Educating Engineers for Sustainability. Why? What? How?

Sustainable development (SD) is a process which all actors of our society must be involved in to
achieve a sustainable world. Those in the engineering profession, who are among the stakeholders
involved in this path towards SD, have a key role to play. This paper analyzes the role of higher
education in graduating professionals that should lead the shift to a more sustainable future.
Specifically, the role technological universities should play is studied and WHY they should
integrate sustainability education as a core value in the engineering curricula. Then WHAT
competences, in the domains of knowledge and understanding, skills and abilities and attitudes,
should be learnt by engineering undergraduates at the universities are presented. Finally, HOW
to make the acquisition of these SD competences possible is analyzed through the pedagogical
improvement needed in existing higher education institutions.