Abstract
The complex issue of sustainability has increased its importance in companies? strategy. The competencies and skills required to industrial engineers have changed accordingly: industrial engineers must now address issues such as eco design, certifications, information flows streamlining, life cycle assessment and processes and products innovation. Hence, in view of a continuous renewal of teaching, the change of some essentially descriptive classes on industrial technologies has been pursued. As the crucial importance of cross-disciplinary and multidisciplinary nature of the topic, the new classes have been designed focusing on the complex issue of sustainability, especially in its environmental and socio-cultural aspect. The content and teaching methodology have been defined assessing which skills neo engineers should have in order to successfully address the dynamic and proactive sustainability of a company. The main purpose has been highlighting both the close links between market dynamics, research and creative development and productive processes and the effects that these connections lead on business organizational models. That is to improve sensitivity to the recent need of Italian companies to contain the consumption and the costs of energy and water and deal with wastewater management. As its great economic and social importance in Italy, the classes focus on the fashion industry (textiles, clothing and tanning / footwear). In addition, the Italian fashion industry (from processing of fibers to weaving, from finishing to the finished garment) has worked on reducing the environmental impact of its processes and on the traceability of its supply chain in order to restore its competitiveness in the global context. Such a new approach calls for new ways of relating between textile companies and fashion companies with chemical and mechanical textile to share the common goal of ensuring fashionable products with a high level of aesthetics and quality but with reduced environmental impact. Finally, the class underlines the lack of standardization in the sustainability processes (except for some large companies) and that sustainability is an question that requires collaboration of multiple figures and constant transfer of information and data collection methods: a stimulating issue for young engineers.