The purpose of the Committee on Sustainability is to advocate for sustainable infrastructure to ensure protection of the “triple bottom line:” environmental, economic, and social conditions in Massachusetts. The committee brings awareness to the public and civil engineering community as to the importance of sustainable planning, design, and construction through events and newsletter articles. The committee also promotes tools, certifications, and awards relevant to sustainable development in the built world.
The mission of the Committee on Sustainability is to increase awareness of and provide guidance in the areas of sustainability and “green” design.
Specific objectives include:
- Become a civil engineering sustainability resource to BSCES members.
- Increase public awareness of sustainable engineering and green energy initiatives.
- Take on a leadership role in developing a BSCES policy sustainable design in Massachusetts.
- Work with BSCES technical groups to present sustainability workshops and interface on sustainability issues.
- Establish and maintain a local outreach and liaison effort with outside professional organizations influencing sustainable design (e.g., Zofnass, Northeast CSC, MIIC, MassCEC).
- Create an annual BSCES Sustainable Design award for Massachusetts civil engineering projects.
- Provide feedback to ASCE and provide a BSCES knowledge base for the Envision project rating tool.
Recent Activities
The Committee on Sustainability organized one webinar in March 2022 titled “Understanding the New Massachusetts Decarbonization Policy” and one in-person event in April 2022 titled “Envision Award Tour: ISEC Pedestrian Bridge” and the participants enjoyed a lively social hour after the bridge tour. We nominated projects for the annual BSCES Sustainability in Civil Engineering Award. The committee meets for monthly zoom calls on the fourth Monday of every month to discuss specific agendas.
Upcoming Events
Date TBD: Webinar/In-person event on Cambridge/Boston to discuss about flood preparation and interactive flood mapper.
Date TBD: Webinar event with EWRI, Topic TBD
Date TBD: Mixer/Networking event with a technical group, Location TBD
Call for New Members
The Committee on Sustainability is an active committee and looking for new members to volunteer. Please write an email to Sustain.Comm@BSCES.org if you are interested in joining our committee.