Schulich School of Engineering ranked #1 in Canada for teaching sustainable engineering

The Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary earned top spot in Canada, out of 37 engineering programs surveyed, for integrating sustainability into its curriculum, according to the annual Corporate Knights ranking of business, engineering and law schools.

The rankings, announced this week and distributed throughout Canada with the Globe and Mail, broadly define sustainability as practices that ensure the longevity of the planet. The magazine interviewed students for the first year as part of the survey, including Ebrahim Kohandel, president of the student society at the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary.

“As future engineers, we are the people that are going to be building communities...It’s important that we understand what we do and how it affects our environment. And a really good place to start is your education, so you can see as you learn how these concepts are affecting the environment,” he says.

“The focus on sustainable energy solutions, while at the heart of the oil patch, is part of the leadership and problem-solving culture embodied by the engineering school,” says Dr. Elizabeth Cannon, dean of the Schulich School of Engineering. The school also has a notable record for reaching out to young girls and culturally diverse groups to consider careers in engineering that make the world a better place.

In judging the schools, the survey not only looked at courses, institutes and clubs that introduce students to environmental matters, but social concerns as well.

The Schulich School of Engineering introduced a new Energy and the Environment specialization last year, and is home to numerous researchers who are part of the Centre for Environmental Engineering, Research and Education (CEERE), and the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy (ISEEE), both strong interdisciplinary research hubs at the University of Calgary.

The top five schools also included the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, École Polytechnique and the University of Western Ontario.