Sustaining engineering codes of ethics for the twenty-first century

Area of Science:

• Engineering Ethics
• Sustainable Development
• Social Justice

Background:

• Current US engineering codes of ethics do not equate sustainability with public safety, health, and welfare.
• Existing ethical frameworks lack explicit consideration of social justice as a core engineering principle.

Purpose of the Study:

• Advocate for including sustainability in the paramountcy clause of engineering ethics.
• Demonstrate that sustainability is essential for ensuring public safety, health, and welfare.
• Highlight the role of social justice in sustainable engineering practices.

Main Methods:

• Analyzing current engineering codes of ethics in the United States.
• Developing arguments for the inclusion of social justice within sustainability principles.
• Examining the relationship between social justice, inter-generational equity, and intra-generational equity in engineering.

Main Results:

• Sustainability is a prerequisite for long-term public safety, health, and welfare.
• Social justice, encompassing fair distribution of social goods, is a critical but often overlooked design constraint in sustainable engineering.
• Integrating sustainability and social justice into ethical codes can elevate the engineer's role.

Conclusions:

• Sustainability must be elevated to a paramount concern in engineering ethics, on par with public safety, health, and welfare.
• Explicitly incorporating social justice, including inter- and intra-generational equity, is vital for true sustainable development.
• Revising engineering ethics and curricula to reflect these principles will foster engineers as public intellectuals and agents of social good.