Sustainable development in engineering

The main principles of sustainable development on the one hand and of sustainable engineering on the other hand are first reviewed and summarized. [...] While the most common relations are exposed in the sustainability framework, others have to be further elaborated in order to fully take into account the specificities of the various fields of engineering. [...] The purpose of this paper is to provide the engineering community, and by extension, the business community and policy makers, with a conceptual framework illustrating the relations between technical projects and society as well as environment. [...] General sustainability framework and its application to engineering The most relevant connections which are characteristic of physical and social systems are included within the framework presented in Figure 3. Physical systems are located in two overlapping spheres: the biosphere (aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems) and the anthroposphere (which encompasses the agricultural, industrial and urban [...] The expansion of the anthroposphere, in which engineering projects (Products, Infrastructures, Processes and Services or PIPS) play a significant part, increases the extent of the technical cycle.