Hi Adam,

The truth is somewhere in the middle. I too aspire for the world you’re talking about, but the way the businesses are structured can make that difficult sometimes. Speaking from my experience at Ford, engineers had to balance between performance, costs, and the marketing benefits of sustainability. As an engineer at any company, a service you can always do is reduce usage (material, energy, labor) in manufacturing, operation, and end of life. In that way, improving performance is better for the company and the environment as a whole.

My colleagues in research had more leeway for products not to initially make financial sense, or have risk involved, while my more production-oriented friends had less leeway.

That limiting perspective is one of the core reasons my company chooses not to directly sell products because we can change how that equation sums up at the end. You can engineer a business where ethics are profitable.

One thing I will say is that plastics are a dirty word, but just because they’re abused doesn’t mean they’re bad. Did you know, black thermoplastics reinforced with lignin, hemp or a variety of natural fibers can be infinitely remolded, recycled, and reused without degradation of material properties? When used in combination with a metallic skeleton you reduce all of the above negative externalities I mentioned (material, energy, labor). Just food for thought 😉

Happy to talk more, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn, email me directly alum@email.com.