Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
meeting confl icting obligations. As in other areas, there are trade-offs between
different factors, such as simplicity and specifi city. In addition 'political' factors and
the interests of protecting the profession probably still infl uence the codes. This
may be the reason why codes do not require engineers (and other professionals) to
always prioritise the public interest. Most codes of ethics recognise the responsibilities
of engineers to protect public health and safety. However, this responsibility may be
in confl ict with duties to the employer or client, including to protect confi dential
information.
A Statement of Ethical Principles drawn up by the Royal Academy of Engineering
and Engineering Council (
undated
) and several professional engineering institu-
tions in the UK states that 'Professional Engineers work to enhance the welfare,
health and safety of all whilst paying due regard to the environment and the sustain-
ability of resources. They have made personal and professional commitments to
enhance the wellbeing of society through the exploitation of knowledge and the man-
agement of creative teams'. However, the four subsequent principles are based largely
on professional practice. The Engineering Council (
2010
) has also issued a six-point
code on the role of professional engineers in sustainability which updates the previous
1993 nine-point code of practice Engineers and the Environment (Engineering
Council
1993
). The Code requires engineers to 'Use resources effi ciently and wisely'
and 'Contribute to building a sustainable society and future'. It also recognises that 'A
purely environmental approach is insuffi cient, and increasingly engineers are required
to take a wider perspective including goals such as poverty alleviation, social justice
and local and global connections'. However, the Environment Code was one of the
few that explicitly mentioned ethical, in this case environmental, reasons for not car-
rying out a particular project, whereas this is not in the Sustainability Code.
The Union of German Engineers (VDI
2002
) has a 10-point code of ethics, which
stresses continuing education, including on the basics of ethics and work, environmental
and technology rights and the need to discuss confl icting subject and cultural values. The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) code of ethics (IEEE
2014
) is a
10-point professional code, which includes avoidance of 'discrimination based on race,
religion, gender, disability, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or
gender expression' and disclosing 'promptly factors that might endanger the public or
the environment', but does not include the required action in this case. It has also pro-
duced guidelines for 'engineers dissenting on ethical grounds' (IEEE
1996
).
Legislation and Ethics
Legislation can be considered another type of rule to follow in rule-based decision
making, though for some people following legislation may be a principle in itself.
However, it cannot be assumed that all legislation is ethical or that all the require-
ments of ethics are covered by legislation. Legislation has two categories, legal and
illegal, though in practice there is often a third category of neither legal nor illegal.
Morality has three categories: moral, immoral (not moral) and amoral (neither
moral nor immoral). This gives nine possible categorisations, as shown in Fig.
2.2
.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search