriented, non-green engineering course. The 5 critical elements result from the assessment of the incorporation of green engineering concepts into a traditional, design and analysis oriented heat transfer course offered to chemical engineering students in the fall semester of their junior year. This work not only incorporates the instructor's assessment of the newly greened course but also assessment of the same course by a student task force. This work includes portions of the instructor's assessment, the student task force's independent assessment of the course as well as the task force's assessment of the instructor's proposed modifications to the course. Even though this study focuses on green engineering as it relates to heat transfer, the assessment and suggestions are relevant to all non-green engineering courses that attempt to integrate green engineering topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the need for sustainable energy engineering degrees and the problems found in establishing appropriate curricula contents. Proposals are made for developing adapted energy engineering degrees. Relevant contents are provided for these curricula, which should train engineers to deal with current and future problems. This need for updated curricula is established in view of the paradigm shift taking place in the energy sector, which includes a considerable increase in renewable energies and the need to radically address sustainability issues. A detailed description of potential contents is presented, which is supported by a critical review of the existing literature. Three parallel issues may lead to the identification of new contents. First, new contents may arise from the identification of changes in conventional energy engineering education. Such changes result from the increasing relevance of unconventional energy systems and of energy management issues. Second, new contents may arise from the need to include sustainability topics in engineering degrees. Third, new contents may become relevant when focusing on underserved regions and energy poverty niches, in view of the need for specific alternative technologies for those conditions. Once a detailed description of curricula contents is made, an analysis of a sample of current curricula in higher education institutions, based on the relative content weight of the main modules, is presented. The analysis shows a clear lack of consensus on the appropriate contents for energy engineering, an insufficiency of sustainability topics, and an absence, when dealing with underserved regions, of addressing the need for appropriate, affordable, and sustainable technologies. Certain proposals are made to address these problems. • Alternatives are discussed for coherent degrees on sustainable energy engineering. • Contents on fundamentals, renewables, management, and sustainability are discussed. • Content weights of a sample of current degrees are analyzed, showing poor coherence. • Current degrees lack contents on sustainability, management and even on renewables. • Affordable and sustainable solutions for energy poverty are seldom addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]