Today marks the end of my stewardship of the ASCE President’s Blog. Beginning next week, Blaine Leonard will have the privilege of sharing his thoughts with you each week. Please accept my sincere appreciation for spending a few minutes each week reading this space.

I have tried to highlight issues that I believe are important. My entries have been intended to both inform and stimulate thoughts. Some of the topics revealed deeply held opinions. Your comments have been interesting, if not always enjoyable.

My hope is that the President’s Blog will continue to grow. We need a place to discuss issues. While some of us could use a refresher in manners, we can all learn by reading opinions of other members on the issues of our day. Time is precious, and you have honored me by giving me a little of your time each week.

What are you doing at the end of October? If you are still open, I encourage you to join us in Kansas City for our Annual Conference.

We have a full program built around major issues facing civil engineering. You will have the opportunity to participate in discussions that will ultimately define the future of civil engineers. We also have exceptional speakers including Ben Stein. Personally, I am hoping he is still giving away some of his money! Blaine Leonard will lay out his plans for the upcoming year. Our International Program will give all attendees the chance to see the contributions made by members outside of the USA.

All in all, the opportunities make it well worth your time. I hope to see you there.
[For a schedule and to register, visit the official Annual Conference site.]

Happy New Year! Yes, I know the date. However, we celebrate two new years in the U.S. -– the famous one with parties and tax issues and the start of the new school year. I never cease to be amazed at how much of our lives revolves around the start of a new school year. You do not even have to have schoolkids at home to be affected.

With that thought in mind, let me encourage you to look at ASCE as you begin this new year. I am certain that many of you have had good intentions about getting involved in your Section or Branch. Now is a good time. Your colleagues will be glad to see you. Together you can take a position about the importance of infrastructure funding during a recession. You might even write and submit a paper on that great project that you recently completed.

While you are at it, you could slip by your local engineering school or alma mater and encourage the students in ASCE. Introduce the ASCE and EWB students to each other and inform them of our partnership. Stop by the nearest school to your home and volunteer to introduce engineering to the students regardless of their age. ASCE has age-appropriate material to help you.

We have a lot of work to do to promote this great profession of civil engineering. Starting a new school year is the perfect time for you to join us.

[To find a local ASCE Section or Branch, start here.
To learn about volunteering to introduce kids to the world of civil engineering, start here. ]

ASCE recently released a document outlining Guiding Principles for the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure. This document grew out of an effort to understand why we have had some major infrastructure failures in the last few years. A group of recognized experts came together to discuss what we should do to prevent this type of failure in the future. Representing both public and private professionals, they created a set of guidelines that we can share with policymakers and practicing engineers.

The Guiding Principles address four primary topics in an effort to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public. I trust that you can see the value of these guidelines.
  1. Quantify, communicate, and manage risk.
  2. Employ an integrated systems approach.
  3. Exercise sound leadership, management, and stewardship in decision-making processes.
  4. Adapt critical infrastructure in response to dynamic conditions and practice.

As civil engineers, we should recognize that all infrastructure is not created equal. Some facilities are more critical to our safety than others. We have a responsibility to include these guidelines in conversations related to funding and design standards going forward. Check the ASCE Web site for more details on this important initiative.

Summertime is lazy time for many of us. The weather is hot. People are on vacation. We wish we were on vacation, too. Speaking of vacation, why is there always a big pile of paper on your desk when you get back from vacation? Can’t anybody handle those items while we are gone? Let me give you a suggestion for something else you can do during the summer. How about engaging in some life-long learning?

ASCE remains the largest provider of civil engineering material in the world. Much of that material is available in seminars online. No matter what your specialty, ASCE has educational materials for you. Think about it. If you are a PE, most states require some sort of continuing education. ASCE courses qualify, and you can take them at home or at work. If you are working towards a PE, you will benefit from expanding your knowledge or by taking an exam review class. If you are a practicing engineer, you really do need to stay abreast of developments in your chosen field. If you are a manager, we have seminars on a number of business, marketing, and HR topics. If you have been working alone, you can pay a single fee and invite your friends or clients to join you. Time is the one commodity where it is impossible to create a surplus. Enjoy your summer. Don’t get to the fall and wish you had spent your time more wisely. Do your career a favor this summer. Take an ASCE seminar. You will be glad you did. [Learn more about ASCE's Continuing Education offerings.]

Personal privilege. Today is my 35th wedding anniversary. The sideburns are gone. The cheesy styles went with them. My love for my wife, Karen, has grown. She remains the joy of my life.

Every person involved in civil engineering has heard the call to reduce our carbon footprint, become more sustainable, and think green. The real question is what that means. How will we know when we achieve ultimate “greenness”? In the building industry, a certification program, LEED AP, has been developed. A general acceptance of their definitions controls that industry. Many civil engineers have taken the time to become LEED certified when working on building projects.

How will we define a green civil engineering project? What makes a green road or a green water distribution system? ASCE is working on these questions right now. We believe that civil engineers should set the definitions on sustainability in our profession. Many of our committees are diligently working to create a new approach to material selection, design methodology, and construction techniques that reduce our carbon equation. We have appointed a Task Force to identify these ongoing activities and communicate some basic definitions to our members. The Task Force is also evaluating the benefits of ASCE developing a system of certifying projects and/or professionals in sustainable civil engineering. Engineers should define the path forward in these changing times.

Stay tuned because the information will be released by the time of the Annual Conference this fall in Kansas City.

Update: Tuesday, June 23, 10 a.m. ET

We have a high level of interest in my blog post of June 8. Please see an update from me this week on that entry. If you have a post on climate change, please make it on the June 8 entry. Thank you.

I recently had the privilege of accompanying U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on a fact-finding visit to the Netherlands. We followed that visit by participating in the Triennial Conference among ASCE, Britain’s ICE, and Canada’s CSCE, which was held in Newfoundland. One of the most striking things to me from these events is the significant differences in perceptions of climate change found in the European countries and Canada versus the way we see it in the United States.

ASCE has recently updated its policies to reflect the need for civil engineers to lead the efforts at adapting our infrastructure to rising sea levels, changes in rainfall patterns, and other predicted impacts of the changing climate. No national consensus has been reached on the best way to prepare for this long-term phenomenon. The Dutch and British are already working under national guidance and changing their design codes to accommodate expected increases in sea level with its multiple impacts. The Canadians are working to develop specific guidelines for use in guarding the longest coastline of any nation in the world.

As civil engineers, we do not claim to be climate scientists. We do claim to be the stewards of the nation’s infrastructure. My conversations with our counterparts in these three countries make me pause. Are the civil engineers in the U.S. taking strong leadership in developing a strategy to deal with the impacts of climate change? Has ASCE done enough to raise the awareness of its members and to provide appropriate guidance for civil engineers to participate in local conversations about adapting our infrastructure design criteria?

Our climate is changing. Civil engineers will have to change with it. All of us need to pick up the pace.

[At the Triennial Conference, ASCE, ICE and CSCE agreed to a protocol on climate change action. Read the official document (PDF).]

Update: Thursday, June 11, 11:30 a.m. ET

Thank you for all of the comments to my post this week. Please read the many comments that have been offered. To continue the discussion, I offer a response to a number of those who posted comments. Read the statements that I made carefully. Nowhere do I state the cause of climate change. I agree that the climate is always changing, sometimes more rapidly than others. I also agree that we can do a better job of controlling our air emissions, and civil engineers are in a perfect position to lead that effort. My main point is that civil engineers do not have the luxury of watching the political debate on this issue. We are bound by ethics and professionalism to inject technical truth into the public conversation. We are equally bound to provide infrastructure that is sustainable and resilient. The climate is changing no matter the cause. We need to lead in the effort to adapt our infrastructure for the natural conditions that we will experience in the future.

Update: Tuesday, June 23, 10 a.m. ET

Thank you to everyone who has expressed an opinion on this topic. This topic is one that generates a lot of heat (not related to global warming). My challenge to ASCE remains. We may differ on whether or not we believe that greenhouse gases cause climate change. We may differ on whether or not we believe the climate is changing at all. What we cannot do is avoid the consequences of those outside of our profession who regulate us. Look at the current debate on health care. My guess is that the health insurance companies do not believe they are the cause of the perceived health care problems in the U.S. They could take a hard-line position that they did not cause the problem, so they will not participate in the debate. Their livelihood would be permanently changed if they chose that course. Watching the conversations in Washington, the insurance companies are deeply engaged in the conversation. You can make the same case for drug companies, hospital companies, and doctors.

Civil engineers are taking the same risk. We can take a hard-line position that climate change is a political conversation that is beneath our attention. We will watch as various energy and environmental bills are passed that have dramatic impacts on how we design and construct civil works. We must be engaged in the conversation. We owe the decision-makers our expertise on the impact of their policies on the economy and the quality of infrastructure that we have in the U.S. We owe the public a sustainable built environment.

Which words would you use to describe ASCE? More specifically, what qualities or values would you associate with ASCE? These are not flip questions. For our Society to move into the future and remain relevant, it’s vital that we reflect the qualities and values sought by our members so we’re able to provide what our members want and need.

We began exploring this a few months ago with extensive surveying of members and others who would be interested. The results boiled down to these six attributes: Enduring, Trusted, Responsible, Expert, Professional, and Leader. Each has two sets of definitions formed by the results, one based on how those attributes apply to ASCE today, another on “aspirational” ways to build on them.

A task committee at ASCE and the Board are working on ways of best following through on these attributes. Some of these approaches involve better ways of organizing the Society’s array of programs, products, and services, and of communicating that to our members. These include everything up to implementing a new way of navigation for our new Web site. You’ll slowly see the fruits of this labor begin to appear later this summer. When plans are firmed up a little more, I’ll be able to share more about what those are. In the meantime, I welcome your take on the six attributes, and how we ought to put them to work for you.

Like most other businesses, ASCE is experiencing the effects of the current recession. The Board of Direction received a detailed assessment of our revenues and expenses at our recent meeting in Washington, D.C. I am glad to report that we are weathering the storm pretty well.

We have seen a very small decline in our membership renewals; however, the magnitude is well below what we projected. We have also seen a reduction in many of our other revenue sources including publications, continuing education, and advertising. Fortunately, Executive Director Pat Natale and the staff are staying on top of the expenses. Our operations are staying within our revenues.

The Board agreed to a number of budget adjustments to help us navigate the rest of this fiscal year. We had good discussions related to a balance in adjustments for member programs and staff operations. Pat was asked to prepare a contingency plan in case unexpected disruptions occur in our revenue streams. All in all, I was pleased with our financial position. We do not intend to draw down our reserves to meet our expenses. We intend to finish the year in the black.

ASCE remains fiscally strong. Now, we need to help those of our members who are experiencing the recession personally.

On April 23, ASCE held its annual celebration of exemplary projects and leaders, the OPAL Awards Dinner. This celebration allows us to highlight those who set examples for all of us. You can find a complete list of winners on our Web site, and watch video tributes to each of the honorees.

I believe that the entire profession wins when we publicize the great people in civil engineering and the work that we do. The winners of our Leaders categories are people who we hold up as examples. Engineers both young and old are inspired by the accomplishments of these people. Yet each approaches this recognition with humility and a desire to place the spotlight on others or on the people who were helped by their efforts. Our winning projects also exemplify the ability of civil engineers to create masterpieces. These projects solve major problems with simplicity and grace. They will serve their intended purposes for decades. Who cannot be inspired by such creative genius?

Those of us who attended had the privilege of celebrating up close and personal. I encourage the rest of the civil engineering profession to take a few minutes and celebrate with us. Offer a toast to our winners and the great profession that you share with us.