In India, most engineering universities offer environmental engineering courses alongside civil and chemical engineering majors. Civil environmental engineers study hydrology, air and water purification and soil treatment while chemical environmental engineers study bioremediation, waste management, and sustainable manufacturing processes. At the undergraduate level, environmental science is a mandatory course for all engineering and science students irrespective of their major/minor combination as per the directive of Supreme Court of India issued in 2004.

Environmental Impact Assesment report is a mandatory document that needs to be prepared by environmental engineers and approved by the government before a developmental project relating to infrastructure or mining can be initiated. Researching and setting up international standards for emissions, designing sustainable machinery (which may include engines, factory machinery, and automobiles) and helping to make our world communities a better place for everyone a part of an engineers daily-job. 

Being an engineering student myself, bioremediation is one of the fascinating innovations that caught my eye. It is the process of using naturally occurring microorganisms to treat pollutants and break them down into harmless components. Oil spills are one major threat to marine ecosystems and can be treated by this process as has been evident from the incidents of Exxon Valdez and BP Deepwater Horizon. Using microbes, oil can be broken down into linear alkanes which makes it easier to clean them up by separating them from ecosystems and well as save many animals who may have ingested them. Most bioremediation process involves bioslurping, bioventing, and biosparging which uses oxidation and reduction processes to break down harmful chemicals.

Heavy metals like cadmium which are known to pollute soil and reduce land fertility can be deemed harmless by use of certain types of microbes in a process known as biosorption. This is the most sustainable and least expensive amongst all remediation activities.

The only drawback is that bioremediation can only be used to treat organic compounds. However, with the use of genetic engineering, it is hopeful that we can achieve to produce microbes that can eat their way through non-organic compounds too like radioactive elements and plastic waste.  More research and development is required alongside awareness building to achieve mass bioremediation of waste and pollutants.