2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The sustainability concept relies on the three pillars of the triple bottom line which include social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Although economic and environmental sustainability is widely implemented, social sustainability or social equity is yet to gain traction. As globalization increases, engineering professionals and stakeholders must prioritize and incorporate social equity for the construction of sustainable developments, particularly infrastructure systems as they are the critical component of a functioning community. However, civil engineering and construction (CEC) education hardly focuses on disseminating knowledge about social equity, particularly equity in infrastructure systems thus hindering the path of creating equitable and sustainable future developments. Therefore, it is critical to introduce and educate future engineering professionals about infrastructure inequity issues as well as train them to ensure equity for both new and existing infrastructure systems through effective techniques. This research investigates the existing awareness of infrastructure inequity issues among CEC students and proposes effective solutions to improve such knowledge and awareness as well as equip them with techniques to address the issue by leveraging Envision sustainability rating system. To achieve this objective, the study implemented a training/workshop in a cross-listed sustainability course about various critical concepts of infrastructure inequity as well as how to address this issue through utilizing the Envision rating system. At first, the study conducted a pre-survey to record pre-established knowledge of the participants about social inequity and the importance of equitable infrastructure systems. Then, during the training, the students were introduced to important topics that include social inequity, gentrification, infrastructure inequity, equitable access to infrastructure, sustainable infrastructure rating system, and various credits of Envision rating system that support equitable infrastructure. The study conducted a post-survey of the participants following the training. The pre and post-survey responses were analyzed using the McNemar test. The results indicated that guided training helped the students to understand infrastructure inequity concerns and can potentially nurture their knowledge to address and mitigate such issues through implementing the Envision rating system. Furthermore, the boxplots demonstrating the self-assessment of the students highlighted that the training was effective to improve awareness among the students regarding the necessity of equitable infrastructure systems. The findings of the study would be valuable for increasing awareness of infrastructure inequity and facilitating the future construction workforce with the required knowledge to ensure an equitable infrastructure system.