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DOI: 10.1039/C0RP90018D (Paper) Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2012, 13, 128-134

Integrating sustainable development in chemical engineering education: the application of an environmental management system†

M. T. Montañés *, A. E. Palomares and R. Sánchez-Tovar
Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Nuclear, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n., 46022 Valéncia, Spain. E-mail: tmontane@iqn.upv.es

Received 29th November 2010 , Accepted 1st May 2011

First published on 13th December 2011

Abstract

The principles of sustainable development have been integrated in chemical engineering education by means of an environmental management system. These principles have been introduced in the teaching laboratories where students perform their practical classes. In this paper, the implementation of the environmental management system, the problems arisen, the proposed solutions and the obtained results are discussed. The main problems are related to the chronological order of the courses in the chemical engineering degree, the commitment of students and the proper management of wastes. The suggested solutions are a combination of preliminary theoretical explanations, the supply of adequate documents to students and the evaluation of their work from the principles of sustainable development. Results show that after the implementation of the system, it is possible to reduce the consumption of raw materials and resources, and the generation of wastes. Results also suggest an improvement in the skills, attitudes and values of the students according to the sustainable-development principles.

1. Introduction

Education is the most efficient tool to acquire an environmental conscious and a sustainable development culture. In this way, the University, as the highest education level institution, must be a reference for those who are going to be the leaders of the social and industrial processes. Therefore, knowledge, principles and basics related to sustainable development should be introduced in the curriculum of the student (Hailey, 1998; Springett and Kearins, 2001). In order to achieve this purpose, an innovative tool, that is quite common in the industry (Minayev et al., 1999), has been used in our university. This tool is the application of an environmental management system (EMS).

An environmental management system is defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as “the part of the overall management system that includes organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing and maintaining the environmental policy”. The group ISO 14000 standards (first published in 1996), concerned with environmental management and how an organization minimizes its harmful effects caused on the environment. In particular, the ISO 14001 standard (ISO 14001, 2004) establishes a reference model in order to implement environmental management systems in companies. In this way, ISO 14001 is the most widely recognized environmental management system framework and many entities have certified their environmental management systems as being part of this standard (Baraza and Torres, 2000). The main characteristics of these systems are presented below:

• A voluntary approach aimed to develop positive long-term objectives and progress towards the achievement of them, rather than the application of stiff penalties that lead to the failure in the performance of many itemized requirements.

• A continual step-by-step improvement in the environmental performance of firms and industries.

• A comprehensive integration of the principle of sustainable development.

On the basis of these standards, we have introduced an environmental management system in our teaching laboratories—concretely in the chemical engineering teaching laboratories. This is due to the fact that these are the most similar facilities of the university in relation to the industrial ones. The objective of the introduction of this kind of system is to acquire a sustainable development during the teaching tasks.

Sustainable development demands that the three main aspects of development—economic, social and environmental—should be considered as a whole (Jischa, 1998; Giddings et al., 2002; Hopwood et al., 2005). This fact often produces conflicting interests and the solution is the successful integration (Strachan et al., 2003; Rwelamila et al., 2000). This goal is not explicitly included in the environmental management systems; for this reason, it is necessary to provide students with previous theoretical lessons, knowledge, concepts and approaches concerning sustainable development, before applying the EMS in the teaching laboratories.

In this paper, it is shown how the environmental management system has been developed and implemented in the chemical engineering teaching laboratories, what role students have played, the main identified problems, how they have been solved and the obtained results.

2. The environmental management system (EMS)

Fig. 1 shows the steps in order to implement an environmental management system (Páez-Sandubete and Carrasco-Fenech, 1999).
Steps to implement an EMS.
Fig. 1 Steps to implement an EMS.

2.1. Environmental policy

The first step in an environmental management system is to establish an environmental policy. An environmental policy is stated by the organization and it is based on the intentions and principles in relation to their overall environmental performance, which provides a solid basis for the action and for the environmental objectives and targets setting.

The department responsible for the chemical engineering teaching laboratories established an environmental policy based on students. In this way, the aforementioned environmental policy establishes the following points:

a. The engineering educator is in charge of providing students with indications founded on environmental sustainable development principles.

b. Students have to rationalize the consumption of raw materials, resources and energy in the laboratory.

c. Students have to try to prevent, as much as possible, the pollution to avoid spills and to minimize the emissions and wastes generated in the laboratory.

d. Students have to manage properly the generated wastes according to the current environmental laws.

The educator should supervise and stimulate students in order to achieve these objectives; in this way, not only will students be coherent with the established environmental policy, but will they also develop new attitudes and aptitudes in accordance with the sustainable development principles.

2.2. Environmental revision

After the establishment of the environmental policy, an environmental revision should be carried out to identify the current environmental management practices. During this revision, it is important to quantify the initial environmental conditions in order to compare them with the future conditions.

In our particular case, the environmental situation of the chemical engineering teaching laboratories was checked. In this way, the teacher, together with students, analyzed the waste management, the raw materials consumption, the air emissions and the consumption of water and energy. The analysis was made on the basis of the sustainable development principles and the obtained results showed the strengths and weakness of our chemical engineering teaching laboratories from an environmental point of view.

2.3. Environmental objectives

The following step in the EMS is to establish the environmental objectives. The environmental objectives have to be accepted according to both the environmental revision and policy.

In particular, our environmental objectives were based on the commitment of the students with the environmental management system and on the implementation of the sustainable development principles.

2.4. Procedures and instructions

After the establishment of the environmental objectives, the next step in the EMS consists of drawing up a manual composed of necessary procedures, instructions, roles and responsibilities in order to implement the environmental management system. All these documents should be easily located, periodically revised and updated and removed when they become obsolete.

Tables 1 and 2 report the main procedures and instructions performed in our case. For instance, the procedure IQN-P-001 shows how to identify and quantify the impacts produced on the environment, on the society and on the economy caused by the laboratory management. Regarding the procedure IQN-P-003, it shows how to develop the informative tasks in the laboratory since the information given to students is related not only to environmental issues, but also to cooperation and sustainable development. The procedure IQN-P-005 includes the classification of wastes attending to their dangerousness, the possible risks derived from an inadequate control of them and some recommendations to reduce the expenses derived from their management. On the other hand, the procedure IQN-P-006 includes recommendations to reduce the consumption of raw materials and natural resources; it also includes recommendations to reduce expenses derived from this consumption. Procedure IQN-P-007 favors dealing with those companies whose activities are based on the sustainable development principles.

Table 1 Environmental management system procedures of the chemical engineering teaching laboratories of the Polytechnic University of Valencia
Procedures
Code Title
IQN-P-001 Procedure for the identification of significant impacts
IQN-P-002 Procedure for the identification and updating of the legal requirements
IQN-P-003 Procedure for environmental instruction
IQN-P-004 Procedure for writing and controlling environmental management system documents
IQN-P-005 Procedure for wastes control
IQN-P-006 Procedure for raw materials and natural resources management
IQN-P-007 Procedure for environmental control of dealers
IQN-P-008 Procedure for emergency situations
IQN-P-009 Procedure for detecting and correcting inadequate environmental management system performance and implementing future preventive actions
IQN-P-010 Procedure for internal and external environmental communication
IQN-P-011 Procedure for internal audits of the environmental management system
IQN-P-012 Procedure for environmental management system revision

Table 2 Environmental management system instructions of the chemical engineering teaching laboratories of the Polytechnic University of Valencia
Instructions
Code Title
IQN-I-001 Instructions for proper hazardous wastes management
IQN-I-002 Instructions for management of waste paper
IQN-I-003 Instructions for management of waste glass
IQN-I-004 Instructions for management of used electronic equipment
IQN-I-005 Instructions for hazardous substances identification in the shopping process
IQN-I-006 Instructions for working in the laboratory according to environmental and sustainable principles
IQN-I-007 Instructions for the development of new practical laboratory classes according to environmental and sustainable principles

It is important to point out that students mainly work with the IQN-P-001, IQN-P-003, IQN-P-005, IQN-P-006, IQN-P-008 and IQN-P-009 procedures and with the IQN-I-001, IQN-I-002, IQN-I-003 and IQN-I-006 instructions. All of them make it possible for students to actively participate in the environmental management system. Moreover, they are mostly related to the proper management and minimization of wastes and reagents and make a critical analysis of the system on the basis of the sustainable-development principles.

The audit, the last step in the EMS, is not going to be carried out due to the fact that the Nuclear and Chemical Engineering Department is part of the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the latter is provided with an EMAS certification (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme). EMAS is completely compatible with the international standard for environmental management systems, ISO 14001, but is perceived to go further in its requirements for performance improvement, employee involvement, legal compliance and communication with stakeholders (ISOQAR, 2010).

3. Implementation of the EMS

The objective of the environmental management system implementation in the teaching laboratories is to make students conscious that this system can be applied in industry afterwards and its principles are those from sustainable development. In this way, according to the environmental policy and objectives, each student must be responsible for the proper management of the produced hazardous wastes. Students must become conscious of the potential danger of an inadequate waste management, for them and for society. Each student must minimize the waste production and reagents consumption working according to the environmental regulations and the sustainable-development principles. In order to achieve these goals, students were supplied with adequate and comprehensive explanations, concrete examples, and the necessary procedures and instructions.

3.1. Identified problems

Some problems were identified during the implementation of the environmental management system in the teaching laboratories. The main problems were the following:

a. The chronological order of courses. The basis of an environmental management system and the principles of sustainable development are explained in subjects related to environmental science. These subjects are upper-level courses, but experimental subjects are taught pursued from the first year of the studies of the students in the teaching laboratories.

b. The proper management of the wastes generated in the chemical engineering teaching laboratories because of their great diversity.

c. The commitment of the students with the environmental management system.

3.2. Proposed solutions

To solve the mentioned problems, the following actions were taken:

a. In order to solve the first problem, the first day in the laboratory, the educator gave a theoretical explanation about the environmental management system that has been implemented. The explanation included the relationship between the objectives of this system and the principles of the sustainable development. The lecture also included the description of different examples about the implementation of these principles in industrial society, where students will work after finishing their studies. Furthermore, the most important procedures and instructions used in the teaching laboratories were explained to students.

b. To solve the second problem, students were supplied with the necessary procedures and instructions together with the laws and by-laws related to environmental pollution and hazardous waste management. The correct management of wastes was checked with a written report performed by students. This report included, apart from their experimental results, an environmental and sustainable evaluation of their work. This evaluation included the quantification of the reactants used, the wastes generated and the cost of the experiment. They must determine the wastes composition and they characterized them according to the environmental laws. Finally, they had to decide the final location of the waste, that is, to chose if it can be recycled, disposed of (down the drain or in the general garbage), or if it must be collected in specific containers. To make this work easier, students are supplied with a form to fill in each laboratory practical (Fig. 2). As it can be seen in Fig. 2, by filling in the form students quantify the used reactants and the produced wastes, making it possible to evaluate their work from an environmental and economic point of view.


Form to be filled in by students after each laboratory practical class.
Fig. 2 Form to be filled in by students after each laboratory practical class.

c. To solve the last problem, in each session, students had to propose alternatives to improve the practical laboratory classes from the sustainable development point of view. Especially, they had to propose alternatives, when possible, for the used reactants by looking for other chemicals with a lower environmental, economic, and social impact. They also had to propose alternatives for proper waste management, and they can also make suggestions about the entire process. Usually, in the first sessions there were not too many suggestions and they were more focused on the minimization of wastes rather than in the entire process. However, with time, students took into consideration the whole process considering the environmental social and economic point of view. One of the measures taken by students was the replacement of the common oxidant reactant potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7), by other chemical with similar redox properties as potassium permanganate (KMnO4). They proposed that both reactants have similar prices, but wastes derived from permanganate are less hazardous than those obtained from dichromate.

d. Furthermore, in order to involve students, even more, in the environmental management system, they had to discuss all the different proposed alternatives on the last laboratory practical class. This was probably the most active participation from students in the environmental management system. During this discussion they found new environmental friendly solutions and proposed new suggestions. These suggestions included measures related to the generated wastes (as the aforementioned example) and they also analyzed the viability of the proposed environmental policy. In particular, they recommended the inclusion of new facts in the environmental revision and they also criticized the procedures and instructions carried out and developed others that were more adequate for the practical laboratory classes. As an example of these proposals, students suggested to elaborate a more strict environmental policy going beyond the legal obligations.

e. Finally, the lecturer informed students that all these items will be taken into consideration in the evaluation of the students. This will be by considering not only their knowledge, but also their skills, attitudes and values.

It is important to point out that actions c and d were the most difficult for students, particularly for those who were in their first academic years. This is due to the fact that, as it was previously mentioned, there are several subjects related to environmental science and technology taught during the last years of the degree. In addition, students of the latter courses are more interested in the practical laboratory classes and, consequently, they become more conscious that they are a part of the environmental management system and that the application of the system can contribute to a sustainable-development of the society.

We expect that the implementation of these proposals results in a development of the students cognitive skills. According to Bloom's classification (Krathwohl, 2002; Bloom et al., 1956; Anderson, 2001), there are six levels of cognitive domain: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. All these levels are being worked within this project resulting in a development of the critical and creative thinking skills of the students. In this way, we consider that the final reflective review is very important because it is a clear application of the higher-order thinking skills: analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The students analyze because they recognize and explain the detected problems and the proposed solutions. They synthesize because they compile, integrate and adapt the proposed solutions, validating the most adequate proposal. They also evaluate, criticizing or defending the different proposals, making recommendations and choosing the most convincing ideas.

Nevertheless, we would like to point out that the purpose of this reflection is not only to discuss the specific solutions that have been proposed but to broaden students’ perception, so that in any thinking situation they can see beyond the obvious, immediate and self-proposed solutions. In fact, our experience in these discussions shows that although there are some evident proposals, different students have different alternatives, priorities and objectives and most of them are adequately discussed and argued.

4. Results of the EMS implementation

4.1. Overall results

Consumption of reactants and resources together with wastes production were used as quantitative indicators of the results obtained after the implementation of the environmental management system in the chemical engineering teaching laboratories. Table 3 shows the results obtained for the consumption of some representative reactants, for the production of wastes in some representative reactions and for the resource consumption in a distillation column, essential equipment used in the teaching laboratories. These values correspond to the ones calculated for all the students that worked in the laboratory during one academic year, before and after the EMS implementation.
Table 3 Consumption of some representative reactants, production of wastes for some representative reactions and resource consumption in basic equipment for the chemical engineering teaching laboratories, before and after implementing the EMS
Consumption of reactants
Reactant One year before EMS Three years after EMS Reduction (%)
Volume (L) Volume (mL/student) Volume (L) Volume (mL/student)
a H2SO4 reactant composition was 18 M whereas H2SO4 waste composition was 1 M.
HCl 10 33 8 29 ∼12
H2SO4a 4 13 3 11 ∼15
Consumption of resources
Water and energy One year before EMS Three years after EMS Reduction (%)
H/day Min/student H/day Min/student
Distillation column 5 1 4 0.9 ∼10
Production of wastes
Waste One year before EMS Three years after EMS Reduction (%)
Volume (L) Volume (mL/student) Volume (L) Volume (mL/student)
FeCl3 150 500 30 110 ∼78
H2SO4a 10 125 2 31 ∼75
Hg2Cl2 + Mn(II) + Sn(IV) + Fe(III) 10 125 8.5 130 ∼0
Cu2I2 + CuSCN + I− + S4O6= 10 125 8.5 130 ∼0

As can be seen in Table 3, an overall reduction of all items is observed after introducing the environmental management system in the teaching laboratories. However, these reductions could be due to a decrease in the number of students, which has been observed during the latter years. According to this fact, it is more adequate to divide all items (consumption of reactants and resources and production of wastes) by the number of students in each year, in order to do a proper comparison. Table 3 shows the mentioned results per student and the percentage of reduction calculated using these latter values.

As can be observed in Table 3, the consumption of the main acids used in the teaching laboratories has diminished after the environmental management system implementation. In this way, the consumption of hydrochloric acid (HCl) has diminished around 12% and the consumption of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) around 15%. A similar decrease was observed with the resources consumed by the distillation equipment. This consumption has been quantified by the time the distillation column had been working and the results show a decrease of 10%, approximately.

The obtained results for waste production were different depending on the nature of the waste. In particular, the production of both FeCl3 and H2SO4 was reduced 78 and 75%, respectively, thanks to the suggestions of the students. On the other hand, Table 3 shows no reduction for other wastes. Wastes containing FeCl3 were produced during water pollution practical laboratory classes, where this salt was used as a coagulant; usually, a large quantity of sewage is produced during these classes and needs to be properly managed. Students suggested settling down this waste in order to separate the sludge (which contained iron), from water; therefore, a more concentrated waste was obtained and, as a consequence of that, the waste volume was reduced. Especially, a reduction of around 78% was achieved for this waste, three years after the EMS implementation. Another suggestion proposed by the students was the reuse of the H2SO4 solutions, when possible, as electrolytes for other experiments. This proposal contributed to a reduction for this waste of around the 75%. Nevertheless, the reduction of waste production was not always possible. Take for instance the iron concentration determination of a solution by means of a redox titration with potassium permanganate (KMnO4) that generates waste which contains mercury among other chemicals, or in the determination of copper concentration in a solution by means of a redox titration with sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3) that generates waste containing sulphocyanide among other chemicals.

4.2. Results of the students

Apart from the overall results obtained in the teaching laboratories, it is also interesting to consider the improvements achieved by each student. In order to evaluate this, the form shown in Fig. 2 was used to compare the consumption of reactants and the production of wastes per student in some common experiments carried out in the teaching laboratories that are repeated along different years of their studies. Table 4 shows the results for one of these experiments: the titration of hydrochloric acid (HCl) using sodium carbonate (Na2CO3). Table 4 shows that there is a clear decrease both in the reactants consumption and in the waste production per student between the first and the last year of their studies. This reduction could be attributed to the increased ability and confidence typical of a final year student. However, this is not the only reason, because if we compare the overall consumption of reactants and resources and the production of wastes, before and after implementing the EMS (see Table 3), there is a clear reduction of these items. For this reason, the decrease observed for individual results cannot only be attributed to the students' experience but also to their awareness, these results being quite encouraging.
Table 4 Mean reductions (%) in the consumption of reactants and in the production of wastes achieved by each student in the last year of their studies: case of the titration of hydrochloric acid
Consumption of reactants
Reactant Mass (g) or Volume (ml) Reduction (%)
First year Last year
Na2CO3 ∼0.85 g ∼0.45 g 47
HCl ∼ 0.1N ∼100 mL ∼30 mL 70
Phenolphthalein ∼6 droplets ∼4 droplets 33
Distilled water ∼500 mL ∼300 mL 40
Production of wastes
Waste Mass (g) or Volume (ml) Reduction (%)
First year Last year
Na2CO3 ∼ 4.5 g/l ∼150 mL ∼75 mL 50
HCl ∼80 mL ∼20 mL 75
NaHCO3 + NaCl + phenolphthalein ∼70 mL ∼60 mL 14

Another important obtained result is an improvement in the skills, attitudes and values of the students related to the principles of sustainable development. Despite being quite difficult to evaluate this feature, the different proposals made by students throughout the academic year together with the suggested solutions in their final report for a better environmental work in the teaching laboratories, indicate positive results. In fact, feedback on this initiative was extremely positive as a refreshing alternative to traditional forms of teaching and learning employed in chemical engineering. These results benefit not only students, but also the teaching staff, who feel rewarded by the effort made, and they also benefit the economy of the laboratories because of the expense reduction related to raw materials and waste management.

However, in spite of these good results, we are not completely satisfied, because these results were only obtained after considering all these environmental items in the evaluation of the students, but not before. In this way, some students felt that they were forced to join the environmental management system in order to obtain high marks. Unfortunately, this behaviour is a very common issue in education (Savage, 2009). Vansteenkiste et al. (2004) classified motivation as either a student’s desire for money and self-image (extrinsic) or a student's desire for personal growth (intrinsic). Moreover, Elton (1988) proposed that at University, students have an assessment based goal so will focus on achieving that goal. Only when that goal has been achieved they will begin to become intrinsically motivated and want to study for the pleasure of it. Therefore, the achievement of good grades was only used as an initial motivation in order to attract the student’s attention. This fact could be applied to our students; so, when they become aware of the beneficial results achieved with the EMS implementation, we expect that they will get intrinsically motivated to participate in it. This is the reason why it is essential to improve our task to obtain a more unselfish effort and approach from students.

In order to increase the intrinsic students' motivation it is important to divulge the evolution of the results achieved some years after the EMS implementation. In this way, during the first theoretical lesson, the teacher will hand out a report with the results achieved by previous students. Furthermore, the teacher will encourage students to obtain, at least, the same results or to go beyond them.

5. Conclusions

5.1. It is possible to introduce the concept of sustainable development in chemical engineering education by means of the implementation of an environmental management system in teaching laboratories.

5.2. Results show that, after the environmental management system implementation in the teaching laboratories and solving some problems, an important reduction of the raw materials consumption, resources and energy, a decrease in the generation of wastes, and an adequate management of the generated wastes was achieved.

5.3. After working with this system, it seems that students improve their environmental and social skills, attitudes and values, as it was indicated in the proposals related to the laboratory work made by the students. Nevertheless, a more active and unselfish participation of students in the environmental management system should be desirable.

5.4. The teacher will encourage students to obtain, at least, the same results as obtained by previous students who worked in the EMS implementation or to go beyond them.

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Footnote

† This article is part of a themed issue on sustainable development and green chemistry in chemistry education.
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012