Engineering a Sustainable Future
Dr. Michael K. J. Milligan — Chief Executive Officer, ABET
Dr. Michael K. J. Milligan is the Chief Executive Officer of ABET, the world's leading nonprofit quality assurance organisation for higher education programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. A leader in the field since 2009, Dr. Milligan oversees a staff of more than 45 professionals and works alongside over 2,200 volunteer experts to shape the educational experiences of hundreds of thousands of STEM students each year. In this episode of xRaised, he sits down with journalist Myles for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about the evolving role of sustainability within ABET's core mission — and why the organisation believes that a safer, more efficient, and more sustainable world starts in the classroom.
ABET is a nonprofit, ISO 9001 certified quality assurance organisation that accredits academic programs, recognises credentials, and assesses student learning outcomes across the globe. Originally founded in 1932 as the Engineers' Council for Professional Development, the organisation has grown significantly in both scope and geographic reach. Today, ABET represents 34 technical and professional member societies and has accredited more than 4,600 academic programs across 42 countries, with over 200,000 students graduating from ABET-accredited programs every year.
Rather than evaluating institutions as a whole, ABET's accreditation process focuses at the program level — ensuring that the specific course of study a student pursues meets rigorous, peer-reviewed quality standards. This granular, outcomes-driven approach is what sets ABET apart as a global benchmark for technical education quality.
ABET's voluntary, peer-review accreditation process evaluates academic programs in applied and natural sciences, computing, engineering, and engineering technology at the associate, bachelor's, and master's degree levels. The process is driven by ABET's 34 member societies, whose experts develop the criteria and set the standards. More than 2,200 ABET Experts from industry, academia, and government volunteer their time as program evaluators, commissioners, board members, and advisors — making the process both rigorous and deeply connected to real-world professional standards.
For ABET, sustainability is not a peripheral concern — it is woven into the organisation's foundational purpose. As Dr. Milligan explains, ABET's overarching goal is to help equip the professionals of tomorrow to build a world that is safer, more efficient, and more sustainable. That framing means sustainability sits alongside — not separate from — the quality assurance work ABET has been doing for nearly a century.
The logic is straightforward: if ABET's mission is to ensure that graduates are prepared to excel in the workforce, and the workforce increasingly demands sustainability fluency, then accredited programs must reflect that reality. Sustainability is therefore embedded in how ABET thinks about educational outcomes, not treated as an add-on to its core activities.
Dr. Milligan is clear that ABET's sustainability efforts are broader than any single initiative — but two concrete examples illustrate how the organisation is translating its values into action.
Developed in partnership with Online Education Services (OES), the ABET Sustainability Microcredential is a self-paced, online training program designed for STEM students and professionals who want to make a measurable impact on the world. The 25-hour program explores how applied science, technology, engineering, and mathematics intersect with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), and it is open to everyone from early-career professionals to experienced practitioners and faculty members. It is a practical example of ABET extending its quality assurance expertise beyond traditional degree-program accreditation and into the growing space of credentials and lifelong learning.
For the ABET Symposium and other key events, ABET has partnered with [Evertreen](https://www.evertreen.com), a VERRA-verified digital reforestation platform, in a "You Register. We Plant." initiative: for every attendee who registers, a tree is planted in direct support of global reforestation efforts. The joint environmental impact can be tracked in real time via the dedicated ABET Forest on the Evertreen platform: [https://www.evertreen.com/forest/672d4b82eca97](https://www.evertreen.com/forest/672d4b82eca97).
Evertreen connects businesses and organisations with reforestation projects worldwide, providing GPS and satellite monitoring of every tree planted. Partnering with a platform that offers full transparency and accountability aligns naturally with ABET's own ISO 9001-certified commitment to quality and continuous improvement.
Taken together, these initiatives demonstrate that ABET's sustainability commitment operates at multiple levels: educating the next generation of STEM professionals through quality-assured credentials, and modelling responsible environmental stewardship in the organisation's own operations and events.
The shift Dr. Milligan describes is one that is now visible across the entire landscape of STEM higher education. Employers are increasingly seeking graduates who not only possess strong technical skills but who can also apply those skills with an awareness of environmental responsibility, ethical considerations, and long-term societal impact. Accreditation bodies like ABET are uniquely positioned to respond to this demand — because their criteria directly shape what programs teach and how student outcomes are measured.
The growing emphasis on sustainability in engineering education is also reflected in ABET's recognition of industry credentials. The organisation has begun applying its quality assurance standards to microcredentials and certificate programs that embed sustainability into professional development, helping to normalise sustainability fluency as an expectation rather than an elective.
Looking ahead, ABET's vision for sustainability is one of ongoing integration — ensuring that the principles of environmental responsibility, ethical awareness, and sustainable design are not siloed within particular programs or elective courses, but are embedded across the full spectrum of accredited STEM education globally.
For Dr. Milligan and the ABET team, the measure of success is ultimately a practical one: do the graduates emerging from ABET-accredited programs have the knowledge, skills, and values needed to contribute meaningfully to a more sustainable world? That question will continue to drive ABET's strategic direction — through its accreditation criteria, its credential recognition work, and the partnerships and initiatives it chooses to pursue.
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