importance of ethics in engineering essay

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Why Are Ethics Important in Engineering?

• 16 Feb 2023

Engineers are vital to shaping our world. Their decisions have far-reaching consequences—typically related to risk management. As such, it’s essential for engineers to hold themselves to a high standard.

In a survey published by the International Conference on Engineering Education (IEEE) , 92 percent of respondents said ethical issues exist in engineering and could be improved. This kind of sentiment has led companies to examine their ethical standards, particularly in relation to engineering leadership.

If you’re interested in learning about how ethics shape engineering, here’s an overview of the industry’s ethical standards, why they’re important, and the role they play in leadership.

Access your free e-book today.

What Are Engineering Ethics?

Engineering ethics are principles and guidelines engineers follow to ensure their decision-making is aligned with their obligations to the public, their clients, and the industry. The National Society of Professional Engineers’ (NSPE) code of ethics outlines the standards of ethical behavior engineers should follow in their professional lives. Those include:

• Protecting public safety
• Only performing tasks they’re qualified to do
• Being honest in public communications
• Remaining faithful and trustworthy to employers
• Acting with integrity

These principles are designed to help you, as an engineer, make ethical decisions in your work and promote responsible use of industry technologies.

7 Reasons Ethics Matter in Engineering

Trust is required between engineers and the public, which is why it’s crucial for you to understand the importance of acting ethically. Here are seven reasons why ethics matter in engineering.

1. Promotes Safety

The NSPE’s code of ethics requires you to prioritize public safety in your work.

For instance, you’re expected to notify employers and clients when their judgment is overruled because of dangerous circumstances or when documents don’t conform with applicable standards. Doing so can prevent harm to individuals and communities and ensure your work meets the highest safety and reliability standards.

In addition to ethical considerations, there’s a business case for safety in the workplace. Prioritizing safety not only protects employees and customers but also improves productivity and reduces costs associated with accidents and injuries. According to Liberty Mutual’s 2021 Workplace Safety Index , U.S. employers spend more than $1 billion per week on serious, nonfatal workplace injuries.

2. Enhances Quality

Engineering ethics are also critical to improving your quality of work. According to NSPE’s code of ethics, you should only perform tasks that closely align with your education and experience.

This is important when working toward an engineering leadership position. For instance, as an organizational leader , you’ll often manage individuals who are experts in areas you know little about. You’ll need to shift from a specialist to a generalist management style by focusing on relationships, adding value by enabling work, considering the bigger picture, and relying on executive presence. The goal is to enable specialists on your team to do their highest-quality work.

The “leader as architect” concept—discussed in the Harvard Business School Online course Organizational Leadership taught by HBS professors Anthony Mayo and Joshua Margolis—refers to your role in enabling work to happen rather than doing it yourself.

“Since leaders can’t personally make those conditions happen for each person every day across a big organization, they don the hat of the architect,” Mayo says in Organizational Leadership . “And their work is to use a set of organizational components to create and sustain motivation, competence, and coordination.”

3. Improves Public Opinion

Ethics also help improve public opinion about engineering professions.

For example, the NSPE’s code of ethics requires you to be honest in your public communications through objective, truthful statements free of private interest, deception, or misrepresentation. Honesty in public relations is crucial to building trust. It’s even more critical for you as an engineer because your decisions directly affect the public’s safety and well-being.

In an era where communication skills are increasingly valued, it’s crucial to act ethically in your interactions with the public. Doing so can help improve perceptions about the engineering industry and demonstrate your commitment to ethical, responsible behavior.

4. Safeguards the Company’s Interests

Adhering to engineering ethics can also help protect your company’s interests.

The NSPE’s code of ethics discourages you from disclosing sensitive or confidential company information without explicit consent, obtaining employment or advancement with improper methods, and unethically harming other engineers’ professional reputations.

By adhering to these principles, you can help protect your firm’s interests—as well as your team's—and ensure you contribute to its success.

5. Fosters Sustainability

Engineering ethics promote sustainability by requiring you to consider your work's long-term impact on the environment and society. Additionally, sustainability is vital to modern business because it can improve your organization’s reputation, increase growth opportunities, and boost financial performance.

If you struggle to understand sustainability's context in your role as an engineer, consider the triple bottom line , a concept that asserts businesses should go beyond financial performance and measure their social and environmental impacts. If you consider profit, people, and the planet in your daily work, you’re more likely to follow the industry’s ethical standards around sustainability.

6. Protects Other Engineers

Engineering ethics aren’t just meant to protect employers, clients, and the public. They also help protect individual engineers by discouraging all industry professionals from engaging in unethical or illegal behavior for their benefit.

The NSPE’s code of ethics specifically states that “engineers shall not attempt to obtain employment or advancement by untruthfully criticizing other engineers.” It also specifies that “engineers shall not attempt to injure, maliciously or falsely, directly or indirectly, the professional reputation, prospects, practice, or employment of other engineers.”

These guidelines are especially important when considering your team’s performance and productivity. Fostering an environment that promotes employee engagement can prevent negative dynamics from corrupting your workplace.

7. Secures Company Assets

Engineering ethics help ensure your team members and organizational leaders act in ways that protect your company’s intellectual property and confidential information.

The designs, inventions, and writings created by your team are often recognized as the property of either your client or the individual responsible for those assets. You must acknowledge such ownership agreements prior to beginning work. In doing so, you can prevent theft and misuse of your company’s assets and protect its investments.

The Importance of Ethical Leadership

Leading ethically is critical to long-term success in the engineering industry. Ethical leaders model honorable behavior, set an example, and foster cultures of integrity and respect.

“A leader needs to be adaptable and step out of their comfort zone if they want to foster a culture in which others do the same,” Mayo says in Organizational Leadership .

By adhering to the tenets of ethical leadership, you can hire individuals whose principles align with your organization’s values.

“You want to look for individuals whose values, attitudes, and skills are consistent with what your organization needs and cares about,” Margolis says in the course.

Elevate Your Organizational Leadership as an Engineer

Ethics are crucial in engineering. They not only promote quality work but also encourage you to operate safely and maintain a high standard of ethical responsibility.

As an organizational leader, you often dictate your company’s culture and values. Understanding engineering ethics—and the business skills needed to apply them—is essential to your success.

By furthering your education through an organizational leadership course , you can learn how to adapt to constantly evolving responsibilities and become an effective leader .

Do you want to learn more about how to lead ethically? Enroll in our online certificate course Organizational Leadership —one of our leadership and management courses —and develop in-demand business skills that can benefit your engineering career. If you aren’t sure which course is right for you, download our free flowchart to explore your options.

About the Author

Featured Articles

Engineering Ethics and Its Impact on Society

Dr. William Marcy & Jane Rathbun, Texas Tech University

William M. Marcy, PhD, PE

Jane B. Rathbun, BS, MBA

The National Institute for Engineering Ethics

Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409

Introduction

This article attempts to address three fundamental issues regarding engineering ethics; (1) engineering ethics education, (2) ethical decision making in professional practice and (3) protecting the rights of engineers to make ethical decisions. 

The public has a right to expect ethical conduct of all professionals. The role of engineering and its impact on the health, welfare and safety of the public cannot be overstated. Ethical and professional conduct on the part of engineers requires an often delicate balance of moral reasoning, standards, legal relevance, safety, costs, benefits and risk assessment. [1]

The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics includes engineering ethics as a field of applied ethics that consists of a system of moral principles that apply to the practice of engineering. Engineering ethics sets forth the obligations of engineers to society, to their clients, and to the profession. [2]

Ethical dilemmas faced by practicing engineers are more difficult to resolve than is generally understood, and they are typically multidimensional. They impact a wide range of stakeholders and decisions about ‘doing the right thing’ often fall into a gray area that is ambiguous at best, and catastrophic at worst. It is important to understand the nuances of different approaches to ethical evaluation and decision making. A decision that is the right thing to do for a large majority of stakeholders may have a disproportionately negative impact on a small minority. The ethical principle of ‘utilitarianism’ - which takes the position that the right decision is the one that results in the greatest good for the greatest number of stakeholders- does not necessarily result in the best ethical choice. Alternative ethical principles such as ‘respect for persons’ and ‘virtue ethics’ may yield better ethical decisions when resolving complex dilemmas. Respect for persons recognizes that everyone has the right to ethical treatment regardless of their status in society.  Virtue ethics recognizes that engineers, by virtue of their specialized knowledge, have obligations to protect the health, welfare and safety of the public. A key observation is that ‘intuition’ is often not a reliable method for making ethical decisions. [3]

A serious conflict of interest arises when a design engineer knows the right ethical decision to make but upper management overrides that decision. After exhausting all appeals to upper management, the engineer may be confronted with a significant personal dilemma. The engineer may consider “whistle blowing.” [4]

Even though there are various laws in place to protect whistle blowers, they rarely shield the person involved from potentially catastrophic financial and career risk.  The engineer may be required to make a difficult, and unfair choice between fulfilling their obligations as an engineer and putting their family’s financial well-being at risk. 

“The very societies and institutions which stress ethical values that are grounded in personal responsibility and public accountability have been weak in protecting whistle-blowers from harassment, dismissals, and the expense of law suits. In making this point, Bertrand G. Berube, an engineer, a former GSA regional administrator, a whistle blower, told American Society for Engineering Education members at their 1987 meeting: “If you blow the whistle on a boss, you are likely to be without a job for three to four months and legal fees will be in the range of $30-40 thousand; for blowing the whistle on a government agency, you may expect to be out of work for one to two years and your legal fees may run from $125-$150 thousand.  If you blow the whistle on the political administration in power, you may be off the job for four to seven years and legal fees may be in the $400K­ to $550K range.” [3] [5]

“That is a high price to pay for subsequent recognition by your professional society for your dedication to professionalism, but it, unfortunately, has been the experience of many who chose to exercise their right to blow a whistle when they felt that engineering ethics demanded such drastic action.” [6]

A Brief History of Engineering as a Profession

Engineering ethics has its roots in both engineering and philosophy. Engineering as a profession can trace its roots to the medieval system of training apprentices in skills associated with specific crafts. These craftsmen came together to form “guilds’ whose membership signified not only trusted expertise, but also provided a measure of control over who was permitted to offer their skills, products and services to the public and how those services were to be offered. Eventually, engineering disciplines became sufficiently specialized to develop professional societies and an associated ‘body of knowledge’ was integrated into each discipline. [7]

“To become a member of Craft Guilds in the Middle Ages a person would have to work through three phases to become a member of a Medieval Craft Guild starting as an apprentice.” [8]

  It is worth remembering that before World War II, engineering as a profession in the U.S. was learned primarily through apprenticeship under practicing engineers. As the training of engineers evolved to require more mathematical and scientific knowledge, college education became the necessary pathway to becoming an engineer. Even with a college degree in engineering, a specified period of professional practice under the supervision of licensed professional engineers is required in order for an individual to become licensed to offer engineering services to the public.  [9]

  “Internationally, the first engineering professional societies began in France.  French army engineers organized as the Corps du Genie in 1672, and the French national highway department’s engineers formed the Corps des Ponts et Chaussees in 1716. More than a century later, in England, the Institution of Civil Engineers was founded in 1818.  This was followed in 1847 by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Early engineering societies in the North America developed in the following order:

American Society of Civil Engineers, 1852; American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, 1871; American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1880; Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, 1884;American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1908. 

These groups were subsequently joined by the National Council of State Boards of Engineering, Examiners, American Society for Engineering Education, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, the National Society of Professional Engineers, Canada’s Engineering Institute and a number of other pertinent professional societies.”  [3]

  Evolution of Engineering Ethics as an Academic Subject

Fortunately, the present day engineering curriculum has evolved, as academic accrediting bodies such as the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology now require ethics to be taught formally in colleges and universities. [10]. Ethics is also a significant component of the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam. Professional licensing boards now require continuing education in engineering ethics for practicing engineers.  [9]

One difficult aspect to teaching engineering ethics is that by nature, the subject often deals with ambiguous situations that are conceptually difficult for people to understand and assess.  In addition, the decision to do the right thing may necessitate that an engineer takes substantial personal and professional risk. Codes of ethics provide a framework for making decisions, however, they tend to be backward looking, and rapid advances in technology often result in ethical dilemmas that have not been anticipated. In these instances, well educated individuals are often able to reach rationally sound decisions about the right thing to do, however these decisions may be constrained by variables that are in direct conflict with the individual and/or other stakeholders. 

Another difficulty related to teaching engineering ethics is that many engineering faculty may lack practical, real-world experience with the complex ethical dilemmas encountered in professional practice. This lack of experience is often coupled with a reluctance to deal with abstract philosophical concepts and educational institutions may find it difficult to find faculty both willing and competent to teach engineering ethics. 

 Codes of Ethics

  Engineering codes of ethics are the rules of practice that provide a framework for making ethical decisions based on historical case studies where poorly made decisions have been shown to result in negative outcomes. While engineering codes of ethics are similar across disciplines, each may have a slightly different historical perspective. Nevertheless, there are strong similarities between all engineering codes of ethics. [11]

The fundamental cannons and rules of practice found on the National Society of Professional Engineers web site are worth comparing with the codes of ethics developed by individual professional societies. Specifically, all areas and disciplines of engineering share a common doctrine to “hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.” 

“Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:

• Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
• Perform services only in areas of their competence.
• Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.
• Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.
• Avoid deceptive acts.
• Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession.” [1]

  Engineering Ethics and Technological Change

Modern society is dramatically impacted by advances in technology. Current examples include, but are certainly not limited to, self-driving automobiles, electric automobiles, autonomous robots, artificial intelligence, broadband internet, social media, cyber warfare, remotely piloted drones, smart phones, tablet computers, deep sea drilling, ‘fracking’, etc. The list is endless and we see changes on a seemingly daily basis. One aspect of many of the recent and prominently technological changes is a vast array of unintended consequences that the designers never anticipated. Unintended consequences frequently overshadow the anticipated benefits designers of a new technology had in mind. While many unintended consequences may have tremendous positive impacts on society, others may not. Ethical considerations must be included in every step of the design, documentation and deployment process to help anticipate and mitigate negative consequences. One approach to accomplishing this is to conduct a Social Impact Analysis (SIA) as a formal part of the engineering design documentation process. This is a multi-dimensional team effort that is not restricted to engineers. The team should include representatives from all relevant organizational stakeholders in addition to a person whose education, focus and expertise are specific to ethical process evaluation and decision making. 

 Social Impact Analysis

Social Impact Analysis is a forward looking methodology that analyzes the potential ethical consequences of a design, product or concept (DPC). A general outline of the steps required to develop an SIA is as follows: [12]

• What need is it intended to fill?
• Who are the parties responsible for creating and deploying the DPC?
• Who will be held responsible if the design, product or concept fails?
• Who are the stakeholders, both direct and indirect?
• What are the risks?
• What are the costs?
• What are the benefits?
• What is the impact on the environment?
• What can be done to mitigate or eliminate negative consequences?
• What can be done to maximize positive consequences?
• Provide a critical discussion for each potential ethical consequence.
• What can be done to ethically minimize risks to the stakeholders?
• What can be done to ethically minimize costs to the stakeholders?
• What can be done to ethically maximize the benefits to the stakeholders?
• What is the right thing to do regarding each decision?

It is often necessary to make changes to the SIA analysis as the design and deployment process evolves. Most often, the earlier in the design and deployment process that an ethical issue is identified and addressed, the less costly it will be to fix in the long run. A worst case scenario is the requirement to address a safety issue after a project has been deployed. The news media are filled with examples where better ethical decision making during the design and deployment process might have prevented injuries, saved lives, and avoided millions of dollars in institutional liability settlements. 

Changing Roles of the Engineer

Engineers often represent multiple internal and or external stakeholders in a firm, corporation or government agency. They may begin their careers as practicing engineers but may progress into upper level administrative and engineering management positions. At each stage of their careers their loyalties may change. Engineers who are specifically charged with design development are often not the individuals who bear the ultimate responsibility for the profitability of the final design and deployment of a concept or product. It is often the case that a senior engineering manager will have overall profit responsibility but not the technical competence to sign off on work prepared by other design engineers. If a subordinate engineer’s design negatively impacts the profitability of the overall project, a decision may be made by upper engineering management to change a design specification to reduce cost. This cost reduction may negatively impact the health, welfare and safety of the public. Just because it is legal to make these changes to improve profitability doesn’t mean it is ethical.

Engineering Ethics in an International Environment

Many engineers working for U.S. companies practice engineering in a foreign country. It goes without saying that ethical practices outside the United States can be very different. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is intended to prevent U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials in order to gain favorable treatment in receiving contracts. Even though huge fines have been levied against companies for violating the FCPA, many companies doing business in a foreign country view the fines as a cost of doing business when the fines are a small percentage of the profits to be made. [13]

There is huge pressure on engineers and engineering managers to do what is necessary to acquire favorable business opportunities in foreign countries. Engineering decisions that would be considered unethical in the U.S. may be perfectly acceptable in a foreign country. Concerns about protecting the health, welfare and safety of the public are often secondary to making a profit in these circumstances. An example, among many, might be as simple as legal leniency regarding protecting the environment, or worse, substandard safety protocols. The ethical consequences of decisions such as these have been devastating in many foreign countries. Hundreds of lives have been lost in plant disasters due to structural failures, chemical disasters and fires in manufacturing facilities. These were the direct result of designs that would be considered unacceptable in the U.S. [14]

Doing the right thing should not change when engineers cross international borders. 

While professional engineers often practice their profession largely out of the public eye, the benefits of their efforts are visible all around us. 

A recent Gallup poll asked what professions people considered most trustworthy. When it comes to ethics and honesty, here’s how the top five professions ranked. Engineers remain among the most trusted professionals. [15]

• Pharmacists
• Medical Doctors

  Being an ethical and professional engineer can be very difficult at times. Universities and professional organizations are getting better at providing practicing engineers with the continuing education needed to make sound ethical decisions.  The elephant in the room that no one wants to recognize is the lack of protection for engineers who are asked to put their careers and livelihoods on the line to do the right thing. Protections must be put in place to ensure that engineers are protected under these circumstances. Failing to provide these protections puts everyone at risk.

  [1]  NSPE, "NSPE Code of Ethics for Professional Engineers," 8 May 2015. [Online].   http://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics .

[2]  APPE, "Association for Practical and Professional Ethics," 19-21 Feb 2015. http://squirefoundation.org/appe /   

  [3]  B. W. Baker, "Engineering Ethics: Applications and Responsibilities," in Engineeering Ethics:

Concepts, Viewpoints, Cases and Codes , Lubbock, TX, National Institute for Engineering Ethics, 2008, pp. 49-65.

[4]  US Department of Labor, "Whistle Blower Protection Programs," 8 May 2015. [Online].   http://www.whistleblowers.gov/

[5]  V|Lex, "Bertrand G. Berube, Petitioner, v. General Services Administration, Respondent., 820 F.2d 396 (Fed. Cir. 1987)," 1982.

[6]   http://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/04/us/critic-to-get-money-but-not-job-from-us.html

[7]  R. S. Kirby, Engineering in History, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1990. 

[8]  Craft Guilds, "Craft Guilds in the Middle Ages," Mar 2015. [Online].  

http://www.lordsandladies.org/craft-guilds-in-the-middle-ages.htm

[9]  NCEES, "The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES)," 2015. http://ncees.org/about-ncees/

[10] ABET, Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology, http://www.abet.org / , 2015. 

[11] NIEE, "National Institute for Engineering Ethics," 8 May 2015.  

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/murdoughcenter/center/niee/index.ph p .

[12] W. Marcy and R. Burgess, Social Impact Analysis, Lecture ENGR 2392 Engineering Ethics and Its Impact on Society, Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University, 2015. 

[13] Investopedia, "Foreign Corrupt Practices Act," 2015. [Online]. Available:

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/foreign-corrupt-practices-act.asp .

[14] J. Burke, "Bangladesh factory fires: fashion industry's latest crisis," 8 Dec 2013. [Online].   http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/bangladesh-factory-fires-fashion-latest-crisis .

  [15] L. Jeressi, "What Are the Most Trusted and Least Trusted Professions?" 2 April 2013. htt p://943thepoint.com/what-are-the-most-trusted-and-least-trusted-professions/

 -------------------------

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• EDUCATION & CAREER
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Engineering ethics [what is it and why is it important]

Engineers are entrusted with the task of working on projects that impact our daily lives. Whether it is engineering a bridge, designing an aircraft, building a power plant, or managing engineering teams, engineers have the power to shape the world around us.

Engineers are also involved with finding innovative ways to raise crop, fruit, and vegetable yields while reducing the risk of food-borne illnesses. As you can see, consumers rely heavily on engineers to deliver them with safe and dependable goods and services.

There is no room for mistake or dishonesty in engineering!

Professional societies like engineering and medical, have their own set of rules and established code of ethics that govern the ethical conduct of their members. In this blog post, we’ll discuss what engineering ethics are and why they’re important for engineers.

Table of Contents

1. Engineering Ethics 2. What is the engineering code of ethics? 3. Why are engineering codes of ethics important? 4. Engineering Codes of Ethics By Professional Societies

Engineering Ethics

Engineering is a very important and learned profession. The practitioners of this occupation are expected to exhibit high integrity and honesty in their tasks, placing the public’s interests and welfare above all else.

To have a better understanding of engineering ethics, let’s start by defining Ethics or personal ethics.

What are ethics?

Ethics is a branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles. Ethics refers to the study of morality and the moral choices that we all have to make in our lives.

What are engineering ethics?

According to Wikipedia,

“Engineering ethics is the field of system of moral principles that apply to the practice of engineering. The field examines and sets the obligations by engineers to society, to their clients, and to the profession.” [1]

The definition above suggests that engineering ethics is a social responsibility taken by engineering professionals to ensure the welfare of the public.

Moreover, engineering ethics emphasizes that engineers shall not promote their own interests at the expense of the dignity and integrity of the profession. It’s about doing what’s right for other people, ensuring their safety and welfare.

That’s why professional engineering organizations like the NSPE (National Society of Professional Engineers), IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), and ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) have established longstanding rules, standards, and policies to govern the behavior of their members.

These standards, rules, and policies that define ethical behavior comprise the Engineering Codes of Ethics. Let’s define the Engineering Code of Ethics in more detail.

What is the engineering code of ethics?

An engineering code of ethics (or engineering code of professional ethics) is a set of principles that establishes professional conduct and moral guidelines that professional engineers are obligated to follow. These principles require engineers to protect public safety, put the interests of clients and employers ahead of their own, and conduct themselves in an honest and ethical manner at all times. Engineering codes of ethics help foster public trust in the engineering profession which allows engineers to innovate and develop new technologies to improve our modern society. [2]

General Principles

The basic concepts of the codes of ethics are mostly similar across engineering organizations around the world, which further extends the code and provides additional advice. The following is an example from the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE):

Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:

• Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
• Perform services only in areas of their competence.
• Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.
• Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.
• Avoid deceptive acts.
• Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession.

Why are engineering codes of ethics important?

The author of the book “ Engineering Fundamentals: An Introduction to Engineering “, Saeed Moaveni gives an excellent explanation of the importance of engineering codes of ethics with an example in his book:

“An incompetent and unethical surgeon could cause at most the death of one man at one time on the operating table, whereas an incompetent and unethical engineer could cause the deaths of hundreds of people at one time. If an unethical engineer, in order to save money, designs a bridge or a part for an airplane that does not meet the safety requirements, hundreds of people’s lives are at risk!” – Engineering Fundamentals: An Introduction to Engineering , Saeed Moaveni

Teaching engineering ethics and professional behavior as a part of engineering education is required in some schools. In fact, most engineering curriculums require engineering students to take at least two credits of ethics education during their engineering programs.

Furthermore, in engineering practice, there are several reasons why engineering ethics is so crucial. Maintaining safety, honesty, and integrity are just a few of them.

1. Maintaining Public Safety

One of the key reasons why engineering ethics is so important is because engineers are responsible for maintaining public safety. If they do not abide by the engineering code of ethics, they could potentially put people’s lives at risk.

Engineers who adhere to a professional code of ethics promise that when performing their task, they will put the safety of society members first. It implies that engineers will employ standard and approved materials, as well as standard engineering methods throughout their careers.

2. Integrity and Honesty

Honesty and integrity are two of the most important values that engineers must uphold. The engineering code of professional ethics demands that engineers be honest in all their dealings, both with the clients and employers, as well as the public.

Engineers must follow an ethical code of conduct to ensure that they are honest in all their transactions. And they must also maintain the integrity of the engineering profession by not engaging in any fraudulent or deceptive activities.

When engineers keep to the code of ethics, even when faced with a problem or other distractions in their work, they will remain honest.

3. Promotes Public Confidence and Trust in the Profession

Engineering ethics codes of conduct should be acknowledged as a significant component of the engineering field since they assist to build public confidence in engineers by demonstrating that they are ethical individuals who will do what is right even if no one is watching.

It also allows others in related industries, such as construction, manufacturing, software development, and so on, to know that they have someone on their side when it comes to safety or quality standards.

Without these standards in place, each engineer would have to create his or her own set of standards, which might lead to issues such as not knowing what is considered acceptable behavior and how significant design specifications should be determined without first consulting relevant stakeholders.

4. Protects Clients and Employers from Harm

The engineering codes of ethics want engineers to protect the privacy of their clients and ensure that personal information is kept secure. They should not reveal any information about the client, such as their name, age, gender, or location as well as information regarding the project.

Similarly, the engineer should not discuss their employer’s information unless specifically permitted to do so.

5. Promotes Ethical Decision-making in Circumstances of Uncertainty

Engineers, like all individuals, face challenges, dilemmas, and moral issues in their line of duty. Engineers are guided in their difficult judgments by a code of ethics, which ensures that they select what is morally correct. They layout a bright line for what decision is moral and promotes social welfare rather than self-interest to protect moral values.

Engineering Codes of Ethics By Professional Societies

• Professional Engineers : Code for registered professional engineers.
• Civil Engineering : Code of ethics for civil engineers
• Mechanical Engineers : Code of ethics geared towards all engineers. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers provides an interpretation of the codes for mechanical engineers.
• Electrical Engineers : Code of ethics applicable to engineers of all disciplines and particularly electrical engineering.
• Energy Engineers : Codes of ethics applicable to energy engineers and energy managers.
• Chemical Engineers : Code of ethics for chemical engineers.
• Software Engineering Code of Ethics : A brief copy of the software engineering code of ethics for software engineers
• Naval Engineers : Code of ethics for Naval engineers by the American Society of Naval Engineers.

Bottom-line

The engineering profession has developed various codes of practice and ethical standards over time; these help engineering professionals make ethical decisions and express professional behavior while performing their engineering tasks.

These engineering codes of ethics set out the principles governing truthful acts while engineering projects are on course or when acting as engineering professionals.

References:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_ethics

[2] https://www.pdh-pro.com/pe-resources/engineering-code-of-ethics/

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The Significance of Ethics in Engineering

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Engineering Ethics

Engineering Ethics is the set of rules and guidelines that engineers adhere to as a moral obligation to their profession and to the world. Engineering is a professional career that impact lives. When ethics is not followed, disaster often occurs; these disasters not only include huge monetary costs and environmental impacts, but also often result in the loss of human life. Engineering Ethics applies to every engineer and is very important.

The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) decides the overall standards and codes of ethics for all the engineering professions. The Preamble of the NSPE Code of Conduct for Engineers (2007) states:

“ Engineers shall at all times recognize that their primary obligation is to protect the safety, health, property, and welfare of the public. If their professional judgment is overruled under circumstances where the safety, health, property, or welfare of the public are endangered, they shall notify their employer or client and such other authority as may be appropriate. ”

This means that engineers should always be aware that their safety and the safety of those around them comes before anything, including any engineering projects they take on, no matter how wonderful the end product might be. That being said, engineering standards change from one professional engineering society to the next because of the work that different type of engineers do. For example, the work that a civil engineer does (e.g. construct a bridge) will be different from the work that a biomedical engineer does (e.g. making an artificial heart). However, no matter what type of engineer you are, Engineering Ethics is important because if you do not follow it you can be putting yours and someone else’s life in danger.

Electrical Engineering Ethics

Electrical Engineering is a type of engineering profession that deals with the creation of better electronics. Since our society is heading towards an era of technology, where all members of society will be affected, it is especially important for electrical engineers to follow a code of engineering ethics. For electrical engineers, an important set of guidelines is the Electrical Engineering Code of Ethics , published by IEEE (n.d.), the major professional association for engineers working in the fields of electrical, electronics, computer engineering, and communications.  The Code emphasizes above all else honesty and avoidance of endangerment to the public or the environment.

Problem Solving in Engineering Ethics

Every engineer will find himself in a conflicting position. For example, consider the case of a biomedical engineer engineering a potentially working artificial kidney. When he was on the clinical trial phase, he needs to decide whether to proceed with testing on humans. If he proceeds, and the device fails, a human test subject could die. If he succeeds, he will be saving the lives of the thousands of people who need kidneys in the future. Although he is in a touch predicament, he can make his decision better by using the steps of problem solving in engineering ethics to help him make the best decision. The steps of Problem Solving in Engineering Ethics are (Johanssen, 2009):

• State the Problem : Clearly define what the ethical engineering problem is.
• Get the Facts : Obtain all relevant facts to the matter (i.e. the different moral viewpoints) and then analyze them all.
• Identify and Defend Competing Moral Viewpoints : Analyze the pro and cons of different moral viewpoints and pick the best course of action.
• Come up with a Course of Action : Pick the best course of actions, and answer all un-answered questions.
• Qualify the course of Action : Back up the course of action with facts or statistics.

In the scenario above, the biomedical engineer can first state the problem, which is whether or not to proceed with testing knowing that he could save the lives of thousands, or else kill the test subjects. He can then gather all the facts about the test subjects, the device he made, and the different moral viewpoints from others. He can then make a pro and con list of all the moral viewpoints. From this he must pick the best action to take and be prepared to defend it.

Reasons why Engineers Stray from the Code of Ethics

There are two main reasons why Engineers often stray from their code of ethics. The first reason is because they are overconfident in their work, which in turn causes them to neglect things that might be wrong with it. They may overlook small mistakes or remain stubborn about their beliefs because they think highly of their education level. However, in engineering, these small mistakes might be the very thing that causes a disaster (e.g. the Challenger and O-rings). Another reason why Engineers stray is that they are impatient. They are excited about their work and want to see it in action in the world, so they send it out before it’s ready. Sometimes it is not even their fault, but the fault of their authority figures (i.e. boss or managers). Their authority figures can be impatient and give them a short deadline to work on the project. Impatience does not allow room for iterations of the processes involved in design, testing, and implementing a product or project. Iterations are often needed to increase confidence that the product will work and that, more importantly, it will work safely.

Thus, it is recommended that engineers check their work at least twice and even have others check their work no matter how little time they have left or no matter how excited they are about submitting the project. If they know they have a short deadline, they can either manage their time better to have room for several revisions or ask their boss for an extension. Engineers should also try to be open to other ideas and admit that they could be wrong.

Applications of Engineering Ethics

Engineering ethics in college/education.

The main engineering ethics problem that college students are face with is academic integrity. Academic integrity can show itself in the form of cheating by copying someone’s work, intentional cheating, plagiarism, and/or self-plagiarism.

However, professional ethics is something that can be learned even when it conflicts with personal ethics, as for example, a situation where you are personally okay with building a product that can harm the environment, yet save lives. You can learn professional ethics and realize that something that is harmful to the environment is not okay. Ethics codes can even help you see the bigger picture. For example, in the previous scenario, these codes can help you re-evaluate your ethics and realize that something that is harmful to the environment will eventually be harmful to the people around you and yourself.

Thus, there are many ethics classes in universities across the world. Some universities even require engineers to take classes on ethics. For example, Cohen et al. (2005) developed a model called the Air Model (AIR) SM to help students reflect and develop their personal code of ethics. AIR stands for Awareness (of ethical issues), Investigation (of those issues), and Responding (to those issues).

Engineering Ethics in the Professional World

In the professional world, ethical engineering problems come up in many cases. One of these includes the case of a professional using someone else’s work that is published in the widespread market of publication. Another is the case of a professional using someone else’s work that is not published yet and stealing their idea. Engineers who have good engineering ethics often have a good sense of the value of life. They don’t hesitate to admit that they made a mistake because they know that the cost of not owning up to your mistakes can have disastrous consequences. It might even cost a human life.

Engineering Ethics in Companies

Not only do individual engineers have to be conscious of engineering ethics, but also companies. Companies have to be aware of their Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility is a company’s responsibility to give back to the community that they profit from and to behave ethically so that both they and their community can benefit. Environmental Responsibility is a business’s initiative to leave the environment (where it is taking its resources from) the same, if not better, that it is found it.

Engineering Ethics applied to Senior Design Project

Thus, as seniors in college, we are making the transition from an academic environment to a professional environment. The further we are in our career path, the more important ethics is, especially engineering ethics. Thus, the soon we start defining our ethics the better, beginning with our final project in college and the first design project of our lives: our Senior Design Project .

Cited References

• Bowen, W. Richard. (2009). Engineering Ethics . United Kingdom: Springer, 2009. OCLC WorldCat Permalink: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/262720358
• Cohen, P., McDaniels, M., & Qualters, D. M. (2005). Air Model: A Teaching Tool For Cultivating Reflective Ethical Inquiry. College Teaching , 53(3), 120–127. DOI: 10.3200/CTCH.53.3.120-127
• IEEE. (n.d.) IEEE Code of Ethics . Retrieved from http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html
• Jonassen, D. H., Shen, D., Marra, R. M.,…Lohani, V. K. (2009). Engaging and Supporting Problem Solving in Engineering Ethics. Journal of Engineering Education , 98(3), 235–254. DOI: 10.1002/j.2168-9830.2009.tb01022.x
• Martin, M. W., & Schinzinger, R. (2005). Ethics in engineering . Boston: McGraw-Hill. OCLC WorldCat Permalink: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/54029368
• NSPE. (2007). NSPE Code of Conduct . Retrieved from http://www.nspe.org/Ethics/CodeofEthics/index.html
• Uff, J. (2002). Engineering Ethics: Do Engineers Owe Duties to the Public? Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved from http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/publications/list/lectures/engineering_ethics_lecture.pdf

Additional Resources

• Barakat, N. (2011). Engineering ethics: A critical dimension of the profession. In 2011 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) (pp. 159–164). Presented at the 2011 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON). DOI: 10.1109/EDUCON.2011.5773130
• Davis, M. (1991). Thinking Like an Engineer: The Place of a Code of Ethics in the Practice of a Profession. Philosophy & Public Affairs , 20(2), 150-167. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2265293 .
• Floyd, R. E. (2012). Ethics for Engineers? IEEE Potentials , 31(2), 4–5. DOI: 10.1109/MPOT.2011.2177759
• Maxey, M. N. (1993). Engineering in search of ethics. IEEE Circuits and Devices Magazine , 9(1), 30–34. DOI: 10.1109/101.180741
• Rogers, D. A., & Ribeiro, P. F. (2004). Work in progress – ethics integrated into engineering courses. In Frontiers in Education , 2004. FIE 2004. 34th Annual (pp. S1E/22–S1E/23 Vol. 3). Presented at the Frontiers in Education, 2004. FIE 2004. 34th Annual. DOI: 10.1109/FIE.2004.1408696
• Stephan, K. D. (2001). Is engineering ethics optional? IEEE Technology and Society Magazine , 20(4), 6–12. DOI: 10.1109/44.974502
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The Good Engineer: Giving Virtue its Due in Engineering Ethics

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• Published: 07 May 2008
• Volume 14 , pages 153–164, ( 2008 )

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During the past few decades, engineering ethics has been oriented towards protecting the public from professional misconduct by engineers and from the harmful effects of technology. This “preventive ethics” project has been accomplished primarily by means of the promulgation of negative rules. However, some aspects of engineering professionalism, such as (1) sensitivity to risk (2) awareness of the social context of technology, (3) respect for nature, and (4) commitment to the public good, cannot be adequately accounted for in terms of rules, certainly not negative rules. Virtue ethics is a more appropriate vehicle for expressing these aspects of engineering professionalism. Some of the unique features of virtue ethics are the greater place it gives for discretion and judgment and also for inner motivation and commitment. Four of the many professional virtues that are important for engineers correspond to the four aspects of engineering professionalism listed above. Finally, the importance of the humanities and social sciences in promoting these virtues suggests that these disciplines are crucial in the professional education of engineers.

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Harris, C.E. The Good Engineer: Giving Virtue its Due in Engineering Ethics. Sci Eng Ethics 14 , 153–164 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-008-9068-3

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-008-9068-3

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Empowering Future Engineers with Ethical Thinking

Author: Tom H. Byers and Tina L. Seelig

Now more than ever it is critically important for engineering graduates to be prepared to evaluate the consequences of the technologies they invent and scale.

In the past the impacts of new technologies—from nuclear power to genetic engineering—emerged over decades, and government regulations were able to gradually shape how the technologies evolved. Today, the time between concept and commercial application is compressed into a few years, or even months. Autonomous cars cruise down the road, drones hover above houses, and lab-grown meat may soon find its way into supermarkets. There is little time to carefully evaluate the potential impact of these innovations on our communities and the planet.

The benefits of speed of innovation have come with a hefty price. A number of well-known firms have stumbled because of behaviors that many consider unethical. Their meteoric growth resulted in decisions that were frequently questionable, and sometimes illegal.

In response, there is a growing effort among educators to ensure that future generations of engineers and entrepreneurs are equipped with the ethical skills and mindset required to understand the potential impacts of their inventions and make principled decisions.

Engineering educators need to seize this moment. Ethical thinking must be at the core of 21st century innovation, and ethics should be presented not as a system of barriers and constraints but rather as a series of frameworks and tools to be deployed throughout the innovation process.

Based on our experience at Stanford University teaching high-tech entrepreneurship and on our work with educators around the world, we have learned that ethics should not be bolted onto engineering and entrepreneurship education as an afterthought, but should be baked into the curriculum.

Ethical thinking uses many of the same critical thinking and creative problem-solving approaches leveraged in all other areas of engineering and entrepreneurship. Below are several approaches that can effectively prepare engineering students with the tools and mindset needed to consider the impacts of their future innovations.

Create New Courses Focused on Responsible Technology Development

Engineering students are eager to learn how to avoid the pitfalls they read about in the news. Courses devoted to exploring these issues can create meaningful change.

At Stanford University, students are lining up to take courses such as “Principled Entrepreneurial Decisions,” which provides weekly, custom-designed case studies that focus on decision making in high-growth companies. Students are challenged to consider the principles that executives used as they dealt with the complexities of bringing new technologies to market, such as how the Cloudflare CEO balanced a principle of total content neutrality with an urge to stop providing web security services to a hate speech publisher.

In addition, “Computers, Ethics, and Public Policy,” a collaboration among faculty in computer science, political science, and philosophy, requires students to complete technical assignments, policy memos, and philosophy papers. And a course titled “Ethics in Bioengineering,” cotaught by a scientist and a bioethicist, prepares students to address the expanding number of ethical questions that arise in the life sciences. These courses are offered by Stanford’s Computer Science and Bioengineering Departments, respectively.

Such courses attract hundreds of students who know that they will face myriad ethical challenges around the technologies they develop, from virtual reality to facial recognition software and designer babies.

Embed Ethics in Traditional Engineering Courses

In addition to separate courses, ethics conversations and case studies can be deployed in more traditional engineering courses. In our experience, students appreciate the chance to dive into ethical issues in courses on innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership, as well as in technical courses in fields such as mechanical and environmental engineering.

In a Stanford engineering course called “Inventing the Future,” students debate the potential utopian and dystopian consequences of various frontier technologies. Although we don’t use the word “ethics” when teeing up the debates, the students naturally unpack the ethical implications of each invention, from personal robots to AI-enhanced surveillance in cities. The industry experts who visit the class to give feedback on student presentations often admit that the students uncovered positive and negative consequences of their own technology that they had not considered.

Educators can draw from a rich and growing set of available case studies. The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, for example, has created engineering-specific case studies based on interviews with engineers in Silicon Valley and beyond. And the NAE’s Online Ethics Center offers cases that take an experiential approach to ethics education for engineers.

Through cases and ethics-focused conversations, educators can ensure that all engineering and entrepreneurship students gain exposure to ethical frameworks and vital opportunities to practice ethical decision making.

Ethics should not be bolted onto engineering and entrepreneurship education as an afterthought, but should be baked into the curriculum.

Elevate Research into Ethics-Driven Technology Development

There is growing interest among scholars in studying the strategic advantages of responsible technology development.

A recent Academy of Management workshop (“Responsible and Ethical Innovation,” July 2020) highlighted the expanding scope of this research. Studies have explored the use of measurement scales to assess responsible innovation (Zhang et al. 2019), the design of values-based product management (Brusoni and Vaccaro 2017), how executive compensation can be linked to corporate social responsibility (Flammer et al. 2019), and evidence that gender-diverse R&D teams produce more radical innovation (Díaz-García et al. 2013).

Presenting research on ethics and innovation in the context of engineering courses has the potential to fundamentally reshape how engineers and entrepreneurs define their mission, evaluate their metrics for success, build their teams, and prioritize the social impacts of innovation.

Engineers are problem solvers. And ethical thinking is a critical tool in their toolbox as they play a central role in shaping solutions to the world’s major problems, from climate change and social inequities to public health, job creation, and global food security.

As educators, we must ensure that engineering students are equipped with the skills needed to evaluate the impact of the innovations they bring to life. This can be done by creating engineering courses focused on responsible technology development, infusing ethics-focused case studies and discussions into traditional engineering curriculum, and elevating research on ethics and innovation.

As Alan Kay famously said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Now is the time to prepare engineering students with ethical tools that will enable them to invent the future with the care that future generations deserve.

Brusoni S, Vaccaro A. 2017. Ethics, technology and organizational innovation. Journal of Business Ethics 143:223–26.

Díaz-García C, González-Moreno A, Sáez-Martínez FJ. 2013. Gender diversity within R&D teams: Its impact on radical-ness of innovation. Journal of Innovation: Organization and Management 15(2):149–60.

Flammer C, Hong B, Minor D. 2019. Corporate governance and the rise of integrating corporate social responsibility criteria in executive compensation: Effectiveness and implications for firm outcomes. Strategic Management Journal 40(7):1097–122.

Zhang SX, Choudhury A, He L. 2019. Responsible innovation: The development and validation of a scale. Academy of Management Proceedings 2019(1).

Why Are Ethics Important for Professional Engineers?

Ethics is an important topic for engineers of every level and field. When you become a professional engineer, however, you are held to a higher standard. That is why one of the requirements for maintaining your professional engineers’ license is to meet a certain number of professional development hours with at least two being in ethics.

As professional engineers, we are trusted with projects that impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The NJSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers is a document that was put together to help us keep that fact in mind and be a guiding factor in making hard decisions during our careers. The code of ethics can be summed up with two key points that we will explore in more depth: safety and honesty.

Safety is Key

The preamble to the NJSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers states that engineers “require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare.” When it comes to ethics as a professional engineer, it is about so much more than preventing illegal activity. It is about making sure the lives we touch with our work are protected from incompetence and are at the forefront of our minds as we work.

Even the parts of the Code of Ethics for Professional Engineers that deal with honesty and integrity go back to safety issues. The things we help design, build, and maintain could result in a loss of life if we put profits, personal advancement, or anything else in front of people.

Integrity and Honesty

Another important reason to have a code of ethics for professional engineers is it sets a standard for professional behavior. You know you can expect another PE to behave with honesty and integrity since they adhere to the same creed as you. The public can also be assured you are not pulling a fast one or working for your own gain. The standard of professional behavior provides the people who you work with and for a foundation of trust that you are going to operate in the project’s and public’s best interest.

While the code of ethics seems fairly straightforward and clear cut, having courses about it are important for navigating your day-to-day. The professional development classes help guide you through real life cases that have come before the Board of Ethical Review, so you can see the nuances of the code and how it can be used to make better decisions.

We hope this brief overview of why ethics are important for professional engineers has made you eager to learn more. You can read the full code of ethics by visiting the NJSPE ’s ethics page or by attending one of NSPE’s ethics webinars . If you would like to see more content about the importance of ethics, please feel free to let us know in the comments below or by filling out our “Ask NJSPE” form.

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The Importance of Ethics in Engineering

Engineers have an ethical responsibility to the public, the profession, and the world at large. Engineers’ work shapes our urban environment and, in turn, the way people see, interact with, and operate the world around them.

In this guide, we’re exploring the importance of ethics in engineering—why it’s so critical that engineers act in accordance with the profession’s defining principles.

Prioritizing the Public’s Best Interests

Ethical standards demand that engineers always hold paramount the best interests of the public. By doing so, engineers protect:

Public safety

Community health

General welfare

What does this look like in real-time?

Perhaps an engineer is presented with an ethical dilemma—a client wishes to cut costs by using materials that haven’t performed well in recent case studies. The lower-cost materials could deteriorate more quickly, potentially creating public safety hazards.

In this scenario, the ethical engineer should strongly encourage the client to choose the product that will prevent public safety risks, facilitate a more successful project, and protect the people who will interact with the building.

Bolstering the Profession

By acting in accordance with established ethical guidelines, engineers protect the profession and its defining standards as a whole.

Ethical efforts to achieve this goal include:

Providing services within the scope of their licensure and competency only

Disclosing and appropriately responding to conflicts of interest

Presenting unethical or illegal engineering practices to the authorities

Giving credit for innovations, designs, and ideas where credit is due

When engineers prioritize ethical practices, they uphold the legitimacy of the profession, secure a future for up-and-coming engineers, and maintain the field’s high-quality standards.

Promoting Equity and Sustainability

The engineers’ code of ethics demands that professionals do their best to promote equity in the field and sustainability efforts in the building trade.

Ethically, engineers are obligated to issue public statements, arguments, criticisms, or opinions that:

Only address technical matters

Don’t create conflicts of interest

By speaking in the best interest of the profession and the public—instead of for their sole gain or for the benefit of parties that stand to profit from their statements—engineers maintain a field that values equal opportunities and professional transparency.

In addition, engineers have a responsibility to protect the environment for future generations by promoting and adhering to standards of sustainable development. Engineers might accomplish this task by:

Only accepting contracts for sustainable projects

Meeting personal or firm-wide sustainability objectives on every project

Promoting sustainable changes to design standards or building codes

Engaging with sustainable education and professional development materials

MFS Engineering: Experience, Ethics, and Expertise

Engineers have a responsibility to act ethically. When they prioritize ethics, engineers protect the public, sustain and improve the profession, and guarantee a brighter future for the field and the built environment at large.

At MFS Engineering , we strive to provide real-world solutions to the world’s most complex problems, and our ethics only help us achieve this goal.

We’re a multi-disciplinary engineering firm, and we promote excellence and ethics in everything we do—from structural engineering to surveying, geotechnical services, civil engineering, and so much more.

If you need engineers who can innovate long-lasting solutions, we’re just a phone call away. Contact us today to start designing your next project.

Five Common Types of Civil Engineering Projects

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