Most efforts to reform engineering curricula to focus on sustainable development have to date been at
the level of individual, senior, often elective, courses. Although sophisticated arguments have been
mounted about the need for broad curriculum reform, there are few exemplars of such initiatives in
undergraduate engineering education. This article reports on a curriculum reform process in chemical
engineering at the University of Cape Town, and examines closely the new first core course that signals
the introduction of this new curriculum. The new curriculum has borrowed from forerunners in this
endeavour a slightly reduced theoretical core, intertwined with an accompanying project strand running
throughout the four years of the program. Departing from traditional curricula, the new first year course
incorporates a ‘natural foundations’ strand that introduces nature not just as source of raw materials, or
as imposing limits on engineering prowess, but also as ‘mentor and model’. Sustainability problems are
interpreted as systematic violations of nature's grand cycles and contrasted with development needs
particularly in relation to provision of water and energy. By the end of the course, >95% of students rated
their knowledge of environmental and sustainability issues as good or excellent, whilst 80% confirmed
this in the final examination. This article thus demonstrates the feasibility of reforming core undergraduate
engineering curricula to incorporate a focus on sustainable development, from the first year of
study onwards.