Towards an ethically founded framework for sustainability engineering in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The apparent conflict between development activities and the need to preserve environmental integrity,here called the environmental dilemma, serves as the point of departure for this study. With engineersin general, and civil engineers in particular, being major role players in development activities, thisstudy turns particular attention to the role they do, and should play with respect to the environmentaldilemma.1The study commences with an overview of the traditional ethical and environmental ethical theories,but this does not produce an unambiguous, master solution to the environmental dilemma. However,on a more pragmatic level, and based largely on its undeniable widespread popularity, the concept ofsustainable development surfaces as the most promising strategy. Notwithstanding its popularity itremains a vague and contestable concept. This is born out by the numerous definitions andinterpretations accorded to sustainable development in the literature. In order to lend more rigour to theconcept, this study firstly suggests an ethical foundation for it, and secondly proposes a frameworkthrough which a fuller understanding of it may be articulated.The ethical foundation is based on the value of beneficence, which is rooted in the reciprocal altruismthat is part of our evolutionary heritage, and which has been further reinforced by widespread culturalappropriation. Moderated by the equally widely held value of fairness, and the principles of holism andbiocentrism, it is argued that beneficence, as a basic and near universal societal value, is well suitedto be the moral underpinning for sustainable development.The sustainability framework, as it is proposed in this study, is hierarchically structured so that it ismore monistic and prescriptive at its higher levels, while at the lower levels it is more pluralistic andpragmatic. At the highest level of the framework sustainable development is irrevocably bound to thevision of a sustainable society. At the next level the values that underpin sustainable development,beneficence, fairness and respect for life, are found. At the following levels the message of the visionand the values of sustainable development is expanded further through three foundational and eighteensubsidiary principles, the latter being expressed in categories that represent the dimensions ofsustainable development. This study recognises four dimensions within sustainable development, these1 It needs to be noted that in this study the environment is (frequently) broadly interpreted so as to include socialconcerns as well as those related to the natural environment.being the environmental,2 the social, the economic and the institutional dimensions. These dimensionalcategories are not mutually exclusive but are rather used as categories of convenience. The frameworkis concluded, at the lowest levels, with measurement themes and applications, also dimensionallycategorised.With this expanded understanding of sustainable development as background, the study proceeds toan overview of the legal and policy framework of South Africa with respect to the environment andsustainable development. This is followed by two case studies that attempt to discern the sustainabilitychallenges evident in local development practice. The first of these case studies deals with theproliferation of golfing estate developments in the Southern Cape, and the second with the proposedconstruction of a national toll road through the Wild Coast area of the Transkei.The study then turns its focus to the engineering profession in South Africa, with particular referenceto the civil engineering discipline. After reviewing engineering codes of conduct from a number ofcountries, particularly with respect to their environmental and/or sustainability prescriptions, a proposalfor a South African version of such a code is put forward. As it turns out this suggested code leansheavily on the previously proposed sustainability framework. Finally civil engineering education inSouth Africa is assessed with respect to environmental and/or sustainability requirements, and theconclusion is that sustainable development, in its fullest sense, might be best served by the introductionof a unique educational programme focussed specifically on sustainability engineering.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University