Engineers Australia

Engineers, through our Code of Ethics, have a responsibility to benefit the community by creating sustainable solutions. But this goes beyond the engineer’s professional responsibilities. Beneficiaries from sustainability can include politicians, companies, accountants, employers, employees, communities, indeed most people and most life forms. Engineers have contributed greatly to society’s current lifestyle, but by many measures the natural environment is in decline. This is despite efforts such as the United Nations goals of Sustainable Development. For example: • Over the past few hundred years, it is estimated that humans have been responsible for up to a thousand times more extinctions than the natural rate. • Global warming has already reached 0.9°C, is on track to reach 1.5°C even if we stop all further CO2 equivalent emissions today, and is likely to reach 4°C by 2100, based on current predictions.