2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Supported by the ASEE Engineering for One Planet (EOP) Mini Grant Program (MGP), sustainability focused activities were implemented in multiple mechanical and aerospace engineering courses in the 2025-26 academic year. The activities were aimed at meeting several learning outcomes from a few topic areas of the EOP MGP framework. New activities were created in courses– (a) Machine Component Design, (b) Aerospace Composites, (c) Mechanical Engineering Design, (d) Engineering Materials, (e) Computer Aided Machine Design and (f) Introduction to Engineering. These activities focused on achieving sustainability through EOP MGP topic areas - (a) Design, (b) Environmental Impact Assessment, and (c) Materials Selection. From each of these topic areas, the activities aimed at meeting a few key learning outcomes focused on achieving sustainability through (a) lightweighting, (b) design for repairability and durability, (c) design for disassembly, (d) considering potential impact of materials through supply chain, and (e) basic life cycle assessments and carbon footprint calculations. During the 2025 fall semester, the activities were introduced as formal assignments. What set the sustainability activities apart was their guided, self-learning format, which encouraged students to explore concepts independently while reducing the instructor’s teaching workload. At the end of each assignment, students were required to write an essay about how the activity supports sustainability. A retrospective pre-post summative survey at the end of 2025 fall semester will assess the enhancement in students’ ability to (a) apply sustainability principles to mechanical design, (b) make informed decisions to improve sustainability, (c) balance technical performance and environmental impact and (e) evaluate environmental trade-offs when selecting materials and designing components. In conclusion, this paper will demonstrate how sustainability practices can be taught at the undergraduate level by incorporating minimal changes to existing mechanical and aerospace engineering curriculum.