Engineering the future now

![CDATA[The future we are going to live is being decided now. It is not the business leaders, it is not the politicians or the NGO’s that are going to shape the future – it is each and every one of us. The choices we make in our everyday lives at home and work all contribute to shape society. This paper aims to reflect on practices developed at Hatch Engineering by way of a cultural shift and education program for the workforce developed internally and with outside assistance providing people with skills to control the sustainability of their work and home lives. An overview of the University of Western Sydney (UWS) changing of the Engineering curriculum to equip future professionals for their leadership role in the New Society, is also given, as the expectations now are that new graduates will have mastered the ability to think about systems holistically as well as reduce them to their individual parts. People are needed who can radically optimize the efficiency of an entire system, not just a single component. They will need to better understand ecoefficiency and how to maximize values whilst minimizing adverse impacts. The authors believe that the answers to all our sustainability challenges already exist in nature. What is needed is to observe them and learn from the experiments conducted by nature over the past few million years. This requires special individuals who are holistic thinkers capable of seeing solutions that go beyond mere compliance. Contemporary engineering curriculum should provide this element in the education of future professionals.]]