PREVENTIVE ENGINEERING: STRATEGY FOR DEALING WITH NEGATIVE

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY

By Willem H. Vanderburg l

ABSTRACT: Preventive engineering approaches make use of information on how technology affects human
life, society, and the biosphere, so as to adjust engineering theory and practice to create a greater compatibility
between technology and its contexts. A detailed study of undergraduate engineering education and a variety
of new approaches (such as the design for the entire life cycle, energy end-use oriented strategies, the design
of healthy workplaces, and sustainable city concepts) demonstrates a largely untapped potential for such
preventive approaches. Developing this potential could bring competitive advantages to industry, economic
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benefits to society, and a better quality of human life within current constraints.

DILEMMA reduce or altogether prevent any serious negative impacts on

It is evident to most of us that we need a more effective
strategy to deal with the negative social and environmental
implications of modern technology. How often have we not
read the following kind of list as evidence: global warming,
ozone depletion, unemployment, skyrocketing health and so-
cial costs, and a growing gap between rich and poor individ-
uals and nations? The World Commission on Environment
and Development has declared that our current way of life
is unsustainable precisely because of such effects on human
life, society, and nature (World 1987). However, our ma-
neuvering room appears to be slight because of global com-
petition, large national deficits, and an economic recession.
In the long term the current situation will benefit no one and
will only endanger our common future, but can anything be
done in the short term? I will attempt an answer, beginning
with a look at the deep structural roots of our situation.
For many decades, technological development has been
primarily guided by values such as efficiency, productivity,
cost-effectiveness, and profitability. High technology essen-
tially continues this tradition of maximizing output that can
be derived from inputs such as materials, energy, labor, and
capital. Although output/input measures of technological de-
velopment are essential in a resource-scarce world, they are
mute on the question of whether any gains are achieved at
the expense of the human, societal, or natural contexts, lead-
ing to declining health and quality of life or ecosystem deg-
radation. I hope to persuade you that another kind of tech-
nological development is possible, closely guided by negative
feedback about its implications. A technology policy and re-
search strategy designed to explore the potential of preventive
approaches could, for comparable levels of private and public
investment, lead to healthier social and natural ecologies, a
stronger economy, and a more sustainable way of life. I am
not suggesting that a technological fix is the answer to the
problems humanity currently faces. I am suggesting, however,
that a different kind of technological development can make
a significant contribution to dealing more effectively with the
negative implications of technological development.
The preventive approach designs products or technologies
by using information about the effects they will have on hu-
man life, society, and the natural ecology, so as to significantly
'Dir., Ctr. for Techno!. and Social Development, Fac. of App!. Sci.
and Engrg., 4 Taddle Creek Rd., Room 214, Univ. of Toronto, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada M5S 1A4.
Note. Discussion open until December 1, 1995. To extend the closing
date one month, a written request must be filed with the ASCE Manager
of Journals. The manuscript for this paper was submitted for review and
possible publication on March 28, 1994. This paper is part of the Journal
of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, Vol. 121,
No.3, July, 1995. ASCE, ISSN 0733-9380/95/0003-0155-0160/$2.00 +
$.25 per page. Paper No. 8126.
JOURNAL OF PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE / JULY 1995 / 155
these contexts. It is based on the principle of negative feed-
back as usually understood in control theory. In a way this
idea of a preventive strategy is an obvious one, yet it flies in
the face of a great deal of established practice in engineering,
business, and government, essentially based on an "end-of-
pipe" or "after-the-fact" approach. The after-the-fact ap-
proach is both the cause and effect of its institutional, knowl-
edge, and cultural bases, which I will diagnostically explore
before outlining the preventive strategy.
AFTER-THE-FACT APPROACH
To understand how so many of us participate in the after-
the-fact approach, consider the following situation. Suppose
that as vice president of a company, you are responsible for
creating a new production facility. Three alternative designs
have been proposed and the question is: in decreasing order
of priority, what list of criteria would you use to guide your
choice? When I have asked my colleagues this question, their
answers have exhibited a pattern that clearly reflects the way
engineering, business, and economic decision making con-
tribute to our modern way of life. Efficiency, productivity,
cost-effectiveness, and profitability dominate the answers,
showing why we find ourselves in the present situation. As
suggested, all these values measure the output that can be
derived from certain inputs, but they tell us nothing about
how each of the three designs will fit into and be compatible
with human life, society, and nature (Vanderburg 1987). In
other words, although these measures are necessary in a re-
source-scarce world, they are entirely mute on the question
of whether any gain in output is in part achieved at the ex-
pense of degrading the human, societal, or natural contexts
in which the plant will operate. Will the plant produce higher
levels of nervous fatigue? If so, how will this affect the em-
ployees, the social relations they enter into at work, in their
families and communities and, thus, the entire social fabric
of a society? How will the three designs affect the integrity
and viability of the ecosystem in which they will function
(Vanderburg 1990a)?
My point is that when millions of engineering, business,
and economic decisions are primarily guided by output/input
values, advances of one kind will be increasingly associated
with problems of another kind. The environmental crisis and
a variety of social and health problems are, therefore, directly
related to technological development insofar as it is guided
by these values to decide what is better (Vanderburg 1989).
You may say to me: this is an oversimplification! As en-
gineers, business or government decision makers, we are
swamped by regulations and constraints of all kinds, such as
occupational health and safety regulations and environmental
protection legislation. This is true, of course. Yet those of us
who are engineers design a production facility through well-

J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 1995, 121(3): 155-160

 established procedures primarily guided by output/input val-
ues, and then essentially add on the mitigation technologies
to meet occupational health and safety, environmental, and
other regulations that apply to the jurisdiction. Thus, the
plant is made as compatible with its human, societal, and
natural contexts as the law requires. Throughout the design
process itself considerations of context compatibility do oc-
cur, but they tend to be fairly peripheral and after-the-fact
or end-of-pipe.
To explore how the after-the-fact approach is both the
cause and effect of the contexts in which it operates, I will
give five examples. First, consider the intellectual division of
labor in an engineering faculty. Environmental engineering
typically exists in civil and chemical departments, so that it
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can deal only externally and after-the-fact with environmental
issues in other engineering specialties. No equivalents of pre-
ventive medicine and public health exist in engineering.
Another example is an environmental department in a cor-
poration. It is usually restricted to end-of-pipe solutions be-
cause these issues are not internally dealt with by other de-
partments, and this division of responsibilities is sanctioned
by the organization chart and the corporate culture. There-
fore, it is not surprising that industry executives faced with
ever-tightening environmental regulations lobby govern-
ments to soften or defer new ones. Given the predominant
mind-set, behavior patterns, and institutional forms, there
appear to be no real solutions. The addition of mitigation
technologies is costly and never ending; it does not solve the
problem, but merely transfers pollutants from one medium
to another. In the long run, it is a strategy of throwing good
money after bad, which in a highly competitive global setting
threatens jobs, the survival of communities, and corporations.
The aforementioned situation strengthens the resolve of
many multinationals to pressure for free-trade agreements.
Such agreements allow technologies to freely flow to areas
where greater negative social and environmental impact are
tolerated. This lowers the pressure to create the kind of pre-
ventive approaches referred to earlier, which, as we shall see
later, will eventually hurt all parties including the corpora-
tions themselves.
The foregoing patterns are both the cause and effect of the
kind of knowledge base that supports engineering, business,
and economic decision making. For example, the university
as a major contributor to this knowledge base is profoundly
affected by the lack of a science of the sciences capable of
integrating the findings of the many disciplines and subdis-
ciplines into a comprehensive understanding of the integrality
of our world. Yet aspects of that understanding are critically
important at a time when there is widespread agreement on
the need to develop a more sustainable way of life in which
the compatibility between technology and its human, societal,
and natural contexts needs to be understood and improved.
Science represents but one knowledge-gaining strategy, which
is a process of abstraction and isolation from the larger con-
text. This has introduced distortions in the scientific disci-
plines, each of which sketch one aspect of the same "land-
scape," but out of context. However, as textbooks show, the
social sciences and humanities appear able to describe many
aspects of our world with minimal reference to the roles mod-
ern science and technology play within it, while the engi-
neering and management sciences proceed as if the context
implications of modern technology can be dealt with largely
outside the core of the undergraduate and graduate curric-
ulums. This means that any specialization is likely to treat
context issues in an external fashion, thus creating a mind-
set that will carryover into industry, government, and society
at large.
The predominant mind-set, with its accompanying behav-
156/ JOURNAL OF PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE / JULY 1995
J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 1995, 121(3): 155-160
ior patterns and institutional forms referred to earlier, are
further rooted in the common view of the relationship be-
tween society and its economy. The economy is regarded as
the engine that must power everything else by circulating
wealth. According to this view a society must make inevitable
and difficult choices between remaining internationally com-
petitive and having a healthy natural ecology; between the
productivity of labor and socially healthy workplaces and
communities, between having enough energy to keep the eco-
nomic engine running and the risks associated with energy
production, between affordable municipal taxes and sustain-
able cities, and a host of similar difficult choices. In other
words, all that can be done is to continue with technological
development primarily guided by output/input measures (in-
cluding measures of the total economic output with the nation
and its ecosystems as the inputs, and to use the resulting
wealth to help pay for unavoidable costs. The creation of win-
win situations for all parties, including future generations,
appears entirely utopian.
From this perspective, policies that would put the quality
of human life, sustainable communities, and a healthy natural
ecology first appear unrealistic, given the many constraints
in the system. Such policies would push up the national deficit
and, thus, negatively affect the very wealth from which they
must be funded. The risk of increasing national deficits can
be considered only to kickstart a sluggish and poorly per-
forming economic engine, but not to create a more sustain-
able future.
However, what if the rate at which costs associated with
the creation of wealth (actual and deferred) rise more rapidly
than the production of wealth itself? Could this help explain
our structural economic problem? Could this help explain why
diverse approaches tried by governments worldwide appear
to have so little success in the current recession? Unfortu-
nately, our methods of national accounting cannot answer
these questions.
I wish to be clear about my assumptions. Much of what
constitutes the practices of modern engineering and business
is explicitly articulated in the classroom, on the job, and in
the literature. There still remains a great deal that is only
implicit in our behavior. For a long time, cultural anthro-
pology has understood that much of a society's way of life
and culture is transmitted implicitly, and what is not said at
a particular instance is as important as what is specifically
communicated. Any way of life is based on deeply held beliefs
about the nature of reality and human life within it, as well
as values to orient human behavior in that world. These can
be taken for granted by the members of a society because
they appear so self-evident and obvious that any radical al-
ternative can at best be an interesting curiosity, not something
one could get into in terms of one's individual or collective
existence. When we say, for example, "time will tell," we
are hinting at profound conceptions of how as a society we
arrange our lives within time. Other cultures have done this
in very different ways.
Of course engineering is not a culture, but it constitutes a
set of practices that cannot be divorced from profound con-
ceptions of ways to deal with and exist in the world. Some
historians and sociologists of science have persuasively ar-
gued, for example, that a scientific community shares much
more than what is explicitly transmitted in the classroom,
laboratory, and the literature. In other words, I am assuming
that my argument so far has only identified the tip of the
iceberg and that much of it is submerged in the deeper in-
stitutional and cultural waters.
I will conclude this section by reporting on a detailed study
undertaken to determine how deeply this general after-the-
fact approach permeates undergraduate engineering educa-
 tion, and presumably the mind-set of future generations of
engineers (Vanderburg 1994). Broadly speaking, the trends
in engineering education over the past few decades reflect
the broader societal patterns, beliefs, and views. The re-
naming of nontechnical electives to complementary studies,
and the requirement of a minimal literacy in economics and
in the social and environmental implications of technology
are important steps, which, nevertheless, have largely oc-
curred outside of and with little effect on the technical core
of the curriculum. To confirm this, I examined the under-
graduate engineering curriculum of my faculty in the light of
two questions: (1) how much do we teach our students about
the way technology affects human life, society, and the nat-
ural ecology? and, (2) to what extent are they expected to
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raises the score to 0.80. The average score for each of the
four academic years increases only modestly. It cannot be
argued, therefore, that the score is held down by a substantial
portion of mathematics and basic science courses being taught
in the first two years.
Within the technical portion of the curriculum, there exist
35 courses with a context score of 2.5 or higher. These courses
form the following cluster: six of them can be classified as
environmental engineering courses taken in the broad sense;
two are on transportation and transportation planning; five
courses deal with engineering economics, entrepreneurship,
professional communication and responsibility, or engineer-
ing as a profession; six courses are in the human factors and
systems management area; six courses are in the aerospace

use this knowledge in a negative feedback mode to adjust option of engineering science, with a significant human-ma-
engineering methods and approaches to achieve a greater chine component; and, the remaining 10 could not be grouped
compatibility with these contexts? These questions were asked into any meaningful categories. What these courses have in
of the formal curriculum by examining course outlines, text- common is an intrinsically contextual subject matter. Rarely
books, class handouts, supplementary readings, student lec- does this include an attempt to acquire and use information
ture notes, project exercises, examinations, tutorials, labo- on the human, societal, and natural consequences of tech-
ratory manuals, field trips, and audiovisual materials. During nology relevant to the subject matter. Later on, I will illus-
the first phase of the research only the quantitative, instead trate my point with the category of environmental engineer-
of the qualitative, aspects of these questions were examined. mg.
The second phase is currently examining the quality of that An analysis of the calendars of a sample of the top engi-
information in terms of what is presently known, and the neering schools in North America, a comparison of the re-
extent to which that information could have been used to quirements of the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board
modify engineering practice. with those of the Accreditation Board of Engineering and
Two mirror-image scales were developed and tested to as- Technology, and a comparison between the reported scores
sess the aforementioned components in the courses within and the large population of engineering textbooks also scored
the technical core and the complementary studies portion of in the study, as well as a comparison of various indicators of
the curriculum, respectively. A value of zero was assigned performance and academic excellence of some of the better
when no reference was made to context, and a value of four North American engineering schools, lead me to believe that
was assigned when context information was used in a negative the reported scores for the technical portion of the curriculum
feedback mode to adjust engineering methods and ap- are typical for the top North American engineering schools.
proaches to ensure a greater compatibility with human life, The scores for the complementary studies portion are prob-
society, and the natural ecology. Details of this research in- ably above average because the University of Toronto ap-
strument are shown in Appendix I. Individual course scores pears to be leading in introducing context issues into the
and overall averages of various kinds measure how well stu- curriculum (Vanderburg 1990b). The faculty has a compul-
dents learn to relate technical considerations to human, so- sory first-year course dealing with technology-society-envi-
cietal, and natural ones, and their preparedness for exercising ronment issues, a three-course elective sequence leading to
professional responsibility and for keeping the public interest a Certificate in Preventive Engineering and Social Develop-
paramount in a highly interactive setting. It also measures ment, a Center for Technology and Social Development, which
what they learn about the limitations of their engineering coordinates these and similar activities within the faculty, and
"tools" in a particular context. a tenure-stream position in technology-society issues related
This research instrument was used to examine the under- to engineering.
graduate engineering curriculum for the academic year 1988- The study points to the fact that we as an engineering
89 of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the community continue to produce new generations of engineers
University of Toronto, beginning with the extensive self-re- who will approach the negative implications of technology for
ported database supplied by the faculty to the Canadian En- human life, society, and the natural ecology in an after-the-
gineering Accreditation Board. About 95% of all courses fact or end-of-pipe manner. They will be unable to assess
offered were scored in the analysis. Full details of this study whether their engineering work contributes to sustainable de-
are published elsewhere, but some of the overall findings are velopment, and to what extent advances are accomplished at
reported in Table 1. The average score for the technical core the expense of these contexts.
of the curriculum is 0.82, which reduces to 0.75 when the
technical electives are added. Factoring in the complementary PREVENTIVE APPROACH
studies component, weighted at 12 1/2% of the curriculum,
The situation I have described as the after-the-fact strategy
for dealing with the negative implications of technology bodes
TABLE 1. Research Findings trouble for engineers, our profession, the economy, and our
Metallurgy nations. I propose an alternative strategy, which I will call
Engi- Me- and preventive engineering, in which information on the human,
Chemi- Electri- neering Indus- chani- materials social, and natural implications of technology is used along
Year cal Civil cal science trial cal science Mean with technical factors in the engineering process, in a negative
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) feedback mode, so as to reduce or entirely avoid negative
I D.5 D.4 D.4 D.3 D.S D.3 D.6 0.5 implications. The concept may be illustrated by rethinking
2 D.4 0.6 0.4 0.6 0.5 0.3 0.4 0.5 the environmental strategy of a corporation. Each time a
3 0.7 1.1 0.6 0.7 1.5 D.S 0.9 0.9
4
government passes stricter environmental regulations addi-
1.5 1.5 D.S 1.1 1.3 0.9 0.5 1.1
N 57 51 67 94 43 67 47 -
tional mitigation technologies must be installed, operated,
and maintained. There is no reason to believe that this pattern
JOURNAL OF PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE (JULY 1995 (157

J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 1995, 121(3): 155-160

 of events will ever change. It may be accelerated under some
governments and decelerated under others, but the company
expects no relief in sight, and thus lobbying and uncooper-
ative behavior have been the rule. The situation appears
hopeless, particularly when companies in other parts of the
world can operate with much lower environmental standards.
The situation appears quite different, however, if we return
to the root of the problem. Why are these pollutants produced
in the first place? How can products, processes, and opera-
tions be redesigned and adjusted so as not to produce them?
Conventional wisdom would have us believe that trying to
answer these questions is a waste of time because it would
make the company less efficient, less productive, and less
profitable. However, even if a reduction in performance
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measured in terms of output/input values occurred, might this
not be offset by other factors? These factors may include a
reduction in maintenance and energy costs, as the pollutants
would not have to move through the production equipment;
savings on the costs of installing, operating, and maintaining
mitigation technologies; a reduced need for occupational health
and safety measures, since the plant would no longer present
workers with the same risk to their health; a reduction in the
risks flowing from liabilities associated with an accidental spill
or discharge; the ability of the management to engage in more
effective long-term planning, since the plant is now operating
well within local environmental standards; improved worker
morale as workers take pride in their "green" company; and
the competitive advantage derived from producing a greener
product by means of cleaner processes, favorably affecting
consumer choices. This type of company is creating a new
corporate culture able to deal with challenges more effectively
by comprehensively rethinking strategy based on negative
feedback-a feature that may be critically important to op-
erate successfully in an increasingly turbulent environment.
These efforts can also help reduce a nation's expenses such
as health care and environmental costs, thus reducing deficits
and tax loads.
It is clear that innovative approaches in industry are be-
ginning to contradict the end-of-pipe or "do-it-if-forced-to"
approach. Pollution prevention is, of course, the best-known
approach. A considerable number of case studies have been
reported, which demonstrate that, when environmental fac-
tors are incorporated into the design process right from the
beginning (what I call internal environmental engineering as
opposed to end-of-pipe external mitigation), the typical out-
come is products and processes that are significantly less costly,
healthier, and more sustainable (Hirschhorn and Oldenburg
1991). Probably the best-known examples are the encour-
aging results achieved by the 3M Corporation and Northern
Telecom. The chemical industry has adopted a somewhat
more preventively oriented responsible-care program across
North America. The German automobile industry is begin-
ning to design cars for the entire life cycle, including the
reabsorption of as many parts and materials as possible at
the end of the useful life of a car. The Germans are also
enacting some of the most stringent legislation with regard
to packaging. The white goods industry is beginning to design
for the disassembly and reabsorption of materials into the
production and consumption cycle. Economists have begun
to realize the potential of these strategies (Porter 1991).
From this perspective, my study of undergraduate engi-
neering education identifies a tremendous untapped potential
for "preventive" approaches. The realization of this poten-
tial, however, is in part limited by the considerable gap that
exists between innovative industrial practices and supportive
government policies on the one hand, and the traditional view
in engineering and business culture on the other. For ex-
ample, internal environmental engineering would require the
158/ JOURNAL OF PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE / JULY 1995
J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 1995, 121(3): 155-160
incorporation of environmental considerations along with
technical ones from the beginning, in the engineering process,
so as to achieve the greatest possible compatibility between
a technology and its natural contexts. It is only when this
potential has been exhausted that external environmental en-
gineering should come into play and add on the mitigation
technologies as required. Internal environmental engineering
should be an integral part of any engineering department and
specialty, while external environmental engineering can con-
tinue to flourish typically within civil or chemical engineering.
The preventive approach aimed at the natural ecology can
also be developed for human life and society (the social ecol-
ogy), by designing in human and social factors through the
use of information on the corresponding influences of tech-
nology.
We are really dealing with a paradigm shift. During the
transition period, factual evidence is regarded differently by
competing perspectives. In the engineering and business com-
munity, the received view for dealing with context issues is
very strong, and probably constitutes the primary stumbling
block toward the development of a technological strategy able
to create win-win situations for all parties. I have difficulty
imagining a greater potential resource for helping to deal with
our present deep structural economic difficulties, than the
preventive paradigm I am proposing. By reducing the costs
associated with the creation of wealth through the application
of science and technology to economic development, much
can be done.
From the aforementioned preventive perspective, it is clear
that the environmental crisis is not merely the result of de-
mographic expansion and rising levels of affluence and pov-
erty, but also the consequence of technological development
itself. The substitution of newer materials, processes, and
products for older ones influenced mostly by performance
(output/input) values and measures and, to a lesser extent,
by values and measures of context compatibility, would inev-
itably lead to an environmental crisis. There is no intrinsic
reason why this should be the case. Much could be done,
provided that changes are made in the institutional and cul-
tural contexts of technological development. Concepts such
as industrial metabolism and internal environmental engi-
neering can help create a foundation for engineering ap-
proaches, which include the biosphere as the ultimate source
and sink of all materials, processes, and products. This ex-
ploitation of the biosphere needs to be greatly reduced, and
some of the foregoing examples are beginning to show how
this can be achieved. More ambitious schemes can be easily
imagined, such as the design of materials to have many lives,
after which time they can be reabsorbed into the biosphere.
I wish to stress that at least two distinct but interdependent
levels of analysis and engineering practice are implied in the
preventive approach I am advocating. The reason is that the
overall effect of technology on human life, society, and the
natural ecology cannot be deduced from the specific effects
of individual technologies, much like the effect of water on
paper cannot be deduced from those of hydrogen and oxygen.
Engineering ethics and codes of ethics are almost entirely
devoted to the microlevel of dealing with individual tech-
nologies or practitioners, so that much work remains to be
done on the macrolevel effects of technology as a whole. On
both the macrolevel and microlevel of analysis and practice,
the preventive approach uses appropriate information on con-
text implications to adjust engineering design and decision
making to ensure the highest possible compatibility with the
human, societal, and natural contexts. For example, with re-
spect to the natural ecology as a context, pollution prevention
exemplifies the microlevel of a preventive strategy while con-
 cepts such as industrial metabolism illustrate the macrolevel
dimension.
Preventive approaches must also be developed for the hu-
man and societal contexts of technology. I will draw an ex-
ample from industrial workplace design. Much attention has
been focused on the Japanese who, with the emphasis on the
group and on the nonseparation of hand and brain, benefit
from a historical situation in which many traditional cultural
elements have been less eroded than in older industrial so-
cieties. It is not possible to adopt these models for sociocul-
tural settings that are significantly different. In any case, it
overlooks the fact that, for about 200 yrs, production systems
have been designed essentially as gigantic machines into which
human beings are fitted as parts, especially since ford ism and
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taylorism. This approach overlooks the fact that, generally
speaking, the abilities of human beings and machines are
opposites. Machines thrive on repetition, while research shows
that human beings are destroyed by it. Socioepidemiological
studies are finding that, at any given age, people die more
frequently when they have low-paying, monotonous jobs with
little decision latitude as to how their work is to be performed.
It is increasingly evident that psychosocial conditions at work
produce a variety of disfunctions and disablements. These are
exported into workers' families and communities, substan-
tially weakening the social ecology (society). Commenting on
American business, Matsushita, a Japanese industrialist,
claimed (Denning 1991):
We will win and you will lose. You cannot do anything
about it because your failure is an internal disease. Your
companies are based on Taylor's principles. Worse, your
heads are taylorized too. You firmly believe that sound
management means executives on the one side and workers
on the other. On the one side men who think, on the other
side men who can only work. For you management is the
art of smoothly transferring the executive's idea to the
worker's hands.
Recent developments in Japan show that they too face
growing problems. Nevertheless, Japan and Scandinavia in
particular show us what we ought to have realized a long time
ago; namely, that the effectiveness of a particular production
system, which involves people and machines, depends greatly
on how people are treated. Employers depend on a healthy
and creative workforce, and the community requires healthy
workplaces. If employers are to reduce costs associated with
high turnover rates, absenteeism, poor quality work, and ac-
cidents, and society is to get its health (including workers'
compensation) and social costs under control, the design of
healthy workplaces will have to become a high priority (Kar-
asek and Theorell 1990). We may have to rethink much of
the conventional wisdom. Corporations that have scratched
the surface in this area appear to be finding that healthy
workplaces can create win-win situations for all parties.
Preventive strategies ought to simultaneously consider the
human-social as well as the natural contexts of technology.
Energy production and distribution is a good example. Tra-
ditional approaches have created a societal addiction to even
more energy, making us highly energy-inefficient. Consid-
erable environmental damage, a high debt load, and serious
negative social implications have been the results. Preventive
approaches cannot only make us much more energy-efficient
and environmentally responsible, but also more competitive,
since the cost of saving power is usually less than that of
producing it (Lovins 1990). Here again we only begin to scratch
the surface (Goldemberg et al. 1987). Cogeneration is the
best known and most obvious example of the gains to be
realized by creating a greater synergy between an energy
JOURNAL OF PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE 1 JULY 1995/159
J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 1995, 121(3): 155-160
system and its contexts. These synergies must be created on
both the microlevel and macrolevel.
The increasingly recognized need to make our cities more
liveable, healthier, and sustainable has significant implica-
tions for engineering practice. Any engineering undertaking
contributes to the shaping of the urban environment and the
kinds of stresses created between it and the people living
within it. Many of these, such as sensory overload, social
overload, crowding, pollution, violence, crime, and others
have been extensively examined and correlated with various
characteristics of that environment. This kind of information
can be analyzed from an engineering perspective to adjust
engineering theory and practice, so as to create healthier and
more sustainable urban environments. The healthy city con-
cept is gaining momentum, and it is evident that engineering
practice can make a significant contribution in this area through
preventive approaches (Green 1990).
Finally, all the aforementioned have implications for tech-
nology transfer to remote regions and the so-called Third
World, as well as for foreign aid (de Haan 1988). The design
of contextually appropriate technologies, once established in
the industrially advanced nations, will create a welcome spin-
off for the poor nations.
CONCLUSION
The introduction of preventive approaches into engineer-
ing, business, and economic practices will lead to the use and
development of modern technology being guided by both
performance values and negative feedback (in the sense of
control theory) about the human, societal, and natural con-
text implications. The benefits for the engineering profession,
industry, and our nations as a whole have already been sug-
gested. Changes to engineering education, corporate prac-
tice, and organizational cultures can be made to launch, sus-
tain, and develop the preventive approach. These and other
changes can be encouraged through a preventive-technology
policy. Being an engineering educator, I would like to high-
light one benefit to engineering students: they will find a
preventively oriented curriculum more relevant and interest-
ing, which will help boost their motivation and reduce the
dropout rate. It will also undoubtedly attract more women
into the profession, who in our culture are socialized to be
more context-sensitive than men. Society's recognition of the
important contribution engineers can make through more
preventive practices would undoubtedly reinforce these pos-
siblities. Let us commit ourselves, therefore, to work for our
common future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research on the engineering curriculum and preventive engi-
neering is supported by two grants from the Social Sciences and Hu-
manities Research Council of Canada.
APPENDIX I. RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS
SCORING SYSTEMS: TECHNICAL COURSES
0: No reference to context issues.
1: Minor reference(s) to context issues, which remain pe-
ripheral to the thrust of the paper/course. Usually this
amounts to little more than outlining the context in which
the problem arose, but once the problem is cast in en-
gineering terms little or no reference to context is made.
2: Some reference to context issues with some conse-
quences for the thrust of the paper/course.
3: Major reference to context issues with substantial con-
sequences for the thrust of the paper/course.
 4: Substantial consideration of context (as in 3), plus eval-
uation of consequences to adjust/reassess methods or
theories; i.e., 4 includes some negative feedback, 3 does
not.
Context issues include the following: (1) Implications of
technology for human life, society, or nature; (2) ethical con-
siderations and relationships to values; (3) nontechnical as-
pects of engineering education and the professional paradigm
[following T. S. Kuhn (1970)]; (4) implications of engineering
theories and practices, including the consequences of quan-
tification and mathematization, particularly of a qualitative
sociocultural human reality; and (5) implications of engi-
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neering decision making, including implicit and explicit val-
ues, beliefs, assumptions, and models that guide it.
SCORING SYSTEM: COMPLEMENTARY
STUDIES COURSES
0: No reference to technological issues.
1: Minor reference(s) to technological issues, which re-
main peripheral to the thrust of the paper/course. Usu-
ally this amounts to little more than outlining the prob-
lem, but once the problem is cast in social scientific
terms little or no reference to technology is made.
2: Some reference to technological issues that have some
influence on the thrust of the paper/course.
3: Major reference to technological issues with substantial
consequences for the thrust of the paper/course.
4: Substantial consideration of technology (as in 3), plus
evaluation of consequences to adjust/reassess methods
and theories used in engineering/technological practice
or in the social sciences and humanities.
160 / JOURNAL OF PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE / JULY 1995
J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 1995, 121(3): 155-160
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