In my engineering practice I work mostly on site development and infrastructure projects. I spend most of my time on commercial site developments working with architects and other engineers. About 8 years ago I got interested in sustainable design and green buildings and I have been trying to learn as much as I can about the subject since then. One of the interesting things that I have found is that, in general, civil engineers are behind the curve of adopting green practices in the design community. It seems that for the most part architects are the early adopters, followed by mechanical and electrical engineers, structural engineers and other buildings related disciplines and civil engineers lag behind. Maybe it’s that civil engineering is such a traditional discipline, or may be clients and code officials are not pushing civil engineers, I’m not sure. Whatever the reason it’s unfortunate that more civil engineers are not embracing sustainable design in their work.
I hope that this blog will serve as a way for me to reach out to other civil engineers and design professionals to connect and work with. May be I can help other engineers take the leap and start incorporating sustainable strategies into their designs. And hopefully I can connect with architects and owners that are looking for an engineer that thinks “outside the box”.
If you are a civil engineer and think I am wrong or can tell me why civil engineers are not embracing sustainable design let me know by commenting below. If you have had a frustrating experience with a civil engineer that was unwilling to implement sustainable design strategies I would like to hear about that too.
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