A challenge for engineers

Engineers work out how to address the challenge of sustainable development in forum discussions and workshops

CEI Editor Sandi Rhys Jones gives an overview of the 1990 FIDIC Annual Conference, Oslo, Norway

Consulting engineers possess the expertise and skills to help solve the enormous environmental challenges facing today's world. The question is, how? Effective harnessing of those skills poses another challenge to the traditional roles and attitudes of the profession.

The need to raise the profile of the consulting engineering profession, the benefits of a broader academic training, the necessity of influencing decision makers, the demand for long-term rather than short-term solutions - these were some of the issues discussed during the 1990 FIDIC Annual Conference held in Oslo in June.

The encouraging news is that the three days of discussion led to positive action. By the end of the conference, FIDIC had agreed a formal Policy Statement on Consulting Engineering and the Environment which the member associations in 50 countries around the world are being urged to implement.

Wider view

Outlining proposed ethics and responsibilities, the policy statement calls upon consulting engineers to combine their traditional skills with broader aspects of physics, chemistry, biology and other disciplines to lead interdisciplinary teams directed at achieving acceptable environmental solutions.

The policy statement also gives specific guidelines related to project action including the evaluation of the positive and negative environmental impacts of each project, based on a preliminary review of available information or on the engineer's experience and suggesting alternatives to clients if environmental risks emerge.

Finally - and probably most controversially - the policy statement calls upon engineers to "...take appropriate action, or even decline to be associated with a project if the client is unwilling to support adequate efforts to evaluate the environmental issues or to mitigate environmental problems."

But perhaps controversy is just what the consulting engineering profession needs, to lift that invisible image and help find a place in the leadership stakes. As delegate Bob Mathe (US) commented during the Forum wrap-up session, "We engineers talk to each other, we don't communicate with the rest of the world - we need to get into the press and speak to the rest of the world."

The theme for the 1990 conference was based on the phrase "sustainable development" from the significant report Our Common Future by the World Commission on Environment and Development chaired by Norway's immediate past Prime Minister, Mrs Gro Harlem Brundtland. Forum Chairman Peter Hein (Australia) set the scene by describing FIDIC's role in shaping and assisting the thinking of the profession in environmental matters, taking responsibility for policy, education and representation at an international level.

Changing tack

Forum speaker Don Roberts, Vice President of leading US environmental engineers CH2M HILL proposed that achieving sustainable development depended on a fundamental shift in attitude by everyone. Engineers should take an active role to stimulate this shift by helping world populations adapt or modify behaviours through practical applications of science and technology.

We should alter our linear approach to consumption and waste generation towards a more sustainable cycle," said Roberts, contrasting nature's closed-loop systems such as the hydrological cycle with the wasteful human once-through use of resources.

Roberts began his excellent presentation with an outspoken comment delivered in a deceptively mild manner, "Frankly, I'm getting tired of reading about the role that scientists will play in the future as compared to engineers... It is the engineer who solves problems."

The good life?

Stressing that he was making no apology for the engineer, Roberts acknowledged that engineers have unintentionally contributed to global environmental problems by designing facilities and systems that raised the quality of life for many of the world's communities. The improved quality of life has resulted in lower death rates, which in turn have heightened the impacts of consumption and waste generation on the environment.

Now, rather than taking the traditional approach to specialised engineering disciplines, Roberts suggests that engineers can become environmental generalists as well. But because there is an historical lack of education and training m areas such as public speaking, history and economics, engineers must broaden their backgrounds in these and other areas. This is the only way in which engineers can become leaders and decision makers, raising their profile in the political, financial and consumer arenas.

This invisibility of the engineer, a familiar topic at many FIDIC conferences is now perceived as being a serious stumbling block to the profession taking its logical role in the environmental debate. The issue was raised repeatedly during the three day conference in Oslo, with some delegates citing examples of how they are succeeding in developing a higher and more effective profile within their own countries, but others questioning the ability of engineers as a profession to take a leadership role.

Roberts urged individual engineers to take a more active role within their firms, professional associations and community gatherings, talking about environmental issues. He also suggested a "senior mentor programme" utilising the knowledge and experience of late-career or retired engineers to act as advisors to environmental agencies, engineering firms and other organisations.

Another concept proposed by Roberts was that of "regional development centres", coordinating teams of consulting environmental engineers, international lenders, local university personnel and other volunteers to educate engineers within developing countries.

The two other forum speakers, whilst not baulking at describing the enormity of the challenge to consulting engineers in achieving sustainable development, nevertheless offered some encouragement. "The environment needs you," Paul Hofseth, Special Adviser to Norway"s Ministry of the Environment, told delegates.

He was expanding on the speech he gave at FIDIC"s 1987 Annual Conference in Lausanne, but this time he did not need to use colour slides showing the extent of global degradation to convince his audience that urgent action is required.

Paul Hofseth described how the interest in environmental measures now being taken by ministries of finance is a positive sign of the times and that environmentalists should not complain about meddling economists.

"One cannot have an environment ministry running the economy. It is far better adapted to evolving policies based on the environmental aims," he said. "To reach these aims, ministries of finance must adapt their analyses and policies to the environmental realities. "

Combined efforts

He sees the role of the environment authorities as analysing and forecasting environmental challenges based on information provided by the technological and scientific community. This cooperation should lead to the setting of realistic objectives, giving governments time to adopt appropriate measures and giving industry time to adapt to them.

"Engineers should be adept at seeking solutions," urged Hofseth. But he warned that they should take care to practise what they preach and that consulting engineers should become expert "green consumers" when specifying their procurements.

"It will not do to send waste paper for recycling, but not buy recycled paper where the specification fits the purpose. It will not do to specify wood if it is plywood made from unsustainably logged tropical woods", he continued.

But Hofseth is sufficiently a realist to understand the commercial and moral dilemma faced by an engineer when a design that protects the environment becomes more expensive than a standard solution. This double-loyalty problem was highlighted in the workshop to address the question "What can we do as consulting engineers?"

Workshop delegates suggested educating the client to see the benefits of a long-term environmentally acceptable solution. Hofseth believes that the answer lies in a concerted approach, urging for the preparation of good practice guidelines, or pressure on governments to set out ground rules. But as workshop speaker Charles Liburd (Nigeria) pointed out in the forum wrap-up session, governments are generally clients, with short-term political motives, particularly in less developed countries. There is a need to talk with and to educate them, but as he pointed out, " There is a notable absence from this FIDIC Forum - the client."

The real costs

Another player with a difficult role in the moral game of development versus environment is the intemational funding agency. Indeed, the role of the funding agencies in environmentally acceptable development was the subject of heated exchange when delegates discussed a hypothetical case study at the workshop on liability. But forum speaker Ken Piddington, who became Director of the Environment at the World Bank in 1988, had encouraging words to say about the bank's response at an operational level to the challenges in the Brundtland report.

Describing how the "greening of the World Bank" is a very complex administrative task, Piddington nonetheless told delegates that progress was greater than he expected - and "was certainly ahead of the performance by some of the Metro contractors on the new Green Line" subway system currently being constructed under the streets of Washington, DC.

Settling accounts

He described highlights of the World Banks progress to date, including the significant proposal for a US$1 billion pilot "global environmental facility", with possible links with UNEP and UNDR "Quite, simply, the proposition is that if a borrowing country in the third world agrees to an action which is clearly protective of the global environment, but which does not offer an immediate national benefit, e.g. the rapid elimination of the use of CFC"s, the facility should meet the extra costs incurred by that country," explained Piddington. "To do this, it should draw on contributions provided by rich countries."

Based on the "polluter pays" principle, the contribution by rich countries would relate to their substantial arrears and, as Piddington says, in economic terms, you can also say that they have more to lose if they do not pay for some insurance cover."

But what about the role of the engineer? Like Hofseth, Piddington sees the engineer as providing the solutions, advising political institutions and facilitating the process through which society comes to terms with the dilemma of sustainability. Like Hofseth, Piddington sees the economists as helpers, rather hinderers in the process and highlights the business opportunities for those consulting engineering firms able to reflect the principles of sustainability in the delivery of projects.

The three forum speeches set the tone for the conference programme, which included six workshops on various aspects of the environment such as the question of increasing liability, the difficulties in quantifying environmental impact and the role of the less developed countries.

The workshop on liability was led by Harald S Kobbe, a prominent Norwegian lawyer. He described the wide variation between countries in the frequency and severity of environmental litigation against engineers, attributing this to differing public attitudes and permissible courtroom practice rather than major differences in the legal principles of tort law.

Harald Kobbe predicts that environmental liability suits against engineers may become more uniform and frequent throughout the world.

To protect themselves against what might literally become a hostile working environment, Kobbe recommended that engineers and their clients should keep informed on legal and regulatory trends. In addition he felt it would make financial as well as legal sense to design all facilities with sustainable development in mind.

Tangled web

The introductory presentation was followed by stimulating round table discussion of two hypothetical case studies. The delegates groups were assisted by workshop leader Kobbe, supported by Don Roberts and other FIDIC Environmental Committee members. Discussion revealed just how complex environmental issues can become - particularly when joint ventures comprising different nationalities, international funding agencies and inexperienced clients are involved.

The workshop on quantifying the environmental impacts of projects revealed that delegates had very little experience in the topic, although most could refer to normal cost/benefit analysis and technology assessment in general. Problems arose when addressing the question how to quantify the value of undisturbed nature and the quality of human life. The differences in attitude between the less developed and the more developed countries became increasingly obvious.

But the message became clear: educational training, particularly related to reproduceable quantification methods, is required urgently. It was suggested in the wrap-up session on the final day that an urgent task for FIDIC's Environment Task Committee should be the production of guidelines for the integration of environmental elements into the overall project cycle from initial project identification through to project decommissioning. To date there has been too much emphasis on early planning studies and far less effort in the monitoring of environmental effects during operation. It was felt a more sustained and even environmental assessment monitoring effort was required over the total project life.

The attitudes of less developed countries was examined in more depth at another workshop, in which presentations from Africa, Asia and Latin America preceded open discussion. A major problem is seen to be the persistent demand for energy and wasteful life-styles in developed countries, which are perceived as models of development by the lesser developed countries.

Untapped resources

Workshop leader Carlos Robeiro from Brazil raised the issue of the "brain drain", which has become a severe problem in many less developed countries. His point was endorsed during the Forum wrap-up session by Mr Dabbagh from the Kuwait Fund, who called for engineers from developed countries working on projects in less developed countries to make use of the "thousands of professionally qualified engineers who are out of work and being forced to emigrate."

But perhaps the most significant workshop was that on the development of the FIDIC policy statement on consulting engineers and the environment, together with the workshop addressing the question "What can we do as consulting engineers?" which was attended by a total of 175 delegates.

The comments of delegates at these workshops, combined with those made during the wtap-up session on the final day were a substantial contribution to the policy statement that was approved by the FIDIC Executive Committee.

Positive thinking

The mood of the wrap-up session was one of positive action and determination to take a leading role in the environmental debate. As Erik Isgard (Sweden) commented when endorsing the proposals put by Forum speaker Don Roberts, "We are now in the opening of an era, we must take advantage of the new system and its challenges."

As Ron Carter (New Zealand) said, the independence of consulting engineers makes them ideal candidates for leading roles in the environmental debate.

Mario Rothschild of the World Bank congratulated FIDIC on the conference, commenting that FIDIC and consulting engineers have a vital role in integrating environmental issues into feasibility studies and making clients and funding agencies aware of the need to do so.

His comments echoed those of John Gregg (South Africa) who called upon engineers to take a more holistic approach, integrating the environmental impact of development positively rather than negatively.

So what does the future hold? Three years ago, at the FIDIC Conference in Lausanne, Hofseth told consulting engineers in Lausanne that if they did not address the opportunities of the environmental market, they would find themselves with no markets at all.

And it is 21 years since FIDIC held a conference in the same venue (Oslo) on the same theme (the environment). Don Roberts believes that the profession has only the same length of time to resolve the problems. "To make the transition from unsustainable environmental conditions to a stable or nearly stable global environment requires unprecedented global decisions and actions within the next 20 years," he predicted.

"Our challenge as a profession is unmatched. If we wish, we can continue to fulfill purely technical roles. However, our potential value in achieving sustainable development will not be realised unless we become environmental leaders and effective decision makers."

| FIDIC 1990 |