There is a proverb that says: “We don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors, instead we borrow it from our children”. Preserving our earth through sustainable development is crucial in assuring the stability of the Earth’s systems. Sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their needs which essentially are based on three fundamental pillars: economic, environmental and social. However, sustainable development has become amajor global challenge, which is further inflated by the occurrence of natural
disaster due to the current climate change. These issues are critical for Civil Engineers to design and construct sustainable structures. In Geotechnical Engineering (as a discipline in Civil Engineering), enormous efforts, particularly in soils as construction materials and construction on or through soils are taken to tackle these global environmental issues. Through extensive and in-depth research, breakthrough in technology has contributed significantly in addressing the concerns of sustainability in the turbulent world in the twenty-first century. Additionally, curricular integration of sustainability in higher education plays a role in producing sustainability literate graduates who are equipped with wide-range of skills and knowledge in putting its principles into practice. The question is, do these efforts sufficient? This talk will look into the past, present and future efforts in saving the earth for our future generation from the Geotechnical Engineering perspectives.
