ASME's Design for Sustainability Program

Earn stackable microcredentials that help engineers integrate sustainability into rea

Build practical sustainability skills across three on-demand microcredentials: Goals & Metrics, Technical Strategies, and Business & Social Strategies. Learners gain tools to evaluate impacts, make evidence-based design decisions, communicate with credibly, and build support for sustainable solutions.

Is this program for you?

Engineers, industrial designers, product managers, entrepreneurs, sustainability professionals, and strategy professionals can benefit from structured training that connects technical sustainability solutions to business success and societal impact. This program is designed for professionals who need to align design decisions with environmental, economic, social, organizational, and regulatory considerations.

Put sustainable design into practice right away with downloadable exercises and resources that help you set goals, assess life-cycle impacts, compare design options, choose materials and energy strategies, plan for recycling and product life extension, and build business and stakeholder support for sustainable solutions.

Design with Impact

Practice sustainability skills you can use immediately to evaluate goals, metrics, life-cycle impacts, and trade-offs.

Engineer Better Choices

Apply technical strategies for materials, energy use, circularity, product lifetime extension, and end-of-life design.

Lead Sustainable Change

Build business and stakeholder support through credible communication, systems thinking, Return on Investment (ROI), and collaboration tools.

Get Started with this Learning Path

Access all three parts of the Design for Sustainability Learning Path and build a practical foundation for creating products, services, and systems that consider environmental impact, business value, stakeholder needs, and real-world implementation.

Sign up today to start building sustainability skills that can be applied immediately in engineering and product development work.

Sign up today!

Organizations that invest in sustainability training can strengthen:

Decision Quality

Teams can use sustainability goals, metrics, life-cycle insights, and trade-off analysis to support stronger design decisions.

Risk Awareness

Sustainability professionals can recognize regulatory, supply chain, stakeholder, and environmental considerations that affect product-level design choices.

Innovation

Teams can identify circular design, product-service system, material, energy, and business model opportunities.

Credible Communication

Professionals can reduce greenwashing risk by using evidence-based claims, clearer stakeholder communication, and stronger business cases.

Cross-Functional Alignment

Engineers and technical professionals can connect sustainability goals to organizational strategy, customer value, and implementation realities.

Earn a microcredential through on-demand training.

Gaining practical skills in sustainable design helps professionals apply systems thinking, life-cycle assessment (LCA), technical design strategies, and business/social implementation tools while building career-ready knowledge in a growing area of engineering practice.

Learn more about the three-part Design for Sustainability learning path

Part 1 - Goals & Metrics

Analyze a product, service, or system against Planetary Boundaries, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the People, Planet, Prosperity framework. Use fast-track LCA to identify impact hotspots, create SMART sustainability goals, compare alternatives, and manage uncertainty to avoid greenwashing.

Part 2 - Technical Strategies

Apply engineering strategies such as sustainable material selection, energy optimization, and circular design to improve sustainability across the product life cycle. Use Whole System Mapping and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate trade-offs and prioritize impactful, evidence-based design solutions.

Part 3 - Business & Social Strategies

Apply social and business strategies that help sustainable designs succeed in the real world, including behavior change, product-service systems, business model tools, backcasting, laws and labels, credible communication, equity and inclusion, collaboration, and ROI/NPV business cases.

Start the Design for Sustainability Learning Path

ASME’s Design for Sustainability Program helps engineers and technical professionals move beyond awareness and into application. Through three stackable on-demand microcredentials, learners build the ability to set sustainability goals, evaluate impacts, choose better technical strategies, and communicate the business and social value of sustainable design decisions.

Register for ASME’s Design for Sustainability Learning Path online training

Design for Sustainability Part 1: Goals and Metrics (Self Study)

Turn sustainability into actionable design decisions. Learn lifecycle thinking, key frameworks, and fast LCA to set measurable goals, evaluate trade-offs, and make evidence-based decisions.

Design for Sustainability Part 2: Technical Strategies (Self Study)

This course equips you with the engineering strategies needed to improve product sustainability across the entire life cycle.

Design for Sustainability Part 3 – Business & Social Strategies (Self Study)

This course equips you with the tools to build support for your sustainability work and aligning your design decisions with organizational goals and constraints.

FAQs

What is a microcredential?

Microcredentials are specialized training programs that provides individuals with a digital badge or certificate upon completion of a learning program focusing on a specific skill or set of skills.

What are the requirements to earn an ASME L&D microcredential?

Learners are required to complete the online material and pass the course with a score of 75% or higher.

What is the difference between a microcredential and qualification?

Microcredentials and qualifications differ in scope, duration and focus.

Micocredentials are designed to be completed relatively quickly, targeted at specific skills and result in a digital badge or certificate.

Qualifications involve a more extensive period of study, cover a broader range of subjects and result in a formal credential.

How do I share my digital badge?

It’s easy to share your digital badge. Once you meet your completion criteria, you will receive an email with instructions on how to:

Share it on social media
Add it to your LinkedIn profile
Embed it in your email signature
Add it to your digital resume
Upload it to your smartphone wallet