James Trevelyan

Most work on zero-energy buildings has focused on wealthier countries. While these countries urgently need reduce emissions, there also needs to be a focus on the Global South with different social cultures, economic conditions, climate and buildings. South Asia may dominate future energy and greenhouse emissions because of energy demand for cooling. A large proportion of the South Asian population are living and working in conditions beyond human physiological limits, resulting in low productivity, hindering economic development. Replacement of the existing building stock with ‘energy-efficient’ buildings is unlikely to be economically feasible. Localized cooling and heating offers large energy reductions compared with space cooling and heating while providing similar human comfort. Concentrating the cooling effect of an air conditioner, creating a small microclimate instead of cooling an entire space, allows occupants to enjoy comfort with substantially less energy. Commercial products are already available, and they provide significant economic savings and health benefits. These technologies can help to greatly reduce future South Asian energy requirements and avoid emissions that would occur if existing buildings were to be replaced. Widespread application of this technology could help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and boost human productivity.

This special issue on early career engineers responds to a key challenge in engineering education – that of bringing the largely separate worlds of engineering education and engineering practice cl...

Transition from education to practice can be troublesome for many early-career engineers because expectations, habitual work practices and values tend to conflict with realities of engineering workplaces. Emerging technologies referred to as ‘Industry 4.0’ or the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ have prompted many to argue for students to develop improved socio-technical skills. Understandings of practice emerging from contemporary research could help educators shape a new generation of engineers with more appropriate abilities to restore global productivity growth and transform economies to eliminate greenhouse emissions in a short enough time to limit human-induced global warming. However, so far, explicit curriculum reforms addressing graduate attributes and workplace skills have not resulted in significant employability improvements. This paper argues that assessment practices and curriculum gaps may be acting as an implied or hidden curriculum shaping student expectations and values. This paper proposes ways to overcome these curriculum deficits in higher education institutions and also workplace education interventions. These changes could help educate engineers about productivity improvement, commercial and social value generation, business requirements and entrepreneurship. Changes like these will be needed to achieve sustainable development goals, especially in developing countries.