This document discusses thinking outside the box in engineering. It encourages divergent thinking and considering the social context of engineering projects. Engineers should examine the assumptions behind specifications and consider how projects fit within larger systems and ecosystems. Appropriate technology is designed at a small scale to be sustainable, decentralized, and maintained locally. Ecological engineering emerged to address issues like unsustainability and restoring degraded environments, and it considers the policy and economic impacts of design decisions. The social relationships that cause unsustainability can be addressed through creative problem solving and whole system thinking in engineering.