Wow, what a week! After 1 week in sheer isolation with other colleague-students on the island of Texel I can look back on a great week. Together we experienced successes and went through highs and lows and ended the week with a (literal) fantastic product.
This week not only contributed to my knowledge about socio-technical sub-systems and the way how to changes these. It was also a week in which I got introduced to a lot of other sustainable engineers, who had inspiring ideas and visions of what they wanted to become or contribute to a more sustainable world.
This week also contributed to my understanding of the pathway to become a more ‘hands-on sustainable engineer’ (see column week 1). During the past 10 weeks of this course I was convinced that the qualification of a ‘hands-on sustainable engineer’ could or should include: Creating Awareness, changing Attitude and Act accordingly.
During the last week in Texel, I realised that this triple-A approach should be extended by two other factors: A quintuple-A approach that includes: Ability and Actors around you.
First Ability. This factor is all about the chooses people can make in their daily lifestyle. In order to make these chooses more sustainable, one has to have several options to choose from. This is not always case: For instance, during the bubble-week there was no option offered to separate organic and inorganic waste or choose a non-plastic dishes for soup or yoghurt. Hence even all the sustainability minded students were merely forced to act in a less environmentally friendly way as they would normally do.. The ability to act in a sustainable way was not presented.
A second addition to the triple-A approach is the A of Actors around you. Although even when people are able, aware and have the attitude to act in a sustainable way, one factor is crucial and that is your environment or the actors around you. Last week I experienced a lot of willingness around me to act in a sustainable way: nobody complaint about using public transport, riding by bike or eat vegetarian. However, in my home-environment this willingness is not always there. Social acceptance of sustainable behaviour is in my opinion key to change your lifestyle to a more ‘hands-on sustainable engineer’-way.
Incorporating this quintuple-A approach in your way of life can, in my opinion, support you in your long journey to become a ‘hands-on sustainable engineer’ (whatever that may be). I wish all readers success with pursuing this lifestyle and want to end this last column by thanking all the colleague-students and staff of the TU Delft for their support and inspiration of the last 10 weeks.