Abstract:

Sustainable Development has gained prominence since it was first defined by the Brundtland Commission (WCED, 1987). For instance, Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2015) was approved in 2015 to provide a roadmap to achieve Sustainable Development. This Agenda 2030 includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consequently, major associations related to engineering education are promoting the inclusion of sustainability into the engineering education (ASEE, 1999); today’s students are tomorrow’s professionals.

Transportation and logistics is a growing economic sector which represents almost the 50% of the Gross Value Added of Spain (OTLE, 2020). In addition, its activity is directly related to the achievement of several SDGs, such as SDG #11. Sustainable cities and communities or SDG #12. Responsible consumption and production. On the other hand, transportation and logistics sector is responsible of the 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions (OTLE, 2020), with a strong dependence on fossil fuels. Future practitioners in the transportation and logistics will be responsible for the design and planning of supply chains, areas of logistics activities or transportation facilities, so they need to be aware of the environmental impact of their decisions; not only the economic cost but also exploring logistics actions enabling environmentally sustainable freight transport should be included in the decision-making process. Therefore, environmental sustainability is a critical concept to emphasize in the courses related to transportation and logistics engineering.

The present study is focused on the course “Transportation and urban mobility” of the first year of the Master’s degree in Smart Mobility Systems of Universitat Politècnica de València. This course provides the basic concepts of transportation and logistics that will be required in the curricula of the Master, which identifies a wide range of actions in the logistics system to potentially enable environmentally sustainable transport, being a unique opportunity to introduce sustainability-related concepts and the role of environmental sustainability in transportation and logistics.

Two actions are implemented in the course “Transportation and urban mobility”:
(1) a unit on sustainability and transportation is included, and
(2) the supply chain of a food product is analyzed from a life cycle perspective including its environmental impacts.

The first action is meant to present the main environmental impacts of transportation and logistics. The second action allows the student to apply the previously studied concepts of supply chain and transportation while the awareness on the impact of supply chain planning in sustainability is promoted.

References:
[1] ASEE, 1999. ASEE statement on sustainable development education [WWW Document].https://www.asee.org/about-us/the-organization/our-board-of-directors/asee-board-of-directors-statements/sustainable-development-education (accessed 9.29.21).
[2] OTLE, 2020. Informe anual 2020 [WWW Document].https://observatoriotransporte.mitma.es/recursos_otle/20210323_informe_otle_2020.pdf (accessed 9.29.21).
[3] United Nations, 2015. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A/RES/70/1 [WWW Document].https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_70_1_E.pdf (accessed 9.14.21).
[4] WCED, 1987. Our Common Future. World Commission on Environment and Development. Oxford.

Keywords:

Sustainability, transportation and logistics, higher education, environmental awareness, sustainability in education.