Integrating sustainability into engineering education to protect and improve our planet and lives

About EOP

Engineering for One Planet (EOP) is an initiative to transform engineering education to reflect the growing importance of sustainability in all engineering functions. Catalyzed by The Lemelson Foundation and VentureWell — in collaboration with hundreds of sustainability advocates across sectors, geographies, and lived experiences  — EOP seeks to ensure all future engineers across all disciplines learn the fundamental skills and principles of social and environmental sustainability.

The EOP Framework

The EOP Framework is a cornerstone of the EOP initiative, the first of its kind to guide coursework, teaching tools, and student experiences that define what it means to be an engineer who is equipped to protect and improve our planet and our lives. It provides faculty with a vetted menu of competencies aligned to ABET accreditation standards that every graduating engineer, regardless of subdiscipline, needs to acquire to design, code, build, and implement solutions that are socially and environmentally sustainable.

Co-created by a community of hundreds of experts from a range of identities, lived experiences, geographies, and sectors — including academia, industry, nonprofit, government, and philanthropy — the Framework was designed to be widely adaptable and adoptable by engineering faculty and administrators. It was launched in 2020, piloted in 2020-2021, and updated in 2022 to better reflect diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice principles and topics of social sustainability.

The EOP Community

The EOP initiative mobilizes a growing international community of hundreds of collaborators and advocates who have the expertise and leadership to institute systemic change in engineering education, including stakeholders from academia — including students, faculty, and administrators — industry, philanthropy, government, and nonprofits. Learn about ways to get involved here.

Engineering Faculty Share Five Ideas on How to Incorporate EOP Framework into Curricula

VentureWell hosted a webinar in September 2023 featuring a panel of five faculty members who shared how they are incorporating the EOP Framework into their 2023-2024 classrooms and programs.

Sustainability in the Future of Design Education – ScienceDirect

This 2023 journal article, Sustainability in the Future of Design Education, includes recommendations for integrating sustainability in design education, including the Engineering for One Planet tools.

EOP June 2023 Newsletter

Read the latest EOP updates and opportunities.

New Report Highlights Key Learnings from EOP’s Pilot Grant Program

A synopsis of EOP’s trailblazing grantee program showcases diverse approaches to implementing sustainability into engineering curricula.

ASEE Features EOP Mini-Grant Program in Prism Magazine

The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) examines the results of the program’s efforts to incentivize integration of environmental and social sustainability into engineering courses.

ASEE Awards 14 Grants to Infuse Sustainability in Engineering Education

The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) announced the 14 awardees of its second cohort in the Engineering for One Planet Mini-Grants Program (EOP-MGP), supported by The Lemelson Foundation. Teams of educators from diverse engineering programs will each be awarded $8,000 to pursue new ways to integrate sustainability into their programs.

Faculty Present Different Approaches to Implementing the EOP Framework

At a virtual convening of the EOP Network in February 2023, faculty members from four higher education institutions shared their experiences implementing the EOP Framework at their respective schools.

ECL-USA Virtual Summit Explores the Need for Sustainability in Engineering Education

Engineering for One Planet (EOP) partnered with Engineering Change Lab-USA (ECL-USA) to present a virtual summit exploring the importance of integrating sustainability into engineering education, titled Scanning the Horizon of Engineering Education: The Sustainability Imperative. The summit was sponsored by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and also presented in collaboration with ABET and Olin College of Engineering.

EOP February 2023 Newsletter

In our winter 2023 update: Announcing new EOP teaching tools and expanded website; Check out EOP at an event near you; Announcing our new EOP Network Manager; EOP Presentation Toolkit: Be an ambassador; New Findings from EOP Trailblazers: How to Integrate Sustainability Into College Engineering Curricula; “We Are Engineering for One Planet”: Join us as a signatory!

The Lemelson Foundation Awards Grants to Five Universities to Accelerate Environmentally and Socially Conscious Engineering

Five academic institutions representing a geographic mix of public and private universities across the United States have been selected to pilot the Framework for the Engineering for One Planet (EOP) initiative, designed to instill social and environmental principles across all disciplines of engineering education.

Contact Us

For more information or questions about the EOP initiative, contact us.