title: Do we need sustainability as a new approach in human factors and ergonomics?
abstract: The International Ergonomics Association Technical Committee 'Human Factors and Sustainable Development' was established to contribute to a broad discourse about opportunities and risks resulting from current societal 'mega-trends' and their impacts on the interactions among humans and other elements of a system, e.g. in work systems. This paper focuses on the underlying key issues: how do the sustainability paradigm and human factors/ergonomics interplay and interact, and is sustainability necessary as a new approach for our discipline? Based on a discussion of the sustainability concept, some general principles for designing new and enhancing existent approaches of human factors and ergonomics regarding their orientation towards sustainability are proposed.
  The increasing profile of sustainability on the international stage presents new opportunities for human factors/ergonomics. Positioning of the sustainability paradigm within human factors/ergonomics is discussed. Approaches to incorporating sustainability in the design of work systems are considered.
authors: Research Institute for Technology and Work, University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany. klaus.j.zink@ita-kl.de
authors: Klaus J
authors: KJ
authors: Zink
authors: Klaus
authors: K
authors: Fischer
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D006804:Ergonomics; D006801:Humans; D014937:Work