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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how industrial ecology can facilitate the achievement of sustainable development through its incorporation into an engineering curriculum.Design/methodology/approachA model has been developed for assessing sustainability learning outcomes due to the incorporation of the concept of industrial ecology into undergraduate and postgraduate engineering programs. This model assesses how the Engineering Faculty at Curtin University has included a core engineering unit (Engineering for Sustainable Development) and four postgraduate units (Cleaner Production Tools, Eco‐efficiency, Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Technology) in its undergraduate and postgraduate engineering program, to enable modern engineering education to reflect the benefits of industrial ecology in the implementation of sustainable engineering solutions and decision‐making processes. Using this model, this paper demonstrates how the syllabus, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary assignment tasks, lectures and tutorials have been developed since 2006 in order to develop the concept of industrial ecology in undergraduate and postgraduate engineering education. The paper has also analysed the different teaching methods that have been applied since 2006 to generate increased student satisfaction in these new and challenging subjects.FindingsThe university environment can temper the potential outcomes from increasing the sustainability content in engineering education, given the general lack of student maturity in understanding the value of sustainability objectives together with course limitations on sustainability content and the arduous and lengthy processes involved in changing course curricula.Research limitations/implicationsSince the Engineering for Sustainable Development unit has been introduced only recently, it was beyond the scope of the research to interview graduate engineers who completed this unit to investigate how they have applied the concept of industrial ecology to achieve sustainability outcomes in their workplaces.Originality/valueThis research is distinct in that it investigated the implications of the incorporation of industrial ecology into the engineering curriculum.

AbstractThis study presents a greenhouse gas (GHG) life cycle assessment of 1 tonne of wheat transported to port in south‐western Australia, including emissions from prefarm, onfarm and postfarm stages. The prefarm stage included GHG emissions from agricultural machinery, fertiliser and pesticide production. The onfarm stage included GHG emissions from diesel use, liming and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from N fertiliser applications. The postfarm stage included grain storage and transportation to the port. GHG emissions decreased from 487 to 304 kg carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalents when we used regional‐specific data for N2O emissions instead of the IPCC default value for the application of synthetic N fertilisers to land (1.0%). Fertiliser production in the prefarm stage contributed significantly (35%) to GHG, followed by onfarm CO2 emissions (27%) and emissions from transportation of inputs and wheat (12%). N2O emissions from paddock represented 9% of the total GHGs emitted. We recommend utilising regionally specific data for soil N2O emissions, rather than international default values, when assessing GHG for agricultural production systems.