The Importance of a Sustainability Education
By Saron Yoseph, VSC Intern
Before my freshman year at Howard University, I changed my major from chemistry to chemical engineering. Many were confused as to why I would switch to such a hard major. But that’s not what mattered to me – what I wanted to learn about was how I could impact my community and change it for the better. I saw chemical engineers as problem solvers. And with the knowledge I would gain as an undergraduate, I could make the true impact I aspired to.
As a young adult, I didn’t truly understand the impact of vinyl on my everyday life and how it could solve so many problems. Going into this internship with the Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC), I naively thought that the most we could talk about were plastic bottles and plastic bags, but there is so much more to vinyl than that.
On my first day there was one thought that kept going through my head: who knew sustainability was this interesting! I wondered how much sustainability was intertwined with some of the concepts that I learned in my engineering classes.
Throughout my education, I’ve learned many ways to improve a process or product, and now I’m interested in investigating sustainability development and improving processes and products without compromising longevity. It’s easy to prioritize the efficiency of a process, but we also need to look at its long-term cost in our lives. Is this making our lives better? Can I improve on this?
As the importance of sustainability continues to be emphasized, it’s important that future engineers learn why it’s needed and how to apply it to the work they do. As engineers, we always want to make processes and products better and have a stronger impact on the community – and this should include considering the sustainability impacts. With a greater sustainability knowledge, it will help us grow economically, while also protecting our communities and environments.
Just look at PVC: vinyl is often more sustainable to manufacture than other alternatives; it’s built to last; and it solves problems. Just one example is our nation’s crumbling water infrastructure. Older municipal water pipes, made from cast iron, ductile iron, or other metals are well past their service life and are failing, which is leaking billions of gallons of water annually. But PVC provides a solution. Replacing or lining the inside of these pipes with PVC would prevent the corrosion of these water systems, in turn reducing leakage. If the infrastructure needs replacement, why not replace it with something that will last longer and leak less?
What I have learned in my short amount of time with the VSC has greatly impacted the way I think as an engineer. Sustainability is critical to consider as we problem solve and improve our communities, and I would encourage everyone to start viewing their education and profession through a sustainable lens.