2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Integrating Professional Credentialing in Sustainability into Civil Engineering Curriculum: A Case Study

Presented at Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL) - ASCE Collaborations

The concept of sustainable development rose to prominence with the publication of Our Common Future as an output of the United Nations’ Brundtland Commission. Recently, increased emphasis on the impacts of climate change and globalization has reinforced the need for the civil engineering profession to address the complex challenges of designing, operating, and maintaining civil works infrastructure that is both sustainable and resilient. This need is reflected both within the Engineering Accreditation Commission’s General Criteria and the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Program Criteria required for undergraduate programs in Civil Engineering to be ABET accredited. By the time of graduation, students must have the ability to apply the engineering design process to arrive at solutions that are more than just technically sound. Their solutions must also serve to protect the public health, safety, and welfare of society, as well as address the triple bottom line of sustainability by considering environmental, social, and economic factors. This paper presents a case study on using professional credentialing in sustainability as a mechanism to help educate students on these sorts of considerations within the engineering design process. Students studied for, and earned, the Envision Sustainability Professional credential through the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure in partial fulfillment of an elective within their undergraduate engineering curriculum. The credentialing process requires completion of an online course that equips students with a framework to consider making systematic changes in planning, design, and delivery of civil works infrastructure. The Envision framework consists of sixty-four sustainability and resilience indicators organized within five categories: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate & Resilience. The framework specifically encourages stakeholder engagement and acceptable risk analysis to help ensure engineers both “do the right project” and “do the project right.” This case study presents a crosswalk between the Envision framework to the General Criteria and Program Criteria required for an ABET accredited Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering program.

Authors

Timmy Elwin Kipfmiller III United States Military Academy [biography]

Timmy Kipfmiller is a Civil Engineering major at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His research has focused on Structurally Insulated Panels and their role in reducing blast effects. This work included a paper presented at the International Conference on Protective Structures examining the blast resistance of paneling with various foam compositions. His research also yielded a paper outlining various numerical evaluation methods for structural panels subject to blast and static loading. Additionally, Timmy has earned the Envision Sustainability Professional Credential (ENV SP) equipping him with a framework that encourages systematic changes in planning, design, and delivery of sustainable civil infrastructure.
Alexander Tucker United States Military Academy
Charles James Richardson Reeves United States Military Academy
Nicholas Ryan Parker United States Military Academy [biography]

Nicholas Parker is a Civil Engineering major at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His academic interests revolve around transportation infrastructure and entertainment venue construction. Nicholas is a manager for the Division 1 Army Women's Softball Team and he is also a member of the Civil and Military Engineering Club at West Point. Nicholas has earned the ENV SP credential equipping him with a framework that encourages systematic changes in planning, design, and delivery of sustainable civil infrastructure.
Lt. Col. Scott M. Katalenich http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3300-6922 United States Military Academy [biography]

Lieutenant Colonel Scott M. Katalenich is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. He earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the United States Military Academy, M.Phil. in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer (Alaska), Project Management Professional, LEED Accredited Professional in Building Design and Construction, and Envision Sustainability Professional. His research interests include engineering education; infrastructure; sustainable design; and clean, renewable energy.

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